New Crystal Hotel Nepal Pokhara

... cheerfully offering a melodic 'namaste!' as we pass. The farmers humour us in response - they know the importance of tourism in these parts. Our pace is slow, influenced by life in the mountains. It's hard work living here, but people are happy. Clean water flows from the snowy peaks, and for the most part, the ground is lush and fertile. And anything they lack, well, it's a just a quick eight days down the Highway.

... for a number of days due to the bad weather and people were having to go back whilst others were waiting in Manang for better conditions. We struggled to find a guest house but luckily got a room at Yak hotel but it was overrun with big organised trekking groups and the place really wasn't aimed for independent trekkers as we later found out. Discovered the Manang bakeries though which were great, cakes and bread were great after a week of rice ...

... with our exposed flesh, for an agonizing hour or so it seemed and one tiny flashlight for one man and two paranoid women was not enough. As we walked on, we talked and kept laughing just to keep from thinking about what we had gotten ourselves into.

Then Raju told us a story. I was happy he was talking and helping us focus on him and his story and not on our supposed plight. We almost felt ridiculous as we worried about leeches when he told us that when he was ...

... Mahhapurche and Many more

... on the way back to the hotel as the rain still hadn't let up, and went to bed early for more sleep.

The next day was another much needed late start. I ate breakfast with Shane and Anni and Annette, and we decided to hire a boat out onto the lake. We slowly made our way into the town, and slowly rowed our way onto the lake. Poor Aussie Shane had to do most of the rowing, as us girls were far too feeble ...

Had a late start this morning although I had been up and ready to go at 6 a.m. My guide wasn't up and it seems that everybody was sleeping in so I just took in some views and waited. I do like early starts as then I avoid mid-day heat or afternoon rain. Anyway we start out around 9 a.m. and not long after the rain starts and doesn't stop!!! It is the start of the ...

... where there was no english anywhere and no one spoke it so we just stood on the dirt road and waited for a bus. I thought i saw a bus, which was actually a truck, and accidently waved it down. Ah well, this'll do we thought, and the driver said he would drop us in Dumre so we jumped in and each had our first hitch hiking experience in Nepal. Yes mum i know ur going to kill me. But the guy didnt kill us, he just dropped us off (for free!) and we got another jeep back to ...

... guest house just at it started to rain. Deciding that wet and in Jomson was better than dry and in Kagbeni we went back out to face the elements and luck was smiling on us. After another hours walk a jeep driver offered us a lift all the way to Jomson which we promptly accepted. Having been dropped on the outskirts of Jomson we walked along the stone paved streets, through the pouring rain, arriving at a police checkpoint with the appearance of two rather bedraggled rats, much to their ...

... on the roof and, anxiously lifting the curtain in my room, I saw that the stunning view had been swallowed by billows of heavy cloud. It was the kind of weather that, at home, would have me diving back under the duvet for the day. The monsoon was officially over but it seemed some stray clouds had gathered and burst over the Annapurnas. Knowing that monsoon downpours pass after a couple of hours I was happy enough to ...

... for the slightly more temperate Chure Hills. Flowers, although not in abundance at this time of year, were quite a common sight and most households seemed to have small gardens, some of which were very ornamental and pretty.

After our travels in northern India, Nepal seemed to us much cleaner and brighter. The people in villages seemed much more healthy looking and everywhere there seemed to be columns of immaculate-looking schoolchildren wearing identical school uniforms ...