Wednesday, 16 July 2008
I quit!
A few weeks ago I admitted defeat and gave up on teaching. I had endured six weeks and that was enough. The final straw came when I was teaching from one of their English textbooks. Not only are they at a level that completely exceeds the childrens' abilities but they are also wrong. One exercise involved matching up words with pictures of various vegetables. Instead of carrot, cabbage etc written down there was head, nose, eyes. When I confronted the teacher about this she wouldn't admit that it was a mistake and got the children to match the words to the vegetables which most resembled the body part....unbelievable and pretty confusing for 5 year olds! The older children are no better off as all they do is copy the correct answers off the blackboard with no understanding of them. One fifteen year old lad didn't even know to leave spaces between the words. It was then I realised that I was fighting a losing battle! So I am now helping out at a nursery, getting tormented by thirty stunningly beautiful children with the biggest brown eyes and longest eyelashes I have ever seen! My performance skills are improving as I am made to stand at the front of the class and sing nursery rhymes. Watching the mums and dads leaving their children stirrs up all sorts of old memories. There is always a little one sobbing and I remember the empty feeling I used to get watching my mum walk away twenty-four years ago!!
Thursday, 26 June 2008
ICU - Sri Lankan style!
At the weekend I got to experience Sri Lankan hospitals first hand. I was woken at 1am by my phone ringing, it was another volunteer who was distraught. She had developed food poisoning, was feeling like death and was needing accompanying down to the hospital. Ironically she got ill from the 5 star hotel she'd decided to treat herself to for one night of luxury - sod's law. So five minutes later I found myself flying down the pothole riddled road wedged on the back of a motorbike. Now people here seem to effortlessly manage to fit a family of five onto a bike but when it comes to us westerners we struggled with three. In the hurry I'd shoved a skirt on which proceeded to billow up round my ears Marilyn Monroe style, so I was all knickers and white legs - it's certainly an effective way of stopping traffic when you don't have a siren. The hospital was a government one and it was pretty dire. I did my best to reassure my friend as she was wheeled past a washing line of gloves which were drying and awaiting being reused (some on the line, some on the floor). We went to the "intensive care unit" which was complete with cats going through the bins and home-made air con in the form of walls that only went half way to the roof - so it was open air. When we got to her bed (which incidentally had a horse hair mattress - I know this by the foot wide hole in it) the nurse told me patients had to provide our own sheets and pillows so the host dad had to go back to fetch some. Finally we got her into bed and the nurses put a drip up...this was as far as Sri Lankan nursing went. For the rest of the night it was just me and her (the host "dad" had to go as it was females only). "Both ends" were simultaneously emptying every half hour. I tried to get her through to the toilet on a few occasions but this was a nightmare as I had to stop her drip, carry the bottle with one hand, push the wheelchair with the other and perch the vomit bucket on her knees (there was no loo roll, obviously, so my friend had a grim introduction to "the left-handed way"). The nurses didn't once help and never checked that I restarted the drip or set it at the correct rate. There was a sweet little lady in the next door bed who had the night time munchies and kept feeding me bananas and crackers (I tried hard not to think about what might have been on them - thankfully the light was dim!). The lights on the ward were turned off at 2am and put back on at 4.45am, and there was a constant drone coming from a radio - it really wasn't a restful place. By the morning I realised the hospital mosquitoes had had a fantastic feed on my legs over night. At 5.30am I was given two minuscule glass jars for stool and urine specimens (brings a whole new meaning to the expression "taking the piss"). Bearing in mind that my mate was struggling to even sit up I thought this was a little ridiculous but no they wanted them. Somehow, through a joint effort we managed to get them. The nurse I handed them to even had the cheek to remind me to wash my hands which were of course covered in..... ! At visiting time we managed to load her into a car and get her to a private hospital which of course was world's apart from the one we'd been in. I'm pleased to say she's now fine and it's strange what good comes out of negative experiences. For me, I spent the whole night thinking how much I'd missed nursing and despite all the shit and vomit it's definitely the job for me. For my friend, well it's not a night she'd care to repeat - I think her experience came second only to giving birth when it comes to losing your dignity!
