Nepal

So to say the Nepali border was the simplest one we have had so far doesn’t even begin to cover it! To get out of India we didn’t even have to get off the truck...we just gave Rachel our passport, she went to the exit desk (literally 5 dudes sitting at a desk out in the open at the side of the road in a little village) they stamped them and we were officially out of India....FINALLY!!! on to the Nepali side....fill out a form, go into an office (mosquito infested!) hand over passport, form, passport photo, get back on truck....15 minutes later (when the “big boss” was finished his dinner) we were all stamped through and officially in country number 14...Nepal. This all happened over the space of about hour and it was late and dark so we went to our bush camp site which was in the grounds of a hotel just passed the border. We all quickly pitched tents and then went to a nearby restaurant for some food. I think the staff were slightly flummoxed when a group of about 14 walked in half an hour from closing time and ordered food...but we were all too tired and hungry to care so we sat, ate and went back to the hotel...only to find that they had locked the gates!! So after a bit of rattling the gates Rhona came to our rescue and got a dude from the hotel to let us all in. What followed was a hot, sticky night in a tent! We were due to leave camp at 8.30 the next morning...those of us who camped were all pretty much up and ready by about7 because it was like staying in an oven if we didn’t get out of the tents! I put the time to some good use by stitching up all the holes in my tent from the dog in Amritsar...though even at 7.30 in the morning a little bit of sewing proved too much exertion in the heat!

When we did leave camp we got on the road for Chitwan National Park. The drive was lovely as everything was just so green and clean...which was a huge difference from what I had gotten used to in India. The first thing that I really noticed was that within a 20k drive from the border I had seen 8 or 9 different types of school uniforms. There is a big emphasis in Nepal on sending children to school, rather than them being at home. We got lots of waves from the kids and they all looked slightly bewildered at what they were seeing! We got to our hotel in Chitwan at 12.30 so then had the whole day to chill out and find out what there was to do while we were there...and there was a lot to do! We all piled into the restaurant first for lunch....and that is when that day’s monsoon hit! So we sat and watched it lashing down rain...and decided that that night we were just relax at the hotel and not do very much! The following day though, most of the group was up early for one of two treks. There was a full day jungle trek, or a half day trek. I decided on the half day trek and am very glad I did! We set off at about 7.30 and walked down to the village first...and reached a river. Our guide proceeded to tell us he was going to sort out our canoe and while he did that another guy came over to us and pointed out the crocodile on the bank of the other river.... cue oohs and aahs. Our guide came back then with our canoe....which in actual fact was an old fashioned dug out boat, one that once you are in it the water is an inch from the top of the boat and any slight movement rocks the boat from side to side....which isn’t actually a good thing when you keep in mind the aforementioned point that the water is an INCH from the top of the boat!! Everyone knows I’m not great in water....so putting me in a dodgy boat that rocks around with a slight movement and then keep in mind that a dude pointed out a CROCODILE, you can imagine that I wasn’t overly enamoured with the prospect of getting in the death trap! But in I went...sat like a stone and managed to keep myself calm (except for every time the boat rocked I’d squeal a little!). Then we went through a patch of water that had lots of tiny (and I mean miniscule, but there were a lot of them!!) rapids and my “calmness” rapidly (no pun intended) evaporated!! There were a couple of occasions we got a splash of water over the side but we all survived the deadly white-water rafting experience!! After floating downstream for about a half hour or so the boat dude pulled us over to the bank and out we hopped...well I saw hopped but what I mean is we all sat as still as possible as one by one we attempted to walk up the boat trying not to fall in ourselves or rock the boat too much for the others still sitting in it!! Once we were on terra firma again we got all excited about our jungle trek. Before we set off the guide gave us a couple of pointers. We were told that on the trek there was a possibility we would see some rhinos, elephants and maybe a tiger, along with deer and lots of different bird species....the guide’s advice was in regards to what we should do should be encounter a rhino. The first thing to do was to run and climb a tree as rhinos can’t climb trees (no shit!!). Failing a tree that was climbable, we should find a big one and hide behind it (really??!!). If that doesn’t work we were to search for a log lying on the ground vault over it and lie down behind it as the rhinos legs are too short and stubby to be able to jump over it (eh hello, what about my short stubby legs??!!), and if there was no tree to climb, hide behind or vault over....we were told to run in a zigzag fashion as the rhino can’t change direction easily...and with that our guide smiled and told us to follow him!!! So off we went on our great jungle adventure. Unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps!) we didn’t encounter any rhinos, elephants or tigers. We say plenty of kingfisher and hornbill birds. We saw an abundance of insects and different types of plants (including one which the guide called rhino potato tree...which was rather lethal, as the little round fruits that grew on it littered the ground and made for some difficult terrain to walk on...think walking on large marbles!). In terms of more exciting animals...Dee saw a deer...the rest of us were looking at the ground, we saw a monkey. And I’m afraid to report that the closest we got to a rhino or elephant was to see their footprints and shit! And we saw so much of their crap that by the end of it our guide didn’t have to tell us if it was rhino or elephant as we had become something of an expert on the subject ourselves! The end of our trek entailed another short canoe ride but then it was time to relax for the afternoon. Some of us went exploring Sauraha, the little village just outside the Park...and our exploration rewarded us in the fashion of a bar with Happy Hour and steak!! So that evening we all toddled down the village for drinks and a tasty meal that didn’t involve chicken after a chicken overload in India!

