Well everyone. I am back safe and sound. I didnt run into any Moaist...but I have to admit I was looking forward to a little action..oh well. So the trek; phew, where do I begin. The trek was a ten day "hike" up up up up up the Himalayan Mountains to the basecamp in the Annapurna Mountain range. I have never ever seen as many stairs has I have on this hike....i mean, things really got out of control. And it messes with you a little. For example. Sometimes, at home, during normal life, if you have to go up or [View Full Entry]

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Well I am here....Nepal. Home of the largest mountain in the world...and it just happens to also be the home of the best street food i have ever come across....not that any of you fools know about this; but MOMO'S are the best. I dont really know how to describe them. They are cooked in a bamboo steamer kind of like dumplings (dim sum), they look like Chinese dumplings...kind of. Basically they are some sort of dough wrapped around some kind of meat (i think)...i have learned that it is better not to ask to many questions, especially if it tastes [View Full Entry]

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Day two in Chitwan and today promised crocodiles and baby elephants. The day started early with a morning canoe down a river apparently full of crocs. Thankfully most of them were still sleeping, so there was no chance of us getting eaten while paddling down the river. Our guide was a bit too bold and decided to take us a bit too close to the crocodile holes - holes dug into the bank of the river in which the crocs slept. We actually got within a meter of full sized sleeping crocs. We could see their heads and noses sticking out [View Full Entry]

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Today was a day where we would get to chase rhinos while riding an elephant. Exciting huh... well, that's what the travel brochure said anyway. Royal Chitwan National Park is a national park in the south of Nepal where the British Royals used to hunt the poor animals for fun. Today it's a major tourist attraction and conservation park which promises the traveller the chance to get close to exotic wildlife such as rhinos, sloth bears and even the occasional bengal tiger. Due to major delays on the road to Chitwan (due to the Maoist terrorists) we couldn't take the super [View Full Entry]

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Kitty has always been fascinated with walking although I've never actually seen him get off his behind and go bush walking. However, to satistfy his cravings, we agreed to go walking in the Kathmandu valley today. We headed up to Nagarkot, where we were supposed to get some great views of the Himalayas. Unfortunately, thanks to the mist and pollution, all we saw were shadows in the distance that we convinced ourselves were the Himalayas. We then started on our 4-hour trek, which was a MASSIVE trek for us (yes we know most other people in Nepal trek for 20 days). [View Full Entry]

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The plan for today was to see Bhaktapur, an old city about 13kms from Kathmandu. Since we weren't really planning to go trekking, the main things to see in Nepal were temples, so we mentally prepared ourselves to be templed-out for the whole day. Bhaktapur had the most ridiculously expensive entry fee - 750 rupees - which is huge compared to the standard 100 rupees at other places. So we were expecting something fairly extraordinary. What we got was some fairly old buildings and a lot of temples. There was one gross one which had two elephants doing stuff that elephants [View Full Entry]

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Our time in India has been great, although a little traumatic. Probably the most enjoyable part was actually experiencing India and seeing all the wonderful, colourful places and people. And most importantly, eating all the food we can at bargain prices. Let's see if our good memories of India outweigh the bad. *Food - for all of you who know us - and that's all of you except for the guy who responded to our blog on Hyderabad defending the beauty of his home city - you will know that food is always at the top of our list. And India [View Full Entry]

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After 12 days in India, we were ready for a new country. Today it was time for Nepal, and in particular, the capital Kathmandu. We had seen a movie staring Kathmandu airport once before, and it had cows running around the airport, so we were sorely disappointed to find a rather modern looking bland airport awaiting us. The taxi ride to the hotel was interesting, giving a brief glimpse of various parts of Kathmandu. The most notable thing was that it was a lot cleaner than most of India. Considering that it's a much poorer country, this was rather surprising. You [View Full Entry]

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Descending from the lifeless windswept Tibetan plateau into a narrow gorge, trees in a state of vivid autumnal bloom begin to creep up the sheer walls. The further we descend, the browns, oranges and reds become green and greener still. The spaces between fill with a whole array of plant life until the entire gorge is enveloped in the verdant life force that is the subcontinent. Three seasons in reverse - a plunge of over 2kms in little over an hour. Time to take the thermals off and let the heat permeate every pore. Jostling through the border town melee straining [View Full Entry]

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Chitwan National Park is in the far south of Nepal boardering with India. It is a large Jungle area which has been protected in order to maintain its diverse variety of animal and plant life. We chose to spend a couple of days just outside the park and pay for an organised programe of activities. This included visiting the local elephant breeding centre, an elephant ride into the jungle, a canoe trip and elephant bathing! It was a good couple of days, with the highlights being seeing the wild rhinos in the park and going in the lake with the elephants [View Full Entry]

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