What can I say about Nepal apart from the fact that it has been truly amazing! As soon as we crossed the border, grumbling about the heat and disappointment of India, our spirits were lifted by this beautiful country. The scenery is so green, trees everywhere and mountain drives along winding roads (a tad scary at times)…all make this a wonderful change from where we have come from. We started our Nepalese adventures in Lumbini, which is the birth place of Buddha. Prayer flags are everywhere here, Buddhist monks praying and archeological ruins of where The Buddha actually lived! I got blessed by one of the monks so hopefully all good things to come along the journey from now on! Next stop was the Royal Chitwan National Park…ELEPHANTS! During the next 2 days we experienced some amazing things….a traditional Tharu village, a dance culture show, canoeing alongside crocs, jungle trek, elephant sanctuary, elephant trekking and the most special thing of all was getting to climb on their backs in the water while they dip their trunks in and squirt you getting you soaked! This was most definitely the highlight of Chitwan!

Onwards to Pokhara - this place is beautiful, lots of lovely shops which of course I had to pop into(!) and the lake right outside our hotel. One thing I'll remember here is the facial I had….somehow ended up looking like Hannibal Lecter with a white face mask made from sheep's placenta juice! Not something I would wish on anyone but definitely an experience I'll never forget. The rain then hit and sadly our paragliding trip was cancelled so off we headed to the capital Kathmandu for a spot of white water rafting…and somehow I ended up being pretty much the only one who didn't fall in on the first set of rapids yay! Survived without injury until the end when I went for a swim, climbed up onto a kayak and got a huuuuuge bruise on my leg which looks pretty grim! After one night in Kathmandu some of us headed over close to the Tibet border to a place called the Last Resort where some crazy people in the group threw themselves off bridges to bungee….I could barely walk across the bridge to the resort without freaking out and took 5 times longer than everyone else. Needless to say I didn't bungee but hopefully will pluck up the courage in New Zealand when I'm with Nicki. Back to Kathmandu we headed for a city tour of the old town, shopping and just a general chill out. The biggest highlight of Nepal and quite possibly the whole trip so far was our flight around Mount Everest….absolutely stunning! It got cancelled the first day as the clouds were covering it but we managed it the next day. Now I'm not a good flier but somehow managed not to freak out and was just awestruck by it. Still can't believe that I've seen the top of the world!!!!!! Right, off we pop to India for 3 nights before we fly from Calcutta to Bangkok and then the partying shall commence woop woop!