For wednesday 11 february scroll down to

For wednesday 11 february please scroll down to the post titled:
Already Wednesday!!!

10 February, Tuesday, Lumbini

7:00 wake up call
7:30 breakfast
8:00 our private driver waiting outside.

A tear full sad goodbye to Suk and on our way to Lumbini. This time a luxury way of traveling: an almost new comfortable Suzuki Swift new model with private driver.
12:oo (3 hours and 45 minutes) arrival in Lumbini at the Buddha Maya Garden Hotel. (110 km from Chitwan).

This hotel is located 10 minutes walkway from the single most important spot of Lumbini, which is the "marker stone" placed in the "Sanctum Sanctorum" representing the birthplace of Buddha.
The Buddha Maya Garden Hotel is member of the KGH (Kathmandu Guesthouse) Group of Hotels & resorts, but honesty makes me say that it was a bit in a deteriorated state.

Lumbini, the Birthplace of Lord Buddha, World Heritage Site (entrance fee Rs 50 p/p).

"After I am no more, o Ananda! men of belief will visit the place with faith, curiosity and devotion..... Lumbini, the place where I was born. The path to ultimate peace is spiritual discipline." - Lord Buddha -

The Pilgrimage:
Today devotees and visitors from all over the world come to Lumbini, the timeless place where ancient monuments glorify the birthplace of Sakyamuni and bear witness to the record of the noteworthy visits by famous dignitaries. The pilgrims (a large group of Japanese while we are there) deeply immerse themselves in the serene spiritual atmosphere of Lumbini.
The famous Emperor Asoka - guided by his spiritual teacher Upagupta - made a pilgrimage to this holy site in 249 BC. He erected the Asokan Pillar, as a marker stone of the exact birthplace of the Buddha.
This pillar bears the first epigraphical evidence.
"Twenty years after his coronation Kin Priyadarsi erected this stone pillar to commemorate his visit. Because the Lord Buddha was born here. He made the village of Lumbini free from taxes and subject to pay only one-eight of the produce as land revenue instead of the usual rate. (1067).
Three famous Chinese pilgrims also visited Lumbini (in the 4th century AD, 5th century AD and 7th century AD). They saw the stump of the native tree, the Asokan Pillar, the Holy Pond, the oily River and the source of warm and cool water springs.
King Ripu Malla (1312 AD) visited Lumbini. The association of Lumbini with the Buddha went slowly to oblivion. In 1930's a large-scale excavation at the holy complex was conducted and the archaeological site was covered up, which conservation has been taken care of since 1972.
During the years generous devotees erected numerous structures to pay homage to the great master of which one can see the remains in the Sacred Garden. (picture tree with flags and remains).
The Mayadevi Temple (picture) is the heart of all monuments. Inside this temple one can find the Marker Stone, located deeply buried in the Sanctum Sanctorum (size 70x40x10 cm) covered with bulletproof glass, the EXACT location of birth. Above this stone is the image of May Devi (Nativity Sculpture). It depicts May Devi, holding the branch of a tree with her right hand for support. Next to her, her sister is standing in supporting posture in time of delivery.
Close by the Asokan Pilar and the Mayadevi Temple is the Puskarini (Holy Pond), believed to be the pond in which Maya Devi took her bath prior to give birth to the Lord Buddha. It is also the pond where the infant was given his first purification bath. (picture pond and 3 monks).

The Master Plan of Lumbini covers an area of 1 x 3 sq. miles comprising 3 zones of a square mile each. The Sacred Garden - The Monastic Zone and New Lumbini Village (gateway to the outer world where the visitors can find hotels and restaurants.)

The Monastic Zone is situated in the center with the forest area to the north of the Sacred Garden. There are 42 plots of land each allotted for new monasteries of Theravada and Mahayana sects of Buddhism.

With a rickshaw we visited a few places: The Eternal Peace Flame (picture), the Royal Thai Monastery, Vietnam Monastery and the Great Lotus Stupa - Germany (picture).
Also in the Monastic Zone there is a research center, a library, an auditorium and a museum, providing facilities for research and study of Buddhism.

