Notes from a Wandering Daydreamer Life as it should be...

well about two weeks have already passed and a lot has happened in that time. i have now finished my volunteer work propper in nepal and its time for the travel to begin. However the last few weeks have been fairly hectic themselves. After my adventure up into rural nepal with Bima, I returned to life at the orphanage, walking the kids too and from school (including one afternoon through the first torrential downpour of the monsoon, wading through water knee high at times. the kids loved it, but me not so much!) helping the kids with homework, keeping them entertained and generally being there. One day Bima asked if I was interested in joining her on a daytrip up to the tibetean border, so sensing the possibility of another adventure, i squeezed myself into the back of a jeep with 5 other people and we headed off and up.
Along the way we stopped at the bungy jump - a suspension bridge strung across a narrow gorge with a river thunderng along the bottom. it was the 2nd highest in asia and i thought it would be great to have a go, but there was no time. so we headed up further until we were almost right at the border. It turned out that one of the men in the group was looking at purchasing a research facility or a guesthouse in the village. Im not really sure what was happening, but there was tea drinking and much walking about inspecting buildings. I just stared out over the valley looking at tibet. which i could see just further along the valley. it's one green lush mountain, fittingly shrouded in mist and looking rather mysterious. Below i could see friendship bridge, the border between nepal and tibet (well, china i guess). beyond the bridge, like a cancerous growth spreading over the beautiful landscape was the evidence of the occupying chinese and the concrete jungle they have been building. it looked horrible and so out of place in the beautiful surroundings.

without much of an adventure we piled back into the jeep for the journey back, stopping along the way to eat beaten rice and chickpeas, sipping gin in the fading light at a small roadside cafe, watching giant tata trucks and buses lumbering up the hill past us, gears grinding and dust billowing everywhere.

A few days later it was the end of the month and time for our farewell party and the raksi (strong rice wine) as promised to us by Devin. it was a fun night - made even more "fun" by the fact that i was on strong nepali antibiotics for my cough and i kept being passed susan's raksi as she was only taking a sip. we ate yummy newari food at sheila's house and then went and admired sanjay's pink bedroom before saying our goodbyes at the temple and headng out for another drink in town. woke up the next morning having lost my hat sadly, but my hangover quickly vanished when i read an email from gary saying he and cassy were arriving that afternoon. however the name of the place he said they would be getting dropped off at was actually 2 different locations - on either side of the city. so devin and i headed out to the place we hoped it would be - where the main highway came into kathmandu. we stood there on the side of the road scanning every bus that was going past of stopping, thankful that they should be easy to spot with their blonde hair. bus after bus stopped, with no sign of them. finally though after over 2 and a half hours we spotted some blonde emerging from a bus and there they were. they seemed rather relieved to have finally arrived after a long and sometimes tough journey from mumbai.

after a day of rest they joined me when i headed out to the orphanage to say my goodbyes. we arrived after the kids had come home from school and at first they seemed to be a little suprised at these new stangers arriving with kane uncle, but they very quickly warmed to them and gary and cass were soon swamped with kids. it was nice to have someone else to share some of the kids energy for once!
after a few (exhausting) hours of skipping, dancing and posing for many many photos it was time to say goodbye. I was presented with a small frame with a little building inside that the kids had made and they all wrote their name on the back. I hadnt realised how attached I had become to the kids and leaving was tougher than i expected. from the first time i said that we should leave so they could eat dinner, it took at least an hour as kids would run off to draw a picture or something to give to me beofre I left.
Eventually though after many hugs and a few tears from little rubina we left them and headed home through the dark.

the next day we were up early to go bungy jumping. i knew it was really streaching the budget to do so, but i had really regretted not doing it in thailand when i had the chance as i was too hungover. so at 6am we got on the bus and headed back up towards the tibet border, but it wasnt untl about 1pm we finally made it on to the bridge. everyone had been weighed and the heavier people went in the first group, and just my luck that i was goiing to be almot last. i was suprised how little i actually thouhgt about throwing myself off a bridge and i never even felt really scared. i guess standing on the bride in the cold and sometimes rain for about 2 hours watching other people jump took some of the thrill out of it. first gary jumped and made it safely, then was cassy, and eventually it was my turn. as i was being strapped in the man stuck the camera in my face and asked what i wanted to say. all i could think of was that i wanted to get off the bridge as i was starving. i hadnt eaten more than a granola bar all day. finally the time arrived and i shuffled up to the edge, looking down the steep valey to the thundering river below. arms out, i head 1 2 3 bungy, and i leapt out in a giant swan dive. for a split sewcond i had the fear of falling to my death,m then suddenly it was so calm and peaceful, the river rushing up towards me and the wind in my ears. the bouncing about was a little uncomfortable, esp when your body got jerked around, but soon i was hanging upside down and reaching out of the bamboo pole to take me to the edge.
we didnt make it back until 10pm, making ti a long day for about 2 min worth of bunge, but im glad i did it and now know wheat it feels like.