Bye Nepal!

---

As I said in the last blog our time as volunteers was coming to end. By this time the two girl volunteers had also left. We decided to leave for two weeks and visit some places in Nepal.

Just to back track a new child arrived just as we went to Chitwan. He was adoreable, but a meance! The face of angel but the temperment of a pit-bull. And an evil one at that. He was only 4 years old so that meant that we had to take it in turns collecting him from school at mid-day. He took alot of occupying!

Anyways so we planned to go to Pokhara to see some mountains. When we got there it was dark so didn't get a chance to see them. However the next day, (thanks to some dodgy pizza) we both got food poisioning. Ample time on our hands to look from our hotel window and read. But at least I wasn't suffering alone this time! Ha.

Ciaran had the bright idea to rent a Scooter for the day to go see Devi falls (a water fall) and some caves across the road. After driving up a mountain for an hour we realised we must have passed them. Indeed they were but 5 minutes from the place we rented the bloody thing. We did take a nice drive around the lake before turning back to return the bike. And what does Ole Evil Kanevil do? Crash the scooter into the side of the mountain at 3 miles an hour. From stationary. What a Div. So we had to pay for a paint job to be done on the thing!

The next day we thought we'd play it safe and rent biycles. Went to the Mountianeering museum. Boring.... On the way back Ciaran managed to destroy his bike. Snapped the handle clean off so looked like a right twat riding into town. Man U did beat Liverpool that night so it lifted his spirits.

Onto Lumbini. The birth place of Buddha. We met this Chineese dude who was going to stay at a Korean Monastery so we tagged along. Now Ciaran thought that the word 'Monastery' was a subsitute for 'Hotel' so imagine his shock when we arrived and there are monks, morning prayer and single sex shared dorms. I found all this quiet amusing, and joked we should go to the bar and have a drink. There was no bar. Which pissed him off even more! It turned out to be a really good experience. The evening prayer was interesting to watch. The food was gash though, I ain't going Korea in a hurry. We stayed like 3 nights as we liked it so much. Lumbini has loads of cool monasterys and buildings. So again we rented bikes, (i'll have the thighs of a goddess when we return) but didn't break any this time.

We wanted to head to Tansen but I was ill. Again. So we didn't. We went back to Pokhara. This time we wanted to see the Peace Pagoda which is atop this hill on the other side of the lake. Being the adventurous type, (not me) 'we' decided to go the long 2 hour walk to get there. After two hours and not seeing any f*#%ing building, lost in a forest and baking under the heat, I threw a little hissy fit an insisted we start making our way down. An hour later we made it to the shore and luckily a boat man spotted us from the other side and came to collect us. He told us how lucky we were as there are lots of muggings in the forrest. Grrrreat!

The next day we attempted the more simple, direct, you can get lost as it straight up some stairs approach. Stairs. 1000m's of them. Maybe one of the physically hardest things I have ever had to do. We (due to Ciarans almost running pace of walking) make it up in 35 mins, 10 mins better than the average! I did however feel as if I was going to pass out. From the top of the hill you can see the Anapurna Mt range. We at least normally you can but it was really cloudy!!!!!!!!! Dissssssapppppointed! And I was really hangry by this point. We hired a boat later that day, which was very peaceful.

Pay back (for Ciarans walking so fast) was when we went to the bat-caves. You have to do a bit of wall climbing to get out of them. And he got stuck!!! I have this partly on film before being told to f-off.

We headed back to the Orphange, which is called OCEAN Nepal if anyone wants to check it out. A journey that should have took us 8 hours took like 17. The police decided to shut down a town after beating someone to death the previous night. The problem is this town if the centre point for the 3 main roads in Nepal. So its like closing the M25 for the day. Mayhem. Luckily we were stopped next to a restaurant. Phew!

When we got back it was time to say goodbye to the last volunteer. We milled around for a few days before going to Nargarkot. This is one of the best place to view the Himalayas in Nepal. We had a really clear day which was amazing. We got up really early to see the sun rise which was spectactular.

Back to the kids and we find there is another new one! Shiva is also four and very quiet. We had some great weather the last week so ended with a big water balloon fight with our kids and the neighbours.

After 2 months in Nepal we headed back to the hustle and bustle of India. We stopped via Ilam which is a famour tea district. It was very quiet there. We wanted to leave but the stupid bus people had a strike so we had to stay another day. To summarise the 3 days there - we walked around and looked at tea trees.

Onwards to India!!

---