Oh, I forgot to mention tomorrow's celebration! Tomorrow there is a big festival in Nepal. It is the Hindu festival of Shiva the destroyer, 'Shivarati' it is called. The men (and boys are allowed to smoke any kind of hallucinogenic substance without reprimand. Apparently, the monks are the most ardent users!!!

Pokhera

We have really enjoyed our week in Pokhera. Most of our time has been spent relaxing. Our Guest House has been fabulous. It's owned by three brothers who were all born there and still live in the house in the garden. The majority the food they serve is grown in their garden and they each take turns to cook the breakfasts. It has such a homely feel that some of the other guests are there long term. There is a Canadian guy in the room below us who has been staying there on and off for years.
We hired a boat yesterday and rowed across to the other side of the lake. We spent most of the day walking uphill through a shady forest to a beautiful stupa. There were tea houses along the way to stop at if we felt thirsty.
Tomorrow we have planned to start our trek into the Annapurna mountain range. It will probably take us two weeks to visit the places we have planned to see and unfortunately, there will be no internet to update my blog. However, I'll update as soon as we return.

The tranquility of Pokhara and its lakeside

Home of Living Goddess

The Living Goddess makes a brief appearance at midday from the window of her 'home'. Photos are strictly prohibited at that time otherwise the perpretrator will suffer a hideous trekking accident.

Kumari Festival, Durbar Square, Kathmandu

Durbar Square Yogi

Maxine with her spiritual advisor!

Durbar Square

A world Heritage site Durbar Square is home to a vast array of historic buildings

Sunset Kathmandu

Sunset as viewed from Monkey Temple

Sunset at Monkey temple Kathmandu

Stupa in Kathmandu

Religious stupa on the way during our walk to Durbar Square

Local Mecca for Sikhs

Nice bus journey from Kathmandu to pokhara which took about 7 hours. Staying in a very relaxed guest house within a short distance from the lakeside and its restaurants . Weather almost perfect, sunny but hazy the Hymalayas are visible until the afternoon. made the mistake of drinking several hot Nepali wines whilst watching a traditional dancing show and still suffering the after-effects which resemble altitude sickness, something I think we are going to experience in the not too distant future. Will plan on taking a rowing boat across the lake followed by a steep climb to a stupa which overlooks the whole of Pokara. Ideal conditions for paragliding with good thermals which allow 40 minutes of flight time and is very popular here, being the only place in Nepal where it is practised. Unable to download photos at this moment but will attempt to do so later

Kathmandu

Robs better now so today we caught a taxi to the Immigration office we needed to extend our Nepalis visas for an extra week to include our trek into the mountains next week. It was a bit tricky but we managed it in the end! Sadly I haven't been able to download any photos recently because there are lots of power cuts here and I have to grab the Internet when I can. It leaves little time for downloading pictures as there are always a lot of people waiting to use the Internet.
After we visited Immigration we took another taxi to Durber square. It is a massive complex of 16th and 17th century Hindu temples and Royal palaces. It was an extraordinary place. We saw a living child goddess. (she was around 5 yrs old. The guide told us she was selected to be the living goddess from an ancient family line. It was very interesting. Unfortunately no photographs were allowed to be taken of her.
Tomorrow we catch the early morning bus to Phokera from there we intend to organise our trek an the Annapurna circuit.

Kathmandu

We arrived in Kathmandu yesterday around noon and quickly got a taxi to our Guest house. I had expected the weather to be much cooler here but it was 25 degrees!! However, it got cooler towards the evening.
Nepal although a poorer country than India appears to be much cleaner.
The Guest house is off the main street and has a lovely garden with tables, chairs and soft cushions. Our room is massive, spotlessly clean and simply furnished. It has big Indian quits to throw over the bed during the night when the temperature drops. The bed is rock hard though!!!!
The streets here are narrow and winding with no pavements to walk on and you have to be constantly on guard for cycle rickshaws, motorbikes and the occasional car. They sell a multitude of hand knitted hats and socks, felted slippers and bags, fake mountaineering clothing and camping gear and trekking tours.
Today the weather is slightly cooler and Rob isn't well, it's either the beginning of a chest infection or something he's eaten. He usually comes down with something during our holidays!

Flying into Nepal today. Will update when We are there!

Arrived back in Delhi after a horrendous night on the train. A small furry creature running across my head in the night is not a pleasent feeling! so, tomorrow we fly to into Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

More Photographs of Amritsar

A man at the station told Rob he was a very handsome man. What do you think?

We ate a great meal at the temple!

Guards at the boarder control gave a great display.

The Golden Temple

We reached Amritsar early on Saturday morning. It was still dark when we arrived so we caught a rickshaw into the city. We were lucky to catch our 1st glimpse of the golden Temple just as the sun was rising.
It's hot and sunny here in Amritsar (the holiest of places if you are a Sikh) It has the most beautiful golden temple set in the middle of a lake. People come here from all over India (and the rest of the world we met a guy from Luton here today) on pilgrimages to visit the holy temple. To enter, you must remove your shoes and anything else which is made of leather and cover your head. Then you walk around the temple in a clockwise direction. The mail building and the pavements are built of white marble which shines in the sunlight. The perimeter of the temple is shady and there is a carpet to walk on which is great as it gets hot and slippy with water as people dip themselves into the holy water of the Nectar lake which surrounds the golden temple in the centre. Volunteers prepare food in a 24 hour kitchen to provide a meal for every cast and faith. It's great food!
We also went to the boarder control yesterday. That was very interesting too. It is on the boarder of India and Pakistan. The guards meet in no-mans-land for a ritual ceremony of high kicks, stamping and head flicking, it's about as aggressive as they can get without actually touching each other. Both sides shout abuse at each other in an atmosphere of controlled hysteria. Very interesting!!
Tonight we travel back to Delhi on the overnight train

This morning we went to the university to buy train tickets to Amritsar. We travel tonight at 7pm on the sleeper train and arrive at 5.10. Then we have to find a hotel!!!

We are planning to visit the Golden Temple tomorrow morning and the Pakistani border in the evening. Hope we manage to fit it all in.

Sarah took us shopping yesterday to buy some appropriate Indian style clothing. The weather is getting hotter and when visiting religious sites care must be taken not to cause offence (Rob had to wear a yellow Sarong because his legs were causing offence) Arms and legs (and head) must be covered. We plan to travel to the Sikh temple at Amritsar soon.

followed by a very tasty snack!

After walking round for a few hours, we joined the locals for a refreshing cup of spicy chi tea!

Blue sky-Red fort, green and yellow moto-rickshaw Delhi

Arrived in Delhi on Sat 1st of February. Sarah's driver met us at the airport and took us to her apartment. The apartment is in a different area to where we last stayed and it's quite a way out from the centre of Delhi. There is a park nearby which has cows and big, black, hairy, wild pigs roaming about in it. There is also a small shopping mall which sells everything from clothes to cups of spicy, chi tea. We've been buying small meals called Chaats which are lovely and spicy.

Brij, Sarah's driver has shown us some fantastic places this past week. He has picked us up each morning and taken us to see temples, places and forts which I'm going to download