The next day was easily the best day out of our few days in Chitwan and is referred to as Elephant Day by most of the group! We all got up and headed off early in the morning to go to the Elephant Breeding Centre. We were picked up at the hotel by jeeps and brought to the breeding centre....unfortunately there was a river to cross before actually getting to the centre so guess who got another trip in a dodgy canoe...with even more people in it this time to try keep as still as possible! We all made it across the river without an early morning dip though and after a short walk we were at the Centre. We first went into a small museum which told us a small bit about what they do at the Centre. Obviously the breed elephants but they also train elephants there for jungle safaris and that kind of thing. Some interesting facts about elephants; they have 40,000 muscles in their trunk alone and when they are feeding they smack the bamboo or grass off their ankles to knock off any dust or bugs before they actually eat it. When we were finished reading about the centre we went out for the highlight....the 2 month old baby elephant. In 2008 the centre had a set of male twins born (only the second set of twins born in captivity in the world, the other set being in Thailand). But the new attraction is the 2 month old. We all spotted it straight away and when we were at the fence he came over to investigate us straight away. I was standing at the fence and he came and had a little sniff, grabbed my hand with him little trunk and then got mud all over my shoulders. It was so cute and he would just stand there and let us pet him. We all stood there for quite awhile before remembering that there was at least 20 other elephants to go and see, including the twins! So we walked around the yard, saw all the other elephants, including some that were being trained, which I didn’t really like to see. In the museum I saw pictures of how they start to train the elephants which is to tie their two front legs together and then to a pole. They are tied so close to the pole that they have to have their head in the air and their truck sticking up in the air. We didn’t see it quite as bad as this but we knew which ones were in training as they had their legs tied together and were standing right near training poles rather than just stumps in the ground that the rest of the elephants were tethered to (the baby elephant was free to roam within the enclosed area and cause a bit of havoc). In the end we all ended up back at the baby elephant for the last bit before we were told it was time to leave (none of us very happy having to saw bye to the little one!!). Then it was back on the boats, then the jeeps and back to the hotel for a half hour before going to have a bath with the elephants. When we were told we could bath the elephants we all had visions of getting in the water with them and scrubbing them behind the ears with a brush....not quite the case!! When we got to the river bank we had to climb up onto the elephants’ back (by standing on its forehead, didn’t like that!) and then sitting on its back. Then the elephant’s trainer would shout a command and before I knew it I had a trunk full of water landing on top of me. My elephant had perfect aim...some of the others the elephant would swing either left or right soaking people from the side. My dude would just throw it straight over its head so it got me smack in the face! It was hilarious...and then after awhile he would get border and just drop in the river sending me tumbling off!! So to say I went to bathe the elephants is a slight bit of false advertising...it was more a case of the elephant bathing me!!!

