With a few delays here and there, we ended up having to run for our last plane from Delhi to Kathmandu (KTM). After a helping hand from a local, we jumped the queue for security and made it by the skin of our teeth!

Landing in KTM that night gave us our first taste of rain in 3 and half months...it actuatlly made us a feel at home a little bit!

Our first few days in Nepal were spent in KTM city itself, having a lie in for the first time in 2 weeks (after the ashram), trying to find a laptop (failed) and doing general sightseeing in some of the more picturesque districts of the city. We met Leigh who gave us loads of info on trekking and we had a really fun dinner with her in a local Nepalese restaurant.

After our nightmare experience of trying to post/posting stuff home from India, we braced ourselves for the worst when we needed to send home Leccy's and Ami's Birthday presents. As it turned out, we were pleasantly surprised and were in and out without having to give 20 copies of our passport and have a cavity search. One-nil Nepal!

Our main aim of the couple of weeks we had in Nepal was to go see the Himalayas properly and do a bit of a trek. So to do this, the base town - for just about every amateur - is Pokhara. After nearly 4 months of practically no meat, it was time to break down some barriers and embrace touristy "steaks and cakes" offerings of the Lakeside area of Pokhara.

As nice as it is to be veggie...we are most definitely meat-eaters and did what had to be done to those pizzas, burgers, wild boar steaks, chicken noodles and more pizzas. Besides, we had to load up ahead of our strenuous trek...or so we told ourselves as we supped on our overpriced but tastey "Everest" beers. (A quick thanks to Paul and Angela for their kind "honeymoon gift" of picking up our beer tab one day!)

After walking around the beautiful lake in Pokhara and renting the coats/boots for trekking we spotted a Zip Wire advertised. 'That looks fun' we thought.

So......we booked it! We were picked up at 11am and driven up to the top of a mountain. We walked up the last bit to be greated with the most beautiful view of the Anapurna Mountain range. Then we looked around and saw the most trerrifying Zip Wire in the world!!

After hugging the concrete pole, a few swear words and waiting for 2.5hours to pluck up the courage, Stace finally did it. Watch the video in the vids section of the blog to see more.

So after nearly having a heart attack we decided to test ourselves again and headed to the Himalayas the next day for a 4 day trek. It didn't start well when Brett came hurtlling down the first set of step after being off the bus for less than 5 minutes and hurting his ankle. After realising there was no damage it was quite funny. So off we went, again.

Day 1 - It's easy going, laughing with local kids and eating plenty of Snickers. Then the steps begin. Up and up and up. Beautiful little houses and amazing views. But the steps continue. Every person we meet tells us bad news, the steps get steeper they say. After 7 hours we reach Gorepani and collapse in the nearest hotel we can find. After a few more steps of course.

Day 2 - It starts well, gorgeous forest walks and little waterfalls. Then the wall of steps looms over us all of a sudden. But we are prepared today so take it in our stride and make it to the first stop for a well deserved Snickers and a cuppa. Off we trott again and up and up. Then down the valley and up the other side. But we are on a roll and cheery. Then we hit the snowey, icey steps. It's slow going but still fun and Stace takes a slow motion comedy fall. Then we get to the top and can see Gorepani. However, we take a wrong turn and the trail starts heading away from the village. After 9 hours we are ready to stop. Brett saves the day by spotting a small trail and it leads us to the village. Phew. We meet Lindsey and Hawie who have done the full 21day Annapurna trail and have a chat with them, swapping ice stories. theirs are better than ours.

Day 3 - We get up at 5am to hike to the summit of Poon Hill (3100m) for sunrise. It is slow going and we are exhausted from yesterday. We get to the top and watch the beautiful view. On the way down it starts getting tough on Stace's knees. Who knew she had bad knees?? Anyway, it gets worse from there as it is down all the way and every step gets worse. After another 5 hours we start reaching our limit and just in time a tractor roills by. So we jump on and cling for dear life as it goes too close for comfort to the edge. We finally arrive in Tatopani (900m) after about 8 hours of trekking and we are battered and bruised and have navigated accross 2 rope bridges.

The next day we visited the hot springs and our acheing bones start to feel alive again. We managed to get a really cheap ride back to Pokhara and when we arrive we bump into Lindsey and Hawie again, plus their friends John and Hannah from the UK. After a few beers we agree to meet up again for a meal the next evening.

Lyndsey and Hawie have been living in South Korea and end up taking us to an amazing little Korean restaurant. It was so much fun and in true Brit style we all ended up sat by the lake in the dark drinking rum and cokes.

Our last few soggy days in Kathmandu were spent seeing the local sights and a visit to Bakhtapur, which was beautiful but the rain meant that we couldn't explore as much as we wanted to.

Our next stop...Singapore for less than a day then on to Vietnam