Bangladesh has 8000km of navigable rivers, much more than the roads. Heading down to Sadarghat at sunset today was a bit like the M25 on a river, motorboats, ferries, barges, tankers mingling with passenger canoes (100′s of). It’s safe to say that river travel is as much a daily part of life as roads…

Which by the way are jam packed full of brightly coloured weaving and speeding cycle rickshaws. 600,000 of them. What?

Oh yeah and loads of seriously battle wounded buses that screech about loaded with people blowing their horns.

We haven’t even seen that much today but stopping for a few cha’s and trying to converse with the crowd that quickly gathers is great fun. You sail down the street bobbing in and out of the 150 million other people and there is a chorus of hello! how are you? which country? do you play cricket? Come and have tea! How are you? hello! Its great. Old Dhaka – just a maze of interesting streets full of all kinds of weird and wonderful things. Lots of great biryani and kebabs. It a fresh and exciting place to be and the rest of bangladesh has some really unique environments that still await…

As I said the place is paradise, the beaches are so clean, the water starts from a beautifully deep dark clear blue and turns green and then completely transparent on the beaches. The sand is so unbelievably soft. Palms trees line some beaches, mangroves others and huge banyon and teak trees others. We went with Dave and Karen to Elephant beach, littered with bare upended root bowls of trees flattened by the tsunami and went snorkelling to look at the colourful reef fish and coral that lines the island, but the best stuff is reached by boat.

Our first dive was at south button, a rock with a few palm trees sticking out of the ocean 2 hours by slow noisy boat from Havelock, passing between the mangroved coasts of the nieghbouring Lawrence islands. Beneath the surface of south button is a beautiful bright coral garden and its accompanying plethora of iridescent reef fish. Visibility 25m and picture perfect. We were down for 64 minutes and got round about half of the island. Next The Wall. It’s 40 quid for 2 dives in a day. The next dive was Johnny’s Gorge, much deeper, with large rocks coming out of the sandy bottom. Mega strong current but the fish didn’t seem to mind. It was like being in an aquarium, just amazing, schools of tuna and huge trevally and so many others, a huge white tipped shark and all round amazingness. On the way back we dived an enormous coral garden called Minerva that just went on and on with colour and life. Nothing clues on the surface in either case, just GPS. There are 27 recognised dive sites and we went to 4 and they were all amazing.

On the 5th day we headed back to Port Blair to see Dave and Karen off who I must thank for their great company, transporting us into a world of luxury during their visit and apologise to for dragging them across southern india with a series of epic journeys!

Unfortunately we missed Holi on those two diving days, and came back to the island to find paint all over cars, roads, buildings and especially people. From head to toe in these colourful paints that every shop sells for the 2 days festival. It’s the whole of India 2 day festival of paint throwing. Simple as that! Being full of young people from various places and all of the above, its easy to understand why we didn’t want to leave.

But the Visa runs out in 4 days and theres 1800km to travel and a stop to make in Calcutta (14.7 million) to get new visa before we head into Bangladesh . We’re on the train now having spent yesterday in the mental markets in Georgetown in Chennai, which is a friendly city of 12 million. A road for steel, a road for bile parts, a road for rice, a road for lentils, a road for fruit, spices.. and a small army of men with carts, trailers, and bicycles and cows to deliver them. Everything manual, amazing place.

So in BD there’s some nice tribal hills area, coast, and the 100mile wide Ganges delta which should be a fairly unique environment, and Kat to visit in her Burmese refugee camp. We finally met some people on Havelock who had good things to say about Bangladesh which has us really excited. However everyone has agreed that the 150 million people  who live there, 83% of whom are muslim,  speak little English, have everything written in Arabic, no tourism infrastructure, shocking roads, awful pollution, no beer and insist you wear clothes to keep covered up in the sticky heat. So it should be an interesting 4 weeks really!

Palm fringed paradise of 3 beaches inaccessible by road. Its a backpacher place, not many locals. Lots of Yoga and Ayurveda, travelling musicians jamming, tablas and sitars, another sore place to leave. Did my first yoga session there which I enjoyed until I fell asleep.

