Kathmandu, and Team Anna was reunited at last!! What a contrast to the hills and jungles I've come to associate with Nepal! Lively, busy streets that required more than a cursory glance before you dared cross the road, cycles, rickshaws and motorbikes come flying around every corner. Shops galore selling all manner of touristy trinkets and trekking gear. This is a town of contrasts... beautiful Buddhist Temples and sculptures, intermingled with daily life, such as butchers, markets, and construction!! Team Anna bravely set aside our trekking boots and went off to explore.... First stop Durbar Square, set right in the heart of the town. A walk through crowded colourful alleys found us in a spacious, serene "square' For centuries this has been the site set aside for the rulers of the day to show off either ... read more

Back to Reality After several days at high altitude we decided to head back to reality!! Heavy snow had fallen the night before and the previously mellow path out down the valley was now a lumpy, bumpy ice rink. Guy and GP proved adept and managed the perilous ice walkway, whereas i just seemed to slip and slide all over the place.... not very graceful at all, but we did all make it to warmer climes, and the path cleared once again. Retracing our steps back past waterfalls and now familiar valleys in two days we made back to the village of Chomrong where we met two English girls, ( who we had passed en route) Rosie who was celebrating her birthday, and best mate Clara, together we shared a chatty evening of pizza, scrummy chocolate ... read more

Charter Flight Finally it was time to leave our beloved India, and head north for Nepal and the mountains..... We boarded one last overnight bus from Varanasi for the border town of Sunauli. We arrived as the sun was rising over a strangely quiet border post, taking our packs on cycle rickshaws, we were ushered to a sleepy Indian official who, with beedie smoking, grunted and stamped us out of India. The border was a collection of small offices and run down cafes, we simply walked past this and into Nepal. After handing over a load of US Dollars we were all issued with 3 month visas and free to go......EXCEPT....... there was a country-wide strike !! This meant no buses or taxis were running at all and we had a very long walk to our ... read more

Buddhist Caves - Awesome Just when i thought we'd seen it all, along come the Ajanta Caves............. Set along side a horseshoe bend in the river (dry when we were there), they we were similar in style and age to Ellora, except they lay undiscovered for several hundred years, and were adorned with the most beautiful paintings you could imagine. It was only rediscovered in 1812 by a British hunting party. We climbed to a lookout point high on the opposite bank, which gave wonderful panoramic views of the whole site. Once inside we were met with enormous temples, designed with columns, walls, ceilings and massive statues of Buddha all decorated with intricate, stylish paintings and colorful religious scenes. Deer, and trees, and gods 'picnicking' were common themes, as well as cartoon gargoyles and geometric patterns. ... read more

Hot Hampi Wow! what a contrast. We found ourselves in the middle of a "lunar" landscape, large smooth boulders lay all over as if sprinkled from the sky. Forming hills and defying gravity by balancing in the most unlikely way, one on top of the other. For at least a thousand years this has been a holy place. Evidence of stone temples and forts was everywhere, spread out over a vast, mesmerizing landscape, cut through by several crystal clear rivers. We stayed in the old town of Hampi Bazaar, made almost entirely of local stone. The bazaar itself seemed unchanged, and families still lived in the most basic accommodation....going to the river each morning to bathe and wash clothes, and often sleeping under the stars at night, trying to escape the desert heat. We took a ... read more