Back in Kathmandu|
|
- 8th Jan back in KTM- Cos the bus was so slow there was no chance to renew my visa
Fri - Went down the visa office to apply for a visa extension. I wanted 10 days, but they only do 15 or 30.
- I raced to the opposite side of the city to Indian visa office. Waited 90 mins to get a form, but couldn't apply cos my passport was at the Nepal visa office. Then I almost forgot .. So had to race back to the opposite side of the city to collect my passport.
| Sat met up with Rudra in his new office |
- Sat - Internet .. then saw Rudra
- Sun and Monday I guess I was just catching up with internet.
| Tell Me Life isn't one Flaming irritating thing after another -
- The bosses don't respect the staff so they pay them shit. Likewise the staff don't respect the customers they just sit there idely playing the music they like loudly - At the restaurant nearby the visa office I had to take my food to the street.
- 6am - my radio speaker kept cutting out
- 7am woke up it was freezing cold the flaming window was open despite me having closed it the night before.
- ... 3 bathrooms always someone in one
- 8am flaming load shedding no light.
- 8am clothes not back from washing 24 hours later than promised.
- 8am walked to get tea .. first woman too ages .. next café slow also
- 9.15 am clothes still not ready had to wait around still not ready.
- walk through crowded streets shops closed cos it's Saturday
- the stress of crossing the crazy traffic
- first cybercafé closed
- 2nd cyber noisy
- the normal computer crap, virus, connection dropping etc
- get scarf back,
- other cyber closed early
- no phone answer from Hari,
- torch bad can't see,
- have to wait for PC
- 100 internet problems BBC won't connect etc,
- dinner where ?
- radio batteries running low.
- Window in room is open again when I get back I am sure I left it shut.
- Cold
- load shedding so cafes dark, closed or empty or expensive, smokey, drinkers,
- found a café, he's got no flaming menu, got no orange,
- I say no chilli food comes back covered in cardomen which I hate,
- constantly bothered by drunk in café.
- motor bike noise,
- barking dogs
- Why do things irritate ? maybe we don't like things being unpredictable. But we are bound to forget some things,
- Do other people have extremely low expectations or what ? - The science programme More or Less reported that humans have a genetic disposition for false dreams and believing that life can be much better than it actually is .. I suppose otherwise e'd give up .. see opinion blog
|
Orphanage Corruption
|
- 2 newspaper articles - One said international adoptions were to be allowed again after 6 months of corruption investigations.
- Another foreigner wrote an article
accusing orphanages of being a scam boarding schools where relatives of those running them can benefit from good free education. Another spoke of villagers dumping their children in orphanages so that they get fed and get a good education, which they can't get in the rural areas.
"in fact, the majority of the children had parents. Even more startling was the fact that the children were relatives of the people running the "orphanage." It was certainly less of an orphanage and more of a boarding home for rural children.
.. over 50% of children living in orphanages in Nepal have both parents alive." She suggested remedying the lack of quality education in the countryside by giving bonuses to rural teachers.
kantipuronline | | | | |
|
why isn't why isn't Nepal burning rubbish to make electricity |
- There are 2 big problems - 8 hours of electricity - streets full of rubbish - But the UK's largest source of alternative electricity is rubbish even more than hydropower so why isn't Nepal doing that ?
- It would be really easy to start all you need to do is get an old boiler then you use the steam to drive a generator. I think in an afternoon drive around the Terai you could find an unused boiler and in another place an unused generator or large motor and you could be generating electricity within 1 or 2 weeks, just fueled from rubbish left on city streets.
I am not talking about incineration where you burn everything, but simple burning so you would have to separate the plastics etc. out first.
- One power station near my mother's house uses chicken shit as a fuel.
- Nepal has no oil or gas of it's own , but what about peat. Is there any peat in Nepal ? I checked there maybe be minerals like coal/oil etc in Nepal , but due to the political situation it has not been fully checked... So it is possible Nepal has fuels hidden away.
| Worn and Frayed by Nepal
|
- I feel worn and frayed by my experience of Nepal the culture and all the difficulties.
- It's one difficulty on top of another.
- Every so often I keep getting a bad stomach maybe cos of eating bad eggs. It doesn't hurt, but leaves me feeling a bit weak.
- it's difficult to get anything done like laundry etc cos everytime I pass the shop there is no electricity and the shop is closed.
-
I don't like it ...among other things too many people asking for a ticket to paradise working in the UK etc
- I suppose I'll have to go to India next..
- Monday -There was some good news - Wow the COOP bank paid me back the 20 quid it stole off me. (The bank that wrongly let me go overdrawn through the Nepal ATM and charged me 20 pounds)
| Life is one crap thing after another
- I smashed my PDA phone
- Yesterday some journalist was hacked to death in another city and I am thankful that I am alive and that tourists are not in any danger here.
- Then today I was in the rooftop restaurant above the main square. I was preparing some
work on my PDA phone. Suddenly a large demonstration appeared so I moved to get a
photo. The angle wasn't quite right so I moved ....fill in the blanks
- I was so stunned I really don't know what happened whether I tripped or caught my arm but suddenly my phone was airbourne. Actually I was not leaning over the balcony and my fingers were on the stylus part of the phone .. so the phone slipped away from the stylus and bounced off the parapet wall and then outwards.
- The most important thing is I didn't hurt anyone ...a phone on the head could have done real damage
..with electricity now only operating 4 hours in daytime, no shop has electricity to tell me
whether it can be repaired.
- well I am still alive I suppose
- It's the only thing I have of any value and it's probably not worth more than 50 quid, but I used to prepare work and to
listen to BBC podcasts etc .. so I used it many hours everyday. - God I am so tired.
Tues - The screen was dead. I tried reset nothing. Actually I noticed that the lights came on, but not the screen.
- Wed- Wow when I connected te phone to the PC I found that inside it still works. It's a long story
- see Saga pc481at a Week in Kathmandu wasted fixing my phone
I guess I should go to India |
- I don't really want to go to India, because it will be like Nepal except worse, but I can't stay in Nepal cos of the visa situation and difficulties and I suppose it's bad to pass up the opportunity of visiting India again while it is so easy to get to from here..And the Indian visa costs $50, but is for 6 months.
- No -one could recommend me a phone repair shop and many were shut
- I started applying for my Indian visa ..it takes 3 visits to the embassy the first to fill in a telex form ..today was a public holiday .. so there were only 10 people there ..so amazingly for Indian bureaucracy it only took 10 minutes.
- I had to go back 5 days later. I was surprised to find that if your telex check was approved you put the application, passport and fee in the morning and you collect your visa at 4.30pm the same day .. I had thought with Indian bureaucracy it would take much longer.
| Thu- |
|
- interesting BBC doco in Malaysia "Malaysia - racial supremacy no more?" .. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/
- Thu - There was a massive demonstration the main circuit was blocked by 500 Safa Tempos
- Put my phone in for a repair estimate then I went to Infotech a computer Expo..it's pretty boring 50 Rp to go in ..mostly UPS shops, Radio Nepal have a small stand.
- Across the road in some City Hall Conference Centre there are some talks it's supposed to be quite expensive . but no one was collecting money ..it seemed to be free
| | | | | | | |
