Billy The Kid has a terrible itch

but wonderful markings!

To Kathmandu
This morning we were all up early – Raju to go to his University for 6.am till 11 as usual – the rest up to see me off. Sanja passed a couple of incense sticks around me and he and Ajamburi both blessed me with rice tika on the forehead and each of them put a cream scarf around my neck to ensure a safe journey. Then Sanja and I leapt on the motorbike, with my suitcase between us on my knees and sped to the bus field where I bought a cinnamon bun for the journey and hugged Sanja goodbye. I should think they are glad to see the last of me, not only because they can now have their bedroom back but also it is so tiring having a guest to think about for so long. It has been a wonderful stay but my visa is running out...

There was another first last night when Sanja carried both Ajamburi and me home together on his motorbike. It is a really rough road and I've had difficulty walking it in the day, let alone in the dark. I walk with a very high step now. But on a motorbike you don't have time to savour the Queen of the Night scent which always stops me in its tracks and the little fireflies flitting here and there. With Ajamburi tucked between us I felt every bump through the carrier bars!

The bus route to Kathmandu is always a delight – I always go POSH if I can: Port side out from Pokhara and Starboard home coming from Kathmandu – because if it is sunny that is the shady side and it is the side of the river and the ravines and sometimes the view of the mountains. To start with the latter were hidden today by low cloud and it was misty. I have been blessed by over 3 weeks of sunny days of about 22' (last year at this time it was cloudy with lots of rain). My Japanese seat neighbour told me it was his second time to Nepal. He spent 3 days in Kathmandu, 4 in Pokhara and is flying home tomorrow. So he's spent 4 days in 9 travelling! He has a shop selling apples in Kyoto - apples grow well there and he sells juice, dried apple and apple cider vinegar too. Must be doing well. There is always so much to see but he slept the whole way and missed the landslide scars on the mountain sides, rock falls, rapids with some white water rafters bouncing about in them, the shapes and colours of the houses, the tirelessly maintained terraced fields, the gravel works and stone gathering from the river beds and sides, the brick factories, people making things beside the road, so many wonderful vegetables and fruit, particularly oranges now in season, cabbages growing huge, fish farms, drying millet and peanuts on straw or bamboo mats, washing themselves at the pump or standpipe, children going and coming from school and in one place having lessons in the playground for the cloud burned off and it became sunny. I saw one school bus that belonged to The Super Catalyst Academy!

The lorries always amuse me with their signs. Many of them are made by TATA in India and sport ROAD KING or SPEED CONTROL on the front along with gaudy tinsel and paintwork and on the back might be NEXT TIME or SEE YOU and one had MOTHER IS GOD and on the two mud flaps it said DON'T LOVE and LOVE IS PAINFUL!!! There were lots of what are called mountain dogs lying around (they have curly tails over their backs) and lantana shrubs were lining the route and showing their varied colours as they were new compared to the dust covered leaves. The saddest thing was the amount of litter but they are making an effort to recycle the plastic and I suppose paper will rot during the monsoon.
Unfortunately I could only take pics through the glass window but if you have the energy here is the link