Shopping in Bhaktapur before we fly to Phaplu

We all slept well after our long journey and we’ve settled in at our hotel. The hardest thing is trying to remember not to clean our teeth in tap water, but other than that we have adapted well to living in a Third World country.

After breakfast (we are five hours 45 minutes ahead here) we went sightseeing to an ancient town called Bhaktapur, which literally means place of devotees. It’s on the east corner of Kathmandu and has lots of historical monuments and lovely temples to see, so this was a must to visit.

We then went some shopping and learnt how to barter, which is a way of life here. Some of the group got quite a bit of money knocked off. Nick Evans is a natural at it but it does seem odd to us to have to barter for everything.

Monkey Temple was amazing. It’s a Buddhist temple and is more than 2500 years old. It’s the oldest religious site in Kathmandu.

There are lots of monkeys living there and they are allowed to roam freely amongst locals and tourists, as they are considered to be saints. We had to be careful because they were not scared of us and are known to steal people’s possessions and run off with them. They were really funny to watch though and we especially loved the babies.

The food isn’t as bad as we thought it would be.  We had our first Nepalese meal last night, which we all really enjoyed. We then danced a traditional dance together, which was great fun.

Tomorrow we fly to Phaplu ready for our first days trek to the village of Bhote Kharka. We will meet the Sherpas who will be looking after us for the next nine days and will be sleeping in tents.

In total we have five days trekking in a row to get to Kangel, so it’s going to get tougher, but we are all upbeat and looking forward to seeing the classrooms we have funded and meeting the children.

More information about the Nepal School Project 2017

Please use the link below to find out more about the Cadets visit to Nepal:

Find out more information about the Nepal school project 2017

Last updated: Wednesday 25 October 2017

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