COUNTRY: Nepal - Pokhara
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Community Healthcare, Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Angelisa Marino and Rebecca Green
Our weeks here seem to be getting shorter and shorter. We’re just so happy here! Unlike the last two weeks, this week has not been jam-packed, although at the rate it has sped past, it feels like we’ve been non-stop!
Friday afternoon the group decided to split into three. Niamh and Jessie enjoyed some quality family time, Adam, George, Kalden and fellow English ‘chap’, Naz, amused themselves by pummelling paintball bullets at Gia and Bec (the bruises are impressive), and Bri and Sahreet immersed themselves into Bollywood and watched a movie at the local cinemas for 100 NR (around $1.00), which can only be described as a corny, overly-dramatic comedy with confusing love scenes and no English subtitles. An experience in itself!
Friday night we all ate dinner together and moved to Busy Bee for drinks and Shisha. We drank, smoked, laughed and chit-chatted until the ‘wee’ hours of 11pm; which is when all music comes to an end and the once flowing beers have been cut off, a strange curfew for some!
Many members of the Antips group can barter until the cows come home, but some become shy with confrontation, however we all take advantage of the ‘early morning price’ which is closely followed by the blessing “Good luck for me, good luck for you”.
On Saturday we went kayaking on the lake. Everyone joked around that they would like to ‘capsize’ their kayaks to cool down from the afternoons heat, however our Breezer took the joke a little too literally and accidentally flipped her Kayak, swam around like a crazy person to find her purse and phone, burst into tears then realised her belongings were safe and sound in the end of her boat.
Frustrated, wet and exhausted, Bri convinced Sahreet to tow her back into shore. A moment of sweatiness and saturation for them, was a moment of hilariousness for those dry on the banks. Laughs were hushed as the two finally docked, as one giggle would earn you a death stare from the drowned rats! Congratulations Brianna, you are Bekar!
Angelisa is normally the person who the group volunteers to hail and barter for the best priced taxi. However, this week Angelisa deserves an honourable mention for Bekar as she asked two random, dark-skinned men for a taxi ride in the pouring rain, only in her horror to look down to see that both men were wearing bum-bags, and were in fact Indian tourists!
Sunday afternoon, Adam, Jessie and Naz braced themselves for paragliding off of Sarankot, a mountain, or a hill as the locals call it, bigger than our own Mount Kosiosko! The gliders spent almost twenty five minutes in the warm breeze, looking upon the spectacular views of Pokhara with utter amazement. All three stated that they would definitely paraglide again as the experience was just so unforgettable, and so wonderfully exhilarating!
Bri has been on the hunt for a rug since our first day in Pokhara, so we spent a couple of hours hunting and bartering for the best priced rug. As we have been living here for three weeks, our faces are now familiar to shopkeepers, taxi drivers and waiters. Our recognition around town is usually rewarded with fairer prices. Unfortunately for Bri, the rug men did not recognise our locality and asked for outrageous prices. As we were walking off to another store, the shopkeeper yelled out “you will not find a better price than mine”. Funnily enough, the man must have re-thought his pricing and lack of sales for the day, and searched for Brianna on his scooter down the street of Lakeside beeping at her, and offering her a more reasonable price.
Bec and Gia x
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