Kathmandu

Hello from Kathmandu. We have been shopping, eating and seeing the sights of the city. It's very busy, bustling and dusty at times and people are busy all day and night going about their work. The shop keepers are always busy trying to get you to buy something from them - if one more man offers me tiger balm on the streets I'm going to whack him with my bag!!! I think I've finally scared off the shoe shiners who want to clean my shoes - I keep telling them I like them dirty!

We visited Durbar Square in the city a couple of days ago - these ladies were praying outside one of the temples.

We hired a driver and guide yesterday and today and went out of the city to see some world heritage sights. This is the stupa at Boudanath - a very significant site for Buddhists and very peaceful compared to other places. We had lunch on one of the rooftop cafes here and watched the monks and nuns circling the stupa as they prayed.

We also visited Monkey Temple - and yes there are lots of monkeys there (and mangy dogs!). The monkeys were quite timid though and a little camera shy although not shy of stealing bananas from passing plates!

Sadhus in Durbar Square - very colourful admist the browns of the temples and city streets.

This is Patan - amazing temples. All very old and intricate wood carvings. We also saw what looked to be an advertisement or movie being filmed here. The dancers were a little weary - it had obviously been a long day!

Men playing instruments in Buktinath whilst a goat was being sacrificed on the temple (I'm not joking) and later cooked for a feast (no I didn't watch as they worked themselves into a bit of a frenzy).
A little weary after a long day looking at many temples with a long running commentary about all the gods by our guide - there's only so many gods you can remember in one day - then they all start to blend in to one!

This is our last night in Kathmandu and tomorrow we head off to Varanasi in India. We are thinking that the bustle here will be a little introduction to India!!!

Thanks so much for all your comments left on our blog - we love reading them and it's great that you are all following us as we travel.

To my DGO team - glad to hear that things don't change and that you're keeping up with the LS reports Paul - no I won't be going near an Aussie consulate anytime soon!

Thanks Mum, Jaz and Kaye for all your comments - glad to hear that all is well at home and the girls are being good. Will ring you more when we get to India and have our phone working (we hope!). Miss you all and think of you all the time. Love you heaps. xxxx

See you next post from India.

We've arrived

After a long flight and one night in Kathmandu we flew to Pokhara where we are now staying. The people are friendly, the food is good and we feel very much at home here.

Yesterday we went for a boat ride on Phewa Lake and crossed over to see the temple on the island in the middle of the lake. It was an eventful ride as we piled into one of these samll boats with lots of other people - on the return trip a young girl hung onto me all the way across! The boats make the lake very colourful.
Krissy and James after we had lumch by the lake and got conned into buying some jewellery from the Tibetan ladies!!!

Flying to Pokhara (18 seater!!!) with the Himalayas on our right - Wow!

A mandala in Kathmandu - it was Diwali festival when we arrived so the city was celebrating...dogs barking, firecrackers, people having fun and cats yowling most of the night.

Tomorrow we head off on our trek. Our guide - Dil - is a lovely young man who has been looking after us beautifully since we arrived here. We feel very comfortable with him and he works at the guesthouse where we are staying - it's a great place to stay and all the staff are very friendly and make us feel right at home.

Hope everyone is well at home - thinking of you all the time. Thanks for the comments girls. Love to all. xxx We will be out of touch for the next 10 days so I'll update you when we return - probably with a few sore muscles!!

Himalayas here we come!