Udaipur

On Wednesday night we boarded a sleeper train. We sat and ate our dinner of crisps, chocolate and bananas then settled into our bunks for the night. We decided to try class 2AC (AC stands for air conditioning) which is a carriage with sets of two tier bunks in it rather than three tier and where each bed has a curtain that pulls across it. Unfortunately for us, there were some exceptionally noisy families in our carriage so we didn't get to sleep they disembarked at Jaipur 5 hours later.

14 hours later we arrived into the city of Udaipur in the southern part of Rajasthan at 8.30am on Thursday morning and took a tuk-tuk the short ride to our guesthouse. The city of Udaipur is situated on Lake Pichola and is prettier and far quieter than any of the other places we have visited in India so far. We checked into our room which overlooks the Lake and the 'Lake Palace', a beautiful white palace and famous 5* hotel built on an island in the centre of the lake . It was used in the James Bond movie 'Octopussy'. After a shower (under a tap on the wall!!) we headed out into the town, starting our day with some delicious cake and a cappuccino at a 'German Bakery'.

Having had enough time to suss out Udaipur and the amount of time we wanted to spend, we took a tuk-tuk the short distance back to the train station to book our onward tickets to Jaipur. Over 14 million people travel the trains here each day and there is a specified 'tourist quota' so for some journeys you have to be booked well in advance. It was not a very successful trip as everything was totally booked. Unbeknown to us there is a big Holi festival in Jaipur and Delhi starting around 7th March so hotels and train seats are almost all booked out. With little other option and in a bit of a panic we returned to our hotel to look at other options. As regularly occurs, we had to firmly tell the tuk tuk driver to 'get lost' when he tried to renege on our agreed fare at the end of the journey!!

We decided not to risk our lives on the notoriously dangerous and rather horrid night buses and were lucky enough to find a cheap flight on Jet Airways to Jaipur. We were so disappointed to be missing out on the train as they are a really cheap, easy and comfortable way to travel... in the right class of course!!! However, the prospect of a 45 minute flight was more appealing than a 14 hour bus rickety journey. We had enough of those through South America! From Jaipur we managed to get a train ticket 6 hours to Dehli, our final destination and exit point.

We had read that Udaipur is famous for its cooking courses and being huge foodies we were very keen to give one a go! We checked out two highly recommended classes, one run by a company called 'The Spice Box' and the other a family run kitchen course. They both offered instruction on how to prepare totally different dishes so we adopted the 'only here once' attitude and booked onto both.. one for each day of our stay! We had a delicious Thali lunch and then in the afternoon we wandered the beautiful city palace, situated on a hill in the city centre which afforded fantastic views over both the city and Lake Pichola.

That evening we joined the 'Spice Box' cooking school and with no one else there we had a private lesson just for the two of us. The chef called Shakti showed us through the basics of Indian cooking, spices and masalas and from this we then prepared many different dishes ranging from Malai Kofta, Palak Paneer, Vegetable Cutlets and Biryani through to making our own Chapattis, Chai tea and a deliciously different Kashmiri Saffron Tea. The lesson was a little less hands on than we had experienced in Thailand and a little more like a cookery demonstration but nevertheless very informative and we shouldn't have any trouble making the dishes back home. We ate everything that was cooked and so we rolled out of the cooking course and collapsed absolutely stuffed in our hotel room afterwards!!

On Friday morning we had a leisurely start (sleep-ins have been few and far between) and walked to the beautiful 17th century Jagdish Temple, which stands high on another hill in Udaipur and is carved ornately with stone elephants and camels. From here we wandered some of the small stalls, looking at the various clothes and handmade leather-bound books on offer. Bi bought a skirt and a leather journal (made from camel hide as cows are sacred here) to use to create her own Indian cookery bible... Ash did all the bartering as he has mastered it now!

