TUESDAY ON THE TOURIST TRAIL

Amanda was much better this morning and we set out for a rare chance to do tourist things. With Dan, the American, and Tess and Maya, the two Israeli girls we hired a van and set off for the 'bat caves'......Dan just wanted to be able to say "take me to the bat cave". The bat caves were a large cave complex where these little bats spent the day clinging to the ceiling. There was no lighting and no safety rails. We had a torch and fumbled along, down steps and over rocks. To get out you climbed up rocks and went through a very narrow opening.....OK I had to go back out the entrance 'cause the hole for the exit was just too small.

On the way back in we stopped at the Ghurka museum. This was interesting.....the Ghurka unit began much earlier than I knew. I tried to buy a T-shirt but none large enough for me. After this the van took us up to the top of the mountain so we could see the Peace Pagoda. It was really high with a very narrow dirt roadway leading up.
Half way up a truck was coming down and we had to back back for about half a kilometre with a sheer drop beside us.....pretty exciting. From the car park we still had a fair climb. An old lady with a load on her back actually gained ground on us for a while.

The view from the top was magnificent.......well worth the climb. We started the walk down the other side so we could get a boat across the lake and back to our hotel. However Tess became very ill with stomach cramps and suffering from the heat and the climb. We had to nurse her all the way down with lots of stops. We passed a number of locals.....women armed with long knives and axes.....probably collecting fire wood. The boat ride across the lake was also worth seeing. Reaching home Tess began to feel better so maybe it was altitude sickness instead of food poisoning

I went up to the home and later Amanda, Dan and Maya joined me.Towards the end of the day one of the boys broke down sobbing, telling us not to go back to Australia. Soon there were three or four kids and Amanda crying. One of them cried for about 30 minutes......and we still have tomorrow to go. However we have changed our plans a little and plan to come back here for at least a week after visiting the monastery.

Just before tea I went for a shave. The barber uses a cut throat razor....so far so good.......but halfway through, the blackout hit....no problem.....finished by candle light....and then a head and back massage.

After tea we went for coffee at a little sidewalk cafe. When we were finished we found we were the only ones there.....no staff at all. We had to wait until someone came back 10 to 15 minutes later so we could go.