A tearful goodbye

Our last day in kathmandu flew by and when it came for me to take the taxi, waving goodbye to the girls, we all welled up. We have had the most incredible time travelling together and somehow have managed to put up with each other all the way! The thought of not seeing them until september is heartbreaking but I'm sure we will all go on to have an amazing time with the rest of our travels. So while they head back to snowy England before scattering to all four corners of the world, I'm off to singapore.

Pokhara

We arrived yesterday in Pokhara, a beautiful little town that is built around a stunning lake and surrounded by mountains. After spending the afternoon on our own little fishing boat and watching the sunset, we explored the town and had a delicious meal at a restaurant built of grass huts and bright flowers and open fires looking over the lake.

Chitwan National Park

From Kathmandu we moved swiftly onto Chitwan National Park where in itinerary included a boat trip down the Ganga croc infested river, a walking safari after being given tips on how to prevent yourself being killed my rhinos, elephants, bears and tigers, an elephant safari and washing elephants and a culture tour. So after being sufficiently terrified by floating down a river within 3 meters of crocodiles in a rickety old fishing boat, we went on foot to end up being 10 meters away from a Rhino (our guides only carry sticks in case we get attacked), and fibally we climbed on top of beautiful elephants that took us round the national park and then gave them a good scrub as the squirted us with water and lay down in the river while we bathed them, which was an amazing experience I will never forget! The last thing to do here was the culture tour. It started off in a little village surrounded by rice paddys and went on through the town and to the river where a rhino was wallowing. Only about 20feet away we became very casual getting as close as possible to get a picture. After a while we spotted a man sitting right by the river bank completely unfazed by the rhino next to him. As it started to move closer to us we bolted up the hill only to see it run towards the man on the river bank. Our guide didn't speak very good english so took a while to explain that the rhino had been rescued as a baby and the man now lived with him, in the jungle, protecting him from poachers. As the man got up to walk down the river, the one year old rhino was a little left behind and jogged to keep up before trotting behind him into the sunset. It was the sweetest thing and all four of is girls were on the brink of tears!

Mo:Mo:s!!

We have done various things in Kathmandu including the monkey temple and Dumbah Square but our favourite had to be learning to make momos! A classic Nepali dish on every menu here, we had just been introduced to the little pastry parcels before learning to make them. They turned out to be surprisingly difficult to make with the same presentation that we had been eating beforehand! But after a good morning learning the tricks of the trade, we can't wait to make them at home!

Kathmandu!!!!

With only Emi, Mi, Hannah and Me left to carry on to Nepal we arrived in Kathmandu extremely excited, needless to say missing Holly and Till! It was by complete chance that we had landed on the day of the Shiva Festival, with crowded streets and loud people, Kathmandu was bustling to say the least! After settling in to our little hotel right in the centre of Thamel, we had a little look round to get our bearings before investigating the festival. Once the sunset, the vibe was not what we expected. Although it wasn't nasty, we all felt very uncomfortable and weren't keen on staying for long. Luckily the police were very helpful and let us through barriers that the crowds couldn't get to so we could enjoy the fireworks and lanterns that lit up the city from quieter viewpoint. It was when we saw people burning their recently deceased family members that we decided to head home not wanting the smell or sight to etched any further into our memories! After an 'interesting' we were very happy to snuggle up in our room for four!!

Quickly onto Delhi

We spent our time in Delhi with a lovely family, Rajeish, Shreya and .... They very kindly showed us the sights including the Lotus Temple, all kinds of markets from silver and gold to spices and clothes, a Hindu Temple and the Ashwathama Temple all of which were magnificent. Delhi wasn't at all as we expected, with open green parks, wide streets, and although a bustling centre, not at all as busy as we were anticipating. Emis lovely family friend, Marilyn, and her friend Georgia kindly treated us to a delicious meal and cocktails at thier beautiful hotel that housed a vintage car collection ( Daddy you would have been very jealous!!), on Holly and Tillys last night of their travels, and we had a good catch up from when we last saw them in Agra. Apart from being hideously dangerous at night for which we were very careful, Delhi was a triumph and a half!

