Surprisingly, internet cafes don’t appear that hard to some by in the larger towns in Tibet so it has been easier to type up than I expected, although they don’t seem to be able to, or won’t allow, the upload of photos here.

Last night we stayed in relative luxury in beds with matresses and lighting. Matt and I shared a room – and we were both woken with a start at 4am when something very loud fell to the floor.

After not being able to establish what it was, we went back to bed. In the morning I found some nasty yellow muck on the desk in the room and outside the bathroom door. Five minutes later and we were investigating the top of the twitching curtains. A quick peek revealed a very frightened ferret-looking creature who shot down the window, across the floor and let out a deafening squeal before going back again.

Matt soon discovered that it had made it’s way through a large part of the huge carrier bag full of unshelled peanuts he had left on the desk. Eventually we coaxed it out of the window.

After a basic breakfast (egg, bread and jam as always) we took the trucks to Gyantse via a small water-powered tsampa mill (tsampa being a barley dough, edible with any liquid, but mostly drunk with yak butter tea).

Another hotel tonight, the hot water is turned on at 6pm, so we’re all waiting for the first warm shower this week.

The weather turned this afternoon, but it cleared quickly. We walked around the local monastary and stuupa before taking a taxi-trike upto the old fort for the highest view for miles around.

Tommorow we go to Lhasa, the capital.

(Also, happy belated birthday for yesterday Dad. I had problems posting the message yesterday and I didn’t actually realise it was showing up.)

So here I am, about 5000m above sea level and on the ‘rooftop of the world’.

We set of early Saturday morning at 5.30am, taking the long drive back out towards Last Resort where we had rafted the day before.

After a brief stop when the other bus managed to get a puncture, we made it to the Tibetan border, the ‘friendship bridge’ and got our passports checked and temperatures measured (SARS is still a concern) before being hearded into Toyota Land Crusiers to take the hazardous mountain pass and start gaining real altitude (ours houses Jen, Matt, Sam and myself with a driver who speaks no English and only has one cassette which happens to be particularly awful techo-chinese music).

By this time the clear weather had faded and it was really bucketing it down. In one of the breaks at customs we made our way into a small kitchen and all ordered large bowls of noodles until the convoy was ready to move off.

Immediately the change of country is noticable. The first thing is the language – no one out of the fifty of us here speaks any manderin, and certainly not any Tibetan, so meal times are often complicated as simple gesturing seems to confuse more than compound.

We arrived in Nagalam late evening, by which time it was freezing cold. Tibet really is basic; the charpies (asian toliets) are no more than a hole over a pit, and there is no warm water or heating. Thick Yak blankets are very effective though, but didn’t do much to calm the AMS (acute mountain sickness), which gives you a bad headache, make your drowsy or dizzy and affect breathing.

Paracetamol is staple of our diet at the moment.

Still, the views are stunning. We rose early yesterday to see the huge snow-capped mountains and a clear blue sky above us, perfect weather for seeing the Himalaya. We bundled back into the 4×4s and made our way several hundred km across the vast plataeus and over the passes stopping for photographs and food.

Our final travel stop was at a small restaurant (in the most basic sense of the word) overlooking Mt Everest. It’s hard to put across how spectacular the views are generally, and as soon as I get to a place where they allow you to plug in your camera, I’ll put some photos up.

Last night we stayed in dormitories again – primitive once more, but we got to hustle some street-pool with the local kids which was enjoyable.

Today we have arrived in Xingtze (?) where we are now have showers and western toilets. One of the vehicles rolled off the road this morning; thankfully no one was hurt, but it did bring about how desolate this place is and it was good we were all still close together as the distance between seeing people and their Yaks is vast.

We have picked up a few Tibetan phrases. Hello is ‘Tashi Delli’ while our driver told us dog is ‘key’, goat is ‘ra’, cat is ‘shimmi’ and yak is ‘ya’. We are becoming pros.

This afternoon we explored the local monastary, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama. We then browsed the local area, shared some card tricks and generally did non-energetic things to avoid bringing on the AMS any heavier.

More to follow…

An early start this morning wasn’t complimented by a bumpy ride up to Last Resort, a point 12 miles from the Tibetan border. Unfortunately we have to repeat the journey first thing tomorrow.

That said, Sam, Iwan, Anna, other Sam and myself had a fantastic time whitewater rafting down the rapids for three hours. More exciting than my first and only other attempt at this sport in the Rockies, I know feel utterly exhausted.

No help that we have to be outside the travel agents at 5.30am in the morning for the bus to Tibet.

Last night I discovered I had a cut on my head. That can be explained by walking into that low doorframe in Bhaktapur yesterday.

This morning we got up at 8am to catch the local bus to the orphanage outside of Kathmandu. The area is a lot more rural than where we are staying in the city (although more developed than some of the area around Nagakot).

