Apr 2007

We were booked into a hotel in Delhi by the Tourism Department. We had decided we didnt want to go back to the rat trap we had stayed in before we left for Nepal. No way were we going back there. Nothing to do around there!

Everything was going smoothly when all of a sudden we saw the rat trap hotel approach, we looked at it and thought thank god we arent staying there...then the taxi driver stopped RIGHT outside the place. We just looked at each other and turned to the taxi driver and said NO, that aint right - this isnt our hotel! Funny thing was, we didnt actually check which hotel we were booked into lol. Nisha took out the reciept and it thankfully wasnt the same joint, but one of its sister hotels - a little more up market...PHEW! wed paid more money this time as well lol. It could only happen to us...lucky escape.

We left for Bangalore early the next day., relieved to get out od Delhi.

Bangalore weather seemed quite nice , not too hot at all. It started to rain in INdia now - we think it followed us back from Nepal. Its not even monsoon season! Why? Its good in that it only rains late into the night and the days are extremely dry so I guess its not all bad.

All weve been doing in Bangalore is hitting Pizza huts, and shopping malls and weve watched 2 movies in the space of 3 days lol. Tomorrow we're doing some touristy stuff, vi siting Lalbagh, the JN planetarim, temples and Tipu's Palace before we head off to Kerala.

Oh, we bought permanent contact lens for 20 quid. BARGAIN...

We cant wait to get to Kerala in a few days - at least well be back to doing cool stuff there.

There, weve updated u on the last 3 weeks.

We spent our last days in Kathmandu shopping. We bought some churidars and some pretty sarees - they were SO CHEAP!! Yay.

We did very little about taking it easy in Thamel and Durbar Sqaure. We bought some really good stuff.

We made some friends and met some weirdos, which youll hear about when we get back.

We left for Horrible Delhi on 16th April 2007. We were serioulsy sad about leaving Nepal - we could quite easily have spent our whole holiday there - maybe do a trek or two -ah well theres always next time!!

The people were extremely nice and the kids so cute. We were going to miss them. Nisha was going to miss being being called Nepali (awww) and I (dips) was so proud to refer to her as my Nepali lil friend!!! :D DIps was just another foreigner tourist mind u lol Which was good cos we got treated well both ways where ever we went. :p

Au revoir Nepal !

We had to wake up at 3am this morning as we were going to make a trip up to Sarangkot to see the Sunrise. For those who have little faith in our ability to wake up - (More so Dipti) we did wake up on time

The sunrise was magnificent, but given the early morning haze, we were not able to see the sun hit the Annapurna range - a sight we're told is one to remember. Ah well, it was still really coolllll.

Our driver was a great laugh and actually made it fun climbing up the Hill at 4 in the morning.

Later we headed on our 7 hour journey (by manky coach once more) down to Chitwan National Park where we would be spending the next 3 days amidst the nature - we hope we wont have to rough it too much...

Our lodge was in fact a pretty decent Hotel -not a insect (except mozzies) in sight. At least not in our room anyway.

We were going to spend the next few days as a part of a group. We had some really cool people who we got to know during our time here.

That night we went on a Tharu Village tour and were supposed to have witnessed the sunset over the marshes, but it started to rain adn thunder (suprise suprise lol) which was fun anyway, we got shleter under a hut and were content once we got our mango juices. lol mmmmmmmmmmmm

Next day we went our a canoe ride through the Rapati river and then on to walk through the Jungle. We saw Monkeys, huge red and black insects (often running the risk of them falling onto your heads as u brushed past the branches and twigs over our heads). We saw more insects - oh did we mention more insects - oh a lot of butterflies and birds. No tigers, leopards or rhinos at this stage - no crocodiles either... OH well, we were lucky enough to have been shown a presentation complete with pictures last night so we didnt feel like wed missed much (plz note the sarcasm in the previous sentence) .

Later on the day we had our elephant ride through the jungle - which was fantastic because we got to see elephants, rhinos and deers. WE got whacked by overhanging branches A LOT. Oh Dips got elephant pee splattered on her when our elephant did his business LOL. I told her im sure it would do her skin some good lol...

We then went to a elephant breeding farm, where our guide let two baby elephants loose on us, lol they thought we had food so they chased us til we let them smell our hands lol.