With the rickshaw driver we agreed on a price of 150 Rs for ALL temples (but the area proved to be much bigger then we expected) plus the ride back to the hotel. Arriving at the hotel we gave him 200 Rs but the cheeky driver of course wanted more. He got shushed away by the hotel security who obviously knew the driver and his tricks.
Time to relax in the hotel garden after this long walk and ride, dinner, but to our disappointment NO night-cap, because the hotel had no longer a bar and the restaurant was only serving beer or wine.
The only thing left to do was another early night, not being such a big problem with our Lumbini-Pokhara tour ahead tomorrow morning.

Suba Rathri
Sanghita

Monday, 9 February. Chitwan - Debauli village. Tissue Day!!

Monday, 9 February 2009 Chitwan-Debauli village. Tissue day!!

08:00 wake up call.
08:30 breakfast.
10:00 To Debauli, Suk’s village.

Some of you might know that I am a sensitive person.
So, not hard to imagine maybe that the title of today is tissue-day, better to say: get the role of kitchen paper out! (it is also full moon tonight, so enough said?)

Suk got half a day off to take us to his village, to visit the school and deliver our books and wall charts.
A bit of practise to see if my tears are coming easily: the owner of the hotel called Suk into the reception, where he checked all the drawers and desks to come up with pens, coloring pens for the school. Tissue!

In the car to Debauli, driving a sand-stone track through the fields for about 15
minutes. We stopped at a kind of little square in the small village.
Suk’s wife was in her little shop next to the village school and gave us a warm
welcome. Normally I am used to a Namaste and sometimes holding my hands,
but not such a wide open arms big hug as Suk’s wife gave us the first time we met.
Tissue!!!

The headmaster came around the corner to escort us to his school.
At the entrance all teachers were standing there, giving us a blessing thika
(yes, from the top of my head to the top of my nose again) and overloading
us with flower garlands around our neck. Then we had to follow the headmaster, walking through a two-line ceremonial line-up of the older school children, greeting us with Namaste and giving us flowers. After giving away the flowers they applauded, so by the end of the line we had our arms full with flowers with a loud applaud accompanying us!! TISSUES !!!!!!!

An official meeting in the classroom, a long table sitting down with all the teachers, the headmaster welcoming us with a speech: “The headmaster, the teachers, the children are very happy to meet you today, to show you our school. He explained shy and embarrassed that the school was very poor in a small village and they badly needed any kind of support to teach their children as good as possible.
Their eyes became wide when we gave them the wall charts, one teacher more eager than the other one to see what was on them. One of the older female teachers picked up the school atlas with a big smile saying “Very necessary” and looking into it. You could almost ‘feel’ the other teachers wanting that book. Me, me, me, I want to see it. Tissue time.

Suk explained in Nepali that we met last year, that I’ve been in Nepal in 2005 as a volunteer and that we stayed in contact. He told them about the fundraising in my village to support this school and this village.