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Thailand
I arrived back in Colombo yesterday after two weeks holiday on Thailand. Whilst I was away a bomb exploded on a train very near to where I live (my host family "brother" regularly takes the same train into Colombo). It's really very scary and where as before I managed to not really think about it, I now get pretty nervous going on public transport (which unfortunately is every day). It feels like Russian roulette - there's no way of knowing what is going to be targeted next. On the bus home from the airport I saw soldiers on every street corner and even on the bus, all brandishing large guns. Far from finding this reassuring it just panics me more. Then the bus conductor tried to overcharge me four times the actual price (I felt like shouting at him "look, I'm working for free in your god-damn country, risking getting blown up on a daily basis and I have to pay extra for the privilege!!!". What a tosser.). This morning I got thrown off the bus to work as I refused to pay the conductor forty rupees instead of the usual eight. The weather is wet, wet, wet at the moment and there is bad flooding nearby. My host family are currently stranded in the hill country after going away for the weekend and I've been sent home early from work as the kids don't turn up in the rain! The mossies are loving it and are eating me alive. Moan, moan, moan!
Thailand was amazing and spending two weeks just relaxing was heaven. I went with another volunteer, Julie who is a midwife. We flew into Bangkok where I looked around wide-eyed at the enormous roads, flyovers, sky-scrapers and girls strutting about in next to nothing. An overnight bus took us down to Surat Thani where we caught a ferry to Ko Pha ngan. This is an island off the East coast where the huge full moon parties are held. The party was all a bit of a blur although I do remember spending a lot of time doing glow in the dark body painting! Before we knew it, it was dawn and we watched the sun rise from the beach which was still teeming with weary people. Unfortunately a girl I was with had her bag stolen so I spent several hours at the police station trying to help her sort it out. I felt so sorry for her as she had lost everything, even her passport.
Next stop was Ko Tao - a small island an hour North. We stayed in a very remote spot called Hin Wong on the east side. There was no beach but the water was crystal clear and the snorkeling was out of this world. I almost felt as though I was flying being able to propel myself forward with my arms, watching the fish dart around me. They were vivid colours - electric blue, yellow, football teams in black and white stripes and my favourite a large fish that had swum straight from the 80s with shimmering fluorescent yellows, greens and pinks. The coral formed amazing shapes, some looking like large brains and there were small multicoloured "Christmas trees", only a couple of centimetres high which shrank back if you ventured too close. There were also some "Nemo" fish which lived amongst the sea anemones, weaving in and out of their tentacles. One day we hired a canoe and paddled north around the coast. At one point we heard mysterious splashing all around us and joked that we were surrounded by sharks. It wasn't until we got back and mentioned this to the hotel owner that we discovered that sharks are regularly sighted around that particular headland....eek!
We got the overnight ferry back to Surat Thani, and interesting experience where I got to share my bed with fifty other people! Mattresses the width of my bum were laid side by side covering every square inch of the floor. One person looked familiar and turned out to be James, a volunteer I had met in Nepal....it's a small old world! We then headed over land to the west coast to a place called Raillay (in the Krabi province). This has to be one of the most stunning places I've seen in my nine months travelling. A short longboat ride transported us to a world of powdery white sand, warm turquoise water and surreal rock formations. The beach was completely enclosed by towering honey-coloured cliffs which had been sculpted into amazing stalactites. At night these were lit up and I floated on my back gazing up at it all. By day climbers spidermanned there way up impossibly sheer rock faces whilst I did a bit of body toasting! The sunsets were psychedelic, the sea turning to molten gold and pink clouds streaming across the sky .... a little piece of heaven on earth, one day I'll return - I have to!