We had a total panic because we didnt reach the top of the waiting list for our train to Cochin to meet our parents. Since arriving 24hrs late was out of the question, we set out by taxi for the station anyway. On the way we stopped at every bank, and failed every time. On arrival at the station we were told it was impossible to get on the train. We got back into the cab, now around midnight, hundreds of miles away with no money and things were looking grim. Another lap of the town got us some money using a credit card. We went to the bus station and found a bus to Mangalore which arrived at 4am. There we got a room for a few hours and bought a bus ticket for that afternoon and spent all that night on a “sleeper” bus to cochin, arriving at the homestay about an hour before the folks – skills.

Kerala is a lovely place, very green and very humid, great mountains and amazing backwaters. They have an ancient form of martial arts and this mad dance/theatre called kathakali.

We spent 3 days in Fort Cochin, penned in by the sea around this small peninsula, with a constant flow of ships and ferries. An old colonial place, that’s been ruled by just about everyone, with loads of white churches and a maze of streets, Hindu temples, a mosque, a synagogue, Christian churches and Syrian Christian churches and Dutch churches. Lots of nice places to eat and drink. All over Kerala and in Fort Cochin there are these Chinese fishing nets, which are strung up in the air on massive beams and lowered into the water when the tide is high like a drawbridge. They raise the nets and collect the fish and tourists point and take photos, which must be quite annoying really. Here is a photo…

There was a small fish market just next to them and we bought some fish and prawn which Diane cooked in Keralan style wrapped in banana leaves at the homestay…

It was great to see Mum and Karen and Dave.

From Cochin we headed to Alleppey. A town on the edge of lake Verbalam which is part of a massive system of rivers and canals, one of 3 in Kerala to take a houseboat and observe the villages and life along the river. The old converted rice barges are fun to spent the day and night on– sitting under a bamboo shade on armchairs with a drink and watching the eagles and kingfishers and paddy fields and fishing and washing and people going to school and getting around on ferries and loads of lush foliage. The villages on these narrow strips of land where the river is just the source of everything – food, where you wash and clean your teeth, fish, building materials. Its beautiful.

Next we went to Varkala. Red cliffs and nice beach, amazing hotel with a pool. Not much exploration was done here… Only down to eat in the restaurants on the beach where you pick you’re fish and then it’s cooked in the tandoor oven and is so deliciously fresh.

Next a mission into the mountains which run for a long way down near the West coast of Southern India, into the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.

Ooty – 2100m high in the Western Ghat’s, is was refreshingly cool. Theres a great mountain railway there where you chug through the tea plantations and valleys to Conoor. We went to stay in a remote hotel on the steep slope in the middle of an active tea plantation. Loads of wildlife. We took a jeep for a night safari in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and saw loads of animals including many wild elephants and a TIGER.

We headed back to Cochin and stayed in Ernakulum to see mum off. The noisy, stinking place is mostly notable for an amazing restaurant that we ate in every night..

Mums visit was really great. My brothers and sisters came to look after dad at various points so that mum could get away. It was a special time, relaxed and good fun, a much needed holiday! Just such a shame that my Dad couldn’t be there, we really missed him. I was sad to see her go. We had a really good time the 5 of us.

I headed back into the hills with Kathryn, Karen and Dave to Munnar, which is a gorgeous place, and then into Tmail Nadu again. Tamils speak another language and have much darker skin and descend from dravidians so all their temples have a particular style.

Madurai is a small Indian city of about a million people. Its famous for the shree Meenakshi temple, and rightly so.

There’s a great Ghandi museum there where I learnt loads about the raj and partition of India. From there we headed to Pondicherry.

8 hours on a bus to the border with India at Sanauli.

3 hours to Gorakpur next morning. Wait. Train to Mumbai 33 hours. Wait. Change. Train to Goa 10 hours. Now we are on holiday….

