Our last border was unlike any other, but sadly not in a good way. We booked a bus from Patna to Kathmandu, hoping to arrive by 7am. We left a few hours late and I started worrying about when the border would close. Once it got dark and we still weren't there, I stopped, assuming it would all be fine, safe in the knowledge that this probably happened often. We got to the border at 10PM and those of us without Indian or Nepalese passports left the bus to be stam...

Patna, while being on the way to Nepal, was of special significance. Lucy's great Aunt was a missionary who worked for 15 years here in a school. Sadly, that has since closed, but we were able to find the church that the remaining building has now been transformed into. While there we were privileged to meet a few people who could remember Edith, something we had been hoping for. After popping in there we walked down the road to a scout hut and wandered in. Ther...

Our stay in Sikkim was not quite what we expected, but exactly what we needed. After winding up the mountain we arrived to a hotel that was past its prime. We couldn't see many other guests staying there and we soon found out that facilities were a little basic. There was no WIFI available, no laundry option (thankfully we weren't in dire needs) and the power kept being cut. All of this took a bit of time to accept, but once we had come to terms with it, we reall...

Assam is synonymous with tea, so while in this region we went to see tea gardens, a factory and a club exclusively for tea planters. The tea bushes are shorter than the picture in my mind and they are also far more uniform, looking like a lot of well-trimmed topiary. The factory involved lots of bespoke machinery to prepare the leaves for brewing a good cuppa, all of which were thankfully turned off as the factory was closed. Our guide for this tour of North Eas...

Between April and June 1944, a battle was waged between the allied forces and the Japanese for control of Kohima. We visited a memorial to all the allied forces who died in this battle, a total of 2,397 souls. The British, from Dorset to Scotland, were joined by Indian and Nepalese soldiers, engineers and other non-combatants. The cemetery marks out what was the officer's tennis court before it became a battlefield. Kohima is the largest city in Nagaland, a stat...