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They decide to open one of the stingless bee hives at the house to collect samples while I video the process. So many of the houses have hives for the Asian honey bee and the stingless bee. The stingless bees are very cute but they don’t produce much honey so I’m not sure why they are popularly kept by the villagers. There are many Asian honey bee hives and the villagers are experts at keeping them.

We say out good byes to make the 30 minute walk to the village to catch the jeep bus back to Sandhikharka. We get there without drama this time.

Ishwori has to get back to Kathmandu to teach a class at the university. He’s a professor of statistics. Dipak and I decide to visit another village up in the mountains so we go our separate ways. Again we cram into a jeep bus for a torturous 3-hour drive up to Merang village. It’s a short walk to the house where we will stay. They are the parents of a friend of Dipak. His friend is researching a PhD in Physics in Kansas. Dipak wants to look at stingless bees in this area too but the right trees aren’t here and it’s cooler than he expected.

His friend’s father has just retired from being the head teacher at the local school. He’s here with his wife and mother. The two children have left home. He’s mother is 100 years old. She struggles to get around but is still mentally capable. She’s living in the house here husband built 74 years ago. It’s a beautiful and very traditional house on the edge of a steep hill and the views from here are stunning. In the stillness the bird life competes with the sounds of village life. Sound travels far in the mountains.

We leave the hotel in Sandhikharka around 6.40pm to catch a jeep bus to Ishwori’s family home in Baidhadada. The jeep bus is simply a land cruiser type vehicle that has been adapted to carry as many people as possible. They are 4wD and provide a cheap transport option for people in the mountains. It’s cheap because they carry as many people as humanly possible. On this trip there are 16 people inside and another five or six on the roof! We’re packed in like sardines and it takes a while to organise people to fit as comfortably as possible. We leave around 7.10am and head up. The roads are reduced to bull dust at this dry time of the year.

We crunch to a stop. There’s a problem with the underside of the vehicle that looks serious to me. The driver makes a call and in about 15 minutes two young guys arrive in a bike, one holding a hand full of tools. The mechanic looks like a teanager but he quickly identifies the problem and sets about fixing it. He’s in the dust but in s short time has the problem fixed. I took his photo. We venture on for another two hours before arriving to Baidhadada.

It’s mountainous country and there is a lot of farming. The farms aren’t as terraced as in other places so the cultivations are sloped rather than flat in the terraces. These paddocks are big but are still tilled in the traditional way with ox and plough.

We arrive in Baidhadada around 11am, then it’s a 30 minute walk down to Ishwori’s family. His parents are in their 70s and live here by themselves. His father worked in India as an electrician for 20 years but is now of course retired to the family farm. He’s too old to work the farm now but pays others to till the land and plant the crops. They had six children, two girls and four boys, but none are interested in coming back to the farm. The girls are married and live in Kathmandu. Two of the boys now live in the US and two lead professional lives in Kathmandu. This is such a typical situation in the rural villages and they dispair because of it. The young move away to the cities or abroad where the money is, no longer interested in the meager earnings that farming offers. Ishwori’s brother is here for a while. He’s a teacher of computing science in Kathmandu but has visited his parents during the teaching holidays to help out. He can speak English and is a funny man.

We have lunch then look around at some bee hives. Every house seems to have them. They are a part of a self-sustaining rural life. Dipak, Ishwori and I set off on a walk through the forest to look for stingless bee hives. The forest is full of trees suitable to the bees but we don’t find any active hives. We can see where they were in places until they were removed by somebody for the honey. The forest is on a steep slope so it’s difficult for us to negotiate. We eventually get to the bottom and to a river. There is some farming down here, mainly rice because there is sufficient water. It’s beautiful here. We visit a farm on the other side of the river where there are some honey bee hives. Young women are planting rice and the setting is just right for some nice photos. 

We scramble back up the hill to arrive back at the house in the dark.

Starting to gather my strength after a bout of stomach problems. It’s a government public holiday so my plans to get my visa extended are put off until Sunday.

