Today we caught the train to Varanasi. We had not booked any accommodation so joined Scott and Bianca on the ride that they had organised. Thank goodness someone was organised! We were mobbed from all directions for this that and the other. The men stared at us like we were from another planet and took photos of us on their cell phones! We sorted out our accommodation and vowed to be more organised. We spent the next four days in Varanasi with Bianca and Scott. The main feature is obviously the holy River Ganges and the ghats where people come and bathe, wash their clothes and drink from this famous river. There are at least 30 large sewers along the stretch of water where the people are bathing. The water has 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria ... read more

Today we left Kathmandu by local bus and headed to Chitwan National Park. The roads were appalling, some of them not completed, others with huge potholes (not helped by truck drivers who decided to take a break who would leave their trucks in the middle of the road for people to go round!). I decided not to look out the front window out of fear but Matt could not resist watching the dangerous and crazy overtaking, which involves beeping your horn and overtaking on a blind corner, with another truck coming towards you while talking on your cell phone. At times it was like a crazy game of chicken. Bizarrely, the government leases parts of the road to local landlords who charge motorists what they like but don’t look after the roads. We were lucky to ... read more

The next day we met up with the people on our Everest Base Camp tour. Chris from Wellington, NZ and Louise and Dave from Chester in the UK. We were introduced to Padesh our Kathmandu guide for the day. He took us out to Pashupatinath. This is Nepal’s most important Hindu temple on the banks of the holy Bagmati River. The river is considered holy despite how polluted it is. The most interesting part was the cremation ghats along the river which are used for open air cremations. The bodies are wrapped in shrouds with garlands and laid along the river bank for the ceremony before being cremated on wooden pyres. While we were there we witnessed a few of these cremation ceremonies. Quite amazing and not as disturbing as we had imagined. Next stop was ... read more

This is a medieval city in the Kathmandu Valley. Durbar square is located in the centre and is loaded with temples and shrines and a huge palace that makes up the whole eastern side of the square. We really enjoyed Patan as it was not as hectic as Kathmandu and the children were really friendly, always asking our names or posing for a photo. The only blip was witnessing a fight between two motorcyclists, one of whom was beating the other with his helmet!... read more