Comments Rita Chamelli: The following morning Suk met us at our hotel and he’d arranged a taxi to take us to visit this village and the school in question. During the short ride, Suk proudly showed us his own home and the small kiosk type shop next to the school, which his wife worked in during the day.
The taxi parked at the shop and Suk's wife eagerly sprang from behind the counter and greeted us with open arms, which was a shock as we had only expected to receive a traditional Nepali greeting of 2 hands poised as in a praying position.
Also from our peripheral view we could see movement of pupils from the school in the open front grounds; naively I thought that the children were just excited to have 2 guests visiting their school, but how wrong could I have been.
After 10 minutes or so of talking to Suk's wife, which was also a time delay tactic, the principal came to greet us and lead us to the school gates where before us were 2 rows of older children ceremonically waiting to greet us, with many on-lookers also cheering us on. A lady teacher came to greet us in the traditional Nepali way by placing a tika on our foreheads, before placing 2 beautifully coloured and perfumed garlands of flowers around each of our necks. We were then asked to make our way down the line of eagerly waiting children who placed flower petals in our hands and welcomed us with NAMASTE. I walked down the right hand line and thanked every single child and likewise Rita did the same down the left hand side. By the time we eventually reached the end, we both had enough flower petals to tie us over in pot pourri for the next 2 years. Next we were escorted to the staff room, which also doubled as the principal's office, and deposited our precariously carried petals onto a large table.
We were then invited to sit and various members of staff joined us around the large oblong tables, along with Suk and the principal, and it became clear that this may well now be a more formal meeting then I had imagined. (pictures)
Someone entered the room with various bottles of coke and sprite and invited us to partake in a cold refreshment, which we readily accepted as the intense heat and stuffy room could easily have withered us along with our garlands.
After a few minutes of embarrassing silence, where both Rita and myself were able to dry our tearful eyes and the staff could actually get their head around what was happening (Suk had said that visitors to the village were rare, let alone the school), I suggested to Suk that maybe he should show the staff the wall charts that had been purchased, and these were placed on the tables to the sparkling eyed amazement of the staff. (pictures). At this point the principal, who by now had also composed himself, welcomed us to the school and thanked us for the surprise gifts. Suk then distributed some books which had been donated along with a purchased world atlas, which went down a storm as no one had seen one like it and when we read the notes on the back cover, it stated that it was the first book of its kind in Nepal - the appreciation was immense and warmed our hearts to the core.
Some 10 minutes later after the staff debating who was going to have which wall charts and books, Suk addressed the group with his suggestion of implimenting 2 creative teachers and asked the staff for their response, which needless to say, was of amazement.
The principal spoke directly to us and thanked us for our kind offer to support and said 5 simple words which I know will stay with me forever and actually made me bite my lip so that I did not cry again.
Those words were "We are a poor school".
Suk then explained, in his own language, that we had purchased a fantastic selection of creative books to help in all areas of the curriculum and that these would be stored for the creative teacher(s).
He also explained that we would do our best to help with funding, because usually money is never directly given but in this exceptional circumstance, we would donate "your" money for such a cause, even if it was only 1 teacher for 6 months to start with- this would be finalised at a later date.
After a rapturous round of applause we were escorted to visit the school buildings. (picture)
A new building was slowly being constructed so that the age range could be extended at the school thus causing less travelling for the older children and offering stability within their education and educational environment - a project that was going to take some time.
In one of the junior classrooms which we visited, it was 'stark' with nothing on the walls to inspire learning, but pupils were working hard and were well behaved. I asked 1 boy what he was learning, but I am not sure to this day whether we had a language barrier because his reply was "I don't know" and I could clearly see that area of rectangles was the task of the day. His reply reiterated Suk's theory that the children were only copying material from books and not actually using information that was learnt; pupils weren't learning to think and needed more stimulus. The next dramatic moment came when I was told that most classes encompassed 61-62 pupils!!
Logically one has to ask how on earth a teacher can adequately plan and teach such a large number of children with such a broad range of ability at one time?
In the nursery class once again the children were well behaved but un-inspired as I looked at their work. (picture).
Again it was limited to handwriting practise and copying.
After our tour, we were once again taken back to the staff room where I asked if there was anything else that we could do to aid teaching withing the school. (picture wall charts put up).
The answer was simple. Although the staff had a curriculum supplied by an education department, they had very little teaching resources to support their lesson planning etc.
So, if the funds allowed 2 teaching books for the following subjects would be invaluable assets to the school: English, Mathematics, Science, World History and Geography. (in Nepali language).
We promised to try to get these, as they had to be in the Nepali language and we were not sure of either availability or even existence, but only said that we would try.
Time was up and it was time to go as Suk had to be at work. We said our good byes and was thanked over and over again for our visit and support.
But as with all good factual stories, sadness is balanced with humour and this is no exception.
We climbed in our taxi and yep, it would not start, not a splutter, not a jolt.
After 5 minutes of going nowhere, the staff from the school pushed us on our merry way, and as the engine finally fired up, we hung out of the rear windows to wave goodbye and could only see the silhouettes of those who had helped us (headmaster and the teachers!!) as a cloud of dust encapsulated them all.
What a day!

Since our visit, we have located the requested teaching books in Pokhara, and along with a globe purchased from myself - as I was not at the Elounda fundraising - and some of the funding for a creative teacher, these have now all be sent to Chitwan. A very, very big THANK YOU.
(end comment Rita Chamelli).

All 3 of us were very quiet on the way back, dealing with the emotions and impressions of this visit.
Suk had to get back to work while Rita and I found ourselves some sunlounchers to read a little or just to have a lay down and relax (what I did, just reviewing, reliving in my mind the visit), not able yet to write it down, nor to read. Just enjoying the warmth of the sun reliving our visit over and over again.

Before diner we joined a slideshow given by Suk for the groups about the Terai area and its natural treasures.
After diner we sat down with Suk and 2 other guides for a night cap to have a sweet sleep with the villagevisit in our minds.
I fell asleep with a warm overflowing heart, with my last thought of this eventfull day:
THANK YOU dear Friends of Nepal for helping me with so much support to help this village!!
Love you all.

