What to do in Kathmandu.....!

With it coming to the end of my time in Nepal, with my flight booked out to Bangkok it was time for Steph and i to go our separate ways as i head on to Kathmandu...! What a brilliant city! Unfortunately i only got to spend a few days here as time just ran out, but i had a great few days! I took a wander around the city, to visit all the old parts and see a few more Pagodas and temples... the usual! :) But all very interesting still and wonderful to see. Walked through the markets, had a glass of chai amongst all the pigeons in one of the old squares and witnessed the many pilgrims visiting Dubar Square leading up to another one of the many festivals that take place in Nepal (sorry completely forgotten the name of this particular one!).

The One-Horned Indian Rhino

Yeeey - this time we got to see one really close up, and from not such a vulnerable position. This photo was taken when we were riding on an elephant through the jungle, so at a slight advantage than from being on foot! Was an amazing sight, we got to see quite a few on this day - some in the forest area, others in the water and a baby one amongst the elephant grass again. Perfect!

Bathing with Elephants

As i mentioned briefly before, we got the chance to bathe with the local elephants who come down to the river for their morning bath every day at around 11am and we can join them if we choose... Why not we thought! Was such good fun and just completely mad we'd start just a little wobbly as we prepare for him to give us a shower....

Then it got to the point where he wanted to have some fun - 'lets dunk these tourists' he thought... Every 2 mins he'd be getting up lying down, splashing around, and just generally 'having a blast'!!! We couldn't even stay on if we tried, our guy would heave us back onto the elephant's back and then we'd be falling straight back off into the water...! Something like being on the back of a 'bucking bronko' i reckon! hee hee! Was hillarious and such fun! Here's a true action shot below!

The jungle walk....

Looking pretty petrified i know.... i was!!!! I think the moment that really freaked me though, was when i got closer to 'mr croc' my guide actually handed me his big stick(to fight off the animals!!!) 'just in case' he said.... yikes! It was time to step away when he opened his eye to take a look at me and made a big sigh! What next was going through his head - lunch!?! Was pretty amazing to have been able to get so near though - you know me... i like to live life on the edge! hee hee! A little further on through the jungle and we'd come to an opening, we were then suddenly running like crazy from 3 giant rhinos...! Eeek! After a few minutes watching them peacefully from about 8 metres maybe, and our guide having previously warned us that if a rhino decides to attack then we need to either climb a tree or ruin in zig zags! No trees around at this point just open land and elephant grass in the distance, so when the rhinos soon spotted us and started to move closer - all we could do was run (and pray!!!!). Omigod! I know we'd heard about tourists having been chased after and attacked by rhinos but i didn't actually think we were going to get quite so close to experiencing it ourselves!

Pokhara to Chitwan National Park (22nd-25th March)

Having spent a few days just chilling and recovering from our trek Steph and i then travelled east to Chitwan National Park. Home to the last few remaining one-horned indian rhinos, the indian tiger and elephant, many a crocodiles (aka the 'marsh mugger'!!), and lots more beautiful wildlife. We stayed at a perfect guest house right on the edge of the river that created the border of the park. We spent a few days here and took a canoe trip down the river, trekked through the jungle, bathed with, fed, and rode on elephants, and of course sipped cocktails while watcing the sun go down.

The final day!!!

Having made it to Muktinath, we spent one night there before trekking back down the mountain again to Jomsom, where we were catching a mini mini flight (on a 10-seater plane) back to Pokhara (lakeside town). So after 11 days of steep climbing up and down, seeing so much beauty and experiencing every weather condition possible, and meeting beautiful local people we had completed our trek. All 123kms (at approximately 10-15kms per day, not inc. day off) worth was amazing and i am definitely keen to return to Nepal one day to do more.

Oh yeah and we certainly got used to making way for the donkeys carrying their loads across the mountains... it appears that the donkeys have the right of way in the mountains of Nepal, just as the cows do on the roads of India! :)

Muktinath!

Wow... we actually made it! After 10 days of walking we made it to Muktinath Temple. Here's the 4 of looking a tad cold and wet having 'washed away our sins' by sprinkling our heads with the holy water for all(!) 108 fountains inside the temple! Freezing! Blomin glad we had our 'oh so sexy' puffa(down) jackets... which is just so not me but i swear it's the most valuable item i took on the trek! The temple was of course in the perfect location on the edge of the mountain surrounded by snow - so beautiful. People of all ages and abilities would come from miles (either by foot, horseback, or donkey) to pray and wash away their sins here.

