I needed somewhere more rural or jungle for the short period before Durga arrived.
I took a taxi to a place near the ancient city of Baktapur! The taxi ride was rather hair raising, however I arrived in one piece at the Dragon House.
Inside the gates, two enormous painted plaster dragons loomed over the entrance. The imposing effect was rather minimised by the ten year old boy with a very cheeky grin opening the door!
The accommodation was by far the best I’ve had since being in Nepal and I was the only guest.
Rajkumar, Kriti and their two children welcomed me into their home.
My cold was making it difficult, because all I wanted to do was sleep but, I forced myself out and about on a couple of days with the cheeky ten year old son of my host as my guide on one of them..
One morning we walked up the hill visiting the Ganesh Man Singh memorial.
This is the prime minister who was imprisoned by the king in 1960, I past the spot on my two day hike if you remember. He was imprisoned for 8 years because he protested about the autocratic rule of the Rana family. Its very convoluted but basically the Rana family took all positions of power. In much later life he affected much change within the political system.
Back to our walk, chatting away we were climbing higher and entered the Subarneshwor Mahadev Temple, here was a different style of worship. A sort of maze and spectacular views. Priests/acolytes were wandering around and were very welcoming, making their offerings.
We stopped to admire the veiw and then started our walk into the Suryabinayak Forest . The area is surround by farms and not at all lonely but, it was quiet and my guide said he was a bit scared. I asked why and he said Tigers and Bears! Oh My! We then had a chat about what to do if we met either one, apparently for the bear we have to fall down and play dead! For the tiger, I offered to be sacrificed so he could escape! Actually I did try to reassure him that I couldn’t imagine any wild animals being anywhere nearby with all the people around. And then we came across somthing very very scary! A group of teenage school girls, all wanting a selfie with me. My guide looked horrified! It was hilarious!
We wandered on to the alledged site of a plane crash where a dummy plane was situated, very peculiar and slightly creepy.
On the way back we past a very military looking building that was a conservancy organisation with a big poster about leopards, maybe I was wrong about there not being any big animals about!
After this walk I started to feel really ill and the following day Kriti got me up wrapped me in a blanket, put a hat on me and fed me soup. She told me she would look after me as if she were my own daughter and she did.
For two days wrapped up, feeling a mixture of home sick and being cared for, my cold had free reign. When I felt ok I played cards with the kids (we taught each other new games), made cards houses, dragons and anything else we could imagine.
As I got better, I lounged on the sun terrace with a book or watched some of the world cup with the family, and quite enjoyed it (beleive it Barney!)
Once recovered, it was time to go! I was quite sad to go but I have arranged to return when Clare arrives.
The Travelling Bee 