Thailand was amazing and spending two weeks just relaxing was heaven. I went with another volunteer, Julie who is a midwife. We flew into Bangkok where I looked around wide-eyed at the enormous roads, flyovers, sky-scrapers and girls strutting about in next to nothing. An overnight bus took us down to Surat Thani where we caught a ferry to Ko Pha ngan. This is an island off the East coast where the huge full moon parties are held. The party was all a bit of a blur although I do remember spending a lot of time doing glow in the dark body painting! Before we knew it, it was dawn and we watched the sun rise from the beach which was still teeming with weary people. Unfortunately a girl I was with had her bag stolen so I spent several hours at the police station trying to help her sort it out. I felt so sorry for her as she had lost everything, even her passport.
Next stop was Ko Tao - a small island an hour North. We stayed in a very remote spot called Hin Wong on the east side. There was no beach but the water was crystal clear and the snorkeling was out of this world. I almost felt as though I was flying being able to propel myself forward with my arms, watching the fish dart around me. They were vivid colours - electric blue, yellow, football teams in black and white stripes and my favourite a large fish that had swum straight from the 80s with shimmering fluorescent yellows, greens and pinks. The coral formed amazing shapes, some looking like large brains and there were small multicoloured "Christmas trees", only a couple of centimetres high which shrank back if you ventured too close. There were also some "Nemo" fish which lived amongst the sea anemones, weaving in and out of their tentacles. One day we hired a canoe and paddled north around the coast. At one point we heard mysterious splashing all around us and joked that we were surrounded by sharks. It wasn't until we got back and mentioned this to the hotel owner that we discovered that sharks are regularly sighted around that particular headland....eek!
We got the overnight ferry back to Surat Thani, and interesting experience where I got to share my bed with fifty other people! Mattresses the width of my bum were laid side by side covering every square inch of the floor. One person looked familiar and turned out to be James, a volunteer I had met in Nepal....it's a small old world! We then headed over land to the west coast to a place called Raillay (in the Krabi province). This has to be one of the most stunning places I've seen in my nine months travelling. A short longboat ride transported us to a world of powdery white sand, warm turquoise water and surreal rock formations. The beach was completely enclosed by towering honey-coloured cliffs which had been sculpted into amazing stalactites. At night these were lit up and I floated on my back gazing up at it all. By day climbers spidermanned there way up impossibly sheer rock faces whilst I did a bit of body toasting! The sunsets were psychedelic, the sea turning to molten gold and pink clouds streaming across the sky .... a little piece of heaven on earth, one day I'll return - I have to!
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Sweaty and stinky again!!!
Here I am, once again, in a country where the slightest movement causes sweat to pour off me. It's extremely hot and humid and feels very much like southern India. There are the same busy tuk tuks weaving in and out of the traffic, stinking piles of rubbish, madman bus drivers and elegant ladies constantly hidden under umbrellas because if the sun's not beating down the rain certainly is. Sri Lanka is much more lush than Tamil Nadu. Palm trees are abundant and much of the countryside is covered by thick tropical forests. The sea is warm and coconuts get washed up on the sand. It sounds idyllic and it's easy to forget that this is a country where bombs regularly explode, the two images couldn't be further apart in my mind. My host family showed me graphic photos of a recent bombing which really brought it home. I've never seen anything so horrendous, but the family viewed it with a quite disturbing morbid fascination. They zoomed in on heads lying on the tarmac, torsos with no legs and other unidentifiable body parts.
