.... and home via Abu Dhabi

Homeward bound

Bhaktapur visit

Bhaktapur is always worth a visit and never ceases to surprise and educate.

Razul our guide!

On this occasion we met a very knowledgeable guide and a gang of fellow Rotarians from Taiwan and Japan who were visiting to build a rural school.

Rotary The World Over!

RC President from Taipei and Tong - Bert Huang next to Duncan!

Farewell to Pokhara

Farewell to Pokhara and Asia Hotel
The staff at the Hotel Asia in Pokhara had treated as extremely well and at the end of our time there we have become extremely friendly.

Imagine our surprise when the duty manager Shyam presented us with a new Nepali hat a red mark on our foreheads and a sash.

Incredibly for the first time the hats fitted!!

Maybe this was a good sign?

Unfortunately a minor problem occurred when Narayan rang to say that he had arranged a car to attend to take us to the airport! Sadly we had to cancel the taxi we had arranged. Thankfully he seemed to take it in good part :-)

On arriving at the airport we found our luggage was in excess of the 15 kg limit but thanks to the Rotary connection we believe this was not challenged.

We boarded the plane a small jet stream turboprop aircraft which would make the journey in 35 minutes (as opposed to a 6 1/2 hour road trip!!)

The delightful lady cabin crew member brought sweets and coffee for those passengers who require them.

She was extremely helpful and when photographed insisted on seeing it then also reciprocated by taking a photograph of the two tired Rotarians, which was nice estimation mark

We can recommend Yeti Airways as the journey was effortless.

We met in Narayan at Kathmandu airport and after a journey of around half an hour we arrived back at the Kathmandu resort hotel in the middle of the city. Room 304 on the fourth floor was an absolute joy, NOT. Unfortunately, the blessing of the holy man have not been successful and I realised I had lost my wallet. Hopefully it would be in Narayan's Car!!

Fortunately, being a good friend Duncan never mentioned it to anyone? He mentioned it to everyone.

As planned we met with Major Bhim that evening and after a short walk we enjoyed a sumptuous dinner of Nepali food in the Thamil restaurant including than the local distilled rice wine  roxie!!

About 1030 the evening drew to a close and after some difficulty with ATM machines and the possibility of both of us washing the pots in the restaurant,. we did manage to find a card that worked. Ah the joys of Kathmandu.

Rest Day, Review of Photos and Gurkha Museum

Rest day, Review of photographs and a visit to the Gurkha Museum

The time travel very quickly and we were now feeling quite tired.

We decided that it was time for a rest, time to reflect and if possible will have a visit to the nearby Gurkha Museum.

http://www.gurkhamuseum.org.np/

Memorable Photos

The images that follow are in no particular order.

Bikash Gurung and buckey

Chitwan children

Hari Krisher
Unemployed trekking guide
 

Four on a bike!! Son driving?

"Angel of the North"

Majhthana Beauty

One day, my son .......

More to follow!

Majhthana

Majhthana
Wow what a road, Wow what views and Wow what a school!

Imagine our delight to see Major Bhin on the Friday morning in a small Suzuki taxi to take Duncan and I to the top of the hill. And to keep us company it brought friend!

Suzuki Alto taxi is a very small car and my analogy of sardines in a tin was not lost on our hosts!

We had travelled many miles in Nepal but nothing had prepared us for the 18 km (11 1/2 miles) from Pokhara to the school at Majhthana. The one hour 10 minutes journey gave us the experience a road made almost entirely of dirt and rocks.

However, this was all compensated for by the most magnificent views of the countryside and mountains.

WOW!

On arrival at the school we were greeted by the principal, teachers and several students. The usual greeting included garlands of flowers and sashes.

It was extremely pleasant to see such a committed principle supported by an enthusiastic and able teachers in the school which had a catchment area of many miles. 

Some pupils who attended the school were from areas which were two hours walk prior to school!  This is not easy terrain either!!

Hillside Rice Terraces

As we were invited to examine all the areas of the school we arrived finally at the computer's room.

Note the dangerous steps to the right??

Marvellous School - in a beautiful place.

The layout of the room was inappropriate with many students facing away from the teacher. The gloss coated white board at the front was not clear and even with the teachers excellent handwriting the shine detracted from the content and many students were unable to see it.

The computer room measured 6m x 7m and could easily be made economically more friendly at little or no cost.

The addition of a further 10 computers would alleviate the significant problem of overcrowding at each machine during lessons. A brief examination of the system indicated that they were well used and there was a keen enthusiasm for this type of study.

Many of the students were studying to program in C!! with the majority of them proficient in Word and Excel and amazingly access database construction. 

and to top off the day!!

With the experience of the visit to Majhthana still strong in our thoughts, thanks to the assistance of Rotarian Ken Blackwood and the support of others from our own club we held Skype conference call on the rooftop of the Hotel Asia Pokhara Nepal.

Although the bright sunlight did not make for good views of the surrounding area it was good to speak to friends from our club who were unable to attend early in order to facilitate this historic international event. It is probably the only meeting ever to involve this type of contact in the history of the club?.

Fishtail and Rithepani

Thursday
With a taxi ride booked for 5.30am Duncan and I set off to the viewing platform and selling cot. Once again another scary ride up the hill to a newly formed a car park and the usual group of local men trying to earn a crust by guiding visitors the  hundred yards to the viewing platform.

Breathtaking!!!!

Although we had had an early start the world and its wife was already there and waiting for the sun to rise and the beautiful views of the mountains.