Suba Rathri, Sanghita

8 February, Sunday. Chitwan

Sunday 8 February 2009. Chitwan

07:00 wake-up call
07:30 breakfast
08:00 Elephant Jungle Ride

With the sunrays coming through the trees, with just the two of us on an elephant, we started the jungletour. (picture)

Birds singing, mixed with the noise of the (lady) elephant making her way through the forrest.
We spotted some deer until at one point Rita Chamelli (Rita2’s Nepali name) spotted a rhino in one of the bushes. Our driver ‘signaled’ the other drivers that we found a rhino.
She came out of the bush and we were lucky that, instead of running off, she walked away a little bit to go and pose for us. (picture)
Finding and making our way again, we saw a spotted deer.
Also this time lucky, he got up, ‘posed’ for a picture, before disappearing in the trees again.
Back around 13:00, a cuddle and a thank you to our elephant (Chamelli said she giggled when she was striking her nose). (picture)

13:00 lunchtime.
Sunbathing in the garden until 15:00: canoe ride, birdwatching, crocodile watching on the way to the Elephant Breeding Centre.

I recognized Grapjas straight away: one of the ‘little’ elephants jumping, dancing around.
And again we were lucky: as last year Grapjas and another baby were just 2-3 months old, this time there was a baby TWIN elephant!
This is very rare among elephants, so far it happened only 3 times in the world that an elephant twin was born, but the other twins died after a few days.
This twin was superhealthy and strong!
Several pictures of mama elephant breastfeeding her twin. (picture)
In the background we saw an enormous elephant chained to a tree. Suk told us that this elephant wanted to mate (the male elephant loses some black fluid from a gland behind his ear at this period) and he became completely mad, wild, dangerous in this period. Reason why they had to chain him, keeping him away from the other elephants. (picture)

19:00 A performance of a Tharu tribe, stick-dance, fire-dance, war-dance and the celebration-dance, where they invited us to join them. (picture)

20:00 dinner and again a conversation and a night-cap with Suk.

Saturday, 07 february 2009, Chitwan

Wake up call at 6:00.
At 6:30 Dill was already in the office with the charts and books packed in a weekend bag for us. (Dhanyabad Dill).
He accompanied us in the taxi, taking us to the bus stop for the tourist bus bringing us to Chitwan. A 6 hour drive.
Around 07:00 the bus took off.

I noticed that the traffic is not as busy as last year. Maybe one of the reasons of less traffic jams is also that now there are no long lines of cars waiting at the petrol stations blocking the road.
A relaxing tour. After about 3 hours driving, taking in the scenery of mountains, rivers, the rice fields, passing through villages, a coffee stop.
After half an hour on the road again.
We arrived at the Royal Park Hotel in Chitwan at 13:00.
A quick refreshing, a warm welcome of Suk and lunchtime.

Chitwan is in the Terai area (south Nepal.)
Here the temperature is much higher than in the Kathmandu valley. In the summer months (June - July - August, also called wet season or monsoon season (heavy rainfalls) the temperature reaches up to 40 degrees or more.

Activities in Chitwan National Park
- Guided jungle walks - fauna, flora and birdwatching
- Rhino watch - elephant safari
- Dugout Canoes on the Rapti river - crocodiles.
- Visit to the Elephant Breeding Centre & nursery
- Visit a Tharu village - fascinating insight in unique village life
- Tharu music and dance, a traditional evening.

The accommodation at the Royal Park Hotel is perfect for everyone wanting to enjoy nature in peace and at their own leisure. The hotel's rooms are built in Nepalese style with all Western comforts, reminding you of casual and roomy ambiance of a safari hotel. (insert picture room).
Our guests are always surrounded by the beauty of the region as panoramic windows have been installed in all our hotel houses for spectacular views. A terrace bar with a deck over the river's banks allows for a view of the animals watering holes.
Tending the main restaurant, bar and garden restaurant our staff at the Royal Park Hotel complete the atmosphere with candle lights and lanterns. With a variety of superb Indian and Nepalese dishes to choose from, we will ensure your experience in culinary at its bests (and they DO!).

The hotel is an excellent starting point for excursions and safaris. Multilingual guides lead the way for trips and treks into the Jungle and the grassland beyond. We also offer slide shows about the land and its natural treasures as well as a selection of books and videos for those seeking more comprehensive information.
price: 3 nights 4 days including program: 12.320 Rs per person.