I live in Panadura, on the coast south of Colombo. It's noisy and dirty but has good amenities. Rubbish is a big problem, as it was in Nepal and India. Huge piles line the road, mangy dogs salvage what they can from the rotting food and every now and then the rubbish is burnt sending acrid smoke everywhere. I was walking home last week when I came across an enormous heap of used syringes. There was blood visible in them and all the needles were exposed. They can only have come from the hospital - it's hard to believe they dump them on the pavement. There was even a balloon amongst them. I'm sure it was only a matter of time before an inquisitive child stabbed themselves. My host family are well off and I even have a washing machine (my clothes don't know what's hit them after 7 months of me trying to thrash the dirt out of them by hand!). Each morning I get the bus to Pinwatta school (I'm getting good and running and leaping - it's called a bus STOP but they don't!) where I spend the morning trying to teach English to children between the ages of 5 and 16. I feel this would be no easy task for a teacher let alone a nurse. The children are from poor families and have very little grasp of English and I, of course, speak no Sinhala. The boys are particularly naughty and see volunteers as easy targets. The cane is still used in Sri Lanka, and whilst I'm not an active supporter of child beating a little threatening works wonders (I know I know I'm a terrible person!). Progress is slow but they now gets their books and pens out of their bags (one small step for the boys, one giant leap for the sweaty white girl!) and will pay attention for about 20 minutes! Health and safety is hilarious as I arrived today to find the boys wielding hockey stick-shaped machetes which were used to cut the grass and inadvertently any small child that ventured too close. From upstairs I can see the sea in the distance and hear the waves. The school was completely destroyed by the tsunami (the building was thankfully empty as it was boxing day) and was rebuilt by a German charity. It is only small and pupils have been slow to return as families fear the same might happen again. I had a very interesting conversation with the English teacher who explained that before the tsunami local people believed them to be fictional things. There was an old story of a bad king who was punished by a giant wave and to stop it happening again he sent his only daughter away to sea. When the tsunami hit no-one realised what was happening - as the seabed was exposed by the giant undertow people even ran out to make claims on the new land. It must have been terrifying. Everyday when I see the sea I try to imagine what it must have been like, but of course I can't.
I live in Panadura, on the coast south of Colombo. It's noisy and dirty but has good amenities. Rubbish is a big problem, as it was in Nepal and India. Huge piles line the road, mangy dogs salvage what they can from the rotting food and every now and then the rubbish is burnt sending acrid smoke everywhere. I was walking home last week when I came across an enormous heap of used syringes. There was blood visible in them and all the needles were exposed. They can only have come from the hospital - it's hard to believe they dump them on the pavement. There was even a balloon amongst them. I'm sure it was only a matter of time before an inquisitive child stabbed themselves. My host family are well off and I even have a washing machine (my clothes don't know what's hit them after 7 months of me trying to thrash the dirt out of them by hand!). Each morning I get the bus to Pinwatta school (I'm getting good and running and leaping - it's called a bus STOP but they don't!) where I spend the morning trying to teach English to children between the ages of 5 and 16. I feel this would be no easy task for a teacher let alone a nurse. The children are from poor families and have very little grasp of English and I, of course, speak no Sinhala. The boys are particularly naughty and see volunteers as easy targets. The cane is still used in Sri Lanka, and whilst I'm not an active supporter of child beating a little threatening works wonders (I know I know I'm a terrible person!). Progress is slow but they now gets their books and pens out of their bags (one small step for the boys, one giant leap for the sweaty white girl!) and will pay attention for about 20 minutes! Health and safety is hilarious as I arrived today to find the boys wielding hockey stick-shaped machetes which were used to cut the grass and inadvertently any small child that ventured too close. From upstairs I can see the sea in the distance and hear the waves. The school was completely destroyed by the tsunami (the building was thankfully empty as it was boxing day) and was rebuilt by a German charity. It is only small and pupils have been slow to return as families fear the same might happen again. I had a very interesting conversation with the English teacher who explained that before the tsunami local people believed them to be fictional things. There was an old story of a bad king who was punished by a giant wave and to stop it happening again he sent his only daughter away to sea. When the tsunami hit no-one realised what was happening - as the seabed was exposed by the giant undertow people even ran out to make claims on the new land. It must have been terrifying. Everyday when I see the sea I try to imagine what it must have been like, but of course I can't.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Sri Lanka
08/04/08
Yesterday was somewhat eventful. After squeezing every last thing back into my rucksack I headed off for the airport. As my turn came to check in I started to feel rising panic as the man behind the counter thumbed his way through my passport, stopped, stared and tutted. "Madam, do you realise that you need an Indian visa to enable you to make your transfers?". I spluttered back at him that I had been informed that I didn't, but it was to no avail. One month ago I had contacted my organisation to ask about transit visas and was told that I didn't need one. I was hopping mad! I was left with two options, neither of which enabled me to catch my flights. I could either go and spend hours at the notoriously slow Indian embassy and then try and change my flights or book a completely new flight that avoided the visa problem altogether. I opted for the second and landed myself a flight via Bangkok with Thai airways (preferable to Jetlite or Jetshite as I've re-named them!).