Later that day was elephant activity number three, our jungle safari! We got picked up in jeeps again and got brought to a different area of the park. 18 of us went on the safari which meant a convoy of 5 elephants, 4 people on 4 different elephants and Derek and Donald got spoiled by only having 2 of them on their one! It took a bit of getting used to at first, learning to deal with the swaying of the thing we were sitting in as the elephant plodded along. I think a few of the lads had some issues along the way (mostly on the uphill or downhill parts) as we all had a wooden beam between our legs keeping us from falling out! The safari was great fun though. Again the most exciting thing we saw was deer and monkeys and a few birds along the way, though Joe did spot a crocodile a few yards upstream from where our elephants had just piled into the water! We went through some quite jungly parts where our legs were getting whipped to pieces by tree branches...I got half my body almost wedged in a tree at one stage. We also went through some shallow water streams and at one stage jumped (well not quite jumped...on an elephant after all!) into the big river (the crocodile sighting) and ended up almost with our feet in the water. Overall it was so much fun; I loved the safari and hated having to get off the elephant at the end. Overall I loved the whole day! Had so much fun being so close to elephants, made me realise how much I really love them!!

Elephant day was rounded off by a traditional Nepalese dinner and Tharu Stick Dance. The staff at Mona Lisa prepared an amazing dinner for us consisting of Dal Bhat, which is curry, rice, lentils and vegetables. The food was absolutely gorgeous, my favourite dish being the curried cauliflower and potatoes. When dinner was finished we went outside to the garden where chairs had been set up for us. Locals from the village came and did a demonstration of Tharu dancing. The first couple of dances involved sticks which was unreal to watch. The guys playing the music would be beating away on drums quite quickly and the dancing guys would be bouncing around hitting sticks off another dudes sticks. It is totally impossible to describe what they did, my advice is to you tube Tharu stick dance and see what you can find cause it will be the only way to know exactly what the heck I am talking about! They did a few different stick dances then one guy came out with a long stick on fire and starting twirling it around like a mad yoke! I have never seen someone move so quick and this guy would put the flame throwers that are around Templebar back home to shame!! Then the last dance was the one where they asked us to get up and dance with them. Cue immense hilarity and lack of co-ordination! Surprisingly it was the guys who got up first with Bui leading the pack and Andy and Joe following not far behind. What was even funnier for the rest of us though, was that they all joined the circle at the same point so were copying each other rather than the dudes who actually knew what they were doing! Not that looking at the proper people helped any of the rest of us too much! Those guys have serious rhythm, something which the rest of us for the most part couldn’t quite keep up with, though there was two movements that the guys seemed to be able to get down pat; the change the light bulb move (you all know what I’m talking about!!) and a hip shimmy that proved to be quite funny when we tried to imitate as best we could! It was so much fun to be part of it and to have a go at the dancing, and the guys who knew what they were doing seemed to appreciate the effort we gave to get the dance moves!!

We left for Pokhara the next morning and had a lovely drive up through the Himalayas taking in all the scenery. After arriving in Pokhara early enough in the day we all went exploring in the town...and our first discovery was a cafe that served cheese and ham sandwiches!!! Then that evening a big group of us went to the Everest Steak House and everyone got their first bit of beef in a couple of months after Iran, Pakistan and India! The following day we all planned on having a lazy day and exploring the town...but the weather had slightly different ideas and we got up to a wet, rainy day! But we did venture out that evening to celebrate Rachel’s birthday, firstly going for cocktails, then dinner and then on to a bar for some more cocktails and a few games of pool. It was a good night all round...topped off by the fact that I went home slightly earlier than everyone else so when I got back to the hotel I got a great internet connection and got to talk to Mam, Dad and Triona! The next day was a late start for everyone after the shenanigans of the night before and then an extremely lazy day with the most exciting thing being going for pizza and ice-cream in the afternoon!

The following day we decided to make up for being extremely lazy for the first few days in Pokhara and we decided to walk up to the World Peace Pagoda. The Pagoda was built by Buddhist monks from Japan and sits up at the top of a mountain, overlooking Phewa Tal, the lake in Pokhara (second largest in Nepal). We had planned on getting a boat across the lake and walking up through the forest, except someone told us to watch out for leeches which turned us off (little did we know what was to come in a few days time!!). So we changed our plans and instead got a couple of local buses to the bottom of the hill and walked up it “the easy way”. Holy mother of God, I swear I nearly died on that hill!! It was about 35 degrees and the hill was steep and windy and we were in flip flops! I’m usually too stubborn to give up on things, especially when it comes to hill walking and that but for the first time ever I said to Rhona and Rosie that I was giving up. Fair play to them they said we would just go to the top of the ridge and then assess how far away the Pagoda was. As it turned out when we got to the top of the ridge it wasn’t as far away as it looked and best of all we got to walk along a flat ridge instead of the constant uphill! So I persevered thanks to the girls and we got to the top The Pagoda itself isn’t much to write home about. It’s big enough, brilliantly (blindingly!!) white and has 4 very big, VERY gold statues in it! But what people go up there for and what is worth going up for is the views out over Pokhara and Phewa Tal. I didn’t realise that Pokhara was as big as it was until I saw it from the top of the hill and the mountains behind the town were amazing. We stayed up there for awhile and took a few pictures and then made our way back downhill, which was slightly easier as we came down the steps rather than going the scenic route which we had accidentally gone up! Nothing much else from that day to report except to say we went for dinner in a Japanese restaurant that night and I succeeded in eating my whole meal (bowl of rice and all) with chopsticks!!

