Views of Everest and the Himalayas

Before returning from Nepal, Vinolia and I took one of the early morning  Mountain flights with Buddha Air. This is an hour flight to see Mountain Everest and a whole section of the High Himalayas close up at 30,000 feet...its an amazing experience and you are back in time for breakfast at the Hotal (Puri!)....wonderful!
Everest is pictured here on the left of the two highest Mountains (centre of photo)

International Incident in Iain's room

Following the successful shopping trip to Thamel there was an International Incident in Iain's room during the early evening when one of the management team and three members of staff had to rush to Iain's room. Fortunately they were able to rescue him and peace was restored. A highly amusing incident is unfortunately classified and so I cannot print any more details here (however details will be released in 18 years time when it will be classed as de classified) Here is Iain on the roof recovering after his ordeal!)

Bartering in Thamel with Kamal

If you want to barter in Thamel take Kamal with you!........at really knocked down prices, after animated discussions with those selling he acquired great deals on  pashminas and other items for Vinolia and Gemma. But the best was his bartering for two pairs of Ray Ban sunglasses for me! He was able to get the seller to agree to such a low price that after the agreement had been made Tanka stepped in and suggested that I gave her 200 rupees so that at least she had a little profit! She did appear to be quite upset so I gave her the extra money,much to her surprise.I told her that Tanka was a very nice Christian Pastor and that the extra money was his idea..her broad smile re appeared at this point. I too was happy with real Ray Bans at very low cost!.......Kamal is pictured her far right

One of the pairs of Ray Bans shown below !

A Thank you from Nepal

During the End of Conference meal we received a lovely "Thank you" card to all at Kings Church Wokingham ..there is particular mention and thanks for those who help with the educational support for the children and young people which makes such a difference to those young people and their families........ the details of which can be seen here........................

Will the real Claude Gilbert please stand up!

Its one thing to find a Graham Preston lookalike on the flight over here(see previous blog) ..its another thing to find the real Claude Gilbert here in person in Nepal........working undercover as a waiter in the Bakery Cafe. Apparently Claude pops over here working two weeks on and two weeks off(flying home for his down time,,,,that's quite a commute really)Claude did not recognise Iain or myself at first as we were disguised as official Nepalese Officials

When we took our hats off  and revealed our identity Claude was really surprised to see us amongst a party of about 40 including folk from FCG,Iteen and KCW  for a meal in the cafe. After initially denying his identity and trying to speak in bad Nepalese( which sounded more like Gaelic ) we had to confront him with  the three photos secretly  taken by Gemma during the evening and one from home.These he admitted confirmed his identity and he confessed to the work pattern mentioned above!  He asked me not to blow his cover so I promised not to put anything on facebook!

Everyone could then relax...Claude left to catch the last flight out of Kathmandu via Bahrain(who knows what he does there!) and home to London.....................and we were left to enjoy the rest of our end of Conference meal.........

Family Of God Church

We attended Family God Church this morning.......Iain shared a short word following a greeting from all at Kings Church Wokingham..I then preached and we prayed for a few folk at the end.All went well despite loud  music starting up half way through the preaching from the neighbouring school's playground as some function started!

Rita played the guitar presented to her ..thank you for those from KCW who contributed to the purchase of the said guitar..........

Scary Road and fresh fish

The road from Lalitpur from Sisneri has to be one of the scariest....it's certainly the most scary I have travelled on which, at certain points had sheer drops to the valley below from a narrow carriageway. The road sometimes had a sandy surface,sometimes concrete which was often broken up with craters and holes. When a vehicle approached and passed from the opposite direction we pulled so close to the edge that when there was a sheer drop it was best not to look!In fact last week a taxi with eight on board went over the edge at one point on the road as it was nearing Sisneri, sadly killing seven of those on board. We passed the wreckage of the taxi .....

Having safely negotiated the road we arrived in Sisneri(about a two and a half drive) and ordered fresh fish for our tea. We watched the fish being caught.

And then prepared for us

Even though this whole process took about an hour and a half it was well worth it as the fish tasted wonderful!

Whilst we were eating I asked Tanka "What time does it get dark?" He said "Don't worry Keith I can drive in the dark." This proved to be true despite some of the other drivers and the dangerous road and we safely arrived back in Lalitpur about an hour after dark. Hallelujah !!!

Further news from the Orphanage

Kamal took us back to the orphanage ....this dog saw him approach and ran off and found refuge on a nearby roof!...........maybe he remembered the fate of his two friends who had previously been painted orange!(see previous blog) I am not saying Kamal had anything to do with that but interesting response from the dog!

 Anyway we were pleased to see that the previously painted Hindu dogs had converted to Christianity and were fit and healthy

Return to Ashish Orphanage

It was lovely to go back to the Ashish Orphanage to see some of the children and check out how our painting

 had stood up to the last 16 months......apart from finger marks around the light switched all good really.............

Marvellous shot that!

Quite marvellous and the first time I have seen this in Nepal......boys and girls playing cricket in the streets and cricket gear for sale in the shops!...."That's good cricket that" ......Messieurs's Boycott and Benaud would be very pleased.....

Nepal supports Liverpool in the race for the Premier League

Nepal in many ways is a forgotten part of the world and so it was no surprise that the country is supporting Liverpool in this years race for the Premier league title....The forgotten team of the 80's and 90's who have not won anything for years!( oh yes just like Arsenal!).......maybe it will be their year (Paul Trott asked me to right the last bit!)

Leaders Conference

The Leaders Conference took place Monday evening through to Thursday Lunchtime, with about 90 leaders present from regions of Nepal stretching from the far west to east of Everest.Despite me wearing Vinolia's name badge for a couple of the sessions which may confuse some people on the videos all went well.We received good feedback from those attending with good times of prayer and prophetic words for the Nepalese leaders and  for Nepal

Eventful Flight to Kathmandu

We safely arrived in Kathmandu following two eventful flights. Despite probably the most miserable flight attendants on Jet Airways I have encountered on our first flight to Delhi  there was a surprise for us in seat 27H. Now you may remember that Mr Graham Preston is convinced that there is no row H(see previous blog entry)...well at first I thought it was Graham sitting in the seat but after chatting with him I found that he was an affable Irishman  called Seamus from Dublin. Although he had once been to Wokingham he did not know Graham.....The resemblance was uncanny though.......I took this photo of him over a drink whilst in transit at Delhi

 After saying goodbye to Seamus who was on his way to Sri Lanka to study Tigers we waited for our flight to Kathmandu......I observed a strange looking hippy  gentleman doing stretching exercises and getting in the way of passengers .....no problem with stretching but please do them in a corner so that folk don't trip over your outstretched legs!......unfortunately for me he had a seat across the aisle from me on the flight and whilst taking his seat stretched again putting his rear end within an inch of my face....much to the amusement of Vinolia and Gemma!.

   Then as we were landing at Kathmandu the Pilot suddenly pulled out his approach climbing steeply up over the runway and the Mountains at the end of the runway...strong crosswinds had made it dangerous to land .The captain let us know he would make one more attempt otherwise would to go to Lucknow,Northern India to re fuel before trying again. All three of us prayed for a safe landing which followed accompanied to a round of applause  for the Pilot from all on board.