April 12th, one month since we left the UK. Some days it feels much less and some much longer!

We're now back at the Pacific Guest House after 3 days of luxury in the hotel Varja for the VSO conference - first time in a double bed for ages! It was arranged for now to overlap with the election as all the volunteers were brought in from the districts just in case. Looks like most of it went smoothly after all which is good, and it will be interesting to see what changes take place if the Maoists get power, as it looks right now.

Anyway, the conference was quite good with lots of stuff to help the new volunteers get integrated. They did one session on how to make your own sausages as the Brits obviously really miss them here, and using a "magic oven" where you can make a cake in a saucepan! I don't see quite so much need for that in Kathmandu as there are plenty of good bakers here and I'm not a big sausage eater but it was entertaining! The facilities were a bit different too with some sessions in tents or just outside as the weather is so good. And it was finished with the obligatory end of conference party last night. G had brought his kilt so was the belle of the ball with all the volunteers from Uganda and the Phillipines wanting their photo taken with him. There were also some silly games like competitive barn dancing which were quite a laugh. I suspect that the rather strong rum punch helped break the ice anyway! An interesting cultural point I noted was that no matter where you go in the world and no matter where the people present have come from, if sufficient alcohol has been consumed and then a Queen record is played the entire party will stop while everyone sings along and acts like Freddie Mercury!

We have visited a couple of temples since the last instalment: Our language and cultural school took us for an outing (!) to Pashupatinath which is apparently the most important Hindu temple in Nepal and is also visited by pilgrims from India. It is also the main cremation site for the area and certainly brought home our mortality with effectively a production line of bodies on simple stretchers being prepared for cremation by being covered in tikka and flowers and then being placed on the pyre of logs on a plinth by the river before being set alight. It is quite a beautiful place and the belief you see there is very powerful but it is all quite raw, if you know what I mean!

This morning we went up to Swayambunath which is probably the most important Bhuddist temple in Nepal and the fifth World heritage site we have visited since coming here so there is no shortage of big temples to see here! Anyway, It was beautiful and the bhuddist sites always seem to be that bit more peaceful than the Hindu ones, though there is always an overlap as in the Hindu religion they believe that Bhuddha was an incarnation of Vishnu. Anyway it was a lovely place to wander about and as it is also known as the Monkey temple there was plenty of entertaining wildlife to watch. There is even a swimming pool for them to play in which gave hours of amusement!

No further progress on finding somewhere to stay as the agent we were supposed to be seeing on Monday stood us up. While it was very annoying at the time you can't take it personally as it is apparently just the Nepali way! They don't really do linear time like us; apparently they think cyclically - whatever that means! Anyway, we are supposed to meet him tomorrow so if he doesn't show up then there may be a bit of a cultural exchange! We also experienced opening a bank account last week which was a good opportunity to see Nepali beauraucracy at first hand. Several hours and an ample supply of patience saw us through that!

Well can't think of any more for now except to wish you all a Happy New Year for tomorrow, the first day of 2065: Tapaaihurulaai niyaa barshaako shuva kamaanaa!