I was welcomed into Kathmandu by exhaust fumes and eager taxi drivers willing to take me for double their usual fare. With the help of a local on the bus and a shared taxi ride later, I was taken to the backpacker hub of Thamel. That evening the streets of Thamel were alive, the atmosphere electric. The live bands playing from the bars, the hustle and bustle of street sellers, the cycle rickshaws touting for business and motorbikes whizzing past, was different to India, making me realize I had arrived in Nepal!

Dan planned to visit me in Kathmandu, leaving me a week to explore myself. Finding the best and cheapest lassi joint was very much appreciated but the best momo joint has still yet to be discovered... Making friends on my first outing was a success, later gatecrashing a birthday party they had been invited to at a fancy venue, saw me till the early hours of the morning!

Not really craving for western foods, I decided to sample what they had on offer. Dining by myself introduces me to the curios locals that work in the restaurants who are intrigued with my origin, whereas other times I can just invite another loner in the hotel to dinner and most times lead to interesting conversation.

I loved getting lost in the streets because you so easily can! It took a few days until I found my bearings because every street is copy and pasted with hiking gear shops, travel agents, gift shops, street temples and embroidery workshops and the streets littered with tourists, touts, sellers, traffic and the odd animal!

I got myself involved at the climbing centres in Kathmandu, but restricted my sessions due to the cost. I’m still weighing up whether I should have brought my climbing equipment with me, but every time I pack my bag there is less and less room and gets heavier and heavier. I said to myself at the beginning that I didn’t want to be a walking library, six books can be weighty but my main worry would be damp clothes.

I had postponed my volunteering work until Dan left the country, enabling us to enjoy the excitement of the country together. The arrival of Dan brought the 160m bungy swing, a visit to the beautiful lakeside of Pokarah, a two day bike ride, many nights (/days) of drunken banter and an unexpected proposal…

At the place where I refill my water bottle, an environment/trekking centre (KEEP Kathmandu Environment Education Project) I was given the opportunity to teach English to guides and porters at a pre-intermediate level. I was expected to teach for a month, Monday to Friday for two and a half hours in the morning in order to improve their English language speech. This fit perfectly for my volunteering plans, as I was able to teach my students in the classroom in the morning while the girls were at school. The only downside to this proposal was that I had to cut our two week trip to Pokhara to one week and I didn’t want to lose out on this opportunity.

Pokhara’s amazing views of the Annapurna range were hidden by clouds, but I did manage to get a cheeky glimpse of “Fish Tail Peak” whilst enjoying a cold beer one sunny afternoon. We accomplished a 4-5 hour bike ride to Dhampus, with a final intense uphill segment and the next day a thrilling downhill chase! Trekking was not really on the cards due to the time limit on both of our parts, I had the volunteering at KEEP and Dan only had a 15 day visa.

Our final evening together started early with a hour happy on cocktails followed by happy hour on beer, I had a happy hour or so inviting fellow travelers to the party, whilst we celebrated our own happy hour with a bottle of Vodka in our hotel room! A electro night had been organized at a local bar, we soon were supping more beer, whilst enjoying our newly invented drinking game, which involved of playing table tennis with beer bottles on the table (if you hit the bottle with the ball you drink, simple! (the game!)). The local press where there and soon as you know it I had a camera in my face with a beautiful Nepalese girl asking me and my friend questions about the night, and reading in the paper the next day about Dan playing table tennis in the club! The interview made me a little famous, with people from work to the climbing wall, and even my Nepalese mum telling me she had seen me on television!

Having suffered my first two day hangover whilst traveling, I packed up bag and moved into my own room at the homestay. I had spent several days before looking for a reasonably priced mountain bike to buy, so that it would still hold its value over the month for resale, and finally I did! This enabled me to cycle to and from work in the caos, risking limbs from being broken, but having chosen this method of transport over walking (which holds a lesser risk, but takes a lot longer), or micro bus (where people are pretty much sitting on your lap, and you have to pay).

The work at the homestay involved, playing connect 4, watching Tom and Jerry, reading books together and spelling tests. The younger two Selina and Asha bonded an effortless friendship whereas Puja proved to be a very difficult person to talk to due to her lack of confidence in English. I spoke very little Hindi to them in order to get them practicing English, but if they didn’t understand my primary aid was Selina (my translator) and secondary aid was to speak in Hindi. I could only successfully communicate with my Nepalese mum (Amaa) through speaking Hindi, and everybody understands Hindi due to the help of the Indian television channels. The girls did get a little lazy, when I asked questions in English, and began to respond with “I don’t know” , when they couldn’t be bothered to make the effort to understand (kids and attention spans…), so I either translated in Hindi or just didn’t bother myself!

The English classes at KEEP kept me busy, as there was not a syllabus as such, therefore I made it up. I made them write a vocabulary notebook, introduced them to present and past tenses and tried to inject humour into our daily sessions with role play and scenarios. (I had a very interesting conversation with the basic level teacher about the different kinds of humour… we had a lot of interesting and bizarre conversations, usually whilst eating momos in probably the best momo joint in town… but then again they have recently bumped up their prices…) Their performances in their exam was brilliant, therefore I gave everybody an excellent!

I have gained new friends (and family), and experienced priceless memories in both my volunteering positions. I had a great time in donating my time and to share positive attitudes with all the people involved. It was overwhelming when the students kept calling me Sir, but eventually got them calling me Himal Sir and a few felt awkward calling me just Himal (Himal in Nepal means mountain and was picked up for remembering my name). The girls had to call me Hemal Uncle out of respect, as I’m usually called mama by my sisters’ kids, it didn’t really feel out of place.

The monsoon had well and truly hit during my visit, with mini lakes and rivers running amongst the traffic! One day was so bad that only six of my eighteen students arrived to class, I had rocked up in my boardies, sandals and rain jacket, drenched after my hour walk from home. My next destination, Bangkok, will be having its monsoon season too, so I’ll try and get myself closer to the equator (Singapore?) to dry off!