On my travels over the last few years I've been hearing a lot about meditation courses and in particular Vipassana and noon seems to have a bad word to say about it, so I wanted to see what it was all about. I'd tried a few drop in sessions classes before in India but could just never get anywhere. As you search for 'inner calm' my head would be full of ridiculous thoughts like hmm 'what'll I have for lunch?' 'do I recognise that person?" blah blah blah, so I fig...

So after a few days of well-deserved relaxing, eating meat and drinking alcohol in Pokhara I was set for the road again and this time it was taking me and my trekking posse ( Tali, Karen, Ben & Michael) to the Terrai, the flat southern part of Nepal. Now I've had some difficult/interesting bus journeys in Nepal, but I think this one must go down as the worst yet! We took a 16 hour local bus from Pokhara to Ambassar to get to Bardia National Park. Luckily we'...

Day 12 Muktinah (3,800m)- Jomsom (2,720m) My luck for catching festivals continued as it was the Hindu feast day for the Ram God. It was great to see everyone in their finest sarees as Hindu families from all over Nepal and even India gathered in Muktinah to give offerings and even dunk themselves in the holy (if not clean) waters in the temple- quite a sight. There was also a ridiculous number of Sadhus in town for the event, so I gave in and paid for my firs...

Day 11 Throng La Pass (5,416m) So the big day had arrived, I like most people had managed no sleep but was keen to get started, so got bundled up in almost all the clothes I'd taken with me and opened the door to find a thin blanket of snow had fallen overnight, which just made it all the more magical. It seemed everyone was trying to get an early start, so after a cinnamon roll I was all set but the boys were taking a little longer, what with their usual 2 bo...

Day 9 Manang(3,540m)- Yak Karta (4,050m) Keen to regroup after our disastrous days (the guys had got completely lost up another mountain and had to retreat back to Manang) we set off for Yak Karta. It was good to have some banter for the journey and the guys were particularly keen on tea breaks so we managed 2 tea breaks and 1 lunch stop on a 3 hour journey! Lunch was an experience, we stopped at a place where the owners were away taking their son to start schoo...