Gorkha Trip

Sunday 7th October 2012

This morning I had morning coffee (proper coffee, none of this Nescafe business!) in Thamel with Kancha and helped him to write a letter in English, we take these things for granted a little when we are fully sighted I think.  I passed by Sushil's paper shop to check on the wedding invites I've designed and give him the gift I bought him from England - a variety of scissors which cut all sorts of different designs into paper, and some quilling tools.  He was delighted and offered to drop me to the bus station so I could catch my bus to Gorkha which was very helpful.

Bus travel in Nepal is much easier than it was on my first trip here, but it's still a lengthy process to get from one place to the next largely due to the fact there is only one road between the two main cities and it is pretty narrow, very windy and in many places totally broken, meaning it is more like travelling through a building site and all sorts of traffic can build up.  There is no pollution control so lorries and buses spew out black sooty smoke, it's pretty unpleasant to be stuck behind one.  Luckily with the arrival of "micros" (minibuses) the journey can be done faster and most problems avoided.  I bagged myself a seat and made the journey in 6 hours with one change on the way, which was pretty good going.  As is the custom in Nepal I met plenty of friendly people to chat to and the scenery from the window is so beautiful - the road snakes along next to a river and mountains for most of the journey - so there is no chance to get bored.

On arrival in Gorkha I was greeted by long time friend Shila.  I've known her since my first trip to Nepal when one of my fellow student teachers taught her at school.  She is now 31 years old and mother of three children.  Her husband is a lovely man who does his fair share of the cooking and looking after the kids, which is very rare in Nepal!  She came to greet me on the road and we went to her house, the whole family sleeps in one room so as the kids are quite young we had just enough time to drink hot tea and eat rice and vegetables (and even fish which she had bought especially!), before bed.