We crossed to the other side of the lake to the much less touristy Hanuman Ghat area which was much like some of the other places we have visited: ramshackle old stone houses that look half finished, stalls cooking amazing looking sweets and samosas, cows and goats wandering down the streets as if they were people and rickshaws bumping around. We stopped in the local kitchenware shops and bartered oursleves some good deals on a spice box and kadhai (an indian style wok which they weigh to determine the price) so that we can put some of our newly learned cooking skills into practice when we get back to England!

That afternoon we went for another cooking course, run by a nice Indian lady called Sushma. The course was fantastic, well paced and extremely informative and we learned to cook many different dishes that we hadn't learned before. We cooked Paneer Butter Masala, Aloo Gobi, Dal Makhani and made stuffed Paneer Parathas which was delicious! Sushma is a wealth of knowledge and so we picked her brains on everything and anything about Indian cooking. Again we ate all that was cooked and returned back to our hotel absolutely stuffed again! So far so good, eating in India has been a lot better than expected although we have been pretty selective.

Tomorrow we catch an early morning flight the short 45 minute hop to Jaipur, in North Eastern Rajasthan where we will spend a couple of days.

Agra and the Taj Mahal

We boarded a sleeper train just after 6pm for the 12 hour journey from Varanasi to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. Our sleeper carriage looked like a very basic dormitory and was split into several open cubicles with 8 beds in each, stacked 3 high on two sides and 2 high on the window side . There were a number of other tourists on the train so we got chatting and then Ash did as recommended by Jeremy, riding on a Indian train whilst listening to Ravi Shankar on his iPod! We were lucky to have a quiet carriage and soon after dinner and Chai tea was served we were in our surprisingly comfortable bed; we had the upper beds 3 stories high. We were provided with a blanket, sheets and a pillow and slept well through the night, helped by the gentle rocking of the train.

We arrived into Agra Fort station at 7.15am on Wednesday morning and did the usual haggling with a moto tuk-tuk driver to take us a few kilometres into the town centre. We checked out a number of different hostels before settling on one with a roof restaurant with fantastic views over the Taj Mahal. It was superb to finally see the Taj Mahal in all it's majestic white marble splendour. We were determined that we would make it to the Taj Mahal on our travels and here we were! The 500 year old building did not disappoint and it is all it is made out to be. We both said it is one of the most beautiful buildings we have ever seen and it was very memorable to be sat enjoying our chapattis and curd breakfast with views straight to the palace over all the higgeldy-piggeldy, derelict rooftops of Agra.

After a well earned 'bucket' shower we took a brief walk around Agra and the outside gates of the Taj. Agra itself is not an atractive place, looking decrepid and somewhat run down. We returned to our hostel where we had arranged to hire a moto tuk-tuk driver for the afternoon. We had decided to see some of the more further afield historical sites of Agra and hiring a driver was recommended as the best way to do it. Our first stop was the huge Jama Masjid mosque, built in the 16th Century and situated near to the station where we arrived, before wandering a local market and marvelling at the piles of spices, fresh breads and chapattis being cooked and tiny, narrow alleyways which we squeezed through to look at the small shops selling jewellery, trinkets, soap and cosmetics. When we returned our tuk tuk we were a little earlier than our driver expected and he had a head full of henna which he proceeded to then leave on his hair for the rest of the day! He was going to see his girlfriend in Kolkatta the following day and wanted to cover his greys!

Our moto driver then took us 13km outside of Agra to Sikandra, the last resting place of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great. It is a beautiful, red sandstone mausoleum and was quiet, isolated from the main tourist trail and after wandering the huge tomb we sat in a shady spot and relaxed for a while. We returned back to Agra, crossing the main Yamuna river and stopping in to see the small, Persian decorated tomb of Chini Ka Rauza. From here we travelled along the river bank to Itmad-Ud- Daulah, otherwise referred to as the 'Baby Taj'. Like the Taj Mahal, it is a beautiful white marble tomb, just on a smaller scale to the Taj itself. From here we also had excellent views across the river to Agra and up and down the banks. We continued onwards to the gardens of Mehtab Bagh, directly opposite the Taj Mahal and on the opposite side of the river. The views to the Taj we exceptional and would have been a perfect place to sit and watch the sun setting had it not been for the pestering children... Ash got to practice his 'ne chella!' ('go away!') but we got fed up in the end and decided to head back to our hotel roof terrace for a sunset in peace!