As you probably know our friends Martin and Baptiste came to visit and we had a really good time. Chilling and eating and swimming in south Goa where the food was amazing and then upping sticks on New Years Day in the morning (not easy) and travelling to North Goa to for the music and parties. We certainly found it and that day at Hilltop was an absolute belter!  They say Goa has changed alot and not so good now but we went to some parties that pretty much put any I have ever been to to shame. Music, people, culture, atmosphere, location. Then back to our gaff on the white sand beach surrounded by palm trees and jungle. Not a bad lifestyle. There’s so many people who go back time and again, I dont think it will be my last visit. Arpora saturday night market. Big stage in the center of the market for live music with different acts on during the night, with a beer bar and cocktail bar either side. Amazing international food area and then 100’s of stalls with unique and great local and foreign artists plying their wares. Bar in one corner with techno DJs playing to loads of people dancing  and cheering – not your average market! Palm trees, Old portugese forts lost in the jungle, lakes, beach huts, goan food, lagoons and alot more palm trees!! Goa. Why does Austin go back every year?

Thanks for all the birthday messages. Guess Kathryn has been hassling you a bit – sorry. I was in a hill station called Munnar in the tea and spice plantations. In the morning we went for a hike up the through cardamom plantations and then along a ridge and down into the village, then hired a motorbike and rode around for a couple of hours and got on it back at the Hotel. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my headache would be so mild the day after my 30^th birthday! Kathryn made me a card with all your messages and it was really great to hear from y’all. She drew a picture of everyone and i had to guess who it was which was funny. (the bearded, hairy drummer was easy). Mostly though it was touching to read the messages and think of you all back home. I miss you, although its good here.

Im in Pondicherry now which is a former french colony which is a really chilled place, amazingly compared to the other indian cities I’ve been to and the food, being french, is great. They have their own licensing laws so beer and wine is easy to come by and doesn’t involve a trip to a seedy government liquor store. Its a bit of a lottery whether a hotel or town has a bar in Tamil Nadu so we’ve had to get smart to get a drink, often planning in advance. No-one has been more rigorous about this than kathryns dad. Since cows are holy and wonder the streets at their own will, steak has definately been off the menu for some time – a welcome return. It has shaded boulevardes, coffee shops and a great shoreline. The marine parade has this huge Ghandi memorial with cardved pillares around it, and kids climbing all over it, theres 2 lighthouses  and an amazing rooftop restaurant to watch it all happen. Unfortunately we all caught a bug there and it took some time to recover. We headed up to Chennai to fly to the Andaman Islands.

Thinking of you!

Well its been a sublime day here so far today:

rose around midday to beautiful sunshine and jungle sounds (including the ubiquitous howling dogs and cockrels of India) and studied the frogs in the bathroom.

Baptiste is here and loving the feeling of warmth and sand under the feet and its great to see him.

Headed down to Columb bay which is a super quiet, pretty, rocky bay about 2 mins walk from our rooms. Sat up on some straw mats and lounged in a place called Laguna Vista which is a french Nepali couple’s beach restaurant. Loads of places here are run by exotic people who have chosen this life and look good for it! Really chilled music and french cuisine, fresh juices and some local port wine under the airy bamboo roof – christmas breakfast in Goa.

There’s a live music tonight and the seafood platter is looking ridiculously good so we have taken a table there for tonight. Turns out we’ve visited the Nepali guy’s home town and after throwing in  a few Nepali phrases we are on special treatment list!!

Apart from that mostly swimming and playing frisbee to work up an appetite!!!!

Somehow still jealous of the Christmas lunch and get togther back home though! Maybe you can set me a plate and freeze it for when I get home?

Love to everyone.

Si

I went to the Khumbu last time in Nepal, and it still rates up there with the most amazing place i have ever been to and this time brought it all back home!

It was a trek of 2 halves

I chose to walk in from tumlingtar which s a really quiet route to the park enetrance and takes about 8 days. I landed on a grass runway and wnet to a currugated iron shack – the arrivals lounge to have my naggage ticket ripped in 2 and thrown onto the grass with all the the others. The plane held 12 and it was a clear day and the panorame across the himalaya was really big.

