I have now been in Nepal for 10 days and it truly is a a great country; and one of the best I have visited. I left Kathmandu yesterday but whilst I was there I stayed at Alobar 1000 which is known, quite rightly, as the best hostel in Nepal. The people I met there, both locals and travellers were really amazing people!
There are a lot of microfinance and saving cooperatives in Kathmandu and I did my best to visit a lot of them. Saving cooperatives are surprisingly totally unregulated, much to the dismay of microfinance institutions and this seems to be very controversial in Nepal. In addition to this I have been trying to talk to people who have received microfinance independent if institutions (which is easier said than done) so that I don't get an adverse selection of those who microfinance institutions believe give a good view of their microfinance.
In my spare time I have managed to visit a couple of Buddhist temples (one of which is seen as a picture) and also one is the Monkey temple which had panoramic views of Kathmandu.
I also managed to visit more rural areas of Nepal (with
long travelling times) and would like to say a particular thank you to Fani of Mero Microfinance who was particularly helpful!
On the 24th it was my Birthday and Kathmandu couldn't have been a better place to have it! There was another group of travellers with someone from the same part of England and the same Birthday so we had a joint celebration and everyone was very kind in making a fuss and getting a cake!
The following day wasn't as kind to me with a 5 am start to catch my 8 hour bus to Pokhara, which wasn't the best way to spend the day but the scenery was incredible so getting sleep was even less of an option on the bus with awful suspension.
Today my whole day was taken up with a visit to Clean Village Microfinance, which is a short way out of Pokhara, to discuss distribution of microfinance then I attended a group finance meeting closer to Pokhara which was really interesting in explaining why Nepal has such a high repayment rate. I would like to say a thank you to Tejendra and Sajal for making this possible!
Tomorrow I plan to swim or row across Pokhara's main lake and then trek to the World Peace Pagoda and this should take most of the day. Then on Saturday I am meeting with a person who has been in the Nepalese microfinance industry for 30 years before making my way back to Kathmandu on Sunday.
Thanks to everyone for well wishes on my birthday and a well done to my sister for a first in her degree (its very well deserved),
Jack