A little history lesson...

I'm not sure what started it all. As a hyperactive kid, my parents used to send me up to my room and made me find out the capital cities of lots of countries in the world. Then I would also look at their flags as well. Some were colourful, some were boring, some represented something that I would never quite understand what they meant. Out of all of these, one stood out. Not because of the symbolism, the colour, but the shape. It was 2 red right-angled triangles sitting on top of each other. All the other countries flags fitted nicely into the tessellated boxes of rectangles, but this one stuck out. It was the nepali flag.

Now, there are 2 things you must know about me and kebab shops:

1. I normally only frequent them when I am inebriated
   
2. I always am incredibly sick after eating something there

I was in Southampton sat with 2 friends from uni having an incredibly healthy lunch of kebab shop food. No alcohol had passed my lips for at least 12 hours. This was uncharted territory for me. As the conversation stalled to an embarrassed silence, I decided to inform them of my holiday plans - Sri Lanka for Christmas, alone and rested. I got a sly look from Bidur. "You know, Sam-man, I was going to go home and get married." Now this, I knew, wouldn't be an ordinary wedding. Bidur was from Nepal, and his parents were arranging him a marriage. The last time he went home between finals and graduation he hadn't had time to get married. "Do you want to come?"

That night I was bent double over the toilet emptying my stomach of the kebab shop burger and chips, but contemplating what one buys for Nepalis at Christmas...

That was Christmas 2005, and I've returned 2 times since. I've eaten so much curry with my hands that they've turned green, trekked through the most incredible countryside, watched the sun rise from behind the Himalaya, drank countless cups of sweet nepali tea, talked to people who don't speak a word of any language I can understand and caught more stomach bugs than I care to remember.

And I just love the place. The people are beautiful and amazing, their resilience in a very politically unstable and geographically disadvantaged country is beyond belief. I decided after my second trip that I would return for a year.

So now, I'm off - 6th of April is d-day. And I can't wait!

SAM