15:00 A ride with the ox cart (insert picture) through the village. We stopped at a mud house in the village where Suk showed us the kitchen (picture), the dining room and two bedrooms. In this house (picture) lives 1 family with 19!! persons. From grandmother/father/father/mother/sons-daughters with their husbands/wives to the grandchildren.
They eat all together in the central dining area. Looking into one of the bedrooms you see a big wooden platform on poles: the bed of 1 couple and their children. A rope with a curtain tossed over it, divides that room into two areas. On the other side the same wooden platform with rice mats spread out for another couple with their children.
The house has 3 or 4 compartments like this, simply separated by a mud wall or a curtain.
This families income is based on growing rice, vegetables, lentils and mustard seeds.

They plant the mustard seeds in the same field together with lentils. While the mustard plant is growing higher ready to be harvest, they leave the lentils to grow until their harvesting. The villagers harvest the mustard plants by hand (pulling them out), pile them and leave them in the sun to dry. They take them to their homes, where they hit the dried plants with a stick, so the dried 'leave containers' open and the mustard sheets fall out. Taking away the plants it leaves the seeds, which they 'clean' with a sieve, ready now to put them in bags for selling on the market. From this house we had a little walk through the fields (where also marijuana plants grow as a weed) (picture) to the Tharu museum (picture man and woman).

Back to the hotel with the ox-cart, a short stop in the Internet, a run to our room for a shower while the electricity was still on.
At the moment we have only 2 hours electricity a day.

19:00 Diner was served. An after diner coffee in the garden, where Suk joined us.
We had a nice, long conversation.

Dear Reader, this is Rita2
I have travelled to Nepal to accompany Rita1 with her volunteer - charity work and I have been blessed to meet our travel guide in Chitwan, who is called Sukram, who is desperately trying to improve the conditions in the school within his own village.
Suk, as I prefer to call him, not only works full time but he also has a small kiosk-type shop adjacent to the school in question and has a wife and 2 children of his own to support, yet his intense enthusiasm to help his own community can only be commended.
After many years myself being associated with the English education system, firstly as a governor, then as a classroom support assistant and finally as a support teacher, I was able to offer Suk some tips to help with his mission. My main problem was that I did not know how the education system worked in Nepal.
Suk explained that there are 2 types of schools: government and non-government (boarding) schools. The school in his village is a government school and he showed me some photos of it.
The first striking thing to hit me, was how bleak the interior of the classrooms appeared.
The rooms were all painted white, with many walls now flaking their white emulsion, and apart from worn blackboards and benches and desks, that was it.

Fortunately, we had already purchased 20 or so wall charts from YOUR kindly donated money, and these were going to immediately make a difference in brightening up an un-inspired learning environment. I also suggested to Suk, that maybe the teachers could display the children's work and that a couple of tins of coloured paint could be used to paint numbers and letters around the classroom. I also suggested that maybe the staff moral may be low working in such a gloomy environment and I offered him a couple of suggestions to promote class challenges and introduce prefects in the school.
Suk loved the simple ideas that I had proposed and he too had a vision to extend the school's learning environment. He believed that by implementing 1 or 2 creative teachers to support and train the current staff, that a more cheerful and rewarding school ethos could be achieved.
The creative teaching books that we had already purchased in Kathmandu would be a useful resource for the creative teachers to use.
He wanted to see more singing, more art and more practical teaching methods used in the school as opposed to the current un-inspiring copying from a text book. With Suk's vision and my suggestions we hoped that we could make a difference, however, it was all well and good me offering simple advice, but the following day I would, in fact, be experiencing first hand the life of a simple, Nepal village school.

I can't believe the date of 5 february myself!!!

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

At the moment Sunday, 22 February, I am in Kathmandu, where I stayed with Rita for 3 days. About an hour ago I dropped her off at the airport, she is on her way home.

Tomorrow morning 6.30 I will be on my way back to Pokhara with the tourist bus, on my way to my children.

Yesterday we had another fantastic, successful shopping day in Thamel for materials for the C.W.A. children from your funds. But, you will have to read about that later.

I now first want to continue with where I left you: concerning sponsoring will be written in Bold, touristic info in Italic). Please also scroll down to older news, because I managed to download some pictures!)

Friday, 6Th of February, Kathmandu
Up at 08.30, we don't want to sleep our time away.
Checking what to pay, so we can sort out our financial 'plan'.

