Bumpy Ride

Namaste!
The day started out with a solid meal, cooked by the mother of the platform, Sumi. Once again the breakfast consisted of toast with some sort of slush-ice topping, serial and oatmeal with heated milk – which is a combination some of the girls already enjoy. The focus of the day was Asian religion; Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism in particular. In extension to that we had a trip to a temple. A pink bus was supposed to pick us up at 11.30, but we waited 1½ hour for our sweet, Nepalese guide to arrive – our punctuality is being put to the test but we try to get used to a more easygoing lifestyle. In the meantime we sat in the peaceful environment on our terrace enjoying the lovely lunch pack the kitchen had prepared for us. It is safe to say that is was a bumpy ride to the temple, which resulted in a couple of bumps to the high ones, though I must give the Nepalese people credit for their excellent driving skills! We drove up a mountain on an extremely narrow road, which didn’t appear able to contain more than one car at a time. But time came where we met an oncoming bus and surprisingly enough they managed to get past each other driving inches away from the edge and make room for a motorcycle as well. Impressive! One of the former volunteers described the traffic in Nepal as “survival of the fittest”, which I think is a fitting description. At first we thought they were taping the program “Pimp my ride” on the parking ground in front of the temple, but our guide told us that they were giving their blessing to the car by decorating it. That might explain their daring way of driving. The temple itself wasn’t what we had expected, but we decided to go what felt like 1000 stairs up to look at an amazing, though dusty and misty view. Short of breaths, with red cheeks and smiling faces we stood for a minute just enjoying the moment. Unfortunately there were just as many stairs down. Our dinner was as usual very spicy for the soft Danish and some of the girls (read Maria) tried to spew fire but the only thing coming out of her mouth was a hoarse, masculine noise followed by a laughs all around the table.
Another day in Nepal filled with new exiting impressions and experiences is now coming to an end and we are once again planning to go to sleep to a symphony of barking dogs.
/Marie and the rest of the happy volunteers