The 7 days it took me to get to amche, the start f the high altitude bit mostly involved me walking through rai villages, talking and laughing and especially and asking for directions with the locals, loving the wonderful scenery and walking along feeling ecstatically happy. I never felt lonely or threatened, although i did feel lost quite alot of the time, climbing several large hills only to have to descend afytera lot of hand waving and repeating of my destination. I did find the most perfect waterfall shower on one of my wrong turns though. There were no tourist facilities and i ate and slept in the same places as locals who were headed on the same trail and spent nothing. I ate Dhal Bhat, sometimes twice in a day, the other food being 1 minute noodles soup. Nepalis dont eat breakfast but absolutely stuff themselves at night to compensate. Up at dawn and straight off. I had 4 passes to get over and alot of ground to cover and loved the exercise and the adfventure and all the people i met whereever i stopped. There were 2 guys who i met on the first day, and every day thereafter – Nishan and Narayen. They invited me to come and stay at their village where I had just a brilliant time bewfore heading on with a huge flower garlard, my second of the week!

It was completely depressing to get t Namche – huge lodges along the trail with menus and tourists who dont even know where they are or where or carry their own bags. I’d hardly spoken any english but relly couldnt be bothered to speak to some of the first people i met. Fortunately that night i met some swiss people who were really chilled and i started to get into my new lifestyle, and the choice of food, especially yak steak and chips, and coffee, and beer, and comfortable beds, and actually started to like it. The valley leading t namche is amazing, yet another huge clear river with tall pines eveywhere and for the first time on the trek big snowy mountains soaring up into the air. After a few days I met up with kathryn nd we headed up into the high stuff. Itsd tough at high altitude and we took it easy for a few nights until we were sleeping “comfortably” at 4400m. We spent this time in the Thame valley – the quietest one of the 3 in the park, mostly yaks and tibetans heading into or out of tibet trading the goods strapped to their animals and camping in the freezing air. Yaks are reallt great animals.

What followed was 8 days of high after high as we took in what the khumbu has to offer and walked our asses off to make the very most of the time we had left, and I’m still feeling pretty inspired and gobsmacked at that place.

Im down in Goa now, about to go and meet up with Baptiste, tyhe 4 days of constant transport getting dowen here was a big rest and now it feels like we are on holiday at last. So warm and great food and loads of parties…. It se3ems like the perfect place to enjoy Christmas so Happy Christmas everyone, i’m having a brilliant time, love to everyone!!! Gotta go or we will be late. As ever this does not in any way do the places we went to or the people we met justice but had to0 get something down. Have fun enjoy. xxxx

Karnali river was 9 days in total and something I’d wanted to do since last tme in Nepal. It was kind of expensive, but it had to be done. It’s basically Nepals biggest river and you raft a section that goes through a pretty unbelievale gorge. Its remote and some days we saw only the odd local our fishoing and that was it. Unfortunately we had to get toi the other side f nepal first and the roads realy aren’t good.First bus leg took 23 hours on a public bus with the kayaks and gear strapped to the roof. Then we stopped a night and hired a bus to drive along a really wild mud road along the edge of a cliff until we hairpinned down to the put-in. It took several hours to pump up the rafts, and put all the gear in buckets and tie them on.
It was raining and the water was cold and we were freezing. The first 3 days were full of grade 3/4/5 rapids so hude waves regularly came crashing over the boat making me even colder. Actually was a relief when we pulled up on a beach to make camp and built a massive fire that first day!

Our 6 six nights on the river saw us build camp on an amazing beach or island, build a huge fire and guzzle local rum, there was 9 of us in total. We bought some fish one night and 2 live chickens another. We had to take them in the raft for a while until we pulled up for camp!

