Almost over!

Well my trip is almost over, but that doesn't mean that I am not going to have some fun before I go home! We got back from the Chitwan area in southern Nepal, where we visited the Chitwan National Park. We went on a full day jungle walk in the park with two guides. We were lucky enough to see two rhinos, two kinds of deer, two kinds of monkey, peacocks, boar, a mongoose, a bison and lots of birds and bugs. It was incredibly hot, and one day I cooled off with an elephant as it took a bath in the river. Now we are back in Kathmandu, and before I leave on Monday David and I are going to go bungy jumping. The height is 160 meters, it is the second highest in the world. Then I am homeward bound! See you soon!

Happy Mother's Day!

Greetings from Kathmandu! We are back in the capital of Nepal after 28 days on the trail and three days on the river. I have to say that this place has changed a lot since we have been gone. The last time we were here the elections were right around the corner and the atmosphere was quiet. Now there are live bands all over the place and tourists out in the street... really overwhelming after spending a month in the wilderness. But it might just be the fact that we were up early, rafted all day, then spent four or so hours in a van to get back to Kathmandu, so I am tired. That being said, I am once again going to take the lazy way out and refer you to Nick's travel blog, which is linked in the corner. He hiked ahead of us our last couple of days on the trail to make some flight reservations and was kind enough to update his blog. He gives a great account of our first couple of weeks on the trail. Remember, a detailed description of four weeks of hiking would not only take the rest of my time in Nepal (I only have eight days left) but it would also be like reading a detailed description of shopping, or something women find boring. So although I could elaborate on Nick's blog it is not the time nor the place, so I will pick up where he left off.
So Nick wrote his blog on the 6th of May, and if I remember correctly he left us on the 5th of May. When he left, we had plans to go rafting on the 9th out of a town called Ngadi. The only thing was we were about two days of serious hiking or three days of slow hiking from Ngadi. So even though we were technically still on the circuit, there was a lot more relaxing than hiking going on the couple of days before rafting. Wait, we got to Ngadi on the 7th. Now I am confused about which day Nick left. I apologize, I am tired and I cannot seem to figure out these dates. The point is we took it easy getting to Ngadi, and once in Ngadi we spent most of our time by the river soaking in the sun. Nick met us in Ngadi on the 7th, I know that much. So anyway on the morning of the 9th we met our river guides in Ngadi, then ended up hiking to the next town down where the boats and the rest of our guides were. We met everyone, left our packs, got a quick safety talk and set out on the river. We had one paddle boat with us five guys and a guide in it, two safety kayakers that would do the rapids first and ensure safety, and one catamaraft with two guys on it that pretty much carried our lunch. The first day of rafting went well, it was pretty much continuous rapids, with a good mix of big rapids, technical rapids, and easier rapids. Kevin went overboard once, but he was quickly pulled aboard. The food they served us was good, including coleslaw, sandwich things, crackers, beans. Ok I know that doesn't sound too good but remember we had been eating the same thing for four weeks! At camp after the first day of rafting I puked up lunch. Greg also got sick, but he did not puke until the next morning. I think it was something we ate the day before, but I don't know for sure. Greg seemed to have it worse than me, but I did not eat dinner and went to bed early which i think helped. Luckily, we felt well enough to go rafting the next day. The raft unexpectedly capsized in a rapid, and we all went for a morning swim. Once we were all accounted for it became the highlight of the trip. After half a day rafting the second day we had to pull the boats out and drive around a dam, which was the end of rafting for the day. Dam. I guess it wasn't so bad, because it gave us sick people time to rest for the next day. The third day (today) was a lot of fun. There was one rapid that they said we had a 90% chance of flipping on. We all remembered our unexpected capsize the day before, and saw that after the rapid was a nice, calm pool, and decided that we could handle taking that risk. The good thing was that we did not capsize! The bad thing was that everyone fell out of the boat! So once again when everyone was accounted for and back in the boat we had a new highlight. The best part is that Nick had given his camera to a guide who was on the other side of the rapid and filmed us going through it. I know there is a little bit of foolishness in having the safety guy film us fall out of the boat, but we all survived. The worst part is that this video, along with all the other footage the guide took was erased tonight at a internet cafe here in Kathmandu. Yes, it is a tragedy, I still don't know the details so I can't talk about it too much, but my thoughts go out to Nick if the worst is true and everything is gone. After that second swim the rapids were mild. Nick and I got a turn on the catamaraft which was fun. Now we are in Kathmandu, and hopefully tomorrow we go to Chitwan. A national park where we can ride elephants and see rhinos and other wildlife, maybe even tigers, oh my! Chitwan will be really really really really hot though, so we will only spend a couple days there. Then back to Kathmandu for Greg's B-day on the 15th, then we leave Nepal on the 19th. I go home and everyone else goes to Spain. So I might not update the blog again in Kathmandu, but I promise when I get back to the states I will add a bunch of pictures and tell all the trip stories I can think of until people forcibly shut me up. Until then, I hope every one is doing well! Happy mother's day to all those females with offspring! Thanks for reading! Goodnight!--Mark