We returned tired out but happy from our day's sightseeing and sat in the rooftop restaurant and watched the sunset over the Taj Mahal. We had expected to see the Taj turn a shade of pink and red as the sun set, but it was not quite so.. it more went yellow and then dark as the light faded. The building was not lit up at night as we had thought it might be. We had an early dinner and were in bed by 8pm, exhausted after our long day and long train journey.

We arose this morning at 6am and headed down to the East Gate of the Taj Mahal. After paying the obscene 10 pound each fee entry (well, a comparatively obscene amount for India) we made our way through the queue and security and entered the sight of the Taj Mahal. It was stunning. As we walked through the central gate, the picture postcard view of the Taj, the icon of India and one of the 'new' 7 wonders of the world was reflected in the water right in front of us. Ash got extremely snap happy with his camera and we spent the next hour walking around the beautiful palace, watching it change colour as the sun rose and capturing lots of different photos. We walked inside the huge white marble monument and saw the tombs of the king, Shah Jahn and of his wife for which the Taj Mahal was built, Mumtaz Mahal before returning to the sight of the famous postcard view and sitting for a while to soak it all up.... with a million other tourists of course!

From the Taj Mahal we hired a rickshaw driver to take us to Agra Fort. The huge red fort is more like a walled, palatial city. It is the most important fort in India. The great Mughal maharajas lived here and the country was governed from here. It contained the largest state treasury and mint and was visited by foreign ambassadors, travellers and the highest dignitaries who participated in the making of history in India. The fort is beautiful inside, ornately carved and with wide courtyards and sweeping views over the city, river and towards the Taj Mahal. We spent a couple of hours walking in the heat, through the huge stone gates, marble palaces and narrow passages before returning to the area around our hotel. On the way back the rickshaw driver jumped off and let Ash have a go pedalling uphill with Bi and the driver in the back!

We spent the remainder of the day chilling out in cafes because we can afford to eat and drink to our heart's content and using the internet in order to pass time before our night train at 6:20pm to Udapiur in Rajastahn, north-west India. We are both looking forward to the train ride!

Into India, Varanasi and the Shiva Festival

On Saturday afternoon, with only 12 days left of our 13 month trip, we arrived in Varanasi airport after a short 45 minute flight with... gulp... Air India from Kathmandu. There were only 16 people on the plane! The airport is in a very rural area 20km from the city so the border formalities were surprisingly rapid. As we had half expected, our arranged transfer was nowhere to be seen so after searching around the airport we took a taxi for the 1 hour transfer. The taxi was fantastic, it was a white Ambassador and a real throwback to the days of the British Raj. As we drove towards Varanasi we were surprised at how quiet and rural it was but the peace did not last long... as we came into Varanasi it became sheer madness with traffic (mostly rickshaws and tuk tuks that paid no attention to the correct sides of the road!!) choking the dusty, dirty streets, cows stood in the middle of the road or roaming along as if they were living the life of a human and ad hoc roadworks causing even more disruption... it was definitely a big welcome to India!

Our taxi driver dropped us off somewhere on the edge of the old town about 10 minutes from our guesthouse as vehicles cannot enter the small windy streets near the Ganges river (and our accommodation) as they are too slim. So we had to walk the final leg of our journey through a labyrinth of narrow, filthy streets, including passing through a metal detector which was rather disconcerting. It felt as if we might get lost inside forever. We were bombarded with hotel touts and other supposedly 'just being helpful' individuals (we were told to trust no one) as soon as we let one leg out of the taxi in all the chaos we finally had to give in and put some trust in a young man who claimed to know the way to our hotel and had an official hotel card... we followed him with caution!

