well what's gotten india

Well since the trek, zac's rented a motorcycle, we went canyoning (repelling down waterfalls) and rafting. Our HIGH-LAR-IOUS guide arranged for our raft to topple leading to me getting stuck under the boat, and then thrashed down the river into very painful rocks! my injuries were minimal.

anyways, we also went over to INDIA!!! DARJEELINGGGGGGGGGGG. to meet up with friends jake and kari. we walked across the karkavitta border which was pure chaos. The immigration offices are TUCKED away in little corners. After a drive up the mountains up to Darjeeling which rests an astounding 2000 some meters high in the kie, we found our friends at the bellevue hotel and started another adventure.

We started on another trek up to Sandakphu to try and glimpse the everest mountain range! Unfortunately crazy fog and mad rain storms made it only possible in the wee mornings. The conditions of our darjeeling trek were tough but one nights stay in an abandoned army bunker toughened us up.

we've been back in pokhara now for a bit, taking nepali lessons, enjoying the nepali bands and even a little golf!

crossing the border!!!!


herro friends


tea with the most amazing tea lady in the world who could speak fluent MANY other languages including japanese


resting in sandakphu around the coal fire with our cheeky british friends, and the woman by which we used as a standard whenever we got cranky "well if the british woman could do it we can!"


buying some yak products: cheese and butter!


oh just mount everest sticking up out of the clouds... (flying from the indian border back to kathmandu)


our nepali teacher Prem asked us to be guests at the school he teaches at where we explained to the elder kids a little about canada and north america! and of course we all sang bryan adams together.


oh just golfin into the seti gorge

ALL AROUND DE ABC

The 12 day trek to annapurna base camp and back down to pokhara was one of the most amazing things i've ever witnessed! And I never imagined i'd enjoy simply walking for hours everyday SO MUCH. Our days consisted of breakfast, walking, lunch, walk a bit more, cards tons of gin rummy, dinner, then relaxing with our guide DB and our porter (who i never saw break a sweat in jeans and flip flops) Don and then bed. We met many travellers along the way, sampled Rokshi: nepali wine selected by our guide, searched for mushrooms with our porter, discussed the various film settings we walked through (lord of the rings, sleepy hollow, bridge to terebithia...(zac said it)...)

It was amazing to witness the effort it takes to live in the villages among the mountains. All the climbing of stairs to get anywhere was exhausting, yet all the villagers were so welcoming and kind and the tight sense of community reminded me of home. The scenery everywhere we went was spectacular: waterfalls, rapids, bamboo tress, ferns glowing green in rounds! Though i must say some of my favourite times were walking through the whiteout cloudy fog, it was so eerie and spooky and wild!

Basecamp was out of this world. The mountains are so beautifully breathtaking i had a hard time believing they were real. I kept waiting for the paramount pictures signature to pop up overhead. This was an experience I will never forget, with people I will always remember.

First night in Ulleri getting some inspiration:

Poon Hill view: godly rays peeking out over the mountains:

Hurray!

Sad fact: we forgot water for the mini hike up to poon hill: we had cola for bfast:

TADAPANI (the village) Tin Walls: I thought we were going to tip over the hill during a thunder storm:

Terrential rain storms and white out fog at Fishtail lodge in Chomrong: our fav lodge with the nicest owner who looked like Johnny Ventura:

Restin and Readin:

CHOMRONG famous for its chocolate goods:

THE FOG ROLLING IN AT DEURALI:

HIDING!!!!!!!

HAPPY CAMPER!

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The first day leaving basecamp:

Zac and Don searching for mushrooms!

Its fun to run across these:

VROOM VROOM!!

Today I went on a motorcycle tour/crash course. With hearts and tears motorcycle club. They are a couple from the Netherlands that started this operation in Nepal 7 years ago. At the and of the day we road around town which was amazing and teriffying at the same time considering the lack of road rules in Nepal.


We leave on a guided twelve day trek to the Annapurna Base Camp tommorow morning!!
Wish us luck!!!

pokhara more like pookhara

the dhearea donkey:


Now that we have finally arrived in pokhara, hippie paradise, given the chance to relax for the rest of the month. Down comes the hail of the pooh gods. whilst not studying the bathroom walls, we've been out walking around the lake, partying at the locals cafes with their solid nepali cover bands. We've sampled the water buffalo momos (like little dumplings) and we've had the traditional nepali dhaal bhat. Its a lentil curry sauce over rice, quite tasty. As we move around the country we see how many different types of faces are all over, you could say in pokhara most people tend to look a little more japanese. In Kathmandu there were more faces that looked indian. i've been described as many different nationalities already by the locals....

Oh hey!

Well. BIG NEWS: Zac's bag arrived at the airport when we did. no drama there really. We made it to Kathmandu just dandy. We stayed for a couple of days gettting used to the crazy! I've already acquired a pair of harem pants and Zac has tried all the local beers. We accidentally took a taxi to Bahktapur, this ancient old king's palace square from the 1600/1700s. There is one temple where during this certain festival they sacrifice 180 animals!!

The last few days we spent exploring the jungle with Krishna and Baba our fierce jungle born leaders in Chitwan. HOLY SHIT IT IS HOT IN CHITWAN. Let's just say sweaty is not a good look on either of us....anyways, Krishna told us stories of being attacked by three sloth bears that he fended off himself. In Chitwan weed is the natural "weeds" of the village, it grows absolutely everywhere.... and so were "special" or "rainbow" lassis..... We toured with a wild group of asians and a guy from Oakbank! He'd been living in Thailand for a year on vacay... let's just say you can take the boy out of the hood but you can't take the hood out of the boy...........

Well heres a tinkling of what's happened so far....

ANNYONG HASEO

NO PICS cuz Koreran Nestle Cafe hates USB ports but we have arrived in Soeul, North.. i mean South Korera!! Not without incident, Zac's bag got lost in transit...sad.

NOTE: Korean Airlines should take over the world. If you think westjet is good service, Korean Airlines kicks their ass out of the water. And the stewardessess wore the cutest outfits! It was like being in a beautiful asian anime dream.

Once we arrived we went to pour our lost bag tears into some beers and chicken! So much so I drunkenly wandered off in a department store, dazzled by the aray of hello kitty merchandize causing us to miss our last subway back to the airport. Luckily we found a taxi and we are back. We wait for next plane. We very tired and stinky.