A pic nic at Bhalebas and finally to the elusive Okaldunga.

I got the bus down to Bhalebas mid-morning and Saran picked me up on the bike to take me up the village. We went straight to his house as I was keen to see the progression from when I was there last. Although he had to wait a really long time for the building work to start he’s finally got a structure with a roof and says that he’ll be living there within 2 weeks!! Which is obviously such fantastic news. I also spent some time playing with Sohan, Saran’s son, who is always such a delight and a little bit of a show off.

Then we walked 10 minutes down to where the pic nic was taking place. I could only imagine the views as it was a pretty hazy day so there weren’t really any views, it almost looked like were about to fall off the edge of the earth. The food that we had was very delicious and because I’m sticking to a vegetarian diet out here, the teachers were very concerned that I was only having one type of curry which was more than enough for me. The children spent some time playing games with the teachers, singing and dancing. The food was also cooked on a fire which gave me a real sense of home as we do lots of outdoor activities for my parents business.

It also made me laugh how the men were completely incharge of cooking- something that you don’t tend to see in homes. It reminded me of how some mentalities change in the summer in the UK when the BBQ’s come out!

When the sun started to drop and it got cold we walked back up the hill to have some tea and some raksi for Saran. I’ve had raksi before and it definitely isn’t something that’s my taste. Raksi, is a home brewed rice alcohol and is more like paint stripper than anything else I could compare it to!

On the 17^th I then got up early for breakfast at Saran’s house, omelette and tea as always. The true breakfast of kings I believe. Then we started the almighty journey to Okaldunga. We started towards Butwal and before we reached there took a track off of the main road. This track seemed okay for a while apart from a couple of HUGE puddles. The views were also amazing I was going to ask Saran to stop on the way back but unfortunately we went a different way. Which was really disappointing not only because I missed loads of great photo opportunities but also because the road we took home was actually worse than the road there and Saran’s bike was damaged a bit.

We arrived at the school just as assembly was starting which was nice. As in all schools all the children were in the rows of their classes to do the exercises and then sing the national anthem before going into school. The children were very interested in my and gathered round as I walked around the school. I don’t think the blonde dreadlocks help me blend in. I had a chat with the teachers about how the school was doing and how the building work was going for 4 new classrooms that the government were funding. On top of that they’ve also said that they need 2 new classrooms and a library as 4 classes at the moment are in really terrible temporary classrooms. We had lunch at a lodge very close to the school that was really delicious food! It’s really hard to escape great food in Nepal and I’ve not got sick of eating rice yet, which even for me is a bit of a shock.

The journey home was genuinely terrifying, my body ached from holding on so tightly and being bumped around. Now that really was a white knuckle ride. As we said that they journey up had been a little ticky the teachers suggested that we go home a different route. This was a bad idea. The road for a long way up was just very small stones so Saran and I pushed the bike up for a bit then he managed to get it going and made it to the top. I had a rather sweaty walk to the top in the afternoon sun and as I stopped to catch my breath a load of tennis ball size stones started falling from the cliff above, I soon decided this was a sign and I shouldn’t stop walking to I made it to the top rather red faced and hot. Saran said that something had gone wrong with his bike and it was going to have to be fixed when we got back to Tansen. The rest of the track back to the pitch road was kinda okay. There were still parts that made my heart race and my stomach flip, but there were also parts that reminded me of moors in the summer. Which was kind of an odd feeling and one that I didn’t expect to feel. When we got back to Tansen it was home sweet home and Janaki greeted us with chia (tea) and oranges which was lovely. I then shared some mince pies that my mum had sent with Janaki and a guest from Australia with more tea later that afternoon and even though I’m on the other side of the world, I’m feeling quite Christmassy.