We were safely delivered to the correct hotel, situated on the banks of the Ganges River at one of the many ghats... ours was Meer Ghat. Jeremy, Ash's best mate and best man at our wedding was sitting in the internet room waiting to meet us. It can be frazzling and totally chaotic when you arrive somewhere new so we have never been so happy to see a familiar face. We checked into our room then went straight to the balcony area which overlooked the Ganges. Words cannot describe the sight and the riot of colours and activity that lay before us; it left us speechless.


We set out to explore and first stop was a local Chai tea served on the street in a small clay pot which you smash on the ground afterwards. There we sat on a wall, side by side with the locals and cows enjoying this sickly sweet tea! We wandered down steep steps and walked along the Ghats by the Ganges trying to take in the activity around us. The river is wide and lined on one side with hotels and millions of people just sitting around, getting a shave, having their hair cut, doing their washing, women standing and holding up their saris to dry in the sun like human washing lines, street sellers selling pappadums and snacks and small children trying to sell candles to set afloat on the river. The women wear exceptionally bright Saris which provides an amazing burst of colour everywhere. The streets of Varanasi and along the Ganges are absolutely filthy, with human and animal faeces in plentiful quantities along the pavement in some areas. It can only be described as insane....total madness...total chaos... with people and cows everywhere!

We climbed back up from the Ghats and wandered the streets of the old town which are exceptionally narrow and lined with local food stands selling sickly sweet Jalebis, Galub Jamun, savoury Samosas and Pakoras, shops selling cheap cotton hippy clothes, glass beads, sitars and silk and local eateries. Dinner was a Vegetarian Thali for 40 pence... a bottle of coke costs 12 pence....oh we were cautious but so excited to be able to afford to eat BIG again!! In the evening, we sat the big balcony of our hotel completely mesmorised by the activity along the Ganges below us. Varanasi is a wonderful and fascinating place and not somewhere we will ever forget; it is full of life, energy and colour and is a very spiritual place to visit. We love it!

We started day two (Sunday) with a dawn boat ride along the Ganges river. We were a little eager and ended up out of bed and dressed before the boatmen themselves. There was no need to look for a boatman, as they will definitely find you first! We bartered our price for an hour long ride and climbed into an old wooden canoe. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience. All the locals were bathing in the holy Ganges river and making a racket; Hare Krishnas were sitting in a circle on pillars and chanting; a holy man was taking what looked like a yoga/meditation class; the first cremations were being set up at the burning ghat. We soaked up the atmosphere and the sunrise before heading back for breakfast... Paratha with Subji (curried vegetable) and curd which was delicious.


Our main task for the day was to get to the train station and buy onward tickets to Agra and then Udapuir in Rajasthan. There is a tourist quota for tickets each day and we didn't want to miss out or get lumbered with cattle class seats on a 12 hour journey. We negotiated with a rickshaw to take us the 4km journey. Rickshaws are a fantastic way to see a place and and provide such an good insight into everyday life as they weave in and out of all the backstreets. Outside of the old (and touristy) quarter, the streets were madness and jam packed with constantly tooting bicycles, rickshaws and tuk-tuks, lots of cows (which seem to live off a diet of left over food and garbage and fruit and vegetable carts where the owners are sat on top, in squatting position waiting to serve! The streets are lined the most decrepit looking dwellings and shops and fruit and vegetable stalls. Tickets in hand, we headed back to the old quarter but not before a brief scuffle between rickshaw drivers had taken place as they fought each other for our custom.

We had a vegetarian Thali lunch then spent the afternoon chilling around the town; Bi doing a spot of clothes shopping. If they don't have your size or colour, they'll make it for you within a few hours! Late afternoon we walked to the cremation ghat of Manikarnika which closely resembled the site of Pashaputinath in Kathmandu. We watched the burning pyres from a respectful distance and saw many bodies being brought down to cremate in the open and have the ashes scattered into the river. Between 200 and 300 bodies are brought here every day. Almost as interesting is watching the 'so called guides' and con merchants pounce on the most vulnerable tourists and extract money from them for 'good karma'!!

