Computing in Nepal

When we discovered we would be some of the lucky people to be invited on the 2023 trip to Nepal, we were incredibly excited to go and work with another University in a country so far away and commit to learning cultural differences. Even though I (Olivia) did my research before traveling, nothing could have prepared me for the shock of visiting an undeveloped country compared to the UK. I can confidently say that experiencing Nepal was one of the best experiences of my life. It was my first time visiting Asia after years of dreaming of learning more about their culture, traditions, and way of life.

The entire trip was a huge step outside of my comfort zone, greatly developing skills such as public speaking and determination to get a final product out of our project ideas; I had to find a new level of confidence as our time there was limited to show our capabilities The first day had its usual challenges of meeting seven new people and straight away traveling together for two days. It took a toll on our bodies, but there was no awkwardness after we witnessed everyone snoring next to each other on the plane.

It was my first time on a long-haul flight, but the Qatari staff were wonders in looking after us and making sure we were comfortable. After the first flight, we had a stopover in Doha, Qatar; it was exactly what you would expect from a wealthy country. From the millions of expensive designer stores and stunning restaurants, an orchid was the centre of the stage, making you feel like you were breathing in the fresh outdoors, exactly what you need after a long haul flight.

We arrived at the Kantipur Temple House in Themal, Kathmandu. It was a beautiful hotel that insanely captured the culture in the architecture. The hotel was eerie at times as it was definitely far from your typical Premier Inn, but I wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else. The staff at the hotel were so helpful in assisting tourists in a country where we didn’t know where to start and the owner loved us so much he invited us to visit his restaurant ‘Bhojan Griha’ later on in the week.

I quickly fell asleep after all of traveling for a lengthy hour and then rushed down to the hotel’s restaurant to try my first taste of Nepalese food. We ordered so much food to go around and everyone enjoyed it. The best way to describe the food was that it incorporated many Indian traditions and a twang of Chinese as they are the countries that surround Nepal. I honestly feel incredibly lucky to be chosen to go on such an amazing trip and try foods from around the world that I would have never been able to experience if it wasn’t for the university.

Rohit gave us an amazingly warm welcome when we arrived in Kathmandu, greeting everyone with a plaque, a ‘token of love’, and welcoming scarves that made us feel embraced in the Nepalese culture. We took pictures with everyone, although I can’t say it was my best, seeing as though I hadn’t slept in the past 24 hours! But definitely, a greeting to put in the memory books. When we arrivied at TBC we experienced an even bigger welcome. We was given flowers and got to introduce ourselves to everyone involved in the trip at TBC. I have never felt so much like a celebrity entering somewhere before! Everyone was taking our pictures and shaking our hands, we had not only pictures for the university but also the local newspaper spoke to us and were so enthusiastic to capture our shocked reactions of being so welcomed.

After the initial introductions, it was time for us to meet the groups that we were going to be working with for the next week. This brought us, being the only women from the UK, many challenges. In the UK, we are incredibly lucky to be in a developing society where more and more girls are getting involved in Computing and Engineering; once thought to be a ‘man’s job’ but we brought our passion and willingness to learn point of view to the team. There were times when our ideas weren’t valued compared to others and weren’t seen to be complex enough, or we were ‘biting off more than we could chew’. I am proud to say that we proved why we were chosen to be on the trip with an amazing presentation we created and delivered at the end of the week, which we received amazing feedback!

We participated in icebreaker activities to break down the initial barrier and understandable discomfort in meeting new people with completely different upbringings. Eventually, after much deliberation, we decided on a project idea surrounding facial recognition and writing and reading from a database. Our project tackled sustainability issues both within the UK and in Nepal. With Kathmandu being the most polluted city in the world, we knew that our project had to help with issues that the Nepalese population had to suffer with. Even in the UK today, we waste a lot of plastic and paper, especially in the workplace. Our plan was to take out the unnecessary need for a company to make clock in and out cards for their staff, this could be a plastic card or a piece of paper that is unsustainably changed every day. Instead of a worker coming onto shift and having to fill out a small form their face would be detected as they entered the premises making employers and employees lives a lot easier. This was also a system that would insanely improve security for a company as an employee would be detected if there were to leave the premisses without letting someone know. The time that the face was detected would be recorded to a database in which the length of their stay would be recorded and wages could be calculated more efficiently from the data recorded.

