Bangkok and Kathmandu

I spent 1 day in the noisy, humid and very hot city of Bangkok - which was honestly probably enough! The city is hug with winding streets full of traders, touts and others trying to sell things, recommend temples to visit (only if going via a factory shop) and trying to talk about English football (I disappointed many by not personally knowing their favourite stars). However once I had got other the extreme humidity and the loudness of the place there are definitely some beautiful gems which I am glad I have seen.



I got on the bus from the airport clutching the name and address of my guest house neatly printed out in Thai script. It so happened that a British boy starting out his gap year was also going to teh same place and it was nice to have some company for the 2 hour bus ride through the rush hour traffic of Bangkok. The guest house was not too far away from Khao San road - the main backpacking hub of Bangkok which has everything from dodgy hostesl to upmarket hotels, and street traders selling everything from tailored suits to knock off DVDs and Thai souvenirs. Quite an interesting place but I have never been anywhere so manic (until the day after and walking through China town). The next day i started my Bangkok in a day tour -organised for me (and the English boy Andrew) by me, with teh trusty Lonely Planet as my guide. We started at the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha temple. I have never seen so much gold and glittering buildings - every wall was adorned with something shiny and every room held at least 2 statues of Buddha with various offerings scattered around the edge. The Bangkok temples seemed like their city in someways - busy and loud (people were even talking on mobile phones in the middle of chanting) and yet so different in others - spotlessly clean and easy to get round! Teh Emerald Buddha itself is actually not made of Emerald, sits on a throne made of gold and mother of pearl and is housed in a building covered in tiny pieces of coloured mirrors. Next onto the Grand Palace which is one of the Royal residences. The Thais have huge respect for their royal family - an Australian author living in Thailand found this out recently when he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for writing a book which contained unfavourable references to a Prince who sounded a lot like the Thai crown prince (his sentence was later changed to deportation after appeal) - this respect means that the whole Grand Palace compound is closely guarded and watched over by photos of the royal family on every corner. After the serenity and grandeur of the Grand Palace we walked east through China town. China town is the are traditionaly used by Chinese merchants. Even today there are hundreds of street sellers selling Chinese herbal remedies, meals and Chinese tat on the streets. Add the prevalence of vendors to the massive amounts of traffic on the streets and the whole place has a very fast moving and busy atmosphere.



The next day I rose at 6am to catch a taxi to the airport and continue my trip on to Nepal. The flight over was quite nice, i sat on the right hand side of the plane and got fantastic views of the mountains coming into the city. Greeting me at the airport was Vishnu, who I arranged my stay at the school with. If Thailand was a culture shock then Kathmandu was a culture earthquake! The school is full of beautifully polite and friendly people- but I had to quickly get used to the idea of no hot showers for 2 months, only squat toilets and eating Dal for every meal. Actually after the initial feeling of arggh I have no settled in quite well and it has defiantly made me appreciate the finer things back home .



School is actually on holiday for Nepali new year for another week so i have taken the opportunity to travel down to Pokhara and get in some trekking before settling in to teaching. Feeling very brave and worldly wise I decided to take the advice of one of the teachers and shun the tourist bus for a local micro bus down to Pokhara. Armed with my Nepali phrase book and bottles of drinking water i set off through the city to the main bus terminal where i managed to find a mini bus to Pokhara and successfully purchased a ticket for teh 7 hour journey (it cost 250ru about 2.50 GBP!). My elation at managing this most simple of tasks soon faded when I realised that there were no seats on teh bus and I was pushed up onto the roof along with my backpack. The bus then set off at break neck speed along some of the most hair raising roads i have ever driven along. Along the way we passed no fewer than 7 busses that had driven off the edge of teh road or crashed into on coming trucks while overtaking on blind corners... To add to teh spirit of adventure the bus then had to stop for 3 hours as there were protests on the road between the Maoists and local people. I took the opportunity to chat with a Nepali girl sat next to me - who politely expressed amazement that I had reached the grand age of 23 without producing at least one child (preferably a male child!) - she then said ever so nicely that she was surprised that I hadn't had children because I possessed the figure of a lady who has had at least 2! (just lovely...) We finally arrived in Pokhara at 11pm and fell wearily into the closest guest house.



Today I spent the day exploring the lovely lake side town and organising maps etc for trekking up to Poon Hill a viewing hill to see the Himalayas. Now for a nap and to read my newly purchased history of Nepal 1990 - 2008 (incidentally the Nepali year is currently 2065).