Our final photos to view

Here's the link to our final photos-Europe, Russia, Siberia and Mongolia:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=daywaat.secw6lp&x=0&y=-vz43ql&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button

Our Nepal trek photos

Here's the link to our Annapurna circuit trek photos in Nepal-
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=daywaat.ttnqibh&Uy=k97bqn&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&localeid=en_US

More photos to follow soon-Europe, Russia, Siberia and Mongolia.

Our return home! Yippee!

We have 2 more days left in Nepal before we fly back to Delhi on Friday (oh no!!!!!) We really don't want to go back to India but it's the only way home. We are going to take a picnic from a Nepalese supermarket so that we don't have to eat for the 24 hours we are in smelly Delhi! (After talking to the Dutch girl from the rafting who had got Typhoid from India! and the Greek guy, Paris from our trek who had been poisoned in Calcutta and lost feeling in his arm for a week! it has reassured us that we were not paranoid about India!)

On Saturday we fly from Delhi to Manchester via Abu Dhabi returning home on Sunday. Yippee! We will post the rest of our Nepal photos when we get home as there are so many of the Himalayas that it will take forever without Broadband!

Looking forward to seeing everyone and hope everyone's enjoyed following our little circle of Asia which has been a massive education to us.

Rafting

We booked a 3 day rafting trip down the Kali Gandiki river, which we ended up cramming into 2 days which meant a 5 o'clock start on the 1st day. It was fantastic! Rachel was a little scared at the thought of it, but ended up loving it, even when she got chucked out in the middle of a rapid! We had a great guide who steered while we and a dutch couple paddled like mad. Unfortunately the dutch man was a bit clumsy and ended up pushing Craig's face about 5 foot under the water with his foot in the middle of a rapid! The dutch guy was oblivious to this as he swam to safety. We capsised on the 2nd day over a massive rapid (a 4 apparently?) and we all ended up in the water. Craig floated down the river and was picked up by the other raft and Rachel ended up balance on a rock with the catamaran carrying the camping gear picking her up. The water was rather cold! But is was all great fun and we ended up camping on a beach with a hole in the sand for a loo and a campfire to keep us warm.

The great Annapurna walk! 20 days in the Himalayas

Arrived in Pokhara over 3 weeks ago after a very ropey bus journey. Pokhara is a very nice relaxed and touristy town at the foot hills of the Himalayas set on a 5km long lake with a string of nice tea shops with cake! fab. We went to the permit office after deciding to attempt the 20 day Annapurna circuit trek that climbs up to 5400 metres through the widest pass in the world apparently. A real test after our Indian experience, never mind the fact Rachel has never attempted anything like this before! Although it is only a walk, just a very long one. The only thing I was concerned with was the effect the altitude would have on us all. As it happened we were very short of breath at top (not surprising really), but we survived the pass and came back down after taking a couple of acclimatisation days.

We went to a trekking company and booked ourselves a porter called Gazindra Rai. It cost 10 dollars per day for him to carry our rucksack. Well worth it! Gazindra proved to be great company and very good at chess, and gave me a few lessons in loosing gracefully. I cannot remember the last time I played so many card games, as getting to bed by 8 o'clock was a impressive feat. We got up at 6 am and had breakfast at 6.30 and were on the road by 7 am after porridge and apple. We loved it. The diet consisted of Dal-Baht, the local staple diet of rice and a soup of lentils along side a chapati and spicy pickle that Rachel was a little sensitive to. The consequence of this was that Craig had to walk at the back making music out the way of the rest of us! It was like a wild west movie. chuckle.

The photos from the walk tell the story, but we cannot down load them yet.

By the way Mozza, the Him-al's means mountains in Nepali, so you were right you weirdo! chuckle.

We met lots of nice people (Paris from Greece, Jez from England and a Spanish and Israeli couple) along the way and hooked up with Shelly from Utah, in the U.S. It was a stroke of luck as her guide Ramish got along with our porter Gazindra and we got along with Shelly who was great company. We decided to do the walk at the same pace and lodge in the same guest houses.
The rooms varied from ensuite to under the stairs with the spiders, never mind the night we swapped with the cattle in a converted shed. A hot bucket of water was the order of the day for showers, chuckle.

Oh...Nepalese fresh air

We are pleased to say we are nearly 100 percent now and the doctor and chemist did good. We headed south from Kathmandu down to the Chitwan National Park, on the Indian border. They have the largest population of Asian rhinos in the world. They also have over 100 wild tigers and over 50 wild elephants. Although all these are hard to spot.

We are spending 3 nights here staying in Eden Jungle resort (some huts and a restaurant in the village at the edge of the National Park). We have had a guide called Dan who has been brilliant and showed us real tiger tracks on a walk through the forest. We have been on an elephant ride and spotted a rhino with her baby and some antelope. Afterwards we went down to the river and bathed the elephants. This meant we had to climb onto the back of an elephant and get dunked in the river. The elephant kept squirting water at us too with his trunk. Great fun for the kids in you!

Nepal-the last country.

Arrived in Nepal a few days ago and we are glad to say it is very different from India-clean streets, clean food (so far anyway!) and very little harassment from touts and beggars. We went straight to the doctors because we attempted to go in India, but once arriving at the gate we turned quickly round at the site of a variety of ill looking people in dirty conditions. We decided if we entered, we would make ourselves more ill. Anyway, the doctor here established that we had food poisoning and mild dysentry and handed out 4 tablets, 3 times a day for 5 days. He thought it was very amusing by cracking jokes about not being able to have a cake on Craig's birthday.
We are sorted for the rest of our 5 weeks here. Tomorrow we leave for a 4 day trip to the Royal Chitwan National Park and then on to Pokhara to hopefully do a 3 week hike around the Annapurna circuit (depending on our strength, now we are getting better).