So today was like ground hog day as I once again went to the airport. As an afterthought I realised that flying a day late meant my Nepalese visa had also expired. I told my sob story to the sympathetic immigration officer and dropped in that I was volunteering and he let me off. Thai airways was deluxe with free drinks, mini pillows and real orchids in the loo - not bad eh! They should, however, have censored their complimentary newspaper as the front page read, "High danger: Qatar Airways plane has both engines fail 6 km above the earth"! Not exactly relaxing reading so I turned over to, "Men soon to become redundant as scientists develop artificial sperm"..... god help us.... I gave up on world news and looked out of the window instead!
Bangkok airport is space age and immaculately clean. Huge stainless steel arcs form the roof and there are windows everywhere reflecting people scurrying around busy on their own adventures. I like people watching. I see business men/women with their smart suits and whirring wheelie suitcases, briskly clip clopping along and wonder what it must feel like to be so professional and poised. Even if I had the right attire I don't think I'd carry it off - I'd break a heel or a wheel would come off my suitcase and I'd end up head first down the escalator! There are lots of people like me, fresh from Nepal, clomping around in their walking boots.
I arrived at Colombo airport at midnight and finally made my way to the exit by 1am to find no sign of the person that should have been meeting me. When I did track him down he cheerfully tells me that there was a board with my name on (under his desk!) and he misread my arrival time as 2am. My taxi driver was lovely but not particularly well suited to the job as he had to stop three times to ask for directions and was crawling along the road so slowly that the police pulled us over for suspicious behaviour! I eventually made it to the hotel and never have been so glad to sink into bed.
Yesterday was somewhat eventful. After squeezing every last thing back into my rucksack I headed off for the airport. As my turn came to check in I started to feel rising panic as the man behind the counter thumbed his way through my passport, stopped, stared and tutted. "Madam, do you realise that you need an Indian visa to enable you to make your transfers?". I spluttered back at him that I had been informed that I didn't, but it was to no avail. One month ago I had contacted my organisation to ask about transit visas and was told that I didn't need one. I was hopping mad! I was left with two options, neither of which enabled me to catch my flights. I could either go and spend hours at the notoriously slow Indian embassy and then try and change my flights or book a completely new flight that avoided the visa problem altogether. I opted for the second and landed myself a flight via Bangkok with Thai airways (preferable to Jetlite or Jetshite as I've re-named them!).
So today was like ground hog day as I once again went to the airport. As an afterthought I realised that flying a day late meant my Nepalese visa had also expired. I told my sob story to the sympathetic immigration officer and dropped in that I was volunteering and he let me off. Thai airways was deluxe with free drinks, mini pillows and real orchids in the loo - not bad eh! They should, however, have censored their complimentary newspaper as the front page read, "High danger: Qatar Airways plane has both engines fail 6 km above the earth"! Not exactly relaxing reading so I turned over to, "Men soon to become redundant as scientists develop artificial sperm"..... god help us.... I gave up on world news and looked out of the window instead!
Bangkok airport is space age and immaculately clean. Huge stainless steel arcs form the roof and there are windows everywhere reflecting people scurrying around busy on their own adventures. I like people watching. I see business men/women with their smart suits and whirring wheelie suitcases, briskly clip clopping along and wonder what it must feel like to be so professional and poised. Even if I had the right attire I don't think I'd carry it off - I'd break a heel or a wheel would come off my suitcase and I'd end up head first down the escalator! There are lots of people like me, fresh from Nepal, clomping around in their walking boots.