The next day we all got up early in terms of the previous few days and went to Mike’s Restaurant for breakfast. It was lovely to sit by the lake and have a nice breakfast. Some of the guys got breakfast burritos...which would have easily fed a small family for a day if needs be!! Afterwards we hired a giant pedalo and pedaloed our way across the lake to Varahi Mandir, credited as being Pokhara’s most famous Hindu Temple. My thinking is that it is the most famous one because it is on an island in the idle of the lake. When we got there the first thing I noticed was that the place could rival Templebar Square with the amount of pigeons that were knocking around! They were everywhere! Once I got over that, the temple itself was slightly unimpressive. It was fairly small and seemed to be covered in henna dye...which is probably down to the pigeons rubbing against everything and then landing on the temple. We didn’t stay there too long and all piled back on the pedalo. We still had a bit of time before we had to be back to we got ourselves out in the middle of the lake and then just floated and chatted for awhile before heading back.

The next day we met our trek guide Ram who had the task of getting 8 of us up and back down a mountain over the following 5 days! He gave us a rough idea of what to expect (failed to mention the fact that over the next 5 days we would walk up and down THOUSANDS of steps!!!). But what horrified us most about what he said was that on day 1 we would be walking for 6 hours....in complete contrast to the 2 and a half hours that the itinerary we had all looked at told us! We got slightly worried at that stage but he told us then that the rest of the days our longest walk would be 5 hours. We went out for dinner that night to get a good meal before we set off at 8.30 the next morning. We had a 1 and a half hour drive up the mountains before we got to our drop off point. We all jumped out of the van full of pep in our step, popped our bags on our backs and headed off on our big adventure. We walked through a few little villages first, across a bridge that went to nowhere (literally a big steel structure that ended at a brick wall!!) and then we were out in the Himalayas. I was walking along at my merry little pace and then we started to hit steps going up hill...my good God!! They killed me! We walked for a couple hours and then stopped half way up the steps at a little restaurant for lunch. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t a set meal or sandwich we were given for lunch, we were allowed choose anything we wanted off the menu so we were all happy! We were waiting for just over an hour for a food which was good in one way as it meant we got a little rest and got to rest our legs but as we were wet and damp from the rain and sweat (sexy!!) most of us ended up a bit chilly. Some of the lads had the great idea of talking off their t-shirts so they wouldn’t get a chill...which was a great idea until it came time to go and they had to put freezing cold, damp t-shirts back on them...fun for the rest of us to watch! Once we were ready and the lads were all fully dressed again we set off on the steps again...which was still another 3 hours walk of uphill. We eventually arrived at Ghandruk, our rest stop for the night. When we got to the little village there were sighs of relief all round...until Ram pointed out that where we were staying was a little further up the town...up meaning UP and so we had a last few killer flights of steps to get through before we could truly relax! When we did we got our rooms and went for a much looked forward to shower...only to find they were all freezing so it wasn’t so much a shower as a quick dash under freezing water and then an even quicker retreat! We then went down to the common area and got some tea to warm us up (yes I did just saw we ordered tea and yes I did partake in the drinking of it!! I had 3 cups of tea a day while on the trek...so after years of people telling me to try tea it turns out all you had to do was bring me on a walk up into the Himalayas and I will do it quite willingly!!!). We also ordered dinner when we got there...which turned out to be a good idea as it took nearly 2 hours to get it cooked (we quickly learned that food in the Himalayas takes a bit of time to cook...possibly because they don’t get many visitors so they like to keep people there as long as possible for a bit of company!!!). Once dinner was cooked and we were all finished we all headed off to bed...at about 8 o’clock!! The following day we had a 3 and a half hour walk and once again we were going up (I’m not sure why I was surprised by this...how else did I expect to reach the summit of a mountain!!). It was all steps again and big ones at that, my little legs struggled with a few of them but we all made it in the end. And we were all surprised when we got there as there was a guaranteed hot shower so we were all very happy and warm an hour or so later. The lodge that night was really nice, there was a big massive table for us all to sit around with blankets hanging off the edge of it so we could put the blanket over our knees (granny style) to warm ourselves up...but best of all the woman there put a big bucket of hot coals under the table so all our legs got nice and toasty! It was an early night again for all of us that night with us all heading off at about 7.30...turned out to be a bad idea for me as I was wide awake and it took me ages to get to sleep...not helped by the fact that even with my IPod in I could hear loads of bugs buzzing around the room!!