In the evening, Bi decided to take some time on her own to chill on the balcony at the guesthouse and have her dinner of dahl and paratha overlooking the Ganges. Ash headed out for dinner with Jeremy. On the way home Ash encountered the first of the Shiva celebrations getting underway..... a large religious crowd making their way down the Ganges all insisted on shaking his hand and throwing rice over him as an offering!

On Monday we awoke at 5am to prayer calls and the noise of music and chanting, signifying the beginning of a Shiva Festival in Varanasi. We gave it a few hours before heading out for our Indian breakfast (chapati, curd and Subji) on the balcony, overlooking the action. Poor old Bi was not in good form having been covered in over 45 bed bug bites on her ears, face, neck and arms (which we think she picked up at the last teahouse we stayed at in Lukla) and had to douse herself with antihistamine cream! It was not pleasant and she was not impressed!

The Ganges river and riverside was packed with people and wooden canoe boats so we got ourselves down to the river quickly to soak up some of the madness. There was music everywhere, enormous queues for the temples, millions of people were bathing, immersing themselves fully in the filthy Ganges river, men and women were having their heads shaved (so there was hair everywhere), faces were being painted... it was a riot of colour and frenetic activity, a real bombardment of all senses. We spent the morning fighting our way through the crowds on the Ghats... the atmosphere was unbelievable, overwhelming. There is no way to describe the place and do it justice.

Our hotel was full for the night due to the Shiva celebrations so we gathered our bags and moved down a few Ghats to another Guesthouse which was very pleasant and only 3 pounds 50 a night for us both. We had a big lunch, relaxed a little and then in the afternoon to escape the crowds and madness we took another walk south along the ghats towards Assi Ghat. On the way we passed another burning ghat which this time was really quite grisly. On one pyre a burned, charred head, shoulder and arm was clearly visible (until the man attending the fire pushed it back in with a stick). Bi was disgusted! On our return, we bought a small floating candle from a local boy and fought our way down to the bank through a huge swarm of moths to set it on the Ganges river. Jeremy said he would say some 'puja' (Hindi prayers) but before he could manage them he promptly slipped on the bottom step in the darkness and fell into the river! Instead of Puja we had instant prayers of "oh my god please don't let his head go under the water!". It was hilarious and fortunately he only fell in as deep as his waist (thus avoiding full immersion and the possibility of a nasty stomach upset!). Ash took the opportunity to rib him deservedly as he walked home soaked in the River Ganges, reminding him that there are apparently 1.5 million fecal bacteria per litre of water and that the normal safe bathing amount is just 200!!! It was rapid walk back to the guesthouse for a shower followed by an another Indian feast of a dinner.

Today, Tuesday, is our last day here in Varanasi. Bi and Jeremy took an early morning yoga class and we spent the rest of the day just mulling around and doing lots of eating in the old quarter which is rather quiet after yesterday's festival. The food has been really good here in Varanasi and they have been cooking everything fresh to order. At around 5, we said goodbye to Jeremy and Varanasi and headed to the station for our overnight train 12 hours west to Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal. We had a lot of trouble finding a tuk-tuk and when we did find some and they saw our bags they all ganged together and quadrupled their prices thinking we would have no choice. As a matter of principle we refused to let them win and ended up piling us and our bags onto the back of a small rickshaw and some poor man peddled us to the station!

Trekking to Everest Base Camp

On Saturday morning we joined our tour that was to take us into the Himalayas, trekking to Everest Base Camp. After a introductory meeting with our group and guide we went to a dingy hire shop and picked up two of the warmest, snuggest sleeping bags we could find. From here we walked a short distance to the Kathmandu Environmental Education Project (KEEP) to understand how we could minimise our impact upon the fragile Himalayan environment. Our group were very pleasant, friendly, and a real mixture of ages and nationalities which was great as this is always a bit of a worry when joining a tour... you never know who you are going to be with for the next 15 days!

