Friday 28/3/08 - Sunrise on the Ganges! Up at 5am and off on a short coach trip to get as close as possible to the Main Ghat on the banks of the River Ganges in order to watch the sun rise. Paused a while on the bank to see hordes of people arriving to perform their morning devotions - which for many included not only washing in the river, but cleaning their teeth in it as well. We discovered later that this has to be a hazardous exercise, as a local newspape...

NEW AUTHOR IN TOWN - WELCOME MASTER IAN PARKER!! Thursday 27/3/08 - Border Crossing into India and 10 Hour Bus Journey to Varanassi! Today was an early start to get us out of our hotel by 7.15am. Baggage was piled into a couple of tuk-tuks, whilst we squeezed into some others for the short ride to the border post at Sunali. Glad we weren't crossing in a vehicle as there was a queue of lorries at least two miles long on the Nepalese side of the border, al...

Day 90 – Bus to Lumbini, the Birthplace of BUDDHA! After saying good bye sadly to half of our group we joined our new group and this time the brits were definitely outnumbered by the Ozzies!! Joining us were 3 girls and a guy from Oz and a cool couple from South Africa. The roads were similar to before, dry, dirty and poverty stricken as we headed closer and closer to the border with India. Going to see the birthplace of Buddha was quite an experience an...

Jungle Safari Chitwan National Park and Riding on Elephants! After drying ourselves off in a small toilet hut on the side of the road, we had our last picture taken with Johnny Depp!!! then boarded the bus heading for Chitwan NP. We were all pretty exhausted by this point and watched as we drove through smaller villages, less populated than other areas; it was as though the further we moved away from Kathmandu the more barren the land became…. One old ...

White-water rafting Nepalese style! Following our "expedition" into the mountains we were ready for our next adventure. Nik and I have got so used to doing these new and wonderful experiences that it may seem from reading these entries we don't appreciate what we are doing and how lucky we are. Well we do and it’s great. Wahoo!! After viewing Machupuchre and Annapurna South and co how could we follow that up? Well next on the itinerary was a trip down the...