Despite the freak wind storm the pilot did manage to land safely and we were at once greeted by the smells, heat and humidity of Kolkata. One of Rosie's old family friends, Oni had taken it upon herself to cushion our introduction to India and so we moved into her beautiful home and were completely spoilt rotten. Oni's garden contains a giant tree, fully equipped with tree house, which regularly drops fat, juicy mangoes. This meant that when we weren't full to the brim with amazing Indian food, we would be allowed to indulge on the produce of this plentiful tree. Oni made sure we packed as much culture into our 3 day stay as possible and took us around herself to see the amazing sites and monuments. Both of us found it very strange how ... read more

And so the crew of us, GP, Guy and Liffy (the South Africans) returned from the intensely beautiful mountains to the chilled out vibe of Pokhara where we stayed at a fantastic lodge we feel we really need to sell. The owners of "Tranquility" are incredibly friendly and accommodating, plus for 400Rs per night you get a spacious double, with fan, bathroom including bath, comfy beds, a huge grassy garden and a relaxed atmosphere. Definitely a top budget place to stay on Lakeside. Our group expanded again in Pokhara as Ling and Annie, a truly lovely and very interesting couple from Malaysia, who were friends of the South Africans, joined us. So this was it - the final crew with whom we would take on the rest of Nepal had assembled. We couldn't have wished for ... read more

We are currently situated in the middle of Lake Fewa with two oars, one life jacket and a solitary warm beer. We have been trapped in the middle of this fricking huge lake for approximately one hour. We are becoming quite fond of our little blue dinghy "SW1.GHM (660)" and with no one else within a half mile radius, it's a very tranquil spot albeit a blaring 35 degree heat. But with our warm Everest nearly gone and Rosie having clobbered Clare over the eye with an oar, we are finally ready to begin our next blog entry. The Annapurna Sanctuary trek undoubtedly had some stunning tropical vegetation, particularly luscious as it was the beginning of the monsoon season. Before Chhomrong, it was essentially agricultural land, growing corn with mounds of hay stored on stilts scattered ... read more

After two days of being stuck in Hile with Pasang and our lovely family who forced us to dance for them every evening (and morning for that matter), we discovered that the Maoist strike in Pokhara had come to an end meaning that us and the Irish girls could make our way back to civilisation again. We walked to Naya Pul and bumped into Mukesh from Thamel who has very nice arms. From here, it was a good hours jeep ride to Pokhara - through the hills and down on to a flat, low-land plain which reminded Rosie of a more tropical Napolean Dynamite scene Pokhara is fantastic - so chilled out, with space and trees and a massive, beautiful lake. It was great to see non-skuzzy city tourists again but both of us really missed ... read more

Basic Route: Kathmandu - Besi Sahar - Ngadi - Jagat - Dharapani - Chame - Lower Pisang - Manang - Yak Kharka - Throng Phedi - Muktinath - Kagbeni - Marpha -Kalopani - Tatopani - Ghorepani - Hile - Naya Pul - Pokhara. It's our last day trekking in the Annapurna region and as we sit on the grass in the tropical and very much rural village of Hile, we have a bit of time to reflect on the up hills and down hills of our journey. As a result of our incredible organisational skills we were finally able to arrange yet another guide the night before we were due to start. Our guide was called Sangam - he had so much experience of trekking the circuit, spoke perfect English and was such a crazy funny ... read more

The title is purely because we rather liked the name of this mediocre cafe - it bares no other significance than this. This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Two of our beautiful children, Sunita and Sushil were taken without warning to Pokhara. Their family belong to a group called the Maoist, who are currently trying to expand their numbers, but quite literally collecting all Maoist children together. Sunita and Sushil's mother has a history of mental illness and has been in an Indian hospital for 3 years. She was badly beaten by the Nepali army and their father was killed in the same event. So on Wednesday, their mother and her new husband (a Maoist leader) came unexpectedly to Happy Home to take the kids to a Maoist camp near Pokhara. ... read more

There are 6 gorgeous boys here at Happy Home. The eldest is David, then Sushil, Ram, Ashok, Pemba and Bishant is the youngest. For the "boys only" day out we took them to the Tika school playground where we played frisbee, football, catch and went on the climbing frame for a few hours. They were all so excited - the kids work really hard at school and back at the orphanage so any time that they get to run around and act as children is very valued. We all ate loads. The kids went kind of crazy over coca cola and ate chocolate at an incredible pace. The next day the kids were due to start their exams, but got an impromptu holiday as the corrupt/genius/passionate/evil (depending on who you talk to) important government guy died. ... read more

It's now our second and a half week at Happy Home....blog entries are a little bit all over the place because of the extremely temperamental power supply. Anyway, we will try and do our best to keep them coming. We started our second week with a pretty standard day and the early morning chorus of "Good morning auntie", to which we have to reply, "Good morning, how are you?". So they then sing, "I'm fine thank you and you?", followed by "I'm fine thank you" and finally..."Thank you auntie". All sung. It's very sweet, if a little monotonous! Kop khuns were being very uncooporative. After walking all the kids to school (Bishant, the little 3/4 year old, had a backpack which was literally the same size as him and covered his entire body and legs.. It ... read more

We met at Delhi airport, both fairly tired and gross looking. Clare had just endured an 8 hour flight on her own after a really crap time waiting for her flight in Heathrow airport. Rosie had just encountered India in a very full on form and was slightly disheveled, but totally in love with the country. It was such a Hollywood film moment, looking through Delhi security gates at eachother, screaming and attracting yet more attention!! Are flight landed in Kathmandu after seeing the Himalayas and "my supermodel baby" from/on the plane and any sadness about leaving home completely vanished. Getting visas took ages, but we finally found Bishwa and Damche who had been waiting for us for 2 hours. We drove to the orphanage, totally knackered and entered the house to the sound of lots ... read more