Lazy day in Pokhara (2 weeks ago)

Today was a rest day from the trek, we burnt off photos, I had a good chat to Mum, Bec had a good chat to David and Judith , then we headed down to the lake and walked along it till 5pm. We have just headed to dinner now and it has started sunshowering. Thunder and lightning will follow as it usually has done at night :)

On our way to Masai Mara National Wildlife Park

Well we have been busy. We stayed in a Banda Hut on Lake Naivasha, Mountain Biked through Hells Gate National Park, went to see the flamingos at lake Oloyden. Then we also went to Crater Lake Wildlife Sanctuary. few! Crater lake was great as it is an old Volcano which now has water in it, we hiked on our own in the sanctuary for 4 hours saw Giraffes Zebras, warthogs, wilder beasts, Giselles
It was great, then we climbed to the crater rim and hiked around that, it had a great view.
Today we are starting our 3 day Masai Mara Safari, it's a special thing we are doing for Becs 30th Birthday tomorrow!
We should be able to see all kinds of wild animals here, it's going to be fun.

Nairobi to Lake Naivasha

At the moment we are planning to somehow get from Here to Lake Naivasha, a cool town area that is on a lake that apparently has Hippos in it!! I love Hippos, so to see them in the wild will be well WILD! We have booked a little hut on the lakes edge and now just have to find our way there it is about 2 hours north of Nairobi, the African Adventure begins!!!

KTM security scare, delayed flight, missed flight, now safe in Nairobi, Kenya!

We were told when we were boarded that these was an unidentified bag checked in with no passenger, so we had to disembark on the Tarmac and identify our bags, 2 hours later we took off, missed our connecting flight at Doha, had free dinner and business class lounge which was a nice consolation while we waited 5 hours for the next flight. Anyways we are all safe and happy in Nairobe now. Now what to do in Kenya! :) Haha

Plan for Next Trek in the Himalayas!

We have loved this last 6 days soo much we are already planning our next one!

We would like to go from;

Besishar to

Sleep at Nagadi

Then Jagat

Then Bagarchhap

Then Chame

Then Lower Pisang

Then Nar ( one day side trak)

Then Yakarkah

Then Thorong Phedi

Then cross the Therong-La High Pass 5416m

Then sleep at Muktinath

Then Kagbeni

Then Jomsom

And end in Marpha ( if not Jomsom)

Then catch a jeep down to Beni for about $20-30

This could take between 12 to 20 days depending on how relaxed we want to take it :)

I'm blogging this so I remember the towns :) haha

It really has been a highlight for both of us :) the people are beautiful and the scenery is amazing

Himalaya Trek Night 5

Today we have stopped at a nice small guest house to avoid the rain that came in at about 3 pm. It was a beautiful sunny hot day before that, it seems to change quite quickly up here in the mountains. Today we had a big downhill day, sounds easy but it was a couple of thousand steps down! We went for about 7 and a half hours and descended from 3200m to1700m where we are now .
We will finish our trek tomorrow night back in Pokhara, our first trek has been a wonderful experience, we have learned a lot. And seen the most spectacular scenes we have ever seen.

Poon Hill Sunrise- Annapurna Himalayas

What an amazing morning! Got up at 4 am hiked up 400 m to an Altitude of 3200m. For the best mountain sunrise ever! Bec was amazing, and we were first to get up the lookout tower! Not bad ;) but the best thing was that it stormed bigtime last night hail and all, which created the perfect morning, crystal clear sky, but a funny thing happened. We bumped into friends from Denmark AND Jayden and Cas! From the USA/Australia. Weird as!

Hungry eye guest house nangataty Lady from upper mustang and Tibet

Met a lovely lady today, she was Tibetan. She moved from her home town of upper mustang (which used to be Tibet, until Nepal moved the boarder) to run a guesthouse. Her parents and family still live there. Upper mustang is really remote an hard to get too. Permits to go there for foreigners are $500 US per person!
She had a cute baby too! :)

Himalpani- on the river and waterfall

Beautiful valley place to stay with raging river and waterfall, great time of year at the start of March
On blue white trek

We changed to the blue white from the red white at Landruk. :) the hungry eye Restaraunt

Hotel Hungry Eye &Restaraunt at Landruk

Good lunch and views of Annapurna south
Rooms with ensuite 500 nr ($5) a night

Pothana- night one on Himalaya Trek

We have arrived to Pothana, a small group of guest house at 1900 m. Our guest house is the Shangrila Guest House and is awesome, it looks 70"s but we found out its brand new and opened 2 weeks ago! It's funny quirky and we love it, it rough cast concrete built and painted pink and blue but with a spectacular view of the valley . My new shoes worked well, and today was the first day they didn't hurt, the breaking in days worked!
Anyways looking forward to tomorrow!