First stop was Sam’s old host family. The youngest, Krris, turned three today so we had picked up a cake en route and stashed it in the fridge before heading over to Jen’s host family for my first experience at true Nepalese home cooking.

Dahl Baht is eaten from a metal plate and using your right hand as a shovel and your thumb as a push-to-mouth. The dahl is a yellow curry mix, which you pour over the baht (the rice and a selection of curried vegetables and nuts). Despite struggling to each much the past few days, I managed the whole portion (just as well; leaving food is considered very disrespectful).

After breakfast we went to the orphange, a short walk away. Most of the kids were at school, so Jen, Sam and myself went for a walk up into the hills for views of the villages and fields from above.

When we arrived back we met the kids up on the field ready for a short talent show organised by one of the other volunteers. There was singing, dancing, display of paintwork (one kid, Albin was particularly good and we are planning on taking him to visit the artist we met yesterday), acting and other entertainments before it descended into general playtime for the rest of the afternoon.

Dealing with 45 kids is a challenging job, and as their supplies are strictly limited and their expectations must not be raised for various reasons, we have to strict rules regarding handing out presents/sweets and what we can say to them – although they are more than willing to play, fight and take photos on your camera.

I could talk at length about these children who were all very curious, raucous, playful and funny, but I can hardly remember any of their names (they all look alike apart from their t-shirts) and the conditions they live in. Although good by Nepali standards, the state of the building is nowhere near what you might expect in a western children’s home, and health and safety is not even heard of. I plan on writing something a bit more comprehensive about this at a later date as it was a very cool experience.

We went back to Sam’s host family for an evening meal (this time with spoons and everything!), and being a birthday they had laid on a special selection of chicken, pickles and pilleau rice (as opposed to the usual twice-a-day, mono-thematic dahl baht).

We danced for an hour in the living room to some of the latest hindi dance tracks (twin girls, two older sisters, the hyperactive Krris, a older brother, another couple of visiting boys, Rob, Jen, Sam and myself made the whole place a little packed) before sharing out the cake (which had a strong taste of nail polish remover for some reason).

Sam had to make her goodbyes before we left to catch a taxi back to Themal. There was one final issue of taking out the huge cockroach crawling around the bathroom, but once that was sorted we went back to the art shop at 9pm to pick up the work that had been done overnight.

A busy day. Tomorrow we go rafting, then on Saturday, Tibet. I’m unsure what internet access will be like for the next 8 days.

After food last night Sam went back to the hotel while I prowled around central Bhaktapur taking some night shots around the city. It gave me a chance to climb the tallest temple (not just in Kathmandu Valley, but in the whole of Nepal).

This morning we went for breakfast at the same cafe overlooking the square before making our way over to the national galleries. For the small charge of 20 Rupees (small even by Nepali standards) we were able to view the woodworking, brass and art galleries. The first two were pretty insignificant – most things were labelled 20th century with no description in very dimly lit alcoves and glass cases on the top floor of an old Newari-style building. The art gallery was considerably better, but was lacking in power, so with just a mini-maglite torch for light the guards let us wander around the darkened corridors and rooms of mostly religious paintings.

We came back to the hotel to checkout, but were distracted by an art shop and then the final stages of the chariot pulling which has been going on for five days now. After an almighty tug, something came loose and the whole monster vehicle overwhelmed the people trying to pull it along and it shot out of view in the opposite direction.

We decided we really had to make a move, and we didn’t particularly fancy staying around for the final part of the festival which involves hurling rocks. There were no fatalities last year, but the year before three people were eliminated by this rather dangerous tradition.

We caught a local bus back to Thamel and spent the afternoon shopping for bargains and sorting out the next few days activities. We also made a visit to the artist who painted some of the work which we saw earlier in Bhaktapur. He was incredibly friendly and we stayed for chia until heading back to the markets to sort out the last of the pre-Tibet purchases.

Tomorrow we head out to Nepaltaar and Gabisar to visit Sam’s host family and then the orphanage.

This morning we were awoken by the bells of the temple next door to our hotel at 3am. I managed to sleep ok, but Sam had been feeling ill since yesterday (I’ve already been through that once) and so we had a light breakfast overlooking one of the city squares.

We made our way through the streets; similarly packed to Thamel, but just with people as the use of cars and motorbikes is either not permitted, or just not a regular occurance.

Visits included a paper factory, a wood carving shop, a famous carving of a peacock, a number of temples, palaces and important gateways and a Thanka art school. Thanka is the name of the Nepalese art form which reproduces with incredible detail, illustrations of Buddhist importance. This includes Buddah’s life story and the mandalas. Each piece can take up to 14 months to complete and the highest quality pieces are completed by Lamas themselves.

We were able to see a number of the painters at work, who recreate each scene with a single haired brush to build up perfect gradients and apply fine lines of molton gold leaf using the same type of brush.