On Sunday morning we were up very early and transferred by bus to Kathmandu domestic airport to take our flight to Lukla. The flight into Lukla is notorious for being delayed so we were lucky to only have to wait an extra hour for our flight. The last tour had to wait 3 days for the unpredictable Himalayan weather to clear! The flight is also infamous for its outstandingly poor safety record... flight to crash ratio it is one of the most dangerous flights in the world so we were understandably a little anxious! We boarded our tiny Twin Otter prop plane (owned by 'Yeti Airlines') which was just big enough for two pilots, our tour group of 12 and bags. We sat on the left hand side as advised to get the best views and began our 45 minute flight. As our little plane ascended above the haze and pollution of Kathmandu the whole snow-covered Himalayan range emerged to our port side. The flight was spectacular and we spent the whole time gazing through the tiny windows at the enormous snowcapped mountains around us. Below us, the hills were all terraced for farming and as we neared the end of our flight the plane seemed to pass over some of the mountains by what looked like only a few feet! We finally entered an enormous valley, the mountains close on either side and rising high above us. We began our descent into Lukla airport. The runway is tiny, only 500m long, 20m wide, on a sharp incline and at one end it drops off the mountainside into the valley far below and at the other end is an enormous stone wall! The pilot literally dumped the plane down onto the runway and shoved the reverse thrust and brakes on as hard as possible.... we had made it and we all whooped and cheered with delight!

On stepping out of the plane we were awestruck, both with the quality of the scenery and the cleanliness of the air. We were surrounded by towering mountains and green forests. We wandered through the small Nepali sherpa village of Lukla, grabbed some breakfast and began our trek. We were well equipped... 4 excellent guides and 5 small but enormously strong porters helped us make our way to Mt Everest and it's Base Camp. It took us 9 days (including 2 rest days) to reach the dizzying, altitude sickness-inducing heights of 5,450m above sea level. As we started out our trek we hiked through tiny sherpa villages where life is clearly very simple and self-sustained with the local people growing all their own food. There are no vehicles with all goods, including building materials all transported from town to town via 'human' lorries. We were amazed by the loads carried by these local porters along the trek; some were bent over double with huge, impossible loads strapped to their backs and supported by a band around their heads.

Each day we would walk about 5-6 hours along dusty, windy tracks that took us higher and higher into the Himalayas; often stopping to let herds of yaks past. As we ascended, the villages became much smaller and sparser, and the vegetation was replaced by towering rock mountainsides and huge snow-capped peaks of a scale we have never seen before. The scenery was truly majestic, lined with Tibetan Buddhist stupas and adorned with Tibetan prayer flags. As we climbed higher the air became thinner and thiner, making every step arduous; by the time we reached Everest Base Camp the oxygen levels were only at 52% of what we normally breathe at sea-level.

Our accommodation each night were small, family-run teahouses and on arriving we would do our usual, have a wet-wipe 'shower' and change into our warmest clothes and then huddle around a small stove in the centre of a communal room. The facilities were extremely basic but adequate. At bedtime (usually around 8pm because it was so cold!) we would return to our freezing, draughty, wooden rooms and dive into our sleeping bags to try and get warm. Most mornings our water had frozen in their containers and putting on our trekking clothes was like getting into blocks of ice! The food was actually quite reasonable, all home-cooked rice, noodles and the local Nepali dish, dahl baht ('lentils, potato -vegetable curry and rice'). It was very hearty and good mountain food so we indulged many times! For breakfast we would normally share a bowl of porridge and a Tibetan Bread, akin to a large, flattened, deep-fried doughnut (and spread with peanut butter it was unhealthy but quite tasty!).

