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Just to let you know we're alive and kicking!
We've had an adventurous couple of weeks! We went white water rafting in Nepal which was fantastic. Mostly quite peaceful drifting along the valleys taking in the breathtaking mountain views and quite rough at other parts. At one point the rappids were really strong and Ross was thrown over board! he managed to grab hold of a chinese guy sitting next to him taking him with him too. We pulled them both to safety so all was well apart from the fact ross had his wallet with a chunk of our ruppees in his pocket. We camped on the beach, makng friends and playing cards under a blanket of a million billion stars. After a local saying he could build us a fire for 50 rups we decided to try and make one ourselves which took about an hour and a half, used our lighter untill it had run out and then only lasted about 20 minutes. But hey, it felt good! The second day rafting was taken up predominatly by our guide drenching the chincese girls in our boat with buckets of water. Ross and I plus the guys we'd made friends with the night before all jumped out the boat and drifted alongside the boat for a while which was fun, apart from being soaked through afterwards. Fun time!
Headed to Chitwan National Park afterwards for some more thrill seeking - of the wildlife kind. Stared our tour with a cultural dance which involved lots of stick hitting and pelvic shaking and then a wierd dance involving a ginat fake peacock that everyone whooped and cheered at, apart from us who found it quite confusing! It was pretty cringe worthy at the end when all the turists (mainly middle class middle aged women) got up and joined in (you can imagine how ross liked that).
IN Chitwan park we went in a dug out canoe boat for a ride down a crocodile inhabited river, seeing a few splashing around plus all sorts of other wild life! We went on a day jungle walk looking for more wildlife (Ross was in his elemnet) including Tigers, Sloth bears and Rhinos. It was an exhausting day battling with 8 foot tall grass and walking deep into the park but with many rewards. The first animal we saw was a huge horn bill bird, followed by some langur monkeys, monitor lizards, red cotton bugs all over the jungle floor (mostly mating) and suffered a few leaches too (RANK!) Didn' t see a tiger, as its very unusual, but did see its paw print which was strange to think they were there walking around where we were too. And didn't see any sloth bears either, which was quite a relief as they dont like human faces and will attack you in the eyes first! On our way towards the river bank we saw a few 'rhino high ways' in the grass and then our guides got a whiff of rhino. We heard some almighty cries and then spotted a mohter and a baby in the water Our guides went off to see if they could find a better viewing spot at one point. Whilst they were away we heard a rumbling noise behind us and bushes moving. We were pretty scared as it was just me and Ross and were trying to suss out which tree looked best to climb to avoid a rhino charging at us. The rhino ran into the river though so we got a really good look before he ran away, it was very exciting! The day after we went on an elephant back safari and saw some mroe rhinos! They don't notice you are there when you are the back of an elephant, as they have pretty appauling eye site, so we got up really close!
We headed down to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha after Chitwan, our last stop in Nepal! When we got off the bus and got our luggage we saw a couple of goats were travelling in the luggage compartment too! Lumbini was a very spiritual place as you can imagine with lots of monastries and temlpes from different buddhist practicing countries, all appearing to try and out temple each other. The first day we arrived there was a massive storm, causing the doors to fly open in the restaurant we were in and the floor flooded. Buddha in spirit maybe! Hired a couple of bikes and explored the the sacred gardens. saw the pool Maya Divi bathed in before she went into labour and the exact spot where Buddha was supposedly born. Came out feeling awed and holding an overprices illuminous green buddha statue i had bought.
After we headed back in the caos of India (missing the chilled outness fo Nepal). We did a quick stop in Lucknow for Ross (and me) to see the Residency where 1000 British people had lost there lives in the Inidan Uprising back in Colonial days. Had a pretty horrendous stay at the hotel which was the only one our of about 10 that would let us stay. I dont think they get a lot of weatern tourists as the guy kept knocking at our door, asking us to buy coffee, then came in an cleaned our floor, then back agian asking us to buy coffee, then we caught him trying to spy on us though a gap in our hallway facing window, i ran to the door to shout at him and he was trying to hide behind a air conditioner unit in the hallway me "i can see you, can i help you?" guy "no madam" me "Oh i was just wondering why you keep trying to look in our room" him "do you want a coffee me' NO!"
We've been in Ragisthan since seeing a couple of cities (Jaipur, Jaiselmer, Jodpur and Udiapur). Went to the cinema in Jaipur which was pretty funny as everyone stood up and cheered everytime something mildy exciting happened, which was pretty hard for us to tell as it was all in hindi, apart from on the odd occassion when they spoke in english. One time the scence involved a massive joke that everyone laughed at and then the main chacater turns to the other and says in englsih "ah thats a good one!" - yea cheers mate!!
Spent a good few days in Jaiselmer, an amazing fortress city which looks like a ginat sand castle on the horizon. WE met a couple from the UK on the train there and made good friends with them. We all went on a camal back 3 day safari into the desert. It was quite an endurance test, made easier by the fact our guide went off each evening on his camel to get us beers! The guide was a funny chap, with a trigger happy TV ring tone (HELLO YEA, I"M IN THE DESERT!) and would constantly say "no woman no cry" and "don't worry chicken curry". My camel was one of the fastest, Calou. Ross's camel was called Lala, which was pretty hilarious watching him trying to catch up screaming "Cha cha, brap, brap, come on LAla!" We slept on the sand dunes which was great fun and saw so many shooting stars, waking up to a heard of goats sleeping next to us. The funniest thing that happened to us there was when a couple of local villagers stumbled across us and sat with us for a cup of chai. Then one of the guys handed us his phone and on the other end was a restaurant owner in the city trying to get us to eat in his resaurant! you can't even get any peace in the middle of dessert!!
Headed to Jodpur and caught a day of the International Ragisthani folk music festival. In udaipur at the moment before we head off to mumbai and onwards to Goa. Going to meet up with our UK friends for a party for my birthday which should be good.
Well untill next time xxxx
P.s. let us know what you guys are up to!!!
- comments
Annabel Wow it sounds like such an amazing trip. I do feel quite sorry for the Chinese guy that got pulled overboard, but glad to hear it all ended well! x
Sarah Hey guys, glad your having an amazing time. Just got back from Argentina and it wasn't long enough! Enjoy every minute! We are awaiting your return to plan our Berlin Trip! much love x