Goodbye Varanassi

Well, I've spent about a week here now and have become accustomed to the place.

On my first day in Varanassi I arrived having not eaten since 5:30 that morning, I was tired from lack of sleep (India is much more noisy than Nepal), I was carrying my insanely heavy bag around, lost in the maze of streets being hassled by every single man that was selling or driving or just standing there.

Typical Varanassi rooftops

After washing, eating, sleeping, I felt much better. The next day I explored. I was ripped off by some money changer guy. I found a place where I wanted to do some yoga. I had breakfast at a place I'd highlighted in my book - the brown bread bakery. Then I bumped into the guy who had shown me to the hotel the day before - the tall man I had agreed to let show me the place where he designs silk products. I let him take me there as there was some other guy at the hotel who wanted to take me there and I figured it was the less of 2 evils. It was  a fine place for buying silk products, but I dont think I like silk. I did however buy 2 shawls - one cotton one kashmir? Cant remember now. But that was to be all my shopping. I must be more stringent with my money.

I asked to walk down the ghats - the places at the riverside - alone, my guide wanted to take me - but I have no money to spend on guides I dont really want anyway. It was interesting watching everybody down there - washing and swimming and cleaning in the sewage infested water... Strange, strange people. They consider it to be holy water... I dont know why. Maybe because it'd be a miracle if you dont get ill?  You get hassled a fair bit by boat men and by people selling postcards and generally by men who want to hassle you just for joy of hassling I suppose. I think a lot of them want to get money from people. I don't know why they're so persistant because I can't imagine they get that much business. Why is the women are so much less hassley? Why can't men be more like women? I found saying "no thank you " quite curtly seems to put them off.

One of the reasons that Varanassi is famous is that because many people believe that if you die here or are cremated here you break the cycle of reincarnation and go straight to heaven or something. There are 2 ghats where you can observe cremations. But there's always people who want to tell you about it and ask for money afterwards, so because of the increased hassle I usually moved on quite swiftly. Needless to say because of this being such a popular place to die there were lots of cremations going on - I saw 2 more coming back today. I guess there's lots of dead people in the river too then on top of all the other pollution.

I reached the end of the sort of pathway and was hassled by some street kids - so I took their photo to shut them up more than anything, then they asked for 50 Rupees. I laughed and left them to their business making schemes. I found a little cafe called the open hand - which once I arrived, I realised I'd circled that in my book too. It was awesome - good coffee and good chocolate cake - with beautifully generous portions. I also saw my first chipmunk here. I sat on the balcony - good for people watching, and cow watching.

Decided I needed to eat some Indian food for dinner later that day and ended up at this place which I had also circled in my book! 3 places in one day - all by accident. I had some delicious somosas there with curry. I went back several time. Their Thali was just Rs30 and it's like a full meal with top ups of everything if you want! Awesome.

Thali - (this is actually from another restaurant not the above mentioned...

Had a few lazy days. Whilst I've been here which mostly involve sitting in cafes writing stories and what not. I did decide that as Varanassi is a little bit famous for yoga and meditation I should do some of that here. So I spent 6 hours in total doing yoga classes over 3 days. The yoga guy was quite a character, and there were different people in the group each day. We did some chanting before we started - which was a little weird - it was in Hindi I think, the guy translated it to English for us, but expected us to be able to say it after 2 recitations - which none of us could as none of us spoke hindi, so we all just sort of mumbled through it. It was quite amusing. We did some vigorous yoga afterwards. I think I ended up hurting my back on the first day. (Stupid rowing exercises...) He also made us say affirmations like -' In the form of a spiral I follow my path to the divine where joy and peace are.'  That was a bit strange too. He's test us, after saying the affirmation himself getting us to recite it back - but we'd usually all forgotten. I was busy trying to focus on my posture! At the end of the session he did laughing meditation with us. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it wasn't. It felt a little awkward. On my first day, halfway through the lesson, the yoga teacher brought me and the other women to meet this australian couple who had been outside doing nasal cleansing. Then he showed them and us - how to clean your nose/mouth cavity out with a rubber tube! He inserted it through his nose, gagged a bit and coughed before reaching into his mouth to pull out the tube. He then pulled ont both ends of the tube backwards and forwards several time, bits of saliva and mucous dropping from his nose and mouth. He looked very pleased with himself when it was finished. We left the aussies to try it and went back to our yoga... thank goodness - I was already preparing how to politely decline doing it.

On another day I went out early in the morning - although not early enough to see the sunrise. But just to take a boat ride on the river Ganga. It was pleasant enough. It's funny the rickshaw men and the boat men sort of see themselves as guides, but they don't really seem to know what people want to see or how to explain what there is in particularly good English, making the whole exercise a little pointless. So my boat rower pointed to a temple and said it was the tiger temple, then he started pointing out hotels... I was glad I only asked for a half an hour ride.

the shop boat... there is no escape from these tradesmen!

I did do more shopping despite my best efforts - I've found the worlds most comfortable trousers and never want to wear anything else! I've also bought lots of Indian sweets. They're so sweet the guy at my hotel restaurant said I couldn't eat them because they were too sweet - and I was a bit like "look - you really dont know me... I eat sweets for breakfast - literally." Needless to say they were sickeningly sweet and I love them all. I have no idea whats in them most the time, but I particularly like the ones which are drowning in syrup.

I let a young girl do my henna tattoo. It's a peacock.

A few other things:
- There appears to be a lot of keen pigeon keepers...
- met more lovely New Zealanders... cant wait....

- I was almost trodden on by a water buffalo on my way here.

Anyway - I'm off to get some cake before I have to catch my train. I shall no doubt write another blog when I've adjusted to my surroundings in Kolkata. I'm hoping to work with the nuns, I wonder what they do for Christmas... 

The Indian Diaries

Well I arrived safely in India. It wasn't too difficult as it involved just walking between two gates... I suppose I could have tripped up....

Hopped on basically the first bus I saw - which was going to Varanassi - where I wanted to go - but I'd already booked a train from Gorakphur (3hours away rather than 7) so I thought I'd get dropped off there just the same as I could probably do with some train practise.

Gorakphur was like a road next to a railway station overlooked by a row of skanky looking hotels and dodgy restaurants. It was dusty, smelly, hot, there were many more men than women, and the whole place was just plain ugly. I don't think I'll go back. Hopped on a cycle rickshaw thingamy to take me to my hotel - the guy didnt say he didn't have a clue where he was going, I would have done better to walk there really. I'm pretty sure he ripped me off as well. Had a nap at the hotel (which I think ripped me off) to adjust to my unfamiliar surroundings. Then headed out at 4:30 for my first proper meal of the day (only eaten Parle g biscuits - has anyone else had these? I really like them... full of glucose goodness!) I stopped a random street restaurant as it said it was pure vegetarian - it was actually very tasty food. I also popped into a sweet shop on my way back to the hotel - they were very tasty too! Slept until 3 when a mosquito woke me up and then started getting ready for my train journey. The train left a 6:00 am but I wanted to get there an hour early just in case...

The journey was ok - I was sharing a 6 person little area with just one person. Yes it was a man who asked too many personal questions and also talked about how he enjoyed watching strip tease in Bangkok... but he did kindly share his sweets with me and tell me when to get off the train. (It was the same stop as him - but I ran off pretty quck as he kept trying to convince me to have dinner with him.)

I hopped on a 3 wheeled taxi thing to get to the Uma guest house - pretty much just cos the name was like Umi's and I wanted to take a photo. The driver dropped me off cos he said the roads from then on were too narrow... I got lost pretty much instantly and the weight of my what is probably 24kg rucksack was beginning to get to me. I was hot, tired, there were too many people, lots of them trying to get me to go in their rickshaws, there were lots of cars beeping, the place was quite smelly, and there were a few cows looking vaguely menacing. I almost cried. For the first time in 3 months, I felt ... unhappy. A random man passed me on to his friend to show me where the guesthouse was that I was looking for and then to take me to his afterwards if I didnt like it. It was a long walk. There were no rooms in my guest house. Thankfully, the one i was taken to -the Puja guesthouse had a room. I felt much better after I washed and had eaten lots in the restaurant on the rooftop which had safer views of the city and the ganges. I watched the sunset, and all the kites- thousands of them.  Then came looking for the internet. And here I am. I will go out exploring tomorrow.

Chitwan and Lumbini

I just wrote most of this and then there was a powercut... I best try and write a more condensed entry in case there's another. There'd already been one tonight so I thought I was safe.


Chitwan:

Arrived in Chitwan despite oversleeping and almost missing my bus! I'd sat next to a German girl called Katarina and ended up going to the same hotel as her - Jungle Adventure World. The individual little cottages were very cute and I claimed the first one I saw. On my way to discuss price I noticed 2 elephants out back so, grinning like a maniac I went to pet them. They were very... rough... But cute nonetheless. I explored the town a little, it was fairly dull and dusty.

The next day was a lot more eventful with a canoe ride at 7am where we saw multitudes of interesting birds as well as crocodiles. On embarking I commented on how wobbly the boat was and our guide said not to worry as the boat was named titanic. It would have been funny had the boat not been sat quite so low in the river after 10 people were sat in it. This was followed by a jungle walk with 2 guides with nothing but big sticks to protect us from an tiger, rhino or sloth bear we encountered. We started hunting for rhinos in long grass, and thankfully found none. Next we walked through the forest and saw interesting insects and more birds and 2 different types of monkey. Thankfully we did not encounter any tigers or sloth bears. Some may view this as a little disappointing - but I didn't fancy meeting one of these deadly animals without a stick of my own.

We arrived back at the hotel following a quick ferrying back across the river and had to instantly go and change so we could ride and wash Pinky the elephant- one of the ones i met the day before. She was most obliging, maybe because of the man with the metal stick with a pointy hook on the end. I still don't know how I feel about elephant domestication... but I'm pretty sure it's wrong. I didn't feel comfortable (morally) sat on Pinky. I just felt guilty really. I didn't go on for a second go. I hope she's happy.

We had a break for lunch - I just read Terry Pratchett though (I can't believe I've come to him so late! He's awesome) - then we went out for our elephant safari. Because of some mix up with our tickets, Katrina and I had to wait about a bit and went on a younger elephant that only takes 2 people. It meant we were faster than a lot of the bigger elephants. We were the first to see the spotted deer and the rhino - which I was still scared of even on an elephant. We saw a mongoose and more interesting birds and even a deer playing in a puddle. It's great how wild animals don't seem to notice you when your atop an elephant... The ride was more comfortable than I had expected and I thanked Laxmi, our elephant, as well as the rider at the end.

Katarina and I watched the sunset in the evening, then later I went to the Tharu cultural show which was just like lots of people dancing with sticks. It was ok, but I wasn't overly enthralled, perhaps a little lost on me. Also the guy introducing all the dances had quite an annoying accent.

Lumbini:

Another long (6hr) bus ride to another place. The bus ride itself wasn't so bad - at least they were proper roads but I think the driver was a bit of a maniac ignoring all the slow signs on a way down a particularly swervy hill.  I also ended up with some dust or something in my eye which now means I have blurred vision in my left eye. It has led me to contemplate how lucky we are to have 2 of everything otherwise I would be semi deaf and semi blind just 3 months into my trip. I have some eye drops that I bought for 20Rs from a pharmacy and it doesn't hurt quite so much anymore so I'm thinking it'll be ok.

in this temple is the stone that Buddha is said to be born on

We arrived and I shared a taxi from Bhairawa to Lumbini with 2 women and a 4 year old I met on the bus. I also ended up sharing a room with one of the ladies - Queenie - she's from the Philippines. We only share a room and don't really do anything together as she goes off with the other 2, we do keep bumping into each other in the only restaurant in town though. I don't mind because I appear to also have developed flu like symptoms and don't really want the hassle of having to talk to people.

Today, as it's my last real day in Lumbini I thought I should probably go and have a look at the temples - I rented a bike and cycled around all the temples for about 3 hours. I expected Lumbini to be a really peaceful place where I could sit and pray and chill out. But there weren't really any comfy looking sitting areas and there were swarms of pilgrims. A lot of the temples were under construction and it was quite dusty. The grass was dry and the weather hot. And I felt ill. After 3 hours exploring I had seen most of the Lumbini monastic grounds - although missed out on the Peace Pagoda and the crane sanctuary. When I realised I didn't bother going back as it was about 4km away.

I returned the bike and had some dodgy looking samosas which were quite tasty in this little fly infested popular local haunt. I then went for drinks and met Queenie and the others in the restaurant before going back to the hotel for a nap and to finish my Terry Pratchett book.

In other news:

So tomorrow, if there is no strike, I shall be off to India. My phone will no longer work - although I do have that other international sim... I'm not sure if I'll bother with an Indian sim card. I'm there for 2 months before heading off to some other Asian countries. This wasn't part of my original plan but I couldnt get a 6 month Indian visa which meant my flight to NZ was more expensive. I object to paying 200 more pounds when I'm doing the same travel - so I thought I'd spend that 200 pounds and probably a lot more on going to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Then NZ. And everybody said I should plan more... well here's to not planning.

I hope I can find more Terry Pratchett books in India.... I'm reading one by the Dalai Lama now. He says I must love everyone the same and not have favourites. I always thought I was quite good at being a generally fairly loving person... but Everybody has favourites... I'm not sure it's human not to have favourites... There's something for you all to think about.

Pokhara times

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

So relaxed right now... although today has probably been one of the more eventful of the past week. I'll start from the beginning.

While Marianne and Angie were still about we enjoyed (as far as I'm aware) going out for dinner together but spent the majority of the three days apart from one another. I spent my time, mostly shopping and drinking coffee and drawing/writing.

We spent one day visiting a Tibetan refugee camp - which made me a little sad - about their situation in general. I felt obliged to shop to make it up to them (just some jewelry and cymbals and prayer flags etc.). They had a carpet warehouse which was interesting - and I wanted many carpets but managed to restrain myself as any but the magical kind would be far too heavy to lug around India, plus, they were rather on the pricey side. There was also a guest house which apparently no one uses, Marianne explained it was probably because no one knew it was there... There was a monastry where we saw monks making a sand mandala. It was interesting. This was also the day that the three of us had dinner at Olive cafe - which if you go to Pokhara in the not too distant future will probably be the best restaurant on lakeside and you should go there. They didn't even pay me to say that. The croissants are actually rather good - I'm not sure what the other 'croissants' being sold here actually are... I've put on weight and I shall blame the chocolate cake with ice cream (I return to being vegan from tomorrow (I've said that most days this week.))


So I've been here a week and literally most of my diary entries are talking about my lazy days, and how I just sit around, drinking, eating, drawing, reading and writing and generally being a little peeved about the lack of mountains (the weather is, unusually for Pokhara, worse than Britain's at the moment.)

I made friends with the guys who work at the hotel Bednidhi and Purna as well as Bija -the guy who runs the bike rental out the front. This has made life much nicer as I've had someone to talk to. Having said that - as soon as Angie and I arrived here Pokhara felt like some crazy trekking reunion - it's great the number of people you bump into that you've been bumping into trekking. I also met up with the Scottish girls (not sure if I mentioned them previously) Jen and Ruthie, we went out to dinner a couple of times, and Jen and I went Pedaloeing on the lake which was fun despite the fact that the lake and surrounding scenery was just a blur of different shades of grey. I showed Jen this yoga retreat thing I had booked to go to for approx 3 days - we looked it up online - seeing how hardcore it all was (waking at 5!!! Nasal cleansing!!! Mud baths which were just pots shared in a garden!!!) I decided it wasn't the sort of retreat I wanted and as I was quite enjoying chatting to the hotel guys and Jen and Ruthie I decided to stay in town. Jen and Ruthie then left me to go there!

Jen had talked of visiting the eco village that the hotel Marigold, where I'm staying, runs. I was interested, so I spoke to the Bednidhi who tried to convince me to go there most days. To be honest - I was shamefully lazy (although everyone needs a break and lots of chocolate, especially after a trek) and the weather was just a tad oppressive and made me want to sit in cafes hugging coffees and books. So I did. Today I decided to go - So Purna and I cycled there - at my request - in part because conversations about my fat were beginning to get to me, but also because 20km didn't sound that far. (I did do it in under an hour before... ) So as it was up most of the way and we stopped a few times it ended up taking 4 hours to get there. It should have taken 2. And I've never been on a more uncomfortable bike ride! going uphill off-rode on a mountain bike with a saddle which I can only presume was made with steel is rather awful!
Then we arrived. It was so beautiful. I felt a little bit gutted immediately that I hasn't spent my week in this peaceful haven of marigolds and views of the frikkin' mountains! Even now I'm still not bored of seeing mountains - they're like fire or the sea. You can just stare indefinitely. Purna showed me where all the organic vegetables are grown, so I have lots of photos on my phone now of plants which I'll probably forget what they are when it comes to posting them on facebook. The little cottages where people stay were so quaint and the rooms named after mountains. The whole ethos of the place is right up my street - all environmentally friendly and what not. We had lunch and I met Purna's mother and father and brother and sister in law and their dog. There were no tourists there at the time. It would have been perfect for doing some drawing and writing. Don't dwell on it Mary, dont dwell on it.

the eco village : beautiful

And a few other things:

I've now seen the king's speech - at this delightful restaurant called T'hic T'hac or something... I ate a magic pot of something called Grandmother's secret and watched the movie. It was a wonderful evening. The manager also had a complementary drink sent to my table (ginger lemon and honey I think - I was a little worried it would be drugged so I drunk it slowly.... It wasn't.) I don't know why... I think maybe because I told him the A team wasn't the King's speech... they'd advertised the latter on a board outside..

I had a full body massage from a blind/semi blind person. There's this great place here where they train blind people in massage so that they can have an income. It was the hardest massage of my life so far, and I didn't really like it. But Marianne and Angie both liked theirs so maybe I'm just a little bit more of a woos than I realised...

I think that's it. I'm off to Chitwan National park tomorrow to see ANIMALS! How exciting. I'll let you all know how it goes. Although I may be in India when you next hear from me - who knows?

Trekking Adventure

Holidays!

I've been working for a couple of months and it was time for a little holiday. So I went to go on a trek to Annupurna Base Camp which can be found at 4130m above sea level... It was the most physically enduring thing I have done in my life to date I think. I'm taking an actual holiday now...

So after a 7 hour bus journey I arrived in Pokhara about 12 days ago - it's a town where you're surrounded by the mountains and a lake and its supposed to be really beautiful. It was very cloudy and rained when Angie and I arrived. Angie is Marianne's friend who went with me, Marianne had a dodgy knee and couldn't go in the end. The town had a chilled out vibe which seemed somewhat dampened by the weather. We only stayed one day and a night before heading off on our trek with Mani our guide.

Day 1:
trekked for about 5 and a half hours after a 2 hour taxi ride to our starting point Nayapul (probably spelt that wrong) It was an enjoyable day, starting gently through some towns on easy terrain but finally reaching steps that led upwards towards Ulleri (2073m). he lodges were all fairly basic. Rooms separated by a thin sheet of plywood, 2 beds squeezed into a room with enough space for one person to walk down the middle usually. They are quaint looking but cold - especially at altitude. Thankfully this was one of the few with a hot electric shower. Mmmm. Angie and I drank tea and ate biscuits (I ate slightly more) We had simple dinners and went to bed at about 8.

Both Angie and I woke in the night, I felt strange, probably needed the toilet so went but still felt strange when I returned, I told Angie I felt sick and she said she already had been and was going to make herself sick again. while she was in the squat toilet doing that I realised I too did need to vomit... where to go - we were upstairs and there was no other toilets. I went downstairs but the door to outside was locked! slight panic... I had to be sick over the edge of the balcony upstairs. I checked in the morning what I'd puked on - thankfully it was just unused ground slightly above where people are walking so I dont think anyone will have noticed... the birds will be able to feast on that little treat and no one will be any the wiser - other than Angie who I told in the morning.

Day 2:
Couldn't face breakfast and tried to sleep more. Mani wanted me to eat something; he just settled for just carrying my sleeping bag and toiletry bag that day. I think all three of us are pretty stubborn in our own ways. My instincts not to eat were right though, after about 50 steps upwards I vomited again by the side of the steps near some logs. It was a little embarrassing. Mani had been saying I wouldn't be able to walk without having breakfast as I'd have nothing in my stomach - I pointed out after the vomiting that NOW I didn't have anything in my stomach. Afterwards I felt a little better, I think it must have been something I ate... I did see the lodge man handling an uncooked chicken before preparing our meals, but all our food was cooked. Who can say - Mani reckons maybe we walked too far and couldn't cope - balderdash!

This day was supposed to be an easy day but it really didn't feel so - probably as I wasn't eating much. Angie and I got into our sleeping bags on arrival at about 3. I couldn't sleep for long as I was too cold - a 2 season sleeping bag isn't enough for these sort of treks (I was given extra blankets every night) . Had a luke warm shower and changed into thermals and sat with the other trekkers and porters and guides around a furnace in the communal lounge area. It was toasty - this lovely steel drum with a fire inside. Really all the lodges should do that - it was a great place to stay warm and be sociable. I convinced Angie when she joined me that we deserved chocolate bars for the days efforts - my vegan morals replaced by the need to be comforted by chocolate... We also ate proper meals. Chocolate the medicine for vomiting.

Day 3:
Had a memorable dream about a baby panda and Matthew exhibiting my drawings on a billboard in ridgeway.

A wonderful day - Downhills! I'm great at going downhills, I just sort of flop whereas other people keep trying to control their legs too much but if you just sort of run/fall it's all over and done with with much less expenditure of energy and without all the jarring of the knees.

Saw a glimpse of mountains through the clouds! We have seen only 1 other sighting of a ghostly mountain through clouds en route to Nayapul. The rhododendron forests were all misty and it was very atmospheric - like walking through some sort of story. I never knew rhododendrons could be such big trees - I just thought they were sort of big bushes. But they were huge - and covered in moss and other saprophytes. Beautiful.

Saw monkeys! Literally straight after I complained about the lack of animals.  They're quite big with black faces and white around the edge.

Met a NZ couple originally from England. We would meet many other times on the trip - as we did with other people also. But the conversations with these 2 were a little different from most - we talked about cartoons from our childhood - like he Moomins and round the twist. Good times.

Day 4:
[diary entry] My legs!
I probably should have done some sort of training for this, my legs hurt a lot this day and every time you turned in the night you would be woken up with the pain. We'd had to stop at a lodge Mani had never been in before because I don't think Angie and I could face walking up more steps for 45 mins. he lodge we stayed at was very nice though.

This was a tough day. Mostly steps. Mostly up. Mani said it was a 'gentle up' day. His idea of gentle is wildly different from my own idea of gentle. I have never walked up so many steps before - a lot of them are high and steep. They are not all equally placed - which actually makes it easier climbing them.

We arrived at our lodge and were put in the bunker bit of the lodge. Angie and I weren't enthralled - it was by far the worst place so far - a shed - under the seating area above, made of corrugated iron. But I heard another trekker say something about the amazing shower and I suddenly didn't care anymore. Had a hot shower and a chocolate bar and sat in the communal area chatting to some Aussie's and a Dutch man who had all been to base camp but seen nothing but clouds.

Day 5:
[Diary entry] Oh.My.Goodness.My.Legs.

So my legs weren't any better today. Not until I got walking.

More majestical cloud mountains... stopped at a place called Himala for lunch- it took ages and wasnt very nice.

Arrived at another place called Deurali - there's lots of them- to rest for the night. I felt bloated and could eat no dinner and was having some fairly savage farts and felt very cold.

[Diary entry] Why am I such a devastating wreck of illness at the moment. Bloody Nepal - I don't know why I like it here.

I got up 4 times in the night to have diarrhea.

Day 6:
Porridge for breakfast was good. We only had a 2 hour walk to go to Machhupuchhre base camp (its the name of another high mountain)which was just as well as I'd needed the toilet for most of the way. It was through this flat grassy area a lot of the way that reminded me of the Lord of the Rings when Sam and Frodo walked through the misty marshes was it? The rivers had started freezing over around these parts and there were beautiful ice crystals decorating some rocks.

 I ate lots of chocolate and biscuits and hot chocolate (medicine food) when we arrived. It's much colder up here -3700m and it started snowing as we arrived and became more severe. Angie read and I drew pictures and wrote stupid stories which is what we do when we arrived at most of the lodges. We also chat to other trekkers - there were lots of very tall Germans here about to climb one of the mountains... they were all clearly insane. The porters here were lovely. One helpful man recommended I asked for combination tomato and garlic soup when I asked which was better  - it was very tasty. The pizza here was also magical.

