Kathmandu, Thursday 17th July 2008

Hello, hello, hello! Two things...I love, love, LOVE Nepal. I can no longer go trekking. The reason I can't go trekking is because my knees have packed up. I KNOW! At the ripe young age of 33. *sigh* So nevermind. There's plenty of other things to do so here goes...

I regrettably missed the elephant washing in Chitwan so I'm hoping to be abe to do it in Thailand. My system went into a cycle of being hyperactive for 4 days at a time and then crashing for 20 hours or so. So this is what happened on elephant-washing day and I simply could not get out of bed. Anyway, the photos looked great and everybody agreed it was fantastic fun and a definite highlight.

Next on the agenda...Pokhara. Pokhara is a medium-sized, spread out town in a remarkably pretty location by a large lake under the shadow of the holy Fishtail Mountain. The backpacker 'strip' is full of travel agencies, restaurants, bars, bakeries and many, many shops selling genuine fake North Face hiking gear. Which means that, despite resistence, I am now the proud owner of zip-off trouser/shorts of the middle aged German predilection variety. Time spent in Pokhara was divided between horse riding (I went out cycling instead), Temple visiting (sat that one out too) and lots of late night drinking. With a bit of pool playing thrown in. I'm really glad we didn't take that 2am drunken swim in the lake!

Pokhara is the point where the tour group started to split up so some sad goodbyes were said and planes caught. Some of us, namely Jan and Vince, (have you checked out their blog via the link on the right?) Doug and Jo, Kat and Mo, Callum and myself, arranged a trekking/rafting trip. We trekked up a mountain for 3 hours but sadly Jo who wasn't feeling well, Mo and Callum decided to turn back after half an hour. I was the first one to catch a leech, hooray! Well, actually it caught me. Right through my hiking sock, the bugger. This is the downside of monsoon season (apart from the rain of course which isn't really a problem). These creatures are incredible. We all thought they were like slugs - fat, black and, well, sluggish. No chance! They're more like skinny, supersonic, manic, heat-seeking missile worms. They move fast, stealthily and are relentless in their single-minded pursuit of your blood. I have a photo of one which I'll post up when I have my camera with me. So anyway, we got to the tea-house where we'd be staying, had some lunch and then the others opted for a snooze while I explored a bit and did some yoga on the roof of a travel agents' with a view of Fishtail Mountain. Again I'll post up piccies sometime soon. We went for another little walk at 4pm and had a full-blown leech inundation which was both annoying and hilarious. Annoying that our eyes were on the ground, leech-spotting the whole time, missing the beautiful scenery, and hilarious in Jan's highly entertaining and very active fear of the little feckers.

After a shower and a few Nepal Ice's (beers, not ice-cream) we had dinner and listened to Vince's fireman stories, falling into bed at a paltry 9:30pm and dreaming of leeches. Jan actually slept with her head-torch on her head at the ready and spent the night leech-hunting!

The next day was a much more challenging, 5-hour hiking day. Bearing in mind that it's very humid, wet, slippery and leech-infested. I really enjoyed the going up bit but sadly it was the coming down bit that finished off my knees. We then went back to Pokhara for the night and had a fairly early night in anticipation of the rafting for the next 2 days. We also had to get everything off the truck and pack up in preparation for leaving the truck. Rafting the next morning was a 9am start and about an hour and a half's drive to the put-in point.

We rafted down the Seti (white) river which is usually very calm and recommended for families with children. This makes it one of three rivers that won't kill you during monsoon season. The other being the Trisuli which runs alongside a highway making it a less desirable option. The rafting was good fun on day one with some exciting rapids and a bit of jumping in the river. We then confluenced (is that a verb?) with the Trisuli which was noticeably colder and browner before stopping at the 'camp site'. The popcorn was more-ish, the dry clothes were good, the food was tasty and the fireflies were enchanting. We then sat around a bonfire on the beach and polished off our beers before moving onto the local moonshine which tastes like watered down tequila and is vile, undrinkable stuff. After a sleepless night lying in a pool of perspiration and a steaming tent, we breakfasted and set off once again. Day two was uneventful with no rapids but lots of man-made fun pushing each other in and fooling about. Jan and I even got some beach-yoga in during our lunch-stop and larked about trying to do handstands in the sand.