It was an early start again the next day and we started off downhill that day! It was a steep drop (down steps naturally!!) but then of course we had to make our way back up hill. I struggled a bit that day with my breathing. My chest felt really constricted so I was on a serious go slow that day (more so than the previous couple of days!!). We had another long wait for our lunch at the lunch stop and again we were all freezing cold! When we got going again it was 20 minutes uphill and then a downhill again to Ghorepani where we were spending the night. Our lodge that night was called Super View Lodge....and I’m sure it would have been a super view were we not constantly in clouds and mist for the whole time that we were there!! The lodge was lovely though, the nicest one we were in the whole time and was really cosy. The following day was our earliest start....up at 4.15am to leave the lodge at 4.45 to make it to the summit of Poon Hill for sunrise. It was an interesting way to start my birthday! Not sure I have ever been up that early on my birthday before....unless you can count coming in at that time after being out the night before!! I did ok on the steps for the first while, but about half way up I slowed down a little. I made it up to the top though and the views weren’t quite as spectacular as we had all been praying for. Luckily the rain that had been coming down all night did stop and the clouds on the tops of the mountains drifted along giving us the odd glimpse of other mountains...but it definitely wasn’t the breathtaking views I had hoped to see! I still appreciated what I did see though, even cloud covered the mountains were still lovely to look at and I loved watching the clouds just drift over them. It came to sunrise time and it wasn’t so much a sunrise as just a general lightening up of the sky. We stayed up there for about half an hour, took a few pictures to prove we did it and then headed back down for breakfast before setting off on a downhill track for the day. When we got back to the lodge I opened my birthday cards that I had been given before I left Dublin in April and have been carrying around since then (didn’t know I had that much will power!!!). I will admit I had a few tears, something I knew that would happen once I opened them. But I had my moment and then went down for breakfast where the guys gave me my birthday present (a UKtoOz t-shirt and string topJ). After breakfast we then headed off. That day we dropped from 3,200 metres to roughly 1,500 metres...pretty good going in one day. Except that it was steps the WHOLE way. I usually prefer the downhill to the uphill but I have to admit that day I kinda detested it! At first we were stopping along the way for our usually break for a few minutes...but as we kept going downhill stopping meant legs shaking uncontrollably and knees beginning to seize up...so in the end we just kept on walking no matter how tired or sore we were. My knees weren’t helped by the fact that I had taken a little tumble that morning and went tits over toes falling flat on my face and bruising my wrist and knee! When we got to the town we were stopping at that night we had a couple of draw bridges to cross which gave us some amazing views of some waterfalls. When we got to the lodge we all pretty much collapsed on a wall just outside it and waited to find out where our rooms were (up on the first floor of course!!!). We showered and hobbled back down the stairs to sit in the restaurant and wait for lunch. We could pretty much tell straight away that we were lower down as it was much warmer...and there was also lovely blue skies and fabulous views of the mountains (how typical is that!!!). Everyone had a few drinks that night to celebrate reaching the summit and we toasted my birthday too, then it was another early night in anticipation of being finished the following day!

