It's been a really busy few days!! We were in Pokhara on Thursday and then early on Friday morning we began a 7 hour bus journey to Kathmandu through the mountains and windey roads again!! It's a great way to travel around, we got to see the Nepali countryside which is beautiful!Before arriving at the hotel in Kathmandu we stopped off at the monkey temple up on a hill at the edge of the city, so it had great views. There weren't actually many monkeys there though, just more Buddhist temples with lots of prayer wheels. Buddhism was definitely more prevelant in Nepal than India.

We met Jo's brother Dan at the hotel - he'd been in Nepal for 10days teaching psychiatry to some doctors and it worked out well that he had the weekend in Kathmandu too! It was so nice to have someone with us. We just wandered around the streets in the Thamel area which is the main part. It wasn't that busy at all, much cleaner and not so invasive. There are lots of stalls but they're more like shops so it all seemed a bit nicer there than in India. It was our last night with the STA group so we all went for a nice meal and Dan came too. We said goodbye to our leader Atul who was really upset, you'd think he'd be used to it by now but we were definitely his favourites haha! We actually had fun and chatted to him etc! The Canadians and Ashlea were staying in Kathmandu all weekend so didn't have to say bye to them.

Dan, Jo and I got a taxi to Bharakdepur on Saturday which is a district just out of Kathmandu. The architechture was so nice, pink bricks and dark wooden windows. There were lots and lots of pagodas and stupas everywhere which are really impressive, so was really glad to see it. We then came back to central Kathmandu and and walked around Durba square and then found a roodtop cafe which views all over the city, so we stayed there for a couple of hours topping up the tan!! The buildings are quite funny - just all of the floors stacked on top of each other, so they're really skinny and tall, but not in a very stable kind of way! We then had dinner with the Canadians and Ashlea at an Italian, which was sooo nice!

Sunday was a more chilled day, we just wandered around Kathmandu some more and went over to Patan, 15minutes from the centre where it's a little less touristy. Had the most random experience so far... Dan, Jo, Ashlea and I were just around the back streets and were watching this lady throw rice and colour on to a little god statue, she saw us and was like come to my home, come to my home. We were a bit unure at first but she insisted so we followed and she took us to her home which was lovely, she was obviously fairly wealthy. Lots of her family were around and she made us tea and insisted we satyed for food too but we made our excuses and went. It was so nice though, she was just so welcoming!! We found a rooftop cafe again and got lunch overlooking Patan...more pagoda temples, and then just came back to the Thamel are in Kathmandu again for a bit. We had to go back to the hotle and pack etc and so said goodbye to the Canadians and Ashlea and then went to the airport to get our flight to Hong Kong!!

We arrived Hong Kong early on Monday, didn't get any sleep on the plane. Terry (the great-uncle) met us at the airport which was so quiet at that time in the morning!! They live 10 minutes from the airport on Lantau so we had a big cup of tea and showers etc and then set off out for the day. Terry was so so kind and came around with us for the day as her wasn't at work, so he showed us pretty much all there is to see in Hong Kong, was great! We went to Silvermine bay on Lantau first and had Chinese for lunch, proper chinese though so was lovely! We then caught the boat across to Hong Kng island and got a taxi to Stanley market which is where Johanna's Grandad lived and fought in the war! Was a nice part of the island (right at the south), ut mainly for tourists now. We then got a bus in to the central area in the business district and Terry showed us the main drinking area where the young people go..Lankwaifong and then we got the famous star ferry over to Kowloon, so we saw great views over to the island! We went to Nathan Road which is famous too and then went in ide the Penninsula hotel which is like the Ritz and then got dinner over there too before getting the MTR back to Lantau. Hong Kong is amazing, I love it so so much. All of mu life I've wondered what it's like as Terry and Kelly lived here, so it's great to finally see it. It's so clean, and just generally has a fantastive vibe about it. I love the skyscrapers at the bottom of the mountains with the sea too, so when you're walking around you can smell the sea air..never been to a city like it!! I could so live here for a bit, there are so many Westerners around! The only bad thing is the haziness, the pollution from China which makes it impossible to see much, but it kind of adds a character to it. So Monday was great, so kind of Terry to take us around. Today Jo and I went around on our own as Terry had to work. We went up to the peak on the island, so had a great view from up there and then went on the longest escalator in the world and then just wandered around the business area which has the nice shops and then went to Lankwaifong where we got a couple of glasses of wine and dinner. We came back to Terry's and chilled out for the evening with a gin and tonic, although not as strong as Grandma's (He told the story of you and Grandad turning up in France with a bootfull of gin for a 2week holiday haha). So yeah it's been a fantastic couple of days in Hong Kong, definitely want to come back at some point!! On to Hanoi tomorrow!!