Staying close to our Guest House today as there have been a few bombs in central Kathmandu over the weekend, presumably by people who don't want the election to go ahead. These will be royalists as whoever wins the election, the monarchy will be scrapped and Nepal becomes a republic. No one has been hurt but VSO have told us to not stray too far and this seems sensible and as there are plenty of nice cafes round here it's not too much hardship. On Tuesday we are all moving to another hotel where all the volunteers will be together and will stay there for 4 days over the election just in case. Hopefully things will settle down quickly afterwards but we will be able to watch any excitement from the rooftop bar!

So, since the last update I am all recovered from my bout of Delhi belly and Gordon has also been through a mild dose. In fact almost everyone has succumbed now. I guess I just got in early before the rush! With a bit of luck maybe we'll be immune now, though probably not! Oh, and we didn't see Sting, but we did find a bar that sells quite cheap red wine so there's a bonus!

Our language training is progressing and Friday afternoon we all got together and played a game where we each had one partner and were given a subject to talk about in Nepali for about 3 minutes when we had to change partners and were given a new topic of conversation - a sort of speed dating in Nepali! It was good fun and I think we all surprised ourselves by how much we were able to say. However, next time we will be doing it with native Nepali speakers so I think it will not be quite so comfortable and relaxed! We've also had more cultural sessions with one on the caste system. My NGO is a Dalit charity so I was already interested in this but we got a lot more information and examples of the unfairness of it all. We've also been hearing how hard life is for women here, they do the vast majority of the work and have virtually no power, so while Nepal is a lovely place for us to be, it has a long way to go before there is equality here.

Talking of women stuff, I have been practicing with my lunghi for when I go to the village and potentially have to wash in public. It is a bit of a palava(?) but I think I managed to get undressed, clean, dry and re-clothed without showing any bits between shoulders and knees. It might be more difficult with an audience though! We've also been practising our negotiating skills in the little shops of Thamel. Gordon has had more success than me, bartering down a small rucksack from 750rupees to end up paying 225rupees (about £1.90) though it will probably fall apart in a couple of weeks. I only managed to get 150 rupees off a fleece but as everything is so cheap here anyway I'm not that bothered.

We have been looking at some possible flats to stay in once we finish our training. We have decided we definitely want to stay in Lalitpur / Patan, which is just South of Kathmandu over the Bagmati river - which if anyone has read Terry Parchett reminds me of the river Ankh which doesn't so much flow as glob and has a rather distinctive aroma! Anyway, Lalitpur is much nicer than Kathmandu as it is quieter, less dusty and more laid back. It doesn't have quite so many restaurants and bars but once we are living somewhere we won't be going out as much anyway, and it is easy to get up to Kathmandu if we're socialising. On the downside it is a bit more expensive but it is also closer to both G and my work so commuting will be less. Anyway, we have seen one flat we like but it is quite a bit more than our VSO allowance so I want to check out some others with an agent. He has shown us a couple of places so far which I didn't like as they were too old-fashioned and came with some unattractive furniture, but we are seeing him again tomorrow so maybe he'll come up with something better. We went for a tour around the old part of Lalitpur on Thursday with a current volunteer and it was so pretty and peaceful it will just be so nice to get moved down there into our own place.

We have done another 2 hashes since our last update. Last week was fun, about 2.5 hours but up to a glorious temple called Changu Narayan which was originally built in 600AD but has been refurbished since. It was a little embarrassing being with a group of noisy hashers, some in shorts, while there were people there worshipping, but it was definitely worth seeing. After that we ended up having to cross a river with a half finished suspension bridge over it. I rather baulked at the 3ft gap between the edge of the bank and the single loose plank that made the start of the bridge, especially when I could see a perfectly good path underneath. So I'm afraid I wimped out and just got my feet wet. But G bounded across only to find it was a false trail anyway. Some things change but some things stay the same! This week the trail was set by the hash scholars, two young lads - 12 and 14 - who are sponsored by the hash. I thought this meant the hash paid for them to go to school as quite a few ex pats do that, but no, they are just sponsored to come to hash! Anyway, the walk was very nice and lasted 2 hours but the run was a mammoth 3 hours plus and one older guy collapsed at the end of it! His hash name is Child Killer and I think if he'd had more energy he would have lived up to it! We had taken another VSO girl along with us who is pretty fit and had gone on the run. I was worried that this was a bit of a baptism of fire for her but she said she enjoyed it. We'll see if she goes again! I am definitely going to stick with the walkers though!

Well, can't think of much more news and don't know how much internet access we'll have at the other hotel but hopefully if the election goes smoothly we'll be back here next weekend, and if not, Nepal will be on the news anyway!