Could you ever tier of this view??

We returned to the hotel with our new found taxi driving friend in time to enjoy breakfast and find that from the top floor we could see the view that would just seen from the viewing platform.

It was magnificent!! 

Then we waited for the arrival of the deputy head teacher from Rithepani, Hemchandra who was one of the original student teachers two years before..

Hemchandra was early by Nepal standards but was still late by 30 minutes!

I was delighted to see that his taxi driver was Min Gurung. Min was the original taxi driver from the first project and had been superb in his ability to avoid all oncoming overtaking cross bearing vehicles and pedestrians two years previously. Arriving at the school I commented that he hadn't lost the skills.

We were only at the school a couple of hours but an audit of all computers and update of the antivirus software was carried out.  All outstanding issues identified by Hemchandra and the other three teachers Jyoti, Kalpana and Mina were resolved.

Throughout the process,  all the original teachers were in attendance and enthusiastic about developments in computing.

They are without doubt a credit to the project and to their school.

Hemchandra considers the effect of Yorkshire price negotiators!! 

Following a brief farewell we returned to Pokhara new road where it Duncan and I purchased for the school a flatbed scanner and 10 more mice for use in the computer studies room.

Rtn Maj Bhimbahadur Gurung is our contact for a project proposal in Majhthana a settlement in the opposite side of Rithepani.

It was good to meet up with Maj Bhm again in our hotel.  We agreed to meet him at 7am the following morning in order to see the school IT class before the power was withdrawn around 9.30.

Shaheed Smarak College Chitwan

Travelled from Rithepani to Chitwan


Arrived in the dark and welcomed by Capt Ash and his driver!!

Later we were entertained with food and songs around an open fire with Maj Lil leading the chorus.
Thankfully neither Jp of DD were invited to join in!!

Born to dance!! Er, no!

Er, YES!!

Friends and neighbours.

Backing group on chairs......

Friday

Up early mushroom soup, boiled egg, bread and boiled unknown starchy root vegetable!

To school puncture 300 yd walk to the start of the procession?

Civic welcome was indescribable!

Chrishna, Maj Lil, Capt Ash, Duncan and John

We were greeted and entertained for 3 hours plus reception including the opportunity to award prizes of books for the top students.  This included a prize for the basketball team almost entirely comprised of  Gurung players.

Time was now short so after the formal handover of Computer’s our work began.

The Principal - a thoroughly decent and committed man.

The computer room is on the third level steps and metal stairs mean no DDA here!

Duncan set about unpacking and setup the new pcs whilst I got on with reviewing the old ones.

Ahh! No CDrw and cables missing out of most.

Other problems – power drops out or spike and no ups! Long gaps when generator required and work lost.

Went shopping with Captain Ash to buy tomato and chicken!

Cooked meal chicken in tomato onion and garlic on the home open fire– no one died

Saturday

Rose early at 5am Duncan already awake

After 4 coffees and a cold shower Duncan went outside for breakfast.
Bekash then brought Johns water which was hot!! Duncan was DELIGHTED.......

Soup pancakes egg and toast – delicious.

NO School today – Saturday

By car driven by Captain Ash to purchase 5 dvd rw, cables and attendant bits

After visits to two shops without stock we left for Chitwan national park and an elephant ride.

Half way through the Elephant safari it started to rain reverentially and canoe ride was abandoned.

Called for emergency collection from the shallow end of the car park via Maj Lil in Pokhara.

The misted windows in the vehicle coupled with the road to our temporary home made for the MOST frightening journey to date!! Again no one died.

Sunday is a normal working day in Nepal. What started as a lovely sunshine day turned into a monsoon day.  At the school’s and unregulated supply of electricity which can be anything from okay to spiked feel completely without warning. The generator is far more reliable and gives a regulated supply however, with the thunder and lightning storm the supply was flaky to say the least.  With us both frustrated by the random closure of machines and the storm the machines were unplugged and the work abandoned for the day.

After an excellent night’s sleep we rose to a warm shower and the pleasant comments from Bikas the house boy.

Monday was democracy day in Nepal but we continued to school again taxied by the delightful Captain Ash. (Good going forward scary going backwards!)

At lunchtime we made a short walk in the village to a roadside cafe where we enjoyed chapatti and vegetable curry with a side order of pakora.

Work continued in the afternoon with great progress made. 

Tuesday arrived and after a sumptuous breakfast as usual we travelled to the school and continue to install software. There was a number of scary issues not least of which when six of our computers were hit with a virus (unknown) fortunately, we were able to inoculate them using Duncan’s memory pen, after we’d wiped it of the virus.

 

Wednesday  We had agreed to rise early but was unable to dig Duncan out of his bed until a pitiful 4:30 AM! We worked with the network engineer until 12 noon completing 99.9% of all installations and agreed to pass on details of security and passwords to the IT teacher by email.

Job done

Whilst setting up Skype on "Teacher's" PC John logged in to his own account for testing.

The assembled group were very impressed when his 83 yr old mum made contact on Skype to say hello!!
The system worked well!!

We quickly made our final trip to the chapatti lady in the Main Street and has a light lunch before returning to Captain Ash’s House.

We said our farewells and on moving out of the garden towards the waiting vehicle to take us to Pokhara  we were surprised by an assembly of neighbours and friends who would met earlier. They had gathered to say goodbye.

Following photographs and handshakes we set off on another gruelling trip on the Nepal roads. (Thankfully with several stops!)