Hong Kong and Nepal

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Hello Everyone,

Well this is the first travel blog entry, so I will hope for success. I hope this finds everyone in good health and spirits. Reed and I are currently in Kathmandu, Nepal. So far, we have spent 3 days in Hong Kong, a day in Kathmandu, 10 days rafting on the Bhote Khosi and Sun Khosi rivers in the Himalayas, and 2 days in Royal Chitwan National Park (Nepal). Here is a quick recap:

Hong Kong:

This city was a blast. It is a maze of skyscrapers, millions of people, and very structured chaos. We only had a couple of days here, but they were action-packed.

Highlights: The 100' tall Buddha sitting atop a mountain outside the city, the peak tram and lookout tower that sits above the clusters of skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island and Harbor, an incredible public transportation system, hitting up the hotspots with our 2 new buddies from Guyana, Africa, and the famous Chungking Mansion- the building that we stayed in that is home to about 50 hostels, 3 shopping malls, over 300 businesses, and people from every corner of the earth.

Nepal:

This country is quite a culture shock. We have seen chaos in the filthy streets of Kathmandu (no garbage bins in Nepal), gangs of monkeys roaming around town, amazing landscapes of the Himalayas and the rivers that cut through them, tiny villages all along the rivers with no electricity/running water/contact with the world, constant power outages, buses packed with people and farm animals, protests that shut down the largest city in the country, and streets with more elephant traffic than motorized.

Highlights: Wandering the streets of Kathmandu (buses, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles, and pedestrians all in motion with no traffic laws and tiny streets), a monkey jumping on my back just before another tried to steal a book from my cargo pocket, bungee jumping off of a 160 meter suspension bridge over the Bhote Khosi river (2nd highest in the world), rafting through class 5 rapids in the Himalayas, a 10 hour safari viewing rhinos (including a dead baby that had been mauled by a tiger with the mother still gaurding the body), deer, wild pigs, mokeys, a sloth bear, and many other interesting animals.

Out flight leaves in the morning for India. Yes... India. We will be flying to Delhi and continuing on to Agra to see that Taj Majal and Fort Agra, and we were planning to head through Mumbai after that. We were to be there in 4 days and it was our gateway to the caves of Ellora and Ajanta, the beaches of Goa, and the ancient city of Hampi, so in the next day or two we will make some adjustments.

I will try to check in again in again soon. Please send me the email address of anyone who you do not see on this list that may be interested and I will add them.

Photos to follow when I find an internet cafe with computers fast enough to upload them.

Peace

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