Mountains + rivers = good times

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What amazes me is how much prospective can come from over 2 weeks in the mountains.

I just got back to Delhi after 3 weeks in Nepal. What an unbelievable place Nepal is. After the Visa episode at the airport i found a room in Kathmandu and had a look around. The buildings in the city are so old that the doorways to shops and shop fronts only stand about 5.5 feet tall. it appears to be a small hobbit dwelling with miniature everything just to fit in these shops that have been standing (more or less standing) for over a hundred years, Plus.
After a couple days exploring the city and taking the bus out to an amazing Tibetan settlement, i set off with 5 other travelers and 6 guides/safety kayakers and cooks) on a 10 day trip down the Sun Koshi. one of the longest rivers in Nepal stretching from about 4 hours north east of Kathmandu to the south east corner, not far from Darjeeling India. The trip took us through some of the most remote villages and areas of Nepal, many with no road access. Each day we would crawl out of our tents (if we had even slept in them- sometimes we slept on the beach to enjoy the most spectacular star filled sky i have ever seen) and make our way to the breakfast "table" which consisted of a plank of wood laid our between 2 buckets of water. The staff of the trip had usually been up for hours already preparing the rafts and food for the day. After breakfast we pack up our tents, load our bags into dry bags and tie everything down on the rafts. Our trip consisted of 1 raft with the 6 travelers and a guide, one gear raft with 3 staff and 2 safety kayakers. We set our for our day on the water early in the morning and literally drifted down the river for about 4 hours before taking lunch on a nice white sand beach. Back into the raft for another 3-4 hours of river time before reaching our camp to set up for the night. In the evenings we tried out of kayaking skills in the river and helped prepare dinner.

We went through some HUGE water, the biggest rapid being about a 5-5+. One rapid (that i didnt realise is as famous as it is all over the world) had our guides a little worried because a rafting trip a couple weeks before us lost a guide and a traveler while attempting to go through it. we stopped about 50m before to have a look and see if it was doable, but i think with everyone knowing that it had taken 2 lives not a week before we decided against it and sent the rafts through sans-people. Our guides were smart and all of us that had very limited experience rafting were thank-full we didn't take the chance...
Other then that one rapid we got through the rest unharmed. a couple startling moments when you are flung from the raft into a washing-machine type feeling of freezing cold water, but no injuries. The only slightly uncomfortable thing was that i got bit by a millipede. It turned into a deep purple welt with many red rings radiating around it. On the trip with me there was 3 Americans 2 guys from NewYork and a girl from Texas (that was my tent mate), an Aussie bloke and a girl from Ireland. I dont know if the group could have been a more perfect mix. We spent each night around a camp fire drinking local brewed alcohol that had come from the near by village and talking about our travels (all of us had been on the move for at least 8 months)... it was an amazing dynamic.

Next it was time to get off the water and into the most famous part of Nepal, the Himalayas. After the rafting trip it was a death defying 18 hour bus ride to Pokhara in North central Nepal. Its a Lake side town with a huge traveler population durring peak season (oct-dec). is the starting point for some of the most popular treks and the place to be just to chill out for a couple days drinking one of many locally brewed Nepali beer. It took about 2 days for the vicious sunburn on my face to stop hurting and the same to catch up on my sleep from the rafting trip. Then it was time for my next adventure. By pure fluke i met an Australian girl that was also traveling alone and wanted to trek. we desided to set off together for the Ghorapani loop trek. it took us 5 days, about 10,000 stairs and to over 4000m elevation. I got an upclose look at some of the tallest peaks of the Himalayan mountains, and thickest jungles filled with monkeys and leopards. (the sights i witnessed are to beautiful and profound to try to type here, so i am promising to post pictures as soon as i can). It was a priceless experience and i hope really soon to be back there ( with my mother,.... haha) to do a longer trek up to the base-camp of Everest.

After the trek i spent one night in Pokhara and then headed back to Kathmandu, where i only had one day before flying back to Delhi where am as im writing this. In that one day in Kathmandu i managed to get hit by a car in the city. It was one of the scariest things that have happened to me on this trip. The car came driving out of a lane and took out a motorbike, i think when he felt himself hitting the bike he over-corrected and then continued to hit me. The next thing i knew i was being picked up off the ground by a lovely German lady that had been walking by. I was close by to where i was staying and completely in shock walked back to my room. It wasnt until then that the pain it. I looked down to see an already sore toe (from the trek) resembling more of a pancake. It was huge and purple and forsure broken. Pain was radiating down my neck and one side of my body. I was worried that i had broken my foot as well so i made my way to the doctor. He told me that my toe was definitely broken but he didnt know about my foot and to keep an eye on it. Turns out my foot is not broken, and my toe is healing fine, i cant fit it in a shoe yet though... what a pain in the butt! Im so thankful that it wasnt worse, i dont think Kathmandu is the best place to be in the critical care unit...
I hobbled my way to the airport the next morning and flew back to Delhi. Tonight i leave to go back to Australia for a couple weeks in a camper van with some friends i traveled with in South-East Asia, then to England to visit the family, and HOME (???) in December.

love love love!

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