I arrived at Colombo airport at midnight and finally made my way to the exit by 1am to find no sign of the person that should have been meeting me. When I did track him down he cheerfully tells me that there was a board with my name on (under his desk!) and he misread my arrival time as 2am. My taxi driver was lovely but not particularly well suited to the job as he had to stop three times to ask for directions and was crawling along the road so slowly that the police pulled us over for suspicious behaviour! I eventually made it to the hotel and never have been so glad to sink into bed.
Monday, 7 April 2008
MSPN
MSPN is the organisation which I have been placed with in Patan. It is a charity which supports children (usually under the age of ten) who have HIV. Up to 16 children live at the home along with a parent or relative. Here they receive medication, nutritionally balanced meals, get taken to regular hospital check-ups, all free of charge. They stay as long as need be to ensure that their condition has improved and stabilised as far as possible (normally several months), and receive follow-up once discharged home. Almost all of the children have other illnesses alongside HIV, normally Hepatitis and Tuberculosis, so their little bodies are really struggling. The difference in them from when they arrive to when they leave is astounding. Some were extremely malnourished and as soon as they put weight on you would hardly recognise them as the same children. It's lovely to see them grow more confident and cheeky as time goes by. When they are feeling better it's easy to forget that they have HIV. Because of this it came as a shock when one of the little babies suddenly died after contracting pneumonia. His mother was only 18 and his father already dead. She was at the home the day after it happened. I've never seen someone look so full of despair. Her baby was the one spark of light in a life already so full of shadows. It was heart-breaking to see her.
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Gone trekking!
I'm just back after trekking to Annapurna base camp which sits at 4130m. Some nutters do the round trip in 7 days but we (me and my housemate Britta) did it in 12 and still felt like we busted a gut! Escaping to the mountains was just heaven after 3 months of producing black snot as a result of the fumes and dust of Kathmandu. Travelling to Pokhara to get near to the start of our trek was some what eventful. It went something like this. Day 1: left trekking permit behind - retrieved it, lost purse - found it in the bin, walked to wrong bus station, got bus to what we thought was the right one but wasn't, finally got a random bus that took 2 hours to fill, crashed into truck, our driver and the truck driver had a fight, arrived after 7 hours, hotel fully booked, replacement hotel has a family of 5 cockroaches. Day 2: got up and one of only two T-shirts that I packed got crapped on by a bird (lucky..I don't think so), the 3rd member of our walking party deserts us, Britta decides to give up smoking and I offer to give up drinking for the trek to offer moral support (too late to leave that day so evening spent smoking/drinking!).
Day 3: the trip got off to a cracking start when we got lost on route to the bus station....it didn't bode well! However luck was on our side and we bumped into the nicest man who happened to be going the same way. The bus was rammed so we were ushered up onto the luggage rack on the roof with 9 others and everything else you could possibly imagine. We hurtled along the road, ducking the overhead electric cables, 360 degree views...it was great, a bit like surfing just replace the board with a bus! Just to spice it up a little 5 minutes into the journey a thunderstorm broke right over us and soaked us to the skin. We hopped off at Phedi (the village at the start of the trek) to be faced with a brutal uphill slog which made us seriously doubt our decision to carry our own bags (13kg). Still, we soon got into the swing of things and got a steady plod going. Along the way we stayed at basic lodges which were great, especially when it got colder as we ate around one huge communal table which had a heater beneath. The table had blankets all around to keep the heat from escaping, so you'd stick you feet under and get nice and toasty. The scenery was so varied and beautiful - not one day was the same. We initially walked through farmland, steeply terraced paddy fields, neatly domed haystacks and wood stores. Then came forests of birch and lastly rhododendrons in full bloom - the mountainside carpeted in deep scarlet red and vivid pink. The old, gnarled tree branches were draped in mosses and orchids. Nature has found its own way to combat stinky trekkers by producing jasmine by the bucket load - the air was heady with the scent of it. Each day followed a similar pattern - we would wake up to a