Dhampus - Anu guesthouse and Restaraunt

Best momo and spring roll ever!
Awesome view of peace tail,
Really nice first stop

Rooms 300-600 with inside bathroom
That's 3$-$6!

Have to come back

From India to Nepal

Well we finished up India with a couple of days in Delhi, it made us appreciate how good Udaipur was. Delhi this time round was more hectic, we stayed in a more dodgy part of Paha Gahng so like the road was mud, didn't want to think about what else. But the hotel was slightly. Nicer than the first one. You don't quite get used to people taking a crap on the side of the road, we saw men holding hands and doing number twos together, that was odd. But you see men holding hands everywhere. Their not gay, it's just in their culture. Our eyes were opened here more so than Asia. Most of the time we were 1/3 in amazement, 1/3 Saddened by the extreme poverty and the other 1/3 confused and frustrated with the weird layer cake that is India. You have rich India's ( high caste) driving bentleys right next to beggars and stray dogs. Know where have we seen such extremes living all on top of each other. This made it really confusing how to feel..
One of the hardest things We saw was a deformed boy drinking water out of the gutter. The other really hard thing we saw was kids picking through rubbish. We had a chat with a lovely Nepali couple up at the tower lookout at Nargarkot the other day. And in the conversation the girl who was a Hindu Brahman Nepali with a Muslim name, ha ha, said that we were lucky to be born in Australia. And that really hit home. She is right. To hear it from a locals mouth really touched me. I am soo blessed and lucky that I was born as a human being in Australia. I could have just as easily been born in India.
Now we have Flown into Kathmandu Nepal. It is a really nice change from India. It has a more remote, peaceful feel about it.
The people seem to be nicer and smile a bit more, and the biggest thing we loved in the first couple of days was the wide variety of food you can get here. We have had, Israeli food, fallafels , Italian and we are going to try Momos as well.
Today we are on a local bus on our way to Pokhara. It's about a 6-8 hour bus trip on a really windy hilly pothole riddled road west. We have booked a 6 day trek with a local trekking company and are pretty excited about it. The part of the Himalayas that we will be trekking in is called the Annapurna range. And we should have great views of the Dalgiri range as well. We will be staying in wood huts/homestay lodges along the way which we have been told are basic, no electricity and no hot water or heating. Apparently our last night might have heating in one room.
We are really lucky with the weather, it has been nice and sunny during the day, like 28 deg, and only about 13 at night.
We met a really lovely couple from Denmark, David and Ann. They are traveling for a few months and we got to know then by sharing a car with them to Nargarkot, and had dinner with them a couple of times. They are great, and funny, they met at a Music Festival too!
It is the best part of travel meeting amazing new people who are doing just what you are, and hearing their stories, soo cool.
David and Ann are doing a trek too, but they are more hardcore, doing a 10 day one. We will have to do more in the future I think ;)
We will start our trek tomorrow morning, I have been trying to. Break in my new shoes, and I think I nearly have it sorted.
One funny thing we have seen a lot of is how all the truck drivers love to decorate their trucks, with slogans on the back and weird sounding musical horns, which they use more time than not, :)
We have 4 days in Nepal after our 6 day trek, then we fly via Doha (Qatar) to Kenya, Africa. Therese will be for 2 weeks.
Exciting times ahead! We are really trying to soak in every. It of the next few weeks before we transition through to the developed world. Bec and I don't know what it's going to be like to have clean places to see, no one trying to sell us stuff 24/7, being in a calm environment, no being starred at, having photos and videos taken of us all the time (mostly in a sleazy way), what are we going to do when people arent going to be only seeing us as a $ sign anymore? It is going to be weird man! ( maybe boring?) I dunno haha.
I know that I couldn't do this without Bec and she says the same about me. 90% of the time you are a real strength traveling as a couple, the other 10% you are really annoying and wanna kill each other, but I like those odds ;)