Friday 21st March was Holi. I'm not sure what it celebrates but it's a Hindu festival and a national holiday, so no work!

We all walked up to the Castle (a hotel on a hill nearby) for breakfast. It seemed to be too early for the colour0throwers to be out. Holi is celebrated by people (mostly children) misixing up a paint from powder and then covering everyone with it. On the way back Mary Sue and I got caught! Luckily it was very powdery so mostly brushed off out clothes and it was fun to be part of the celebrations. We later found out that a very firm 'No' usually worked.

In the afternoon we went up to Sarangkot. I'm not sure if it's a hill or a mountain but there's a little 'village' on top (just shops and hotels for tourists). It's the place to go to see the mountians and watch the sunrise. We got a taxi as far as it can go then wlaked for about 15 minutes up steps to get to the little guesthouse we were staying at. We watched the sun set and wandered around the little stalls (an up and down as most were along the steps up to the top). There were loads of beautiful woven things.

We got up at 5.45 on Saturday morning (woken anyway by a very irritating cockeral and all the stall-owners opening up their metal fronts!) and climbed to the top. It was very busy for so early! We watched the sun rise and were rewarded with beautiful views of the mountains (we very rarely see them from Lakeside, it did turn out to be the clearest day yet!).

After breakfast we went for a short walk along a fairly level road that started just below the top. It passed through several little villages. Sharon tried to talk to a Nepali man who was very friendly but clearly didn't know any English! Over lunch we watched about 15 paragliders floating about very close to us. Fleur and I are planning to do it soon, when we manage to organise ourselves and there is a clear day! Mary Sue and I walked back to Lakeside. It was lovely to walk it, although I wouldn't like to go the other way! It was almost all steep steps so got a little tiring even going down!

Sunday didn'y really feel like Easter. I did hear the singing from the church attached to Bindu's at 6am. We were planning to go kayaking and we agreed 1pm. I spent the morning reading to finish Barabra's book before she left. Gerry and I walked down to Paddle Nepal for kayaking to be told that the others had decided to cancel it! We then though maybe we'd visit a place called the Women's Skills Development Project that Sharon had heard about. It teaches women handicraft skills. We waited ages for Mary Sue to come back from Lakeside. Just as we decided to go without her it started to rain. Generally a bit of a frustrating day where all our plans semd to fall apart! So Sharon and I went anyway and got wet! (I had to do SOMETHING) It was a lot further than we thought. We finally found it and had a look round. There were women carrying out all the stages of weaving and making products from the dyeing of the wool to selling the items. I realised when we looked in the shop that they sell these things in Just at home. I've seen the lables in Just saying 'Women's Skill Development Project, Pokhara'! That cheered me up a lot and made the day worthwhile! Then on the way home a taxi driver gave us a free lift because he'd met Sharon before. So, all in all, the day wasn't so bad!