glorious hot sunny day, by lunchtime the clouds would have started building and by mid-afternoon a huge thunderstorm would rock the valley. I was left speechless as I walked through the snow, sheer rock faces and icicles towering overhead, the swirling mist offering tantalising glimpses of craggy mountain tops seemingly brushing the sky, and all to a soundtrack of thunder booming....it was amazing. Every now and then we would hear the sound of rocks bouncing their way down hundreds of feet as the ice thawed in the sun. The area is prone to avalanches, a fact that was made more real when we saw one speeding down a distant slope. We spent one night at Annapurna base camp which meant that we were able to see the sun rise behind Macchapuchhre (the fish tail mountain), its rays setting the tops of the Annapurna range ablaze with gold - it was absolutely breathtaking. We were so lucky, we couldn't have asked for a clearer day. It was so cold that I had to spend 3 days with my camera down my top just to keep the battery working! Thankfully it held out and I got some great shots, which will have to be posted at a future date (attempted uploading one and an hour later it still hadn't happened!). We took a little detour via Ghorepani as we descended (so we could go up Poon hill at 4.30am to see the sunrise over the Himalaya) and ended up at Birethanti, our final destination after 12 hours of knee-breaking downhill steps. We arrived just in the nick of time - the mother of all thunderstorms raged for the next two hours whilst I was savouring a much needed beer.
Day 3: the trip got off to a cracking start when we got lost on route to the bus station....it didn't bode well! However luck was on our side and we bumped into the nicest man who happened to be going the same way. The bus was rammed so we were ushered up onto the luggage rack on the roof with 9 others and everything else you could possibly imagine. We hurtled along the road, ducking the overhead electric cables, 360 degree views...it was great, a bit like surfing just replace the board with a bus! Just to spice it up a little 5 minutes into the journey a thunderstorm broke right over us and soaked us to the skin. We hopped off at Phedi (the village at the start of the trek) to be faced with a brutal uphill slog which made us seriously doubt our decision to carry our own bags (13kg). Still, we soon got into the swing of things and got a steady plod going. Along the way we stayed at basic lodges which were great, especially when it got colder as we ate around one huge communal table which had a heater beneath. The table had blankets all around to keep the heat from escaping, so you'd stick you feet under and get nice and toasty. The scenery was so varied and beautiful - not one day was the same. We initially walked through farmland, steeply terraced paddy fields, neatly domed haystacks and wood stores. Then came forests of birch and lastly rhododendrons in full bloom - the mountainside carpeted in deep scarlet red and vivid pink. The old, gnarled tree branches were draped in mosses and orchids. Nature has found its own way to combat stinky trekkers by producing jasmine by the bucket load - the air was heady with the scent of it. Each day followed a similar pattern - we would wake up to a glorious hot sunny day, by lunchtime the clouds would have started building and by mid-afternoon a huge thunderstorm would rock the valley. I was left speechless as I walked through the snow, sheer rock faces and icicles towering overhead, the swirling mist offering tantalising glimpses of craggy mountain tops seemingly brushing the sky, and all to a soundtrack of thunder booming....it was amazing. Every now and then we would hear the sound of rocks bouncing their way down hundreds of feet as the ice thawed in the sun. The area is prone to avalanches, a fact that was made more real when we saw one speeding down a distant slope. We spent one night at Annapurna base camp which meant that we were able to see the sun rise behind Macchapuchhre (the fish tail mountain), its rays setting the tops of the Annapurna range ablaze with gold - it was absolutely breathtaking. We were so lucky, we couldn't have asked for a clearer day. It was so cold that I had to spend 3 days with my camera down my top just to keep the battery working! Thankfully it held out and I got some great shots, which will have to be posted at a future date (attempted uploading one and an hour later it still hadn't happened!). We took a little detour via Ghorepani as we descended (so we could go up Poon hill at 4.30am to see the sunrise over the Himalaya) and ended up at Birethanti, our final destination after 12 hours of knee-breaking downhill steps. We arrived just in the nick of time - the mother of all thunderstorms raged for the next two hours whilst I was savouring a much needed beer.
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