After a year on the road, you would think we'd be used to it, but shortly after arriving in this beautiful little village, we found ourselves once again struck by a good dose of culture shock. Two new and distinctly different social systems and languages, coupled with a remote and very basic way of life definitely caught us a little by surprise, although we were soon inspired to help by the humility, unprecedented generosity and endlessly positive nature of the local community.

We have spent the last month cut off from the rest of the world in Bhujung, a small village but one of the largest Gurung settlements in Nepal. The Gurung are a minority ethnic group, originating from Mongolia, and living predominately within the Annapurna Conservation Area. They are distinguished from the majority of Hindu-Nepali (who are a minority in Bhujung) by their Mongol appearance, Gurung language, traditional dress, hillside agricultural lifestyle and Buddhist beliefs. They are also arguably the happiest, healthiest and hardest working communities we have yet encountered!

To get to Bhujung, we travelled by 'micro-bus' from Pokhara to Besishahar. From there we haggled and then squished our way into the back of a jeep for a winding, steep and frankly terrifying ride up and along the mountain ridges towards a tiny mountain village called Nayu. We had planned to walk from Nayu to Bhujung that same day, but typical public transport delays and an unexpected snow storm stopped us short. Enjoying the rare sensation of fresh snowfall, we conceded and warmed up in a friendly little mountain guesthouse over some local millet wine that the locals call 'pa'.

Although snow can be seen all year round on the mammoth mountains looming over the area, apparently it is rare at this relatively low altitude of 2000m! The following morning, we were happy to see that the novelty snow fall had excited the local children just as much as us. We happily joined them in an 'Aussie vs Gurung' snowball fight before eating a hearty breakfast of Dahl Bhaat and continuing with our journey.

The walk into Bhujung was relatively easy for the first two hours, until we reached the village gate... From there is was a STEEP half hour walk down into the actual village. With 20kg of luggage on our backs, our aching legs were put to the test, and we were lucky not to have rolled an ankle along the way! As we descended into Bhujung, our jaws dropped with majestic views of the surrounding mountains and valleys, and one of the most picturesque villages we have ever seen!

Every morning we are greeted with stunning views of the snow capped Lamjung Himal and Annapurna II mountains, both standing at just under 8000m! The surrounding valleys are streaked with waterfalls rolling into the Midim River below. Before this is a patchwork of green and yellow terraced fields, with a spiderweb of winding cobbled paths linking them together. The area boasts of one of the greatest biodiversities of birds in the world. It's not uncommon to spot huge eagles and vultures, as well as some small and brightly coloured red and green species, and the distinctly impressive Long-Tailed Minivet. Being at an elevation of 1600m in the middle of winter, the only downer is the bitter cold - which we were embarrassingly ill prepared for!

As we mentioned in the last blog, the organisation we are volunteering with is the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP). For the last 25 years, they have being doing some great work in Bhujung, helping to improve paths and village infrastructure, as well as introducing clean drinking water, cooking stoves and sanitary toilets. They even teamed up with a Japanese aid organisation to build a small hydro-electricity station and three ropeway systems to transport harvested goods from the distant fields. Although we've learnt alot from them, the hardest part for us is finding something that they haven't already done!

We have been eating with the ACAP staff for every meal, and at first were anxious about the idea of eating the same thing every day. We are big food lovers and trying different foods is one of our main travel incentives. Most Nepali however, literally eat Dahl Bhaat (a combination of rice, lentil soup, curried vegetables and spinach) for brunch and dinner every day. Nevertheless, the fresh and organic spices are intense and tasty enough that we are still enjoying it!

One thing we are struggling with is the amount of seemingly ridiculous table rules. We feel like no matter how hard we try, we are constantly offending someone by using the wrong hand, eating something in the wrong order or touching our cup with our 'jhuto' (contaminated) hand. Whilst on the subject, we also feel that between going to the toilet and eating Daal Bhat, one of our hands is always dirty..

This healthy and satisfying diet seems to be necessary for maintaining enough energy to get around the village. Bhujung is literally built halfway down a steep valley, with over 500m difference in height from the fields at the bottom of the village (around 1300m) to the school at the top (more than 1800m). It takes about two hours to walk up and only half an hour to walk down! We find walking around exhausting enough, yet most of the villagers tough it out everyday with huge loads on their backs after an already exhausting day working their fields!

