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Hello everyone. Fe and I send our apologies for being useless at getting this blog thing underway, but we've now found a half decent connection so we might be able to make some progress - though photos may have to wait until New Zealand.
We are currently in Kathmandu having arrived earlier this afternoon. Nepal is quite a contrast to India, in terms of the landscape, people, general feel: it's far more green which makes a nice change from the constant dustiness of India; the people seem to be a little happier, smile a lot more, and don't try to sell you useless crap as much which is always nice; and its far more relaxed!
Prior to arriving here, we spent 3 days in Chitwan, visiting the National Park and surrounding areas. Our jungle trek was an interesting experience, starting off quite promisingly, our guide pointing out some tiger claw indentations, and also piss, on the nearest tree. However, the next 5 hours bought absolutely nothing, other than sweaty bodies and a general desire to be anywhere else. But all was not lost as we managed to hunt some rhinos, Fe getting some awesome pictures from up a tree, while i caught it all on video camera. There was a whole herd of people chasing the rhino, which was oblivious to our presence; when it finally noticed and turned towards us all, starting to charge, everyone b*****ed off fairly sharpish, leaving a brilliant view for me, standing still with my video camera, to capture it all (Fe of course was still up the tree at this point, paparazzi-esque in his approach!). So all in all the trek was pretty good, having been disappointing to start off with. We didn't see any tigers in the wild, but were taken to see one that was in an enclosure on our way back out of the jungle. It brought mixed emotions really - on the one hand it was amazing to see such a powerful and intimidating animal, yet sad at the same time that it was restricted to its enclosure. Having said that, this particular tiger has become accustomed to the taste of human beings after feeding on the four humans that its mother killed, hence the enclosure and lack of freedom. Tragic, but also kind of sensible i feel.
The trek was followed by an elephant ride the next day - another good but uncomfortable experience - which involved seeing more rhinos and generally taking lots of photos and staring in awe at the volume of waste exiting various elephant crevices. So yeah, that was generally Chitwan, and we're now in Kathmandu. I've shelled out 80 quid to fly over Everest tomorrow on either a broomstick or Hippogriff - we haven't been informed of those details quite yet - but this does mean getting up at around 5 am. Fe of course has decided he'd rather have a lie in. The rest of the day will be spent looking at some temples - a tiresome and somewhat dull activity by the 50th occasion - and then spending money on pointless junk, or the occasional unique purchase.
We return to India on Saturday, flying to Delhi - an absolute s***hole from what we have seen so far - which obviously we are looking forward to, then travel down to Mumbai to complete the Asian leg of the mooncat tour. This is called the 'Rajasthan Explorer' so we are expecting lots of exploring of Rajasthan to be done, which unfortunately will involve repeating our trip into Agra (a 3 hour train ride for Delhi) to see the Taj Mahal and Red Fort. I suppose there are worse things that we could be doing, such as using squat toilets or listening to Chris de Burgh, the worse case scenario being both at the same time, but we will just have to grin and bear it i guess!
Our week or so in India at the start of our trip was a fairly huge culture shock. We were of course expecting it to be, but even so it was extreme. Having survived Delhi the trip vastly improved. Our group of 8 other people, 9 including our heroic leader Gaju - who now goes by various names such as G, the G-Banger, G-Dog and the G-Unit, as well as the Silver Fox, despite having only a few grey hairs on his chinny chin chin (this is not an altogether justifiable nickname really, whereas the others blatently are) - is really great, a lovely bunch of people and we've all got on really well. I think most of the group would agree that highlights have been the food, sailing down the Ganges (though seeing two dead bodies was not something that we would like to remember) and arriving in Nepal to get out of India, among other things - such as myself decking it into a river - as well of course! It will be sad to leave these guys, as we've got to know them quite well over the two weeks - which feels more like months - but we will definitely keep in contact. Our group consists of the following members:
Myself and Fe - both 19 and genuine mooncats.
Kerry - 18, from Norfolk.
Leannart and Mette - 24 and 21 from Norway.
Julie and Sharon - the more mature members of the group, ageless, both from Melbourne.
Anna - 28-ish, also from Melbourne.
Fatimah - somewhere in the 20s, from London, who has sparked up quite a relationship with the G-Banger.
Birte - not sure of her age, but is from Berlin, Deutschland, and likes to take photos!
Gaju - the G-dog himself, sly and calculating, often found lurking in shadows and dark places, rum bottle in hand. He is in his late 20s, or so we are led to believe. Potential Silver fox in later years.
I'm getting rather random with this blog now, so it may be time to stop, but will try to keep you updated and get some photos up. At least it's more of a blog than a blank now though Julia!!!
Love to you all x
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