Day 9 - and i blame it on the altitude...!!!

Yep - by day 9 on our way to our final destination - Muktinath, Ella was really starting to loose the plot. Ok, so i couldn't not wear my 'lucky scarf' that our lovely little lady gave each of us at our last guest house but i guess wearing in on my head in this particular fashion was maybe taking it a little far. The others decided i looked rather like an easter egg...! How rude....! :) This was also the day i fell straight into an ice cold river up to my waist and only JUST managed to save my camera from being soaked! eek! For some ridiculous idea i thought i could just cross over to the otherside without even considering the mudslide riverbank that of course lead me straight in. Lee was just about to say to me 'are you crazy, you'll fall in!' and before he could even open his mouth i was in! Doh! (photo to come soon when lee emails it to me). I had to spend the rest of the day walking in wet clothes from my waist down and with my feet in plastic bags! Fun fun fun! So much for the 'lucky scarf' that i'd been so dedicated in wearing! :)

Day 8 - our 'day off'!??!

Ok, so because we'd just been marching on so wonderfully (ha ha!) we actually gained ourselves a 'day off' trekking, in terms of making it to our destination in time to fly back to Pokhara. So, for some crazy reason we thought it would be a good idea to 'make the most of our day off' by climbing a random mountain which hasn't even been named yet or had a proper path made going up it. Which reached 4000m (bearing in mind our 'peak' was going to be 3800m) via a steep zig zag route. Why i ask myself...i still don't know. Anyway, the views were amazing (of course!) and here's what we saw on the left.... looking out across paddy fields, and down into the willage where we were staying. Below, is me having nearly reached the top!

Day 6 - to Tukuche!

Lunch below the waterfall...

Here's a view from one of our luch stops during the trek, where we sat below Rupse waterfall.

Then some of the truly beautiful Nepalise children, who were just 'over the moon' to have their photo taken. And didn't even ask for 'one sweet'... they were amazing!

Trekking in the pouring rain...

By Day 4 the rain started coming and when it came it sure came hard...! Nothing stopped us though and we were still smiling (just about!) by the time we reached Tatopani. We'd have the evening to sit round a fire drinking hot chocolate and drying out our clothes after soaking our muscles in the hot springs... all in preparation for the next big day, so it was all good! :)

Sun then Snow by Day 3...

Day 3 was one of my favourites, which started off by awakening to a beautiful sunrise out across the snow-covered mountains, then plodding and sliding through the snow in forests that reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia... i kept half expecting to see Mrs Beaver pop out from begind a tree after every few steps i took. Without sounding too cheesy, it really was a magical forest. We would then arrive at an opening where you could see out across the valleys and over to Poon Hill, without a sound or person in sight all around.

The 'scarey' jungles...! :)

Along the trek we also walked though some of the amazing jungles of Nepal, some like i've never seen before... Although i know the picture doesn't really do it justice but it felt as though you were on the set of some horror movie or something, with great thick and dark moss all over the huge winding and twisting branches of the big old trees. It was great.

I loved how as we walked the scenery just changed so dramatically and so quickly. One minute you'd be in the depths of a deep forest and the next you'd be right on the edge of a mountain amongst the clear blue skies, or even down in the desert-like valleys.

Our 1st destination...!!!

Not a bad spot for our 1st night trekking in the himalayas after a pretty tough first day of 5 hrs climbing, just to let us in nice and gently... ha ha! It was a bloomin killer on the old legs! But of course, well worth it when we got to see these kind of views so soon! :)

Trekking in the Himalayas!!!

9th March 2007 Steph(from California), Lee(also from England), Krishna(our porter/guide), and I all set off on our 10 day trek across the himalayas...!!! Yes Steph and i did hire a porter to carry our stuff but who really treks for about 6 hours a day, 10-15kms up and down mountains,for 10 days solid with a big packon their back...!?! Not me! :) And besides Krishna was fantastic and pretty much lead the way for us, kept us safe, and was a great friend to us all so it was more than just hiring someone to carry our rubbish. hee hee!

Happy Holi Day....