Will fill in sme details some time  but basically the next 3 days were full of action, some of it quite extreme. We had to scout at least 5 rapids before we went down them to pick a line that avioded the big holes. I really liked picking our way along the rocks in the gorge looking down on these massive rapids and at all the crazy and beautiful rock formations. And then dropping into them on the raft and just getting thrown all over the place with Shankare shouting instructions from the back of the raft that no-one could follow! One of the kayakers got an amazing video of the raft getting flipped to 90 degrees sticking out of the water and 2 people flying off into the rapids. Will try and upload it.

The next three days were all about basking in the sun and taking in the hills and villages and cliffs and beaches of the Karnali way over in western Nepal.

The river comes out of the gorge and starts flattening out into a delta, part of which is Bardia NP. We got a jeep from the take-out and spent a couple of days there, getting up at dawn and exploring and looking at the wildlife until dusk. Its absolutely teeming.

On the last night the lodge owners roasted a whole goat over a fire and i was terribly sick the next day, only to be greeted with a 15 hour bus ride back to kathmandu!

That night Tihar, the festival of lights. Some ridiculously complicated Hindu God brother in law returned from exile, the upshot being that candles and fairy lights are hung from everything making all look pretty, and many animals are slaughtered for the family feasting. Unfortunately we’d been having regular powercuts, about 2 hours a night which isnt much for Nepal and tonight was no exception. So the town looked nice lit by candles but the lights were out of action. Also kids come round with a 2 ended drum and dance and sing Nepali style and people give offerings. Its really well done and good fun and several different groups came along in the evening, but they always want you to dance. Next morning climbed up to the temple and looked out over miles and miles of Himalaya. The stairs leading down were stained red with blood from animal sacrifice. Later a 4×4 track to Arughat to the start of the trail. Some was ok but some 2/3 ft deep mud in places, steep hairpins, bone crunching holes and quite exposed to drops down the hillsides. Naturally, all was attempted in a fully loaded TATA bus. It was funny watching another one come along the opposite way, rolling along side to side, fighting through the mud with passengers loaded inside and on top – is that what we look like?! But it was nothing compared to the bus ride in Langtang. A three hour walk brought us to Arughat Bazaar.
Being the start of the trail there was 3 or 4 hotels and loads of shops selling the same thing. Picked up snacks and got ripped off at the hotel (They turned not having a menu to their advantage) and set off the next day into the wilderness, a bit pissed off.
Playing on a bamboo swing built for Tihar:

Kids dancing and singing for Tihar

Company
It was pelting hot for the first 2/3 days and we sweated profusely until we had gained some altitude. We encountered Maoists who wanted 2000 rps each and were haggled down to 1000. First night arrive Khursani which was a one Buffalo town. Basic wooden constructions with almost no modern stuff except pots and pans. Our beds were in a dorm style room with wooden bars looking out on the horses below. I think the family normally slept in there. We were a bit surprised that it was open to the night air in such a big way. Washing facilities was a 5 min walk to a hose sticking out of the ground in between the other 2 houses in town! We were sitting around drinking rakshi with family that night, and in amongst the bustle of the dutch’s porters mincing around drinking, ate dhal bhaat and had a good time. Two more groups of kids came by going village to village, in a throng of singing and dancing, decked us with garlands and generally made tits of us. The dutch are Hester and Michial, doctors about our age. Their proters are cool, Karna, Siam, Kapi, “funny man”Kailash and guide Shikar. Our guide turns out to be incredibly sociable and has networked his way around everyone anywhere, drinking a lot of rakshi in the process. He’s 30, called Krishna. He speaks to everyone we pass or meet during the 18 days.