In order to acclimatise and prevent the onset of altitude sickness, we stopping for a day each in the towns of Namche Bazar and Dingboche (situated at 3,440m and 4,530m altitude respectively). On these 'rest' days we climbed higher to the Himalayas Museum and Ama Dablam Base Camp and then returned to the towns which was supposed to combat the effects of altitude very well. On one night we stopped in the tiny town of Tengboche, the site of a large Tibetan monastery where it began to snow heavily! It was the coldest night's sleep we have ever experienced that night, in our small wooden hut. The following morning the whole valley was covered in snow and it resembled a winter wonderland... we sang Christmas songs as we trudged along a snow covered woodland trail; it was so atmospheric.

We reached Base Camp on day 9 of our 15 day trek. Located at 5,360m along a rugged, glaciated valley that resembled a messy, rocky, moonscape, it was little of an anti-climax to such a stunning scenic walk and quite a disappointing site if we are honest. Nevertheless we celebrated with a bar of Cadbury's Fruit & Nut chocolate before making the journey to our teahouse. The way back was a little precarious with steep lateral moraines covered with the most enormous boulders which hung by a thread. The exceptionally slow and stop start pace of the resdt of the group in such dangerous cohnditions made Bi a little panicky, so in the interests of our own safety we shot off down the path leaving our group a way behind. We continued the pace home and the rest of the group caught up with us 1.5 hours later, where we were already sat by the fire - washed, wearing clean clothes and enjoying a cup of tea! Compared to other treks we have done the pace of this trip was little a slow but it did give us plenty of time to admire and soak up the amazing scenery around us.

The real highlight of our trip was the day after Base Camp when 7 of us from our group decided to ascend Kala Patthar, 5,643m above sea level and the highest any of us have ever been (and only 50 metres short of the altitude at base camp 2 on Everest). We were up super early (5am) and began climbing in the dark. Every step was an effort and Bi really struggled with the altitude (not helped by the lack of breakfast for energy) and the lack of oxygen, stopping several times from bad nauseaous. However, she made it thanks to sheer determination, a Mars Bar and sucking on some Werther's Originals sweets! Bagging the summit felt like a proper achievement and the stunning surrounding mountain vista, including awesome views of Mt Everest, was a great reward. It was bitterly cold on the mountain, perhaps -20 degrees and we all had painfully frozen hands and feet so we only managed about 10 minutes on the summit before heading back down. It took two hours to make the ascent and only 25 minutes to get back down again.

Over the following 5 days we descended back through the mountains and returned to Kathmandu by the same Twin Otter aircraft. The take off was as exhilirating and terrifying as the landing had been and most definately one of the biggest highlights of the trip. The plane edged up as far as it could to the wall at the top of the run way and then it was full throttle down and downward sloping runway that just dropped off a mountain. The plane didn't actually have to point upwards or gain altitude, it just glided off the end of the runway and we were flying!

Having been blessed with good weather for the whole trip, we arrived back in Kathmandu by 9am with a nice full day ahead of us. First stop was a good shower as we had only had the opportunity for 2 showers in the past 2 weeks. We did copious amounts of laundry, collecting our Indian visas and air tickets and had a huge pizza for lunch as we are completely sick of dal Baht, rice and noodles. In the afternoon we took a taxi to the suburb of Patan, 5km outside of Kathmandu where we saw the stunning Newari architecture of Patan's Durbar Square (UNESCO world heritage site) and wandered the tiny, old, narrow streets and markets. It was a fitting end to our time here in Kathmandu. This evening we will be going for a meal at the 'Rum Doodle' restaurant which is where the base camp trekkers and Everest Summitters eat and drink (... they get to eat and drink for free for a lifetime) and the walls are adorned with their signatures and comments.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Nepal and take a 2.30pm flight to Varanasi, India where spend our final two weeks before heading back to the UK. It is nearly the very end of our 13 month trip and we are filled with mixed emotions. We look forward on one hand to the home comforts, good food and wine, nice clothes and doing normal things but on the other we will miss the excitement and the liberation of being totally free and seeing and experiencing so many different and wonderful cultures.