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Published: November 17th 2006
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Finally Arrived in Kathmandu
First impressions of Kathamdu were much better than expected and we quickly managed to find a nice hotel in Thamel. We were harassed by Nepalese Taxi drivers on the way out of the airport, after much dispute we finally agreed a price and set off. This was no ordinary journey though, on the way after stopping off at an ATM a young boy begging came to Danny's side of the taxi and opened the sliding window. Dan was a little worried as he was counting his money so tried to slide the window and stop the kid from grabbing any. The worst part was when the driver quickly slammed the window shut, the boy started crying and we thought it was all a show, this was until Dan noticed the blood pouring from his little pinky!! We felt really bad so Dan gave him some money thinking this would stop him crying, we guess a dollar wouldn't mend a broken finger!!
By the way we were both happy to hear from family and friends after our first web diary attempt. Hope you all liked it and keep sending the messages....
We quickly
Rafting
Do we look the part...? settled in to Kathmandu but didn't want to waste anytime so we planned ahead and booked a 10day trek, rafting and to visit a Safari Park.
The Trip Begins
We were up at 6.30 and left some of our stuff at the hotel in Kathmandu. We took a 3hour coach trip to the rafting place where 7 of us would be steering a dodgy boat down a dodgy river. The rafting was good but we could have done with a few more rapids, so we may have another go in New Zealand.
Once the rafting was over we waited for the next bus which would be a 3hour journey to Pokhara, this was something we wouldn't forget in a hurry (maybe Danny might). The problem being that the local bus was full and the only option was to ride on the roof!! The thought of being on the roof was bad enough, let alone it being a local bus and being driven a foot away from the edge of a 300ft CLIFF!! This may have been the safest place if we happened to fly over the edge, at least we would have had a fighting
View from the hotel
Annapurna mountain range chance to jump off except for one thing.....Danny fell asleep!!!! How does he do it, the boy can fall asleep anywhere!!
The next day we set off on our Trek. Here we are thinking this would be a stroll in the park, we were very naive as this was more like SAS training and something we started to regret. The first day we walked for 5 hours, if you are familiar with trekking you'll be thinking this is an easy day, don't worry it didn't take us long to find that out! Why did we decide against the porter? although Marlow managed quite well!!
Most of the way we were focused on the floor trying to take one step at a time, well at least until Marlow spotted a massive spider in a web across our path. We took a few photos as we've never seen anything as big as this before, not to mention our guide saying it could be poisonous. Dan tried to go round the spider but walked straight into the web, the spider started to climb the web and head closer and closer to Dannys bare white legs.......it wasn't long before Dan reacted, he
Day 2 of our Trek
After 10,000 steps we dont look too bad.. jumped as high as he could and landed 2footed right on the hairy long legged git!! Marlow was crying with laughter however our guide being Hindu wasn't best pleased as its against his religion (Unless its a sacrifice to god!) to kill things and gave Danny a right bollocking. Marlow still couldn't stop laughing....!!
The 2nd day we climbed 1150 Meters and walked for 8hours, this turned out to be the hardest day and as you can imagine didn't go down too well with us. All we wanted to do was go back and sack the whole thing off, had we not paid for 10days we would have been running back.
Nepal......When does the fun start!!?
After really wanting to quit we decided to keep going and were determined to finish what we started. As we plodded on day by day we started to get into it and didn't feel as bad as expected. The days were broken up a little because we saw monkeys, learnt Nepalese words (Ramri Chau means your beautiful) and met a guy from East Morton which was weird (especially on a one foot wide path in the Himalayas).
Finally we made
Way down from Poon Hill
Finally the clouds part. it to the Annupurna Base Camp which was absolutely amazing, our excitement was short lived as we realised we had to sleep in -15 degrees and still had another 4 days left. As you can imagine we didn't really sleep and ended up waking up at 6.00 for the sunrise before setting off back down. Why does it always feel like we are walking up instead of down...!! There's way too many valleys to get across, haven't they heard of a bridge?
During the Trek Marlows knee was playing up and he was finding it difficult to walk up and down with the 15kg on his back. We were really lucky with the guide we had because he was a good laugh and more importantly carried Marlows bag on the way down..!!
On Day 7 we went to the Hot Springs which was nice and relaxing, all be it at 7.00 in the morning. On the way we walked past loads of Marijuana trees, most of them being in the back garden of the Nepalese who live there, i wonder why!!? To be fair we did walk past alot which is there growing wild in the hills.
Sunset over Croc River
Can't remember the name of the river but cool pic anyway Day 10 finally came and we were both completely knackered, we were so glad to have finally completed our SAS Mission, we both passed with flying colours...!!
Safari
The Safari wasn't as good as we expected but we still made the most of it. The food at the resort was poo but luckily we're still going strong and not been ill yet.
The Day Safari started off at 7.30, we took an elephant ride around the park where we managed to see Rhinos, Peacocks, Monkeys, Deer and crocodiles.
We also went swimming with elephants which was the highlight of both our days but was probably really dangerous. The elephant kept rolling over in the water, luckily it didn't roll on us! This was all done in the same crocodile infested river we had crossed earlier on Safari, ( they were massive too).
After this we went on a boat ride which didnt start off too good. Dan bricked it when Marlow nearly tipped the boat as he was climbing in. The boat was roughly 20feet long 2foot wide and definitely not stable for any kind of water. We were both relaxing and taking
Rhinos on Safari
Luckily we're 12ft high on elephant back.. in the scenery until we spotted the first 8foot Croc. Blimey!!! Our elbows quickly hatched inside the boat and now we were both bricking it, big time too!!! We're no Steve Irwin that's for sure.
The last day we went to a culture show for the indigenous Tharu people which was quite similar to a school play. At first we weren't looking forward to this but we were pleasantly surprised. At the end they were dragging people up to join in, they first asked Dan and you can imagine what his response was......!!! Then they went to Marlow who decided it would be funny to get up and look like a dick. Danny tried to get this on camera for photo evidence but Marlow had played about to prevent this from being shown.
We've had a good time the last few weeks and now looking forward to Hong Kong and China....Watch this space...!!!
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Yvonne Wilson
non-member comment
Hello to You Both
Hi both of you. Its lovely to hear from you and see all the lovely photos. It sounds like you are having an amazing time which I knew you would. It only seems 2 minutes ago since you went but yet you seem to have been gone for ages. Look forward to hearing from you again soon. Lots of love and take care Goolagong """