Hi all,
It has been an amazing first week in Kathmandu Nepal! I have already met so many fantastic people and been to many beautiful places. Below I will share some of my memories with you.
The first day I visited The Garden of Dreams, a park very central in Kathmandu away from all the busy traffic. Here I spent a couple of hours reading a book and had a juice at a cute cafe in the garden.
Early on I went to meet with my contacts in Nepal, they work at the Australia Awards Nepal (AAN) Office. The AAN team work with prospective scholarship recipients for Australia (Master level) as well as alumni that returned home from Australia. My project is related to one of their short courses in inclusive education, run both in Nepal and Australia for Government officials as well as NGOs in Nepal. I used to work with AAN scholars when I lived in Australia, my role was to support them through their studies far away from home. It was a great job! It was lovely to see my ex colleagues again!
We started out with lunch and then I came along to one of their information sessions for students interested in the scholarship, there I got to present about my experiences from living in Australia for 8 years.
The Australia Awards Nepal team took me out on a day trip to another town called Bhaktapur. We had their famous King Curd, a sweet yoghurt which was yummy. It is a very old town and much was ruined in the 2015 earthquake, now lot of construction is happening here. Bhaktapur Durbar Square is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
In the afternoon we went to Boudha stupa (temple) for a look around as well as sat down at a rooftop for lunch and a sangria. Another colleague working at the Australian Embassy joined us for lunch. The Bouda stupa is one of the Hindus most holiest temples. It was stunning! And the mountains in the background. Could not have asked for better company or a better place for pizza and sangria!
Me and my colleague (holding his daughter) and his brother having a selfie in front of Boudha stupa
Thats alll the updates for now, will write more soon. Now it is time for me to check out of my current hotel (Hotel Friends Home) and go to one a bit closer to the office called Cusina Mithu Chha. See you soon! Regards, Maddie