I decide to walk to the zoo for some exercise. It’s about seven kilometers away via Google maps. I meet a Japanese man there who works for the Japanese government here and is involved in development funding. He’s been here for two years and is tired of Nepal. Where he lives he is surrounded by UN employees and he has as much of a dim view of them as I do. Japan is a big contributor to the UN cause and he dispairs at the waste of money and laziness of staff. There’s parties every Friday night and he’s tied of it all. He’s experience of Nepal is so different to mine, understandably. He sees a very different side.

I feel terrible, crippled with stomach cramps and diarrhea. I have no appetite for anything so I spend the day in bed.

It’s happy new year, 2073, on the Nepali calendar today. It’s of course a holiday. The Nepalise calendar is very different to our Gregorian calendar by about 57 years and eight months.

I’m recovering from my stomach problem nicely but still weak. I spend the day resting, with a few small walks around Thamel.

It’s New Year’s Eve and a special day on the Newari Hindu calendar. Raj invites me again to his families place in Bscktapur but I’m too ill to go. I’m so disappointed. What an opportunity lost. It would have been a very special thing to be part of. 

I’ve taken some drugs for my problem and just waiting for them to take effect. My symptoms are very similar to what I’ve experienced in Australia with giardia. I know what drugs I need and getting them here is easy. No doctors prescription required. And the drugs are more readily available than they are back home.

From my bed I can hear the celebrations going on around town.

Nepal is mad about cricket. Today they play Namibia in a qualifying round of the one-day cricket World Cup. Their best cricket venue is a small capacity ground at the Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. I thought I could turn up, get my ticket at the gate and enjoy a days cricket. Wrong. Tickets were sold out so I joined about 12,000 other enthusiasts vying for a view point outside of the ground. There are about as many outside as there are in the grounds. What a waste of revenue for the ICC. Nepal are given 196 runs to win after Namibia wins the toss and bats. The atmosphere is fantastic and men, women and children are here patriotically supporting their team. I’m next to some keen followers who know more about Australian cricket than I do. They are lovers of the true game, test cricket, and are more excited about the Ashes series than any World Cup. Australia is a big influence here and are active in developing the game in Nepal. Last year Australia played a memorial match against Nepal to ho our Phil Hughes, who tragically died playing the game in Melbourne. Hughes has many fans here and they even organized for his bat and shirt to be taken to the top of the world in his honour, atop Mount Evetest. There are plans to make the Phil Hughes memorial game an annual event.

The crowd is so enthusiastic that 600 police are here to try and manage behavior. There is no alcohol insight to drive this enthusiasm. It’s pure and natural.

I stay for most of the game, leaving earlier to beat a departing crowd. On the way to the bus I can hear the crowd roar. It’s a good sign. I left with Nepal in a good position to win the game and these roars suggest the game is under control. I get back to the hotel to learn that Nepal has indeed won. The crown would have gone crazy! They play Namibia again on Monday.

Amazingly as I was walking to the game, Dipak was coming out on his bike. He’s been checking his hives nearby.

I’m tired fro yesterday’s big day so I do little but read. I found a book in the upstairs storage room right next to my room. There are books here damaged by fire. They were rescued by Raju and his brother after a fire swept through a large book store here in Thamel. They’ve taken the least damaged and put them in storage until they can find a space for them. Cadje has a dream to build a library in his home village and home these poor books. It’s a great idea.

What I thought was a dose of food poisoning causing my stomach problems is now most likely a virus. Others here have a similar complaint. I rest mainly today. The only excitement of the day was a small tremor that happened while having dinner. There was some excitement amongst us all as things shook. After hearing the news we now know that this tremor is an extension or echo of an earthquake centered in Pakistan. People here in Nepal are still on edge after the disasterous quake a year ago where over 2000 people died. We laugh and joke after these little tremors but for the people living, working and running businesses here, it’s a serious heaviness on their minds. I still don’t know what action to take if things start to properly shake. The streets are narrow and edged by multistory buildings. Looking for clear space in the streets is not an option. They say the upper stories of these buildings is the safest place.