It didn't take long to work out how hard these people have to work just to survive. They work all day, everyday, just to keep warm and put food on the table, and still manage to maintain infectiously good spirits. Despite all their hard work, the naturally harsh climate means that crops can only be grown for six months of the year. To make up the difference, it is now a commonly accepted practice to send their teenage sons overseas for work, particularly to the UAE, Qatar and Malaysia.

Even when the fields are empty in the winter, there is still plenty of work to be done. January is typically the month for restocking their years supply of firewood, used for cooking and keeping warm. When we're not helping out in the office, we've been accompanying some of our new friends into the forest. We watched (and attempted to help) men, women and children strenuously work 14 hour days just to be able to cook the food they have already labored over. The process is simple and systematic. The men chop down a tree with an axe, then saw it into smaller logs. These logs are then chopped into manageable pieces, stacked up and carried off by the women and children. Although carrying sounds like the easiest option, it involves packing as many sticks into a hand-woven basket as humanly possible and strapping it to your forehead. They then carry these loads of up to 80kg uphill for the half hour walk back to the village! Phew! After only five minutes Jess's neck cramped up and she had to admit defeat as a 60 year old woman shuffled past! We decided we were both better built for sawing and took charge at either end of a thick fallen tree. Despite the poverty, the Gurung people are so generous that our days of attempted wood cutting are always rewarded with a good feed and lots of local wine. We think they appreciate the entertainment if nothing else.

Just when we thought there was never a moment when these people just sit and admire their incredibly beautiful surrounds, we awoke one morning to the sound of only the roosters crowing. There are no official weekends, but at least a few days in every month are compulsory rest days. On these says, nobody is allowed to leave the village or do any work, including wood chopping, carrying or farming. It seems like a necessary measure to give everyone a healthy, much needed break.

We too have tried to keep busy and have slowly been achieving results. Aidan has always enjoyed mapping and drawing so was stoked when we were given the go ahead to map the entire village and show all that it has to offer. Amazingly, despite the intricately designed layout of the village, we found that nobody had ever really attempted this before. We soon found out why. Over about a week we navigated the maze of steep paths linking all of Bhujung's most interesting sites. With the aid of a surprisingly modern hand-held GPS, we marked waypoints, sketched, took photos and slowly but surely, constructed a map. By the end of the week, our legs, though tired, felt infinitely stronger! Mapping also turned out to be a great way to get to know the village and the villagers, as we tried to explain what we were doing to an illiterate 70 year old woman weaving a blanket in the sun.

With our finished sketches and waypoints, we decided to create two different maps. One poster-sized scaled design, which is now being painted onto a sign board for the front gate, and another slightly squashed version to fit on an A4 page. The later is intended to help tourists find points of interest through the labyrinth.

We were slightly frustrated with everyone insisting that we learn Nepali, instead of the locally spoken Gurung language. So we set about creating a short Gurung language guide to print on the back of the tourist map. The idea is to encourage tourists (even from other parts of Nepal) to speak a bit of the local tongue, and hopefully instill a bit of ethnic pride and help to keep this unique culture and language alive for a few more decades. At the same time it might improve the tourist experience and make things a bit more fun!

Still fresh after her massage training in Thailand, Jess was keen to pass this valuable skill on to a few willing local women. It was difficult as the villagers were all so busy chopping wood, but eventually the ACAP staff helped us to find two keen young women to teach. As well as being useful for soothing the aching muscles of the hard working Bhujungans, hopefully the massage can also be used to generate some income from tourists in the future. Sapna and Gii were very fast learners, although it was a challenge to communicate with a very limited vocabulary of the Nepali and Gurung languages! Nevertheless, the lessons must have been a success because now the word has spread and more women are lining up for the next course to begin when we get back!

Having just trekked for six hours down to the nearest bus stop, it feels strange to be back in the real world. The reason we're making the effort is that it's Jess' mums big five-o and we haven't spoken to anyone from home for a while. The bonus is we'll also get to indulge in a few much missed western comforts! Hopefully we will return to Bhujung with refreshed energy and some new ideas!