Hi Everyone,

So a week or so after finishing the trek I thought I would give you an update on what we have been up to since. As you know we finished the trek in Pokhara which is Nepal's second largest 'city' but realistically it is a small town perched by a beautiful lake which weather permitting has great views of the Annapurna range (we have to trust photos for this as during our stay the weather was never permitting). We have both fallen in love with the place as after the trek it was a great place to relax. We stayed in a lovely hotel with beautiful gardens which gives some of its profits to a local children's charity (Gareth has just called me a philanderer when he meant philanthropist lol).

We spent most of the time relaxing, reading (Gareth has just bought War and Peace) and eating some gorgeous food we have however still managed to have a few adventures though. We have visited the Gurkha Museum, The International Mountain Museum, The World Peace Pagoda and some Bat Caves (less about the bats and more actually caving-there was a particularly spicy ending {Gareth wanted to end this sentence with "like a good Indian Curry" but I refuse to lower the tone to such vulgarity and as such Gareth is now banned from looking over my shoulder for all future blog writing sessions...}).

The highlight of the week, for both us doing it and you reading about it, had to be Paragliding. We started the day off with breakfast at a juice bar which consisted of a pint of fresh orange juice, an omelette sandwich and a huge fruit salad. You might wonder why this is relevant but all will soon be revealed. We then headed off to the top of one of hills overlooking Pokhara. We were soon in our harnesses attached to a French guy in my case and an Aussie in Gareth's and a parachute and running full pelt off the hill. The experience was fantastic and it was probably as close to actually flying as you can get. We spent the next forty minutes whirling in the thermals and spinning above the villages below. As some of you might know I often get travel sick so all this whirling and spinning was not the most comfortable experience. It would appear that my breakfast didn't think much of it either as it swiftly decided to jump overboard. Please remember when you are trying to create, what I can now see is a hysterical, mental image of this vomiting episode the French chap strapped to my back, the fact that we are moving very fast about 1000ft in the air and the villages below. All in all not my most dignified moment but still an absolutely amazing experience that we both can't wait to do again (this time with the addition of travel sickness tablets).

After our lovely time in Pokhara yesterday we took a rather luxurious tourist bus back to Kathmandu. We like Kathmandu (and the tweezers, razors and clean clothes awaiting us here) but we feel a bit lost without having to get up every morning and walk so we are at a bit of a loose end. Tibet is still closed so our onwards plans have changed a bit and today we booked flights to Hong Kong for the 13th May.

We hope all is well on this fine May Bank Holiday Weekend

All our love

Laura and Gareth