In the evening we saw a Tharu Culture Show were we nearly peed our pants from laughing to much (though we were the only two laughing we think). In the end there was a dance which the audience could go and join. We didnt join in, ( too busy laughing at others) but Chris from our group went up and once again we laughed so hard it hurt. We should mention he was a 6ft4 austrailian dude in contrast to the 5 ft 4 Nepali guys - it was hilarious.

The next day we left Chitwan, we were sad to leave Oh well, another 7 hours ride before we get to Kathmandu...

Hello all! Again, we havent had a chance to blog, so this is telling u what happened a week and a bit ago LOL

We left Kathmandu on a manky bus - 7 and a half hours and breath taking scenary later, we arrived in Pokhara. We spent the first day (or rather what was left of it) getting to know the place. We couldnt go exploring that night as it started to rain , hail and thunder. (Note to self - dont take people's advice when it comes to the weather) So could have done with an umbrella!!!!

Next morning, we had to be at the Pokhara airport at 7.00am to go on our Ultra Light Flight. I dont think we can possibly even BEGIN to explain how fantastic it was. We absolutely loved it, we came really close to Machapuchare (?spelling?) or in laymen's terms - the fishtail mountain and the whole of the Annapurna range. (be prepared to witness some awesome pictures when we get back!!) We think it was quite easily the best e xperience yet -we were both on t wo separate jets but flew together so we got to wave at each other :P lol YAY

After that, we headed to a place where Himalayan water flows through, took some pictures, met an interesting family and then headed to Devi's Falls. We expected a huge waterfall , but given the lack of rain ( after yesterday we beg to disagree) the waterfall wasnt as impressive as it ought to have been. THe great thing was becase the monsoon hadnt kicked in as yet we got to into the caves under the waterfall which wouild otherwise be flooded.

We had a really great man ( kept us from falling to our deaths at times! !) we think he was an amature photographer because he l\kept telling us to how and when to take photographs - we were slightly more concerned about our lives lol. We came out of there breathless and drenched. It was amazing!! Weve always wanted to the caving thing and we got our chance to do it today. The day coulldnt get any better we thinks :P.

We then went on a boat ride on the infamous Phewa lake and went shopping in the area.

After dinner, we headed to our terrace (There were telltale signs that it was going to chuck it down - thunder and lightening can be great clue lol ) There was a Nepali festival going on at the time (complete with big ferris wheel) and saw we stood on the terrace, listening to a band sing Grateful Dead songs and watching the lightening (had we been around in the 70s we would have appreciated it a lot more)

So that was our day and we had the time of our lives today -cant you tell?? :p

Hey all,

Weleft for Kathmandu on 7th April and we havent had a chance to update our blog so here goes...

WE left our hole in the wall hotel in Delhi and got to the airport to catch our flight to Nepal -we had our first drama of the trip, our tickets werent confirmed and despite having forked over 120quid back home for the tickets, we had to give 100 for a one way ticket as they cancelled our ticket to Kathmandu...GRRRR were skint now...

We arrived at Kathmandu airport, glad to have actually got there without any further problems. Our tour organiser Hari met us at the airport and we were relieved that he wasnt a weirdo (like our last driver- more on that in person...) but genuinely extremely lovely. We were greeted with garlands!! too funnyyyyy...

Our hotel was amazing and we knew from the moment we got in the car that we were going to love it in Nepal.

That night we went walking around the streets of Thamel - one of the liveliest places weve been as yet , we did get a little lost as all the streets look alike and as it was raining we got drenched. THe experience was quite surreal as it started thundering and lightening but made our night there all the more special - its not usual for it to start raining so early - typical huh?

The next day we went sight seeing with our driver and guide who showed us places like pashupathinath, boudhnath, bhaktapur ( lovely self-contained ancient city with lots of handicrafts) and the Monkey Temple. Our camera ran out of battery by the time we got the the monkey temple, which exhibited the best overview of the whole of kathmandu. It was simply breathtaking.

We really enjoyed our time in Kathmandui and couldnt wait to come back at the end because the people are so lovely and make visiting the country a memorable one. The kids are sooo darn cute!!

Nisha felt a little like a giant as all the guys are 5ft 4 and under even the good looking ones...lol, and trust me Nepal does have talent! Ur missing out girls lol :p

We leave for Pokhara tomorrow, its a 7 hour journey by road. Its supposed to host some of the best views of the Annapurna range from a distance...cant wait.

More later....

N and D