What an emotional day!! It started off with a horrible start - election shouting and music blaring everywhere... But then I had the best breakfast I've almost ever had. We went to Boomerang, and both had an English Breakfast - fried eggs, potatoes, sausages, kidney beans with cheese, warmed bread with cheese in the middle, and fresh orange juice and tea. Amazing. Except for one thing - the toast is better at Hotel Nirvana :)
After breakfast, we bought a load of pastries for Krishna, who we were having dinner with later on.
We then went back to the hotel, picked up a few things, then got a taxi to... LAMACHAUR!!!!!!! The village where I grew up!! It took about 20 minutes or so, and we were dropped off at Lamachaur bus station/chowk (junction). It was all so overwhelming!! A lot of things have changed, like the road, the new fancy office building, shopping mall etc. But there was still the small cafe where we got jerri puris every Saturday after church on the way home. We wandered up to the bisee pond, which is now basically not there... There's a dip in the ground, with bisee (buffalo) but there's no pond, maybe because of the season, but it doesn't look like there's been a pond for a while... The huge tree on the corner has disappeared completely, no stump or anything left. And the road is incredible!! It's all Tarmac and so smooth!! We walked along the road, and we got to the Buruwal House/Residence. It looks so different, with 2 newly built houses next door to it, one of them is Srijana's (the girl about the same age as me!!). But I knew it was my old house. And the family all recognised me too!! We were looking and taking pictures of the house, and the people were whispering saying something like "is that Mary?". So they came outside, and we said hello, and they invited me in!! We had tea in my old living room (which is there's too now). We had awkward conversation for a bit, then I asked to see out the back. We walked through the corridor of the house, pointing out which rooms were what when we were there, and we got out to the back, which hasn't changed much apart from a few new buildings in the distance. They have a dog who loved Liam!! We then said our goodbyes and walked back along the lane.
About half way back, we walked up a small path going up the hill, hoping to find Ganga and her family's house. I have only seen one picture of the house, so I didn't recognise it, but Iddu, Ganga's younger brother, recognised me straight away, shouting "Mary!!". For those who don't know, Ganga was the lady who helped around our house from age 15 or 16, and turned 30 a few weeks back! We were very close to their family, and Iddu loved playing with josh and theo, and Ganga used to play games of hide and seek and tag around the house. Iddu showed us round the back, where Ganga's room was, and she came out with her mouth wide open!! We sat and chatted for ages, mostly Iddu and their older brother (can't remember his name, that's really bad...) doing the talking, as Ganga kept bringing us things to eat and drink, like water, chea (tea), egg etc. We arranged to go back up tomorrow evening for Dal Bhat, which I'm very excited about!! Iddu has a wife and daughter now which seems really wierd... His daughter is so cute though!! They said that after dinner, they can drop us back in Lakeside. Which means... BIKE!!!! Yayyyy!! Don't worry mum, you can trust them!!
We then said our goodbyes, and we took a walk down to the Gandaki River. On the way down, we stopped off at out old church, which we went to every Saturday. We were just looking at the outside, not planning to go in, then a young girl led us in and gave us a little tour around, telling us little bits of information about it. We got to Jun Kiri's home for the elderly, and a lady arrived who didn't recognise me until I said "Andrew Gammie" then she was running over screaming and gave me a hugeee hug!! She said something in Nepali which I didn't understand, but I know she was saying how she remembers me being tiny tiny!!
We then left the church, and walked down to the river. It was so wierd!! We saw the house that we used to go to sometimes, where an elderly couple lived with their disabled daughter. We saw her!! We waved, like I did all those years ago, and she waved back!! I could just imagine her smiling as she waved... We decided not to go to their house, as if I remember correctly, they don't speak any English and it would have been wierd and really awkward if they didn't remember me... But we made it down those thousands of steps to the river, and chilled down there for a while, then trekked back up to the top. I picked up a small stone from the bank to stick into my scrapbook/travel journal.
When we got to the top, I phoned Krishna (Theo's godfather) who said he was out at the moment, but he would call when he got back. So we wandered around some back streets for a bit, then up a road which I thought Krishna lived, and I was right!! Half way up the road, Krishna arrived on his motorbike, and he showed us the way to his house.
We sat down in his living room, and talked for about an hour and a half with some tea, then we went into the kitchen for dinner. I assumed it was going to be Dal Bhat, but it wasn't. It was chicken drumsticks, chow mein, and pizza!! Krishna told me that since their visit to England in 2009, they eat a wider range of food, and mum - Krishna says he now helps with the cooking!! Aimee, his wife, apparently cooks some things like cauliflower cheese from cooking channels, and Krishna said it's very good food!!
We had the dinner, and then we had ICECREAM!!!! One of my favourite things on the planet!! It was nice stuff too, not the really icy yucky Nepali stuff. Oh I forgot to say, yesterday we went to Nerula's and had icecream!! I remember going to Nerula's and having the most INCREDIBLE chocolate nutty icecream sundae when I was younger!!
Krishna then walked us back the Lamachaur Chowk, briefly saying hello to Raju his brother on the way out, and he then drove us down to Lakeside which was very nice of him!! He knew where our hotel was too :) I might see him again tomorrow, as he wants to give me something for Theo, and possibly something for Prasanna from her father - she is currently at university in London.
We said goodbye, then refreshed ourselves and went out. We did a small bit of shopping, then found the bar we went to last night for a quick drink and shisha, then back to the hotel for showers, and bed!! A very tiring but incredible day!!