Illness and our first Dahl Bhat!

So there we are, safely in Pokhara, and yet neither of us are feeling 100%. After dinner that first evening at one of the many cafes in town, and as we were walking back to the hotel, I am waffling on to Ewan about the fact I have a much stronger constitution than him (he was sick last time we were here and when we were trekking in the mountains too, poor thing) and my stomach can cope with most things...only to find myself wth my head over the toilet only a matter of hours later.

Yes, I had been in Nepal for just over 48 hours and here I was already, sucumbing to sickness. So I spent most of the night alternating between head down toilet, or lying on the floor outside the bathroom wrapped in a blanket while Ewan did his best to offer support, but to be honest, I was happy to try and deal with this on my own. Joy.

Anyhow by mid morning, with absolutely nothing left in my system and thanks to the help of grapefruit seed extra I was able to move again. No lying around where Ewan is involved, and actually maybe it is for the best. So we pottered very slowly around town, reading the local papers and trying to settle my stomach with a banana lassi (all that potentially good bacteria of course).

It is cold over here these days. Well it is cold during the early morning and evening and yet really rather warm with the heat of the mid day sun, so you can never quite work out what to wear, I am only pleased I brought my coat with me from the UK as I have certainly needed to wear this every evening.

In the evening and feeling a little better (although Ewan of course worried that he is also going to end up ill) we walked up to Narayan's new house, which is actually his new hotel, for dinner and to have a look around. It is quite incredible really, how hard Narayan has worked and continues to work to create this reality for his family.

It is a lovely building with a few rooms he can rent out to visiting tourists thereby having another income flow to add to the Hotel Celesty Inn and also his travel business. He has battery power for when the electricity is unavailable and from this they are able to run a fridge/freezer (a luxury for any woman in her kitchen ovr here) and also a computer with WIFI.

We ate dinner with Narayan and his brother Netra, who was visiting from his village, and his two youngest children. I always find this rather odd over here in Nepal that the women take the time to make the dinner and yet do not eat until everyone else has finished. And things are done the other way around over here. You have a cup of tea or a soft drink and sit around chatting before the meal and then when the meal has finished, this generally marks the end of the evening.

We ate Dahl Bhat, the first of many. This is the main Nepali dish which is generally eaten by most Nepalis twice a day every day of the year. Everyone's Dahl Bhat seems to taste a little different but generally they all include a combination of rice, vegetable (or chicken) curry, spinach, dahl (lentil soup to mix with the rice), pickle, salad, curd and poppodum. Perhaps it is simply because we are visitors, but you always get offered a little bit more of each dish and it is encouraged to accept a little bit more too - but with a dodgy stomach I did well to finish most of the food on my plate and must admit I felt beter for it too - Dahl Bhat is cooked fresh using fresh local vegetables and spices and have a feeling some of these help to settle one's stomach.

So an early night. We are back into the routine because as long as there is electricty then we can lie on the bed and entertain ourselves with a cut price DVD while drinking herbal tea. Life is really rather simple for us over here!

xx