Stop the bus already!

We made it back to India to Moosurie but only after a long journey.
I had been thankful so far. Almost all the roads that we have been traveling on in this part of the world are very windy and I always see throw up on the sides of share jeeps and stuff like that but, thankfully, I had remained relatively naive to the experience being part of my journey. Well, that has changed. We left Pokhara on a bus bound for the border town of Sunauli. This is a 6 hour journey and we started with a very comfortable load of passengers, but....we are in Asia so along the way we continuously stop to pick up more and more and even more. So the bus is very packed which is fine but then all these Nepali people are getting sick! First the lady right across the aisle from Drew is throwing up into a little plastic bag, then some kid in the front is throwing up out the window and they are passing out bags. I could handle it for awhile and it even seemed like we got through the worst of it. There were no really bad smells because most of it made it out of the bus it was the sounds that were bad. Well, we weren't done. People continued to vomit later on. I can't even count how many people vomited during this trip but now it is strewn all down the sides of the bus and you can smell it when the bus stops and you don't have the breeze.
Apparently the bus driver is very used to this sort of thing because he just continues on the way. This was the most difficult bus ride to date. At least 20 pukers.

Nepal and other things....

So other than the part when I decided to head but a rock we have been having a really great time in Nepal. First, we went to The Last Resort and went bungy jumping on the second highest bungy jump in the world. Yes, I finally got to go bungy jumping. It was soo crazy. Wow that is quite the feeling!

Anyway, we were really interested in checking out this particular resort to see how they had done things for our ideas in Bhutan. The place was great. The next day we went rafting on the Bhote Kosi. Drew kayaked that one and I rafted and yes, I made it through the whole trip. After that we spent another day in Kathmandu and then made our way to Pokhara. Then, as you know (if you read this at all) about our trip on the Kali Gandaki. The last 4 days we went trekking in the Annapurnas. We did a trek called Poon Hill. It was very fun. I was actually surprised by how nice the tea houses were. You could order all kinds of food, they had hot showers... Not quite how I picture trekking but maybe that is because I think more backpacking. We have another day to rest here in Pokhara and then we are heading back to India. The Last Resort Poon Hill with our guide Fish Tail I am glad to know that the Broncos finally had a better game this weekend. I was beginning to think I might be glad I was missing all those games. The Rockies....wow what is going on there? They finally are good and we are missing the whole thing! My mom has been keeping me up. My uncle has the connections so he got tickets for them. So my parents get to go and enjoy the World Series with my aunt and uncle in Denver. Ane the snow! I am missing the snow. Apparently it has snowed a couple of times now. I know it is going to be a shocker anyway coming from India and start skiing the next couple of days. Okay, I will try to tell all about Bhutan soon. Stay tuned.

I was rafting in Nepal

Yep, that is the answer... When people ask about the new scar I will have on my forehead, that is the answer.
On the 15th we bagan a 3-day rafting trip on the Kali Gandaki river near Pokhara. I got to raft about 10 minutes when we came to a Class 4 rapid. Right before the guide told us about the rapid and what we needed to do not to get stuck in the hole where there was a big rock on the left. As we were floating into the rapid we watched the raftin front of us flip and then proceeded to do exactly what the guide had said we should not do. A very large reactionary wave on river right sent the boat straight down into a big rock on the laft effectively splattering all the people on the left side of the boat right into the rock. I, apparently took the brunt and got a large gash on the forehead just above my eye. Not as much blood as the last time and thankfully not the force of impact. I had to get out and we hiked up the small town that was nearby. There was a small clinic right there on the main road.
I got about 4 sutures for a cut that is about and inch.
Quite the experience. We hiked back down to the camp and stayed that night but the next day I had to head back to Pokhara, being that you are not supposed to raft with stitches. So, I am fine we got an extra day to relax here in Pokhara before we go on a short trek and then head back to Inida.



Stitches

After Stitches

"Get the heck out of Delhi"

Okay, I know I am back tracking. