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On our last day in Delhi, Sarah and Mark took us to a fabulous hotel for Sunday lunch. We arrived at 11.45 and left around 5pm. It was a help yourself buffet with free-flowing champagne. Fabulous!!
By the time we arrived back at Sarah's we were shattered! Eating and drinking can be exhausting, but what a fab way!! to spend an afternoon!

Pampering at the Plaza

After a great night's sleep and a welcome lie-in bed Sarah took me to the Health Spa for a spot of relaxation and a pampering session. We lay by the pool side sunbathing after a while I tested the water (with my toe) however, it was freezing so I resumed the sunbathing! After a couple of hours we had a manicure and pedicure. Unusually, this was done by men. They were very thorough, ending the session with a arm and lower leg massage. Afterwards I felt relaxed and very clean!

Back to Delhi!

Arrived in Delhi around 7pm on Friday evening. Our plane was delayed. It was great to see Sarah and mark again and we spent a great evening eating a fantastic home cooked Indian meal and looking at our photos on their television.

Bhaktapur

We rounded off our time in Kathmandu with a trip to the Aincient town of Bhaktapur. It was like stepping back 200 years through time. We watched women and children drawing water fron wells in the middle of the town square, washing clothes outside their doors, feeding goats and geece by their front door and women knitting, spinning wool and hanging wool out to dry in the sunshine after it had been dyed.
Our plane leaves for Delhi today.

Kathmandu

Returned to Kathmandu to view some of the surrouding sights. This included the biggest Tibetan stupa outside Tibet, where hundreds of worshippers walk clockwise around its base. More and more Buddists join the procession as sunset approaches, chanting and spinning prayer
wheels as they do so.
It was a welcome relief to sit in a rooftop cafe and observe this as moments earlier we had visited a very important and sacred Hindu site where we were to witness the cremation of those dead whose families could afford such an elaborate ceremonial send-off!

Pokhara to Bandipur

After almost a week in quiet, peaceful Pokhera we decided it was time to move on. We were hoping to visit Royal Safari park at Chitwan, however, this did not seem possible due to a political situation in the area. So, we decided to visit a small village called Bandipur which is situated way up in the hills on our way back to Kathmandu.
Bandipur was small, very local and rather strange. We stayed overnight in a unique guest house which was furnished with a wealth of Buddha artifacts. Unfortunately, the spectacular views we were hoping to see were obscured by dust (apparently from the Rhajistan desert) which seems to be hanging like a mist over the majority of Nepal at the moment.

Paragliding over Mt Sarangkot

Today Rob gave me my belated valentine present ' A paragliding session!!!!
We were collected by minibus early in the morning. There was a feeling of great excitement as everybody was celebrating the colour festival of Holi. The paragliding pilots all had their faces painted with brightly coloured powder paint. Many of them rode on the roof of the mini-bus throwing coloured powder paint and water filled balloons at the passers by (many of them retaliated in a similar way)!! We were taken to the very top of mt Sarangkot, a beautiful spot which overlooks the whole of Pokhara. I was given my pilot Armand (a wiry little french man) He seemed very pleasant and explained the rules to me; 'when we take off, you must keep on running even when we leave the top of the mountain' (EEK)!! He told me how to lean to the left and the right when we were in the air and showed me a picture of the birds we might see while we were in the air; Vultures and Eagles!!
I was strapped into my harness, the parachute was unfurled and Armand had his harness on and, before I had time to be too worried, we were running towards the edge of the mountain!! The parachute dragged us back but we still ran then all of a sudden, we were flying way above the top of the mountain, looking down on the paddy fields below us!! Ahmand told me the weather conditions were perfect (the previous day there had been strong winds and many people had vomited!!) We soared way above the mountain and spiralled up into the thermals with an enormous vulture! Luckily Armand did not have another flight so we were able to stay in the air for longer than usual. All too soon, we were heading towards the lake side where we were to land. I did feel slightly dizzy as we spiralled down towards the lake, I did not fancy the idea of a wet landing!! The landing was good. However, I forgot to keep running and flopped down onto my knees. We quickly packed away the parachute and walked a few yards back to the office. A fantastic day!! What a great Valentine present!!!