Ok, so I've not blog for a while, the simple truth is I've been having too much fun in Nepal. The last time I wrote I was heading for Pokhara. I can tell you that it was quite a trek to get there. I firstly got a bus to Nepalganj. It's a small city with nothing to see and the hotels are even worse. I've learnt since that it's really Indian people that mess up the rooms so much.Hence anything near the border was never going to be good.

That was the first of 3, seven hour buses. I got to a place called Butwal and found probably the worse hotel in Nepal.It had everything, cockroach, mosquitos and bedbugs of which all had teeth. I couldn't believe it but at the time it was the only thing I could find. Later I went looking for internet and find the nicest hotel you could imagine for £1 more.It had free Wi-Fi, good food and clean rooms. Thanks to that episode in Butwal I now have the biggest can of insect killer ever. The way things are going my backpack will weigh more than I do.

So finally I arrived in Pokhara, the capital city of adrenaline junkies in the world. You can trek the highest passes in the world, go on some of the most extreme white-water rapids in the world and paraglide off every hill. Now as you know for those that know me, I'm the anti-Christ to adrenaline junkies' lol. The main reason I went to Pokhara was to the Ghurkha training camps and the museum there. It was so good reading all the stories of the Ghurkhas. Did you know that one of the main reasons that the Argentineans surrender in Falkland's war was because they had heard the Ghurkhas had landed. They saw very little action but just their presence was enough.

My granddad actually fought with them in the Second World War and he was always telling me stories about them when I was a child. The one I always remembered the most ,was the story about how the Ghurkhas would play tricks on the British officers. Whilst in the jungle they would creep up on the officers and tie they shoe laces together without even being heard.I guess for me going there was something I always wanted to do and I really enjoyed it. Talking to the veterans was so good, although there English wasn't, so it was hard to communicate fully with them.

After this I was at somewhat of a loose end and having met an American guy from South Dakota, he talked me into going white-water rafting. I decided to do just a one day course, it was so good. I was put with a load of local Nepalese people who pretty much all seemed to be experts, even the girls. There was a lot of chat and laughing at my expense and I was put at the front where I was told I would just get a bit wet. I think the idea was to see how many time they could get the plucky Brit to fall in. Well it work, coming straight over a class 4 (it goes up to 6 which is Impossible) I went in and got sucked under for about 15 seconds. Having swallowed a load of water and nearly drowned by my paddle, I finally got back on the boat. I have to say it was only one time I went in and went in and I did really enjoy it.

Pokhara has a really nice lake and is in a setting similar to a Loch Lomond of Scotland, I decided to stay there for a while. One night we went to what looked like a seedy night club, but it wasn't quite what we expected. It had lots of seats with mostly Nepalese guys sat at them and a stage with a pole. We thought great, however it isn't what you're probably imagining now. The dancers were a boy and a girl and it was what I can only describe as a scene off Strictly Come Dancing with more clothes. We were gutted; the girl never even went near the pole. I guess this is the closest to strip club as they are allowed; Nepal is quite a reserved culture.

I haven't really talked much about Martin yet, he's the American version of ABBA basically. Really cool guy with a beard and hair is out of control. He made me laugh a lot and took great pleasure in winding me up at any moment he had chance. We had a good laugh and got up to some wild tricks. The best was on the way to the national park we had arranged to go to. We jump on top of the bus and rode for about 20 miles, it was so cool, just had to remember to duck when you saw a tree. :) Finally we got told by a very angry policeman to get down. Lol.

The park was very good, we checked into a really cool place called the Chitwan Forest Resort. It's run by a Swiss guy and as you would expect it was very clean and great place to be, free Wi-Fi the lot. He helped us loads and we arranged to do an Elephant safari in the morning and a Jeep safari in the afternoon. What a day, we saw a Rhino and her baby and got right next to them on the elephant, it was quite a moving experience although I was glad I was on a 4 tonne elephant ha-ha. In total we saw deer, which were tame, wild boar, Rhino, Monkey and loads of different birds.

The jeep safari wasn't as good but we did see a few more rhinos from afar and the same type of thing. The guide thought the idea of a safari was to drive as fast as possible. No tigers I'm afraid, as much as we tried, the grass was too long to really see anything. March is the best time to go as they burn the grasses then and you can see for miles. The next day we head down to the river and helped bathe the elephants in the water, it was great to get to touch such a large animal, they are quite incredible. I think you need to see the photos to really appreciate the day we had. I'll try and upload them on here soon. They are already on Facebook if your one of my lucky contacts J

So after that I left to go to Kathmandu, I was looking forward to it when I got to Nepal about going, but having spoken to people who had been I quickly changed my mind. They were unfortunately right, it's not good. I imagined this small old city with narrow romantic streets in the Himalayas, maybe 10 years ago it was. Now no, it's a noisy, overpopulated polluted mess, the worst is the views have gone thanks to the pollution. I was gutted. However the upside is there is everything here, although not that cheap apart from a few things. If u want anything North Face this place to come, there fake of course but surprisingly the quality of the gear is very good. I mean if people get to Everest base camp with it, it must be good. I haven't mention about trekking, a lot of people tried to talk me into doing one and having seen the photos I really wanted to go. But with my history at high altitude I thought better of it. (See Peru blog for details).

There was a town though you could go to, to see the Himalayas and on a clear day, Everest. So I jumped in a taxi and away I went. Wow the views that day were quite good, but Everest was just out of sight. Never the less, I was happy with what I saw, I mean these are the highest mountains in the world and Everest is only about 150m higher than the ones I saw.

So here I am still in Kathmandu, waiting for a bus to Jankarpur. It's going to be a killer, 11 hours on a sleeper bus on very bad roads. That's part of the adventure though, right? J

I've been quite indecisive about where I wanted to be for Xmas, I'm thinking of going to Goa and may have a friend going the same way. If that is the case I'll stay there for Xmas if not I might head to Thailand.

Rich.