Bheri Gandaki River

We followed this unbelievable valley for 6 days hard climbing up and down and crossing the river below many times on all manner of bridges. Some of the trail was really hairy, narrowly clinging to the edge of a cliff, arriving in Namrung where we slept on plain wood beds with the strong smell of kerosine fumes from the kitchen underneath! We had been enjoying our stove and made some curried potatoes with the spices and veg we bought in Arughat. The Nepali tea we had been brewing up was starting to taste acceptable after plenty of practice. While Kathryn had been ill and was struggling to eat the local food, we often passed by the camping groups at meal times. We were becoming seriously jealous of the full camping groups who got 3 courses and comfortable tents, we had slept in some seriously dodgy rooms, even i was sick of eating noodles for breakfast because there was nothing else. Nepalis eat Dhal Bhaat twice a day at 11 and 7, and nothing else really. Not good if you are Kathryn and off the db with a dodgy belly. But it was such an incredible place. We tried to take photos but it was impossible to capture the scale of the cliffs, waterfalls and valley walls. The walls of this valley must rise 500m steeply up from the river, and then far more, and huge tumbling waterfalls were common, pouring off into the air, for 6 days.

Tibet?
After 6 days we came out of the  gorge and headed up through forests of pine rhododendron and bamboo as the valley opened out. The next 4 days we walked to Lho, Sama Goan, Manaslu base camp and Samdo, quickly gaining altitude to reach 3860m. Everything is tibetan now,  buildings, monasteries, dress, customs, language. The ridge line of snowy mountains to our right sets the border. There are numerous passes that must be crossed to get there, and are still used now as trade routes. Colourful prayer flags flap from everything, bhuddist monuments punctuate the trail. The buildings are stacked and terraced and the locals are busily harvesting the maize, and wheat, collecting fodder for the animals, drying it out for the winter. These villages had such a nice feel to them. They can’t have changed much for a long long time, everything is so labour intensive. Rocks are carried by guys with 2 planks made into a tough shelf, strapped to their back. Quarrying involves standing on top of a boulder, driving wedge shaped lumps of steel into fault lines with a sledge hammer, until the boulder splits. Repeat until stones are small enough to build with. To make them square when building a wall they are again pounded with hammers. But this is just one part of it all.

The tibetans know how to run a lodge so we were much more comfortable, 2 even had menus. Scored some maize tsampa and yak curry with yak butter tea in Samdo which was a result. Also the height meant that it was getting really cold at night, well below zero, something noticed by the campers….

Larkye La. 5160m

Up until Samdo we spent considerable time talking about what we would do before the pass: a massive day where you cross the highest point on the trek called Larkye La at 5200m. The last place to stop before it has no lodge or even a house, and our stove is not reliable at high altitudes so we needed to arrange a bed and food for the night. We knew the Dutch and English groups fairly well now, they both offered help. The Dutch were going over the same day as us and we ended up crashing their guides tent. They had a great cook who made us dinner and then breakfast at 4.30am. The stars were amazing when we got up, but it was bitterly cold, all the water in the tent froze, and the vapour from our breath covered the inside of the canvas in icicles. We set off before dawn and quickly hit the snows. The light up there in the mountains was unreal as the sun came up. It was a long time to the pass, wind, cold, sun, snow and ice reaching the Larkye La around midday. The worst was definitely to come, descending for 2/3 hours on ice, the miserable porters slipping and falling over in their cheap trainers. For my part I coaxed kathryn step by step, she doesn’t like going down.  Finally we collapsed on the floor when we got off the ice and stared out at our new surroundings: The other side of the pass brought spectaluar glacial scenery, 3 huge channels of boulders and ice coming off the backs of several high ranges that were very close, combining further down into one thumper that had thrown up an enormous moraine: unreal. We washed in a beautiful, gentle river, although the water was about as cold as it gets. We followed the moraine down down down until Bimthang, where we got on some well earned Rakshi. 12hr day. Bimthang was so isolated. We were surprised to see that the tiny tibetan lodge and the girl who ran it, so cheerful and welcoming, had a menu. A round of questioning narrowed it down to rice and potatoes.
It was another long hard day to the next settlement, this was really wild country. 2 hours saw us cross the loose rocky sandy icy dangerous terrain of the glacier next morning, then down down through boulder strewn pine forests and on down. No-one lives up here. It’s day 15. We are tired from the pass and look for signs of human life as we descend through the forests alongside a bright green roaring river.  Tilche, our destination after 7/8hrs walking is a proper village though, with a hotel, and after much negotiation we paid full price and through the nose for 2 beers!
Today we will join the Annapurna circuit and are excited about the comfortable lodges, choice of food and unprohibitive price of beer. It is not wild here: the path is maintained, schools, animals, hydro stations power the fridges – the beers are cold. Although we stuff our faces with good food, in relative comfort for the next 2 nights to Besi Sahar, the end of our trek, I’m glad we avoided this trek and so many tourists. We’d mostly hung out with Nepali people on this trip, and we’ve learnt loads including some language, and visited some pretty remote places.