Ok so this has to be one of my craziest days so far... and maybe the most agressive i have experienced. Across India and Nepal they celebrate the day that 'god conquered evil' on the 3rd March, by basically, everyone going around and throwing paint at eachother, and of course being a tourist you're the biggest victim!!!! The kids, and even full-grown men i might add, were literally bundling me and smering paint all over me... i was covered from head to toe!!
Even despite the odd mouthful of paint or finger in the eye we had a brilliant time though - was such good fun and just completely mad!!! You honestly couldn't leave your hotel without being covered. I had pink hair for the week after the festival and now own a bright pink watch instead of a nice blue one. Joy joy! And this is all coming from a girl who doesn't like pink! (Keren!!)

Next stop NEPAL.......!

I opted for 2 days of travelling on trains and local buses out of India and across the border into Nepal... whatever posessed me to take this option over a nice luxury flight i will never know!?!

It was all worth it though when i finally arrived at the beautiful lake of Pokhara, in the middle of the mountains on the 26th February...
More to come....

Time to say goodbye to the crazy world of India...

After my one beautiful and perfect month on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with my visa about to expire it was time for me to leave India... It was the perfect way to spend my final month in India, although not very real india i guess. as you didn't really experience the madness of the mainland while out on the Islands. My journey out of India certainly took me back to how it really is though! After flying back to Kolkata i spent a few days in Kolkata with some friends i'd met on the Islands - all of us desparately trying to adjust back to the real world and life in Kolkata is certainly a shock after life in paradise... hee hee! And this is how we dealt with it.... :)

The 11 hour roller-coaster ride...

Here is Iftah (Israeli firend met north of Andamans-Diglipur) and i on the most crazy 11 hour bus ride i have ever taken. We were put on the back sit of a rickety old bus right from the north to the south of the Andaman Islands where we were literally coming off our seats every 5 minutes.... it was madness!!! Hence why we called it our 11 hour roller-coaster ride as there is just no other way to describe it. All we could do is screem then burst out laughing everytime we got thrwon into the air, and of course being surrounded by locals who probably did this journey everyday-they found it very bizarre that we even flinched at the bumps. One tip - don't ever try to take a cup of chai on an indian bus, especially this one... clever old ella thought this was a great idea and couldn't understand why everyone was laughing at me as i walked passed them with my scoulding chai to the back of the bus. I soon saw why when the bus started moving again! Such a muppet! :)

One of my scariest moments....!!!

The fatal 30 rupee haircut!!! Ok, so i'd put off having my haircut for the last 5 months as i was just too scared of the possible outcome, but now it came to the point after living the 'good life' and only bathing in the sea and basking in the sun that my split ends just got too bad... And as my friend had also pointed out that "he must be good as all the locals go to him." That's because he's the only(!) person who cuts hair on the island Izhaar, doesn't necessarily mean you get what you want. I guess i knew i was in trouble when i went to ask the cost etc and my guy didn't even speak a word of English... eek!!! But i still went for it...! Anyone who's seen 'Edward Scissorhands' - well that's what my hairdresser was like with a pair of scissors! No joke!!! Every 2 minutes i was 'showing him' how i just wanted a very little cut off, but before i knew it there was half my hair on the floor and i had a bob-cut! Yey! Wanted a layer or 2 put in but thought there was no way i was going to risk that one as i really would've come out with no hair!!!

We literally made a tent out of 2 pieces of material and some wood that we'd collected and chopped down (with my saw!!!), we cooked over a little wood 'stove' we made and lived off fresh fish caught from the sea, coconuts and a fwe supplies we'd bought from the village - was a great life! We saw the most amazing starry starry nights and full-moons that lit up the beach!

Anyone for fesh coconut...? Who said i wouldn't be using a machete in the jungle...!!! (Simon!)

Below is one of the beautiful untouched beaches....not a hut or a sun lounge, or a lady selling beads in sight....!!!

Living the 'Good Life'....

After saying goodbye to Cindy :( on havelock as she had to fly back to India to do the South, a friend i'd met on my diving course (Izhaar from Israel) and i started to plan our adventure. We were off to one of the far more deserted islands a little further north of the Andamans - Long Island. Here we found a truly perfect and untouched beach which was 1 hour and a half's trek through the jungle from the only village on the island. We 'set up camp' here for the next four days and had a go at living the simple life... it was great! More info to come but heres some pics in the meantime!

Above is what we woke up to every morning from our home-made tent!

Below is me collecting water from the local well!