Ram had told us the last days walk was “Nepali Normal”, a term he had taken to using to let us know that it wasn’t steeply uphill or downhill it was just a gentle up and down track...something we all appreciated! Though of course we first started off going down steps, something our legs did not appreciate after the previous day. It then changed to Nepali Normal and we picked up pace. We faced a couple of obstacles on what was supposed to be out “easy” day! Firstly we came across a little river across our path which we had to cross. We had come across a similar obstacle on our first day and everyone carefully took off their shoes and socks (I was wearing sandals so just waded straight in!) and stepped across. When we encountered the same problem on the last day everyone pretty much just walked straight in not caring how wet their shoes and socks got! Our second obstacle was to get across a landslide of lose rock and shale. When we first saw it we all had a moment of horror when we thought Ram was going to tell us we had to double back! Luckily though he expected us to be able to make it across the landslide without slipping down it and ending up in the river at the bottom of the valley! We all did make it across and it was quite fun doing it too. Joe came across last in the group and ended up being overtaken on the landslide by a 70 year old Nepalese dude wearing a pair of wellington boots!! We then trundled on and after a couple of hours Rosie spotted the bridge that went to nowhere.....signalling that we were very, very close to our starting point which meant we were very, very close to our little mini bus that was waiting to save us! We picked up speed and Joe even managed to run up the last uphill and race Ram to the top (Ram won!!). We then all piled into the van and let the driver dude and his clutch get us the rest of the way down the mountain!! When we got back to the hotel we were greeted by the staff who asked us how we were...to which they got a generally grunt and groan in reply! We all showered then ordered lunch and with that we had finished our trek! That night we brought Ram out for dinner and drinks to say thank you and to let him know that we appreciated everything he did for us...and to reward him for listening to us moan and groan for 5 days! I think it took him a couple of days into the trek to realise that for the most part we were joking and having a laugh when we were complaining about stuff and then he started to sit down with up cause he realised that we weren’t going to hold him personally responsible for the pain that we were in!! Dinner that night was really good and made even better by the fact that we were back in Pokhara and down off of the mountain with nowhere to walk to the following day!!

People keep asking me now if I enjoyed the hike. It’s a question that I can’t actually answer I’m afraid! I’m am very proud of the fact that I made it all the way to the top....and it made it a very special birthday too. I am quite pleased that for the most part I managed to avoid the leeches....only getting 3 throughout the whole trek. I came away lightly compared to the others. I think wearing sandals was a god send as I could see the little feckers on my socks (yes I did wear socks and sandals for 4 days of my life!!!) before they managed to burrow themselves through the socks. So when I did see them I could yank them off...and yes that does mean that I touched leeches...I touched a lot of them! Gone are my girlies days of tan and heels...I was a socks and sandals kinda girl for a week with absolutely no problem of touching a parasite with my bare hands and ripping it out of my skin while it sucked the blood out of me! Some of the other guys got pretty badly eaten by the leeches. Rhona even managed to end up with one in her head...only noticed when the fecker had dropped off after getting his fill and blood started flowing down her face! Everyone else would only know about their leeches by the massive blood stains left on the socks and legs after the leeches had dropped off. This brings me to the point that the leeches don’t actually hurt. For the most part we never felt them on us, every now and then someone would feel them but mostly they were there and gone before we noticed and only the marks left on feet and legs gave away that they were ever there! But I would take leeches over mosquitoes and day as they don’t hurt and don’t itch and don’t leave big massive red lumps where they bite!! Leech rant over, and back to what I started saying. I am glad that I did the trek, it was an amazing achievement but I wasn’t slightly disappointed as to the level of scenery we got due to the clouds and rain. I joked at one stage that I would be tempted to do it at some time in my life again...just to see the views I was supposed to get. Then I quickly talked myself out of it as my muscles seemed to sense what was going on in my head and started throbbing! But now that I am back a couple of days I think doing it again is a possibility at some stage in my life....I will just make sure I am fit enough and have trained for it so that the steps don’t kill me half way up!! But if I do do it, it will be far into the future so that the memory of the pain isn’t quite as fresh in my mind!!! It wasn’t quite what I imagined it was going to be and I think that is why I struggle to figure out how I feel about the trek. When I think Himalayas I think rocky mountain peaks with snow capped mountains. And I know I wasn’t going up high enough to actually trek on snow capped mountains but I still imagined that it was going to be rocky terrain. Instead we got step after step in a more jungly environment and as beautiful and breathtaking as that was I was still slightly disappointed that I didn’t get to see the sort of Himalayas that I imagined.

 Enjoyed the trek? Jury is still out! Glad I did the trek? Absolutely!

And here ends part one of my Nepalese adventure...many more stories to come as I still have two weeks in Nepal which includes a return trip to Chitwan and then a few days in Kathmandu.