Dreaming while lying on rooftops

It's festival time over here so the buses are full & there's lots of activity! Large swings made out of huge bamboo trunks have been erected all over the place for the local kids to enjoy - we began seeing these pop up towards the end of our trek in each of the villages. These are only erected at festival time. The local kids kindly let me have a swing which was fun ;) It's the biggest festival of the year for Nepal - similar to our xmas back home (as the majority of the population are Buddhist or Hindu so don't celebrate xmas).
Kylie, Rita (our Estonian friend) & I were travelling back to Kathmandu yesterday & due to the buses being so full we spent the second leg of our journey on the roof. We weren't the only ones up there though...there were plenty of sheep travelling on the top of the bus which was hilarious. The first 3 hours were spent either chatting away to each other or lying down starring up at the clouds contemplating life. However, as the sun began to set & the night became cool we started to want the warmth of the inside. As we got within an hour of Kathmandu the traffic slowed right down & at the next stand still we hopped off the roof & squeezed in between all the locals inside. It took 8 hours to travel 185km!!!!! Luckily we got creative & decided to break the 8 hours of road travel with a 3 hour rafting trip in the middle of the day. Such fun! We were so glad to have a shower last night at the end of our 12 hour day, as we had eaten our fare share of dust.

There's so much colour in Nepal. It is so common to see ladies working hard in the field or carrying large baskets of potatoes & the like wearing gorgeous colourful outfits that we would only consider wearing if we were heading into the city for the day or somewhere special. It adds so much colour to the environment. The turquoise & red colour combination is my favourite - it looks gorgeous against their mocha coloured skin.

While we were staying in Pokhara a group of us from the Buddhist meditation course climbed up to Sarangkot which is situated just near Pokhara at an altitude of 1592m. A 'cruisey' 2hour walk straight up allowed us to enjoy views of Macchaputre (fish tail) & many other mountains at sunset. We also saw a beautiful beaming ray of sunshine peaking out from behind a cloud as it set behind the mountain & the horizon moved through the pastel colours. Pokhara is positioned on a large lake so this also added to the panorama. My calves are really noticing all of these mountains that just go straight up!

The Buddhist meditation course was fantastic over the weekend. Some new thoughts to contemplate surrounded by lovely people & a peaceful setting. The monk who taught the course was very well travelled & incredibly wise. We all thought it was too short though. We were required to keep silence from 8pm, after our last meditation till 7am each morning. Hard for some of the chatty characters!

I learnt the other day that if you're unlucky enough to be involved in a road accident here in Nepal & go to jail for killing someone it's quite easy to bribe your way out with cash. However, if you kill a cow that's a different story! You're often in jail for up to 12years. Who makes these rules?! I guess that's why the cows roam freely over the roads as if they own the joint.

Hugs from me xoxo