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 ;)