ToyTrain

The infamous toy train had been on our top things to do list. We took the slow steam train from Shimla to Kalka and enjoyed the amazing views and scenery on the way down from the mountains. The journey consisted of beautiful tiered fields, locals carrying piles upon piles of crops on their heads and rivers that went from trickles to waterfalls. Little houses were scattered over the landscape connected by tiny little tracks and paths on cliff edges. The tracks winded in between rolling hills and through steep mountains, over arched bridges and through forests with sunlight beaming through the open windows. We arrived in Kalka 6 hours later where we changed for our train to Delhi. We sat on the platform like animals in a zoo, once again, with crowds and crowds of men and women huddled round cameras and phones in hand. With our hands covering our faces, I have never felt more famous! Relieved to see our train pull up we escaped to our seats. The 4 hour journey to Delhi went very quickly as we were constantly served with another course to our extensive meal included in our ticket! We finally arrived in Delhi as the sun went down where we were kindly picked up by Rajiesh, who we were staying with.

Shimla in a Nutshell

Shimla, once the colonial capital, was absolutely beautiful. Could have been a slightly bias view as it felt like being in an english village in the alps with indian people! The buildings were beautiful, the people were lovely and there was little to no litter which was a welcome change. The converted bandstand restaurant was delightful with panoramic views of the himalayas and a lovely menu. We met up with two boys from school and had dinner ad a catch up. The church in the centre of town was very pretty and very english as well as the advanced studies building sitting on the top of a hill about a 10k walk through the glen from the town. While we were in Shimla we saw yet another guru who had some interesting things to say about us all. And after a short 3 night stay we headed on to delhi.

Journey to Shimla

Our journey to Shimla, which was supposed to be a quick and easy 8 hour drive through beautiful scenery with beautiful views, rapidly escalated into a terrible twisty turny 11 and a half slog of a trip. Before we left on our travels we were all warned to avoid the mountain roads that are half rock fall half sheer drop at all costs (without wanting to scare any already fretting rents) that is what our whole journey consisted of! I wont elaborate further to ensure the rest of my trip will still be on the cards!

Sorry!!

For the past week (ie while we were in Shimla and Delhi) we have had little to none internet let alone wifi hence the lack of updates. So in order to get everyone up to date theres about to be a rush of completely out of date posts, potentially in the wrong order and without trying to create a sense of complete confusion, hopefully there will a be a rough record of where weve been and what weve done to uplift everyones otherwise dreary English days...!!

Moving on...

After a lovely relaxing few days in Rishikesh, today we are about to embark on an 8hour drive to Shimla. Pack lunches and travel pillows ready, were leaving the idylic setting of the Ganges, hills and ashrams for the colder setting of shimla in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Rishikesh

14 hours after leaving Agra, we arrived in Rishikesh having endured an apparently awful bus ride. I say 'apparently' because I slept like a baby the whole way, but I was the only one. While I felt refreshed and well rested at the end of the journey, the others were weary and glum having not slept a wink. It was a particularly bumpy bus even on the newest, smoothest of roads (with Emi's enormous bruise on her leg to show for it), but I was quite happy on my bunk dreaming away, much to the other girls annoyance! However, with the view of a whole 4 days in one place, looking over the Ganges in the foothills of the Himalayas relaxing and doing yoga and meditation every morning and evening we were hardly complaining! On our first morning we woke for our 8am beginners yoga class, drowsily we padded into the yoga hall with excuse after excuse as to why we were unfit and inflexible. We just about made it through the mantra chanting and om sounds with our faces buried into the yoga mats to stifle our hysterics, before putting our bodies into the most awkward of positions. We have had another class this morning and are going to have another this evening so its difficult to say we are really slumming it!