We spent the next few days chilling by the lake in Pokhara, eating curry. We are back in Kathmandu now and leave to raft the Karnali river today. 24hr bus ride into the west of Nepal, 7 days on the river and then not sure where we’ll come back to. I’ve wanted to do this for 5 years now, and we’ve had our names down for this trip since arriving in Nepal. Not many trips go there because its remote and has some really big rapids. Surely that’s why you would want to go there?

We hired some mountain bikes and set out to see some of the traditional Newari towns of the ktm valley, besides the obvious and touristy Patan and Bhaktapur. Naturally we got pissed the night before and had some stuff to sort out before we left – getting a local SIM, finalising the costs of our trek and getting our passports and insurance details to ram so they could get the permits for Manaslu. Once again it was half 2 before we got the bikes but we decided to go anyway – didnt look that far on the map! It was surprisingly fun bobbing and weaving through the traffic in Patan and ktm, passing through the temple squares and loads of backstreets. With a lot of repeating the name of our destination and hand waving we found ourselves on the right road to Lubhu. Remarkably quickly we were in rural Nepal on single track road which then turned to dirt. Standard village with big temples and headed off up the hill for Panauti. This turned into a climb of epic proportions and we were quickly drenched in sweat, pushing our bikes up a mountain! Fortunately there was work being done on the “road” and 3 dumper trucks approached. We clambered up into the back with the workers and got a lift to the top which was good fun. Although we were going up a narrow 4×4 track in a lorry it felt a lot safer than our previous bus ride. After about 3 hours of descent through villages we reached Panauti, having ridden the last hour and half in the dark. We stayed in a nice hotel but ate at a grubby restaurant which made us ill the next day. Panauti was really cool. Loads of Newari buildings towering above the narrow winding streets.

Newaris are the original settlers of the ktm valley. They are famous for their wood carving and most houses have at least a few beautifully carved panels or windows, a lot of them are pretty amazing and combine with the red bricks to give the towns loads of character. We took many boring photographs of these.  Big three tiered temples with chanting and traditional life on the streets – grain, maize laid out all over the streets. School kids everywhere. Loads of flowers growing, a river and virtually no tourists. Drank a few milk teas at 5rps a pop and headed out for Namobuddha, bums already caning and feeling pretty drained. Another great dirt road through villages dodging chickens, goats and pigs and then another long sweaty bike pushing session and we made it. Quiet and peaceful, massive golden roofed buddhist monastery. Monks were going out their daily business and didn’t seem bothered about us looking around. 3 hours mostly on bone rattling downhill trails took us to Dhulikel. More choice of places, we stayed in this quiet guest house buried in some woods below town. Had an excellent Dhal Bhatt that night with veg from their garden. Also a bustling place with universities and on the main highway. Really nice classic Newari old town. Once again we mounted up – painful. SOmehow found the right road to nala and thimi, awesome flat dirt road through villages back the ktm where it was time to hit the rakshi. Last bit on the Arniko HIghway was mostly clouds of dust, thick diesel smoke and vehicles of all descriptions everywhere.
Anyway it was a good 3 days and we saw loads. Our sorry asses were pleased to get off though!
Today is last day before we Head to Gorkha and then start Manaslu circuit which looks amazing. 17 days in less visited area and cant wait to get back in the mountains.
No contact until back in ktm in about 3 weeks.
Wicked news about Baptiste and Martin coming to Goa…..