8-11 March Days 4-7 Namche Bazaar(3440m) via Khumjung(3780m) to Phortse Thanga(3680m) to Dhole(4110m) to Machherma(4470m) The weather today is pretty consistent with the trip so far, clear and sunny in the morning, but cold, it heats up at around perhaps 9am, and by about 10.30am the high peak clouds start rolling in, obscuring our view of the mountains somewhat. With the clouds comes the chilly winds. However if you can find reprieve from the wind and sit in the sun somewhere protected, it is possible to strip down to a t-shirt, well for me maybe, Suz maybe not so much. The first part of the day’s trekking involved a steep climb directly out of Namche up stone steps and through juniper bushes. It was then about an hour until we reached a magical location, my favourite ... read more

exchange rate $1AUD = 87NPR We departed Australia from the Gold Coast flying the no frills Air Asia. Our departure was made a little unpleasant thanks to a grumpy old customs lady that thought that if she explained the tax refund scheme rules louder and louder each time that we might understand what the hell she was getting at. Ahh love, why not just try saying it different next time as opposed to yelling it. The flight to KL was around 8 hours and went by quite quickly. I’m reading “Into Thin Air”, all about the 1996 Everest Disaster where many people were killed after being surprised and trapped by a raging storm, just to get me in the mood for our upcoming trek to Everest Base Camp (EBC). Surprisingly the Air Asia food was actually ... read more

(a few more photos of our time between trips) We learnt a lot about how to travel sustainably from our 6 months “One Summer” van tour around Europe in 2009. I remember we went hell for leather in our first 6 weeks, so excited were we by the prospect of finding out what was just around the next corner that ultimately we forgot to stop and smell the roses. Reading our European blogs back over, it is quite easy to recognise the traveller’s burn out that we endured. We re-evaluated the way we were travelling a few times during our 6 months, and I remember at one point in Nice, France, we were close to packing it all in and returning to the UK. Thanks god we didn’t. I have read a lot of Travel Blog ... read more

I write this blog almost 18 months after arriving home from Hong Kong, so am relying on my memory along with our photographic record of events. We took little to no diary notes during our 10 day stay. Something I now wished we were more diligent with at the time. I remember arriving into Hong Kong on the airplane and gazing out the windows at the lit skyline, it was late in the night on New Year's Day. We were both excited to be here in this international metropolis city and to the new experiences that it may bring with it. We grabbed a taxi to our hotel, we were staying at the highly recommended Lan Kwai Fong hotel in the middle of the bustling area of Soho. It was quite expensive at around $200 per ... read more

I forgot to mention in the last blog that one of our big regrets was not hanging around longer to coincide with the whale shark snorkelling tour. But don’t worry we'll be sure to get back one day to tick that one off the list. Today was Suzanne's birthday, and was probably one to forget really as the entire day revolved around travelling from one place to the next, we caught the tricycle to Moalboal and from there a non-air conditioned bus down south to Bato. We then rode the ferry across to Dumaguete. We arrived at our accommodation for the night, and it wasn't at all pleasant. Although the good news was that there was no sign at all of the damage from the typhoon, and it didn't interrupt the tourist trail and infrastructure at ... read more