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Me again (Dan). In the latest news, we're now coming to the end of our time in relaxing Pokhara - Nepal's second city and set off point for trekkers to the Annapurna region. Yes, we've bottled out on climbing Mount Everest I'm afraid. Maybe next year. Actually, I think next year's Torremolinos, so perhaps the year after!
Back to the story. I'm very much enjoying not travelling solo anymore, although strangely somebody keeps stealing my books and using my shower gel (for washing clothes man!) Needless to say I'm also smelling much better though i also seem to be doing a tad more shopping. Would welcome any suggestions on the messageboard as to what might be happening!
So Pokhara is extremely cool. Unlike India, there's no blinkin autorickshaws and nobody tries to sell you stuff, which ironically encourages us to buy more stuff i think. Unfortunately, it's very cloudy which means seeing the actual Himalayan mountains is nigh on impossible since the clouds tend not to move anywhere. Still, we're seeing some great scenery and after just a couple of weeks i think Pokhara, and Nepal itself, are places we could definitely come back to.
Onto trekking. The whole country is extreme sports mad and I think i well and truly cashed in those brownie points i earned (by organising Beth's surprise birthday party) by dragging/encouraging Miss T onto a 4 day Himalayan trek up and down mind bogglingly steep hills in very damp conditions. We even managed to rack up 4 leech bites each (A draw though i think Beth lost the most blood!).
Actually, although incredibly disappointed not to glimpse the mountains we had a blast. It was amazingly interesting to see such a remote landscape and see such hardy people living in the mountains and was a little bit like travelling back in time. Except the donkeys which career up and down probably carry more coca cola these days. Also, i don't think i've ever seen so many chickens and so much poo belonging to so many different creatures. Not neglecting my usual reference to food, daal bhaat is delicious although Beth's worried I'm turning into a pack of Uncle Ben's! Personally, I think a refillable plate of rice, lentils and potatoes (aka Stodge) is rather good.
Since getting back we've got very achy muscles and sore feet. I'm now in the process of convincing Beth to take on some White Water Rafting although brownie points are flagging. Also on getting back a miraculous transformation had turned a pile of rubble into the ultra cool 'Tea Time Bamboostan' restaurant. So now we're stocking up on western food again, watching pirated dvd's and generally relaxing until we head off to Kathmandu tomorrow. Thanks for all your messages by the way, it's lovely to hear from you and keeps us going since all this trekking and jumping on buses etc isn't always the chilled out holiday we were expecting (or what it might seem).
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