Once our group had the chance to settle in, we invoked on a fascinating lecture with all of the students around the subject of Internet of Things (IoT) where we delved deeper into how sensors worked and how we could incorporate Raspberry Pi 400’s into our project. The lecture was filled with amazing facts and live demos to really get us stuck into working as part of a team.

Finally, we left the university around five pm after sharing food together for lunch in the university’s canteen. We got to enjoy some relaxing time outside playing football and basketball with the students, although being in the shade was our best option not to get heat stroke in a 30-degree humid climate. We got back to our hotel for a brief refresh and was straight into exploring Themal. A tutor from TBC took us on our first tour of the area walking through the less-developed area where we got to experience first hand the struggles that some people have to face day to day. There were live wires hanging from the utility poles, buildings were dripping from fumes and humidity, and the roads were covered in potholes. As someone who is so lucky to come from a developed country like the UK, this was definitely a shock, but also I would recommend anyone who gets the chance to visit to one hundred percent to take the opportunity. This is something I would have never seen first hand and even writing this blog now, having returned to the UK, my mind is still blown by the slights I saw. Following on from buying fake bags, trying sugar cane juice and lassi (originally an Indian yogurt-based smoothie-like beverage), we continued to walk and reached Durbar Square. This is where all of the markets were set up, and we had to use our British haggling skills. Haggling alone was a crazy culture shock for a lot of us as that is something that isn’t common in the UK especially as I, a typical British blonde and blue-eyed woman, wasn’t given the most fair prices. However, I loved interacting with the local people at the markets when they shared their culture and experiences showing me different pieces that meant masses to their tradition.

To end the night, we sat down in a terrace restaurant overlooking Durbar Square and lovely views of temples as we tucked into more Nepalese food. Here was where I tried one of my favourite foods for the first time whilst we was over there, that being Momo’s which is considered to be one the national dishes of Nepal (a steamed dumpling filled with a meat of your choosing). Halfway through the meal, we got our first taste of the constantly changing Nepalese weather. In the blink of an eye the humid air would turn into vast heavy rain, thunder and lighting. You would think being from a country that encounters a lot of rain we would be used to this dynamic but the level of choppy weather definitely shocked a lot of us! Luckily only a sprite was lost in the process as we quickly saved the food before our jackets and bags. Despite the weather, our first full day in Nepal truly felt magical.

On day four, we marked our halfway point of the trip and went back to TBC to continue working on our projects. This was the first day we got to play around with the Raspberry Pi 400s and implement them into our projects. We started firstly on programming the facial recognition software, where we imported modules and worked well as a team, sharing our plans for the project, and each person had a different view to make. We compartmentalized the project in our team to work as efficiently as possible, with Emily Everett and me studying facial recognition and designing the presentation and Shasan Dhakal and Urja Panta taking on the responsibility of the database. Although I do admit to this way of working not being the best at the start, we got to learn what everyone’s specialties were and which tasks were more suited to each other. I then took on the responsibility of programming the database, which included two tables joined by primary and foreign keys something that became second nature to me after semester two were we studied ‘Fundamentals of Databases’. Through my experience studying Computer Science at A-level I already had knowledge in coding a database using Python. I pitched the idea of incorporating a simple software called ‘DB Browser’ which gave us some amazing visuals to show in our final presentation along with the code I produced for the program.

We returned to the hotel after another long day of working with the students at TBC where we had taxis waiting for us organised by the hotel to take us to the owners restaurant ‘Bhojan Griha’ which I previously mentioned. This was by far the nicest food that I had on the entire trip and the best night of entertainment we had the pleasure to witness. If you are thinking of travelling to Kathmandu this restaurant is a must visit. There was a set menu that consisted of four incredible starters, four main courses, served with rice, three vegetable sides and finally two light deserts. When we arrived at the restaurant as normal Nepalese tradition everyone removed their shoes and sat down on very low chairs with low tables. Shortly after a woman came around and poured everyone a small bowl of incredibly strong alcohol that wasn’t shy from making everyone pull a discomforting face. The whole night lastest around three hours in which we enjoyed five magical dance performances, one even being with all of the lights turned off and two women dancing with lit candles in their hands. The ‘Kukhura Ko Mashu’ was by far my favourite dish of the whole trip and the best curry I have ever had. Being already a fan of Indian food before visiting Nepal, I was so happy to taste food from its homeland. We struggled for 20 minutes splitting the bill whilst we waited for our taxis and managed to get some beautiful pictures with the owner himself outside of his gorgeous restaurant.