Paid our room at Kathmandu Guesthouse. Although we had the same room as last February (Garden view), we were now in a room of 40 US!!
Ouch, oops, that was not planned. Better check first next time.

Anyway, payed the bill and arranged our wake-up call tomorrow morning 6;00!

Himalayan Encounters: we paid and received our bus ticket Kathmandu-Chitwan. A 6-hour drive with the tourist bus. Rs 600 p.p. Our voucher for 3 nights- 4 days a room in The Royal Park Hotel and the program:
(Rs 12.500 p.p.): birdwatching (not for us) - a village tour with an ox-cart, Elephant Jungle Tour. They told us that most probably we will NOT be bathing the elephant: the water is too cold................for the elephant!!!

The car bringing us from Chitwan to Lumbini to Pokhara is RS 9000, to be paid to the driver.

The room in Lumbini is 32 US (B&B), to be paid in Lumbini.
Arriving Wednesday 11-02-2009 in Pokhara, we will go on a budget! No more excursions needed anyway.

Time four a mission: to the bookshop:
We found wonderful wall-charts for the school of Suk's village. By the time we finished making two series (1 for Chitwan, 1 for the Shining Star Boarding School in Pokhara) the shop was upside down and out of stock for many items.

Our purchases:
- 19 wall charts for Chitwan
- 7 wall charts for Pokhara (because I know they already have some).
- 2 Ekta School Atlas for Chitwan
- How to draw Alphabet - Animals - Birds - Flowers - Fruits - Numbers - Parts of the Body - Shapes and Vegetables.
1 set for Chitwan
1 set for Shining Star
1 set for the C.W.A. Children
- Math games level 1-2-3
- Word Games level 1-2-3
- Reading Games level 1-2-3
for Chitwan
- Bluebirds First Fun Dictionary
for Chitwan.
(picture bookshop)
I'd like to explain something here:
My priority in sponsoring in the beginning (2005) was focused on the children of C.W.A. in Pokhara. The Children Welfare Association where I worked as a volunteer in 2005 and the focus point where I lost my heart. In 2005 the home was poorly sponsored/supported and in need of many things.
With my visit last February (2008) I learned that in the meantime a Swish and a German family took on the C.W.A. as their sponsor project.
They both set up bank accounts and several ways of fundraising.
You might remember from my report of 2008 (see http://sanghita.travellerspoint.com) that I noticed they had made a lot of progress in those 3 years. The Swiss family raised the money to buy a plot of land (just outside Lake-side, the less expensive area). The German family raised a big part of the money needed for the architect and the actual building.
Also I noticed that the children were okay considering their clothing, especially since Voula (the American lady) send them 3 boxes with clothes.
From YOUR money I bought study books, bedside storybooks and we sponsored some of the older children with computer/ painting/ and singing lessons.
Because MY children are still the main reason to go back to Nepal, I used your money to buy cupboards and books for THEIR school, with the knowledge of supporting this way also the other children attending this school (the Shining Star Boarding School).
Again Voula send boxes with science materials to the same school on my recommendation.
Owing to the above observations, this years fundraising will be used for a large part for Chitwan, especially after our visit there. (see Monday 09-02-2009).

At 16;00 we went to the Real Beauty Parlor where we treated ourselves on an aryuvedic full body massage. Just what the doctor ordered after travelling!
I would not mind to take my masseuse back to Elounda, she did an excellent job.
I've been a modell with the training of the therapists in Porto Mare and I can say my masseuse here was practising the same methods and movements with for me the perfect pressure, only this massage cost me only Rs 12000 (12 euro!) for a full hour.
After our diner Rita was not feeling too well, she has a cold coming up.
I left her in our room for a good night sleep, while I went out to Rum-Doddle to catch up with Gele (the guide of 2005).
Live music - Santana, Deep Purple and after one drink Gele took Steve and Andrew, two of his clients with a taxi to a local bar. Dill (the reservations manager of H.E.) and I followed on his motorbike.
It was less loud but surely local music and we all ended up on the dance floor (dragged by Gele) hopping, jumping and 'dancing' away.
At 23:00 it was time to go, an early morning ahead and I did not want Rita to wake up in the middle of the night, not finding me there and make her worry.

Needless to say I was asleep almost before my head reached the pillow.
Suba Rathri (sweet dreams).