Although I set off from England thinking that I would be writing a lot, especially on my blog, in really this proved to be more difficult due to time constraints. However as I was reading some guidance from my philosophy course handbook last night I realised that so called time constraint was simply an excuse. I know that I will look back reading these notes in the future and be grateful for them. And tonight with the power cut in Goa I have all the time I need to type away on my laptop. If I had to be honest I can confess that I left London in a mess. No matter how much I believed to be prepared emotionally I still feel the emotions in my throat when I said goodbye to my parents and Rahman. I cried a lot going through the security at the airport feeling sorry for myself for letting go of such great things in my life, my family, my friends, my flat, my job, my comfort…But then another part of me was also aware that this would happen, it was part of the change process, going into an unknown reality, feeling vulnerable and alone…but excited and happy at the same time. In fact I bought myself the biggest cup of coffee at the airport, sat by the window and watched plains take off. They were all leaving, also filled with people like me, some happy, some miserable! Then the Australian guy sitting at the table next to me started the conversation and hearing myself telling him of my journey I realised that deep down I was very excited indeed.NEPALIt is a shame to summarise my experience in Nepal rather than write them freshly. It was always easy as I had Judith with me, so calm, so curious, and so lively. I never worried about our time together, knowing Judith so well. Perhaps once or twice I did think whether I was driving her mad instead. Our trek was the best part of the trip, without a guide or a porter we carried our own bags, explored as we walked, rested as we needed and met many people along the way. The scenery was breath taking and the presence of the Annapurna range always made me feel more grounded and secure. As on any trek I could see how every moment applied to my life, "sometimes up, sometimes down" as one of the porters we met had recalled. We always knew the final destination even though we had no idea what it looked like or would feel like but we never knew what was round the corner, whether it was steep steps for two hours through the villages with children hassling us for sweets or a jungle where I kept searching for the famous monkeys or singing ridiculously from all the musicals I know. We had no idea what our lodge would be like or what our food would taste like but we knew where we were going. Isn't that really what really life about in a bigger cycle?Annapurna Base Camp was certainly the highlight. Although the light headache kicked in pretty quickly from the altitude it wasn't unbearable and even though we had arrived in a complete mist we were certain the sunrise would be clear and the crispy air would fill our lungs with some very high peaks feasting our eyes. It had to be a clear morning; we had come a long way for this…I think it was the base camp where we met some key people whom we could share some of the journey back with as well. They were an English couple in their late 40s or early 50s from Dorset who were taking time out for six months to travel. When they told us that they were doing the Everest Base Camp we realised that this trek was only a warm up for them. And their friendly porter Mukunda (Muk) who was the funniest, happiest person I had met in Nepal, only 24 years old and 57kg (which I happen to find out afterwards when we had a dal-bhat eating competition 3 evenings later in Ghorepani. As I struggled to finish my third plate Muk had already moved on to his fourth plate of dal-bhat). Muk's stories were often very interesting and reflected a lot of the Nepali culture, how poor the people were, how uneducated the girls were compared to the boys, how relationships and marriages worked.The trip also thought me a lot about myself. I realised how irritated with certain behaviours such as couples in love trekking holding hands or the boyfriend massaging girlfriend's feet or cooking for her because she was so religious that she wouldn't eat at restaurants (the Israeli couple whom we called "holding hand couple"); people who are irritating because all they talk about is themselves and kill the conversation by diverting all the attention on themselves (annoying American chef who had travelled to so many places); how judgemental I can be with posh and snobby people like the English family with 8 porters and a guide whom we named the "royal family". And yet as we talked about these people with Judith along the trek, I realised that the problem was me rather than those people, and that it is very possible that I was annoying so many people with my habits or my being without realising too. So after that I learned to accept people as they are and even started to think that the holding hand couple was rather cute!Other memories that will stay with me will definitely be the food (pizza in Chomrong, actually everything about Chomrong. The food, the views, the bakery with salty chocolate cake and those killer stairs we had to climb up), the animals (poor old donkeys carrying so much weight on their back including explosive gas tubes, the buffalos looking all very cute and amazed, the goats walking down the mountain with us not knowing that they will be sacrificed in a few days at the Dessai festival for Durga and the sheep including the little baby lamb I held in my arms), the dodgy bridges we had to cross, waterfalls we kept ignoring and Muk got upset about, the snotty and dirty children (not so much the annoying ones begging for sweets and pestering us but the three year old washing the dishes in the restaurant in Sinuwa and the cute little girl with tangled up hair, the only boy who we gave a very posh chocolate to because he sat with us on the way back from his school and showed us his homework), leeches we expected during the whole trek but found more going up to the Peace Pagoda in Pokhara, and the flees in my sleeping bag!The cities were also great. Bhaktapur with its great durbar square and people visiting the temples from 4am with bells, flutes and drums, and definitely the best guest house we stayed at Laxmi Guest House with a great view of the main square. Pokhara with its lakeside café and restaurants where had great trekkers' breakfasts, laid back atmosphere, great place to practice my bartering skills for shopping and for the two hour massage we booked ourselves to because anything less simply would not be enough after that hard trek. Kathmandu with its craziness and business, a chaos that goes on whether tourists are in town or not, people just get on with their lives. My unfortunate experience of diarrhoea made it slightly less pleasant but by all means it definitely is a city to visit again. GOA: It was yet another knot in my throat when I said goodbye to Judith in Kathmandu, venturing on my real journey forward to India but it wasn't as difficult as before. Again seeing familiar faces from our trek at the airport and staying with those people in Delhi for the nightmade it easier. I do feel that the disturbance at the hotel at 1.30am with the drunken Indian man breaking the glass on front door and how scared I woke up from the noise stayed with me for a day or two but being in Goa seem to have erase those feelings. It is such a laid back, friendly, more honest state. Even if you accidentally leave your car keys in ignition you know that it will still be there in the morning. So far my observations have been that it is more green and more tropical weather (in fact it is raining outside), we eat fresh pineapples, papaya, coconut, bananas for breakfast. The architecture is amazing with enormous and old Portuguese colonial houses with high ceilings and pillars at the front. I have already been to the nearest city Mapusa and the capital city of Goa, Panjim. Panjim was definitely the prettiest city I have ever been to in India. It's like a European city with lots of Indian people living in it. So far I'm really enjoying it!