The afternoon was spent driving the 6-hour journey to Kathmandu and dozing in the minivan. Kathmandu is one of the top three most polluted cities in the world and the guide books warn to expect respiratory problem, particularly if you're prone to them, which I am. A lot of people wear facemasks to protect themselves and people are always noisily hacking up (it makes me feel sick to think about it) great wads of phlegm and spitting everywhere. Niiiiiice.

Ah, it was at this point that we received news that Tibet and China are definitely off the itinerary. I'll explain the new plan shortly. So we arrived at Hotel Moonlight which is relative 5-star luxury, dumped our stuff and headed out. This is where the last 6 (or is it 7?) days all becomes a bit of a blur. The first night out (Saturday) ended for me at 7:30am Sunday morning which means that I missed spectating the bungee jumping and gorge-swinging which departed at 6am. C'est la Vie, the photos looked good and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was Callum's 20th birthday so we all went out to dinner at K-Too's which does fantastic steak, great burgers and serves excellent wine. That night went through until about 3:30am and ended with us all getting kicked out of 'Fire' Nigtclub (or was it 'Reggae' Bar?) because a fight broke out. Oh yea, and then 3 of us went to the casino because it's the only place that stays open all night and it does free food and 'wine'. So we played roulette for a couple of hours before rolling back to the hotel sometime around dawn. And that's pretty much been the format in Kathmandu. Day three I actually did a bit of sight-seeing and went to Durbar Square which is where the child-goddess lives/is kept.

The poor child is chosen by a bizarre set of 'tests' involving clothing selection, witnessing the death of 108 animals and being locked in a temple for 24 hours being actively terrified. If she 'passes' these tests, she becomes the spiritual advisor to the King until she begins menstruation at which point she is sacked. It's apparently bad luck to marry an ex-Goddess but this is probably more to do with being saddled with an emotionally dysfunctional woman who cannot relate to daily life. No chuckles please!

I also visited the 'monkey' temple (more stairs!) and then proceeded with another fairly hedonistic night at various bars/nightclubs. So by this time we've reached day 4 and it's shut-down time. Cue a day of sleep, finally finishing my book (The Dark River, Dad I think you'd like it) and getting down and dirty with some yoga. Which, believe it or not, is still coming along albeit at a less progressive pace than previously.

You may recall that we met the Oz Bus back in Varanasi. They have two drivers, a South African guy called Dave and a Belgian guy called Bart. Well, Bart recognised me at Bar Maya and we started chatting. Turns out that the Oz Bus broke down (suspension - ha!) and the passengers have flown on to Bangkok. So Bart and Dave are driving the Oz Bus back to England for the next trip in August which apparently is having Robbie Williams on it. You heard it here first folks!

Our truck is leaving Kathmandu, as planned, on the 23rd July and is driving back to India to head down to Mumbai where it is being shipped back to the UK. In the meantime, some people have gone to Bhutan (too expensive for me and I'm having too much fun in Nepal) and others have gone trekking. As everyone else is busy and I get along well with Dave and Bart, I've decided to go back to India with them on the Oz Bus tomorrow. I'll then regroup with EOE in Mumbai where we're getting the sleeper train (32 hours) to Calcutta from where we'll fly to Bangkok on the 6th August. Whew!

So that's the plan. Today has been alcohol-free and healthy (hence the availability for blogging) in preparation for 4 days of solid travel. And I'm very pleased to report that although nearly everyone else fell ill, I'm fit as a fiddle which I of course attribute to the yoga. Only one stomach-churning event for me which was caused by a salad that I was half way through eating yesterday. I had a mouth full of tomato when I noticed that the other half of the tomato was writhing around on the plate. Closer inspection revealed that it was riddled with maggots. Urgh! So I very ungraciously spat it out in front of Bart, who shrugged and said it was just protein, before tucking into his chips. Every mouthful of today's salad was very closely inspected before going into my mouth.

Well, that's it. I'm all blogged out. Toodlepip! Lx