In the afternoon Sam went back to rest and I stayed up in the cafe where we had had breakfast just watching the markets and processions of drum and pipe bands pass through (happening all today as part of the festival). Afterwards I went to explore some more of the streets with my camera before the rain brought me back to the hotel where I watched the celebrations from the balcony of our room.

I’m currently working my way through “Tears of Blood” which I have been leant and tells the struggle of the Tibetan people over the past fifty years. Unfortunately it is incredibley biased and in it’s own words “[makes] no apology for it,” but it is giving me some insight before I get there.

Tomorrow we head back to Kathmandu.

Day five finds me and Sam in Bhaktapur, a small ancient town outside of Kathmandu city but still in the valley.

The past couple of days have been pretty fantastic. After my last entry we went to explore Durbar Square (Durbar means Palace in Nepalese) which involved exploring the overcrowded back streets of Kathmandu.

The thoroughfares through the city are fairly narrow and extremely packed with both people and traffic. The horn system works here too, and it’s common for bikes and taxis to brush you/each other as they pass, where back home they would grind to a halt.

En route to the square we stopped at several temples and other points of interest, including a tailors shop where some of the girls picked up their orders. As ever, we were provided with Chia (tea) while we waited.

At the square itself we took a tour guide who was able to shed light on a lot of the symbolism and history of the religions and buildings. Religion here is Nepalese Buddhism/Hinduism which is strangely entwined and their history is still in the making, with the murder of the royal family just a few years ago which has left the monarchy suspended and the government an ‘interim’ power.

One of the main attractions of the square is the Kumari, a young girl who is revered as a god-descendant of Buddah and has to posses a number of particular qualities before she is chosen over the other candidates every eight or so years (in a similar process to the selection of the Dalai Lama in Tibet). She makes appearances once a day at 4pm, but we were unfortunate to discover that she will only appear if you make a donation, which we were a bit disappointed about.

One of the other important things about this area is nearby Freak Street. In the sixties, Nepal became infested by a western hippy population who came over “in suits, tried the marajuana, went back to their hotels, took of their suits and never went back,” in the words of the guide. The hindu holy men who wear dreads, bright orange clothes and face paints became to be worshipped as gods by the new hippies, and as a result many fake holy men now wander the temples handing out flowers and trying to get money for having a photo with them.

In the evening Sam, Jen and myself went to watch a Hindi movie. Shackalackaboomboom is mostly spoken in Hindi, bar a few lines, which made the plot somewhat thicker, but it was very entertaining, even if using your phone in the cinema is compulsory (and not minded at all by the locals).

On the way back (in the dark), Jen mistook a sewage filled drain on the side of the road for hard paving and ended up knee deep in excrement. Not particularly pleasant, but apparently not a too-rare an experience. We also had to pass massive New Year celebrations in the street which involved large numbers of excited Nepalese jumping up and down in front of a stage erected on the road leading to the palace.

In the evening we went for food at local restaurant OR2A (?) with a few of the other volunteers and ended the night drinking chia with Andy at Organic, a fantastic upstairs cafe overlooking the streets in Thamel.

The next morning Sam, Anna, Jen and myself all went off to the 6.30am mediation and yoga session at a local Buddhist guesthouse. My first attempt at both left my legs dead, but it was a worthwhile experience at improving my state of mind. Afterwards we watched a video on the exile of the Dalai Lama (who’s laugh reminds me of Doctor Hibbert’s from The Simpsons).

We got back to the hotel and met our taxi driver for the day who drove us to Nagakot (via a number of temples and Thimmi, where a famous New Years celebration occurs). We also had the strange and somewhat eye-opening visit to the main Kathmandu cremation site (Pashupatinath) and watched a number of cremations along the river as well as visiting a home for the elderly that had been setup by Mother Teresa.

After visiting Bodhnath Stupa, we finally arrived at the Hotel At The End of The Universe and I managed to get a first full nights sleep after dealing with a large number of flies and a huge spider. We had hoped to make sunrise the net morning, but unfortunately it was overcast so just settled by going back to bed.

After waking again we walked the mountain paths down to Bhaktapur. We were accompanied by a stray dog for the whole three hour walk who we named Nips and then caught the local bus down the town itself.

We got just to the edge of the city when it started to rain. An old man invited us in from under shelter we were in, but we refused only being minutes away from our accommodation, but after a minute the rainfall became so heavy it poured through the structure we were under and he insisted – guiding through what had almost instantly become 5 inches worth of water flowing down the street.

We sheltered on the top floor in not much more than a dark room with a potters wheel and the rest of his family who (like all Nepalese) were more than willing to talk and entertain us until the rain passed.

I’d like to have written more about all this, but the internet cafe is about close. Since we arrived tonight we have also watched a torchlit parade and the huge chariot being heaved through the streets, both to do with the Bisket Jatra festival which goes on for another two days.