Wednesday

POKHARA



Left Kathmandu onthe relative luxury of a tourist bus which of course had airconditioning (which did not actually work but did leak all over the passengers). The journey was reklatively uneventful as we only came across a couple of army checkpoints, two landslides and a lorry that had spectacularly left the road and plunged into the river 75ft below.

Pokhara ........... BLISS !!!!! It's setting is beutiful at the foot of the Annapurna range although we only m,anaged to catch a few glimpses of the mountains themselves as we were still in the tail end of the monsoon season. We stauyed in a nbice hotel on the top floor and had a balcony view of both the lake and the mouintaiuns ...... it was great. Definately set upo for tourists with most kinds of food that you can think of. Saddest part of our visit was the fact that there was a landslide about 1 km from our hotel whilst we were there which killed 6 people and injured many more. People seemed tobe accepting of this as just part of the fact of life .......

Met up with Carl and Tuuli again and enjoyed our first steak for a few months .... great! Carl and Tuuli are the archetypical altruistic couple who are looking to set up a small home for children in Nepal or India, they have their heads screwed on and I'm sure that they wil make a success of it. Wish we were more giving but truth be told we are having too much fun enjoying ourselves.

Having rested, recuperated, got drunk, fallen down (and chipped a bone) we decided to leave the comforts of Nepal to see what India is like so jumped on a bus which would take us to the border town of Sonauli (one of those classic pile on as many people and as much luggage as you can buses).

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