Day 7:
Alarm woke us up at 4:30 to leave by 5, walking through the dark and snow to get to Annapurna base camp (ABC)
[Diary entry] Wow! I just don't think words can express how amazing mountains are.

We didn't need to carry bags t the top - although Mani carried a few bits and bobs. I was glad to be warmly wrapped - although just as we were leaving Mani did point out that I'd forgotten my coat (wind sheeter) Oh well - I had a balaclava and 2 wooly jumpers on. A few people had already braved the route before us so we had snowy footsteps to follow. It was easy walking on the crunchy snow, and quite exciting walking in he dark - it felt like Christmas. As the light started coming up Angie and I kept stopping to take photos. nd as the sun rose on our journey there we could see the mountains in the distance light up as though they were on fire. My photos do not do justice to just how stunning it was. We reached base camp at 4130m and were satisfied. I had a snickers and hot chocolate to celebrate. Angie was more restrained.

[Diary entry] I do love mountains -and snow - and long johns (who would have thought?) - me vegan walking boots - which survived! - people - my balaclava- wristwarmers- wooly jumpers- hot choc. and snickers - having firm thighs again (even if they are still surrounded with flab) - spectacular views - life in general.

We went back to MBC for breakfast and had an easy walk downhill - if a little slippy and wet in the slush. My feet got wet despite having been dry all the way up to ABC! Angie and I walked together and Mani went ahead to try and find us a lodge. There was a little confusion when he wasn't where we expected so we continued to walk and walked a lot further than expected. All the way to a place called Bamboo - we met Mani coming the other way to tell us there was no room unless we slept in the dining room. When we arrived there he got us room in a tent! It was remarkably cosy - especially when the gammy leg dog slumped down next to me in the night - there was a partition he must have half unzipped...

Day 8:
Easy day. Mostly down  - with LOADS of steps up to Chomrong - but it wasn't nearly as bad as expected. We kept byumping into people we had met earlier in the trip. There were some Nepalese boys I'd met coming back from ABC (they kept falling over) and we had some hot choc and special oreos at Sinuwa (where we slept in the bunker before) before braving the steps to Chomrong where we were going for the famous chocolate cake - they served it at the chomrong cottage where Mani booked us rooms. When lured by chocolate cake I am clearly unstoppable and even he swarm of bees didn't deter me (although I did go down a few steps when I noticed) I arrived at the cottage just as the NZ couple were leaving - they informed me the cake was wonderful. I waited 20 mins for Angie and Mani to catch up. We were shown to our room which had the most amazing views of Machhpuchhre - the fishtail - and another mountain... I forget which. The room was warm and the day was clear. Everything was wonderful. We had choc cake and I ordered 2 pizzas that night for dinner - they were very good!

There were more lovely people here - some interesting Scottish girls, and there was a NZ(?) girl who had a bird book - very interesting - and a Beached Az flask! So cool.

Couldnt sleep as I was listening to music and the stars and mountains were just too beautiful!

Day 9:
[Diary entry] My thighs are so delightfully firm.

Trying to focus more on looking for animals now after seeing the bird book - there are loads of really cute little birds!!!  the journey was more even but still mostly down - love it.

We stopped in bee hive view lodge for lunch - you can see wild bee colonies on the cliffs opposite - they looked like little black dots. The place didn't have any of the bees honey... honestly - it's supposed to have drug like properties! I wanted to try some. Mani was quite relieved that I couldn't...

We carried on walking and stopped at Syauli Bazar. It was much warmer now, I bought a lovely turquoise necklace from this Tibetan girl - it cost 700Rs she told me to tell people it cost 1200Rs. We had a tasty Dahl Bhat with Iscus in the tarkari (curry). Mani explained to me that iscus is a type of squash! So interesting!

Day 10:
Final day. Finished the walk in about 2 hours or a little less. Stopped at Nayapul for fizzy drinks and chocolate.

The views are still there.The whole journey down has just been beautiful - so much easier than the trek up and I've not been ill. I'm so glad I've done it. Such a great thing to experience even with all the little struggles.

I'm glad to be able to be somewhere I can relax properly now though. I shall eat lots of cake for the next week and then be a healthy vegan when I reach Chitwan.