After Varanasi our plan was to go to Pokhara in Nepal. This meant 1 overnight train, 2 buses and a border crossing! Our train from Varanasi to Gorakhpur, a town 3 hours from the Nepalese border, was scheduled to leave at 12:30 at night. We arrived in plenty of time and all the announcements and boards told us the train would be on platform 1 at 12:30. A train arrived at 12:30 onto our platform and of course it was a totally different one! So for the next 2 hours we sat listening to announcements that the train would be at 12:45, 01:00. 01:15, 01:30... etc. Until it eventually arrived at 2:30. In all fairness that was probably the first time any of our Indian trains have been delayed so we can't complain too much. We got what sleep we could and actually made up some time on the journey so were only an hour late getting in. Bit of a shock as I'd only just woken up as the train pulled in!
 
When we got off the train we were immediately collared by a guy trying to sell us bus tickets to the border. We'd usually ignore people like this as there's usually something fishy going on but I think due to fatigue we decided to listen to him. So we warily booked ourselves on the next bus to the border and also an onward ticket to Pokhara. We were assured that we'd definitely be in Nepal before the bus left and that the bus would wait for us anyway. Obviously this wasn't the case! We arrived 15 minutes after the bus left which of course hadn't waited for us. After some words were said to the Nepali side of the operation we agreed to get on the next bus leaving at 4:30pm and were able to use a room in the adjoining hotel to freshen up. Not so bad after all we thought. Until we got on the bus and were told we wouldn't arrive until 5am!!! After originally being told 2am we were not happy – unfortunately it was either live with it or not get on a bus that day!
 
The bus journey itself was mental. Tearing round corners in a bus with little or no suspension meant we couldn't sleep (Think Ace Ventura when he's bouncing around in his jeep). To make doubly sure of this the bus driver also played Nepali music at full volume all night! So when our bus stopped for seemingly the millionth time and the music stopped we thought we'd take the opportunity for a power nap. It was 3:30 in the morning and no-one else had got off so we'd definitely not reached our destination. 3 hours later I awoke to find that we hadn't moved, the bus was empty and someone was asking us if we needed a place to stay in Pokhara! We sheepishly got off the bus and made our way to our guest house. We were greeted there by the smiling friendly owner and a small Nepalese man selling a huge array of warm cinnamon whirls, danish pastries, apple buns and croissants that had only come out of the oven a matter of minutes ago. We were convinced we'd died on the bus journey and we were having a heavenly experience. India this was not!
 
Our time in Pokhara was lovely. They had restaurants that did western food well, actual bars and just an amazing relaxed atmosphere all around the town (well the touristy bit anyway). All next to a beautiful lake and within sight of the Annapurna mountain range. To say we were impressed was an understatement. The main point of coming here though was to organise a trek which we did with the help of our guest house owner Raj. He was really friendly and sorted out a porter/guide for us so we wouldn't get lost or need to carry our big bag! We had to postpone the trek a few times due to illness, Hannah this time not me, which was quite lucky in a way because we got to celebrate the Hindu festival Holi (the festival of colours) which basically means you throw paint powder at total strangers and they do the same back. Was really good fun :)