After two long days of working with The British College, we finally had a day to walk around Nepal and sightsee. TBC invited us out and showed everyone around for the day, providing transport and many ideas for our trip ahead. Although we had planned to visit three different places for the day, unfortunately, due to some unprofessionalism and lack of organisation on their part, we only managed to visit one place Chandragiri Hills. TBC funded everyone to be able to travel up in a cable car to the top of the hills and witness some amazing views. Unfortunately, I personally have had an overwhelming fear of heights and was unable to take part in this activity however, I sat in a café below and was treated amazingly by all of the staff where I got to sit back, relax, enjoy some hot drinks and take in the view.

With our free evening, we were able to go out as a group shopping around the streets in Thamel. We bought cashmere, way too many ornaments, Nepalese alcohol, hand-crafted pieces, and traditional Nepalese crystals called a ‘Seven Chakra’, all reduced with our newfound haggling skills.

After a day of chaos and a break from project work, we were straight back at it again for another full day of working with TBC students in our groups to produce the best project possible. Honestly, going into this experience, I was expecting everyone to be incredibly competitive and want to make their project stand out from the rest. However, this is when I truly realised how special the group of students from Leeds Beckett University were with how everyone worked as a team, and thankfully, I believe that I have made some genuine friends for life. When people were struggling, everyone else was there to help and suggest ideas on how to make our projects the best they could have been as Leeds Beckett students collectively and not just groups A to D. Finally, projects we had worked so hard on had finally been finished and it was up to Emily and me to produce and deliver our presentation for the next day, featuring the British icon the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Here came the dreaded presentation day... everyone had their laptops out during breakfast and lunch, getting the final presentation tasks completed. Me and Emily chose a logo for our team that both captured our enthusiasm for sustainability and the general concept of time that we used in our project.

Before we faced all of the staff and students at TBC, we had to go and visit more of Nepal beforehand. This was the day we visited the Monkey Temple (Swoyambhu Mahachaitya), which was, for me, the highlight of the trip. When we got closer to the temple, the monkeys started to appear; even some sat on top of live wires, eating a banana that was probably stolen from a local. We had a look around the bottom level before we climbed the stairs, where I bought my lucky Nepalese bracelet (Mukhi Rudraksha), which is thought to destroy any surrounding sins and negativity. After enjoying the waterfall and nearly being attacked by monkeys, we climbed to the top and was greeted by huge Buddha statues, amazing architecture, took pictures with monks and a kind when we visited the temple it was the hottest day out of our trip and we was surrounded by the beaming sun, we loved to hear from the locals what they thought of the temple as it is very important to me to learn as much as I can about the world that we live in. Wherever you visit in the world, even if you are just traveling to another city, you will notice a change in culture, whether that be religion, wealth, laws or social behaviour. Adapting to a new environment is something I believe everyone on this planet should have to do. Especially when we live in such a diverse and accepting country it is so important for us to see firsthand different ways of life such as Buddhism and Hinduism that we don’t get to encounter often in the UK. A local Buddhist man shared with us that the ‘Monkey Temple’ got its name from the bodhisattva of wisdom ‘Manjushree’ was building the temple on the hill when the lice from his hair sprung and turned into monkeys. Buddha (Shakyamuni) came down to visit and planted a lotus flower in the temple which has been thought forever to unleash good karma and bring luck to those who visited the sacred monument. I genuinely felt touched after listening to the Nepalese memoirs, and hearing their passion behind their country and culture was truly inspiring.

We arrived back at the hotel for a small pep talk before the presentations took place. Everyone greeted each other at TBC and all students hurried to make sure their presentations were outstanding and I can say that everyone delivered amazing presentations and definitely made Leeds Beckett University look incredibly intellectual and smart beyond our years. Although we had many technical difficulties throughout, Emily and I delivered a professional and confident presentation. I was definitely experiencing some nervousness as delivering a presentation not only in another country but to so many eyes watching me it was a huge step outside of my comfort zone and was something I had never had to do before. Nepal has a lot of electricity shortages which ment the light would turn off pretty frequently, when we was at a restaurant eating, in our hotel, and luckily for me during our presentation! The students held up torches so that we could continue through the darkness, but not being able to see eyes staring at me but instead, a sea of stars made me realise that it isn’t something that I should be so scared to do. We received amazing feedback after the presentation not only from our supportive course director Dr Pooneh Bagheri Zadeh but as well from all of the staff at TBC.

Lastly, it was time to hand everyone’s certificate out and give everyone a warm well done for all of our hard work and for overcoming huge cultural steps a lot of us have never taken on before. You could really see how close our students had got with each other by the cheering for everyone at the end, it was so kind of everyone, and we all felt incredibly proud of each other, admittedly, that was a moment I will never forget. Each person one by one went up onto the stage, shook everyone’s hands, was gifted their certificate and a beautiful temple ornament to squeeze into our already overflowing suitcases. The cheers from LBU were touching as everyone made sure to exchange their social medias and congratulate the TBC students.

TBC thoughtfully invited us to a beautiful Turkish restaurant for our final night out where more food than I had ever seen was being passed around, dish after dish came out of gorgeous hot food. My favourite was definitely all of the dipping sauces, we were gifted with around ten different dipping sauces to try and then later came the mains followed by the wonderful dessert.

It was time to say our goodbyes to everyone and we made sure to thank everyone for gifting us with such an amazing opportunity, something I may never experience in my life again. Many more pictures on top of the million so far were taken and we wished TBC luck for the future and we hope to visit again.

The morning after a beautiful send off was not only hectic but so enjoyable to have the pressure lifted and rush around Kathmandu buying our family’s last presents, picking up jewellery, final visit to Durbar Square, and shouting down a taxi as quick as possible to get back in time for our ride to the airport. Walking through Themal the LBU students made one man’s day with nearly selling out his shop of Kukri’s (a type of sword with a recurve blade that originated in India). Luckily, we didn’t have any issues in taking them back to the UK! I bargained to get a ring I had seen from the first day that completely captured their culture in a small piece of jewellery.

Swiftly after, we were departing from the hotel and started our long travel home… This is where my story of the events changed from everyone else. We made our way through the Nepal airport security and boarded the plane. The first flight was completely fine and we even got to see a glimpse of Mount Everest out of the window. When it came to our 5 hour stop over in Doha, Qatar I started not to feel so great and rushed to the bathrooms. Even the poshest bathroom in the world doesn’t make you feel less sick, unfortunately, and due to my illness, I wasn’t allowed to board the flight. Luckily Pooneh stayed with me whilst everyone else was forced to board the plane, so me and Pooneh experienced a new level of tiredness and slept anywhere we could in the airport. I had to go to a clinic where doctors ran some tests on me, and I got to sleep for an hour whilst they monitored me. We was told to leave after an hour and handed our passports away so that we could be booked onto the next flight back to Manchester. We went through security for the second time and went to get something to eat as our next flight wasn’t due for another six hours! Back through security again to claim back our passports and eventually boarding the plane. Its safe to say that after being in Doha airport for around twelve hours as soon as the plane took off I was straight asleep. Luckily, as they always do, my dad came to the rescue giving both Pooneh and me a lift home from Manchester airport as, due to the delays, we couldn’t get the coach that was booked originally.

Although going to Nepal was the best trip I have ever been on, it felt amazing to be back in the UK after 35 hours of travelling, whether that be with school or with family this trip was by far the most educational, interesting, and mind-blowing! I couldn’t be more grateful to be selected to experience a beautiful country and all of the culture that comes along with it, and hopefully, I have the opportunity next year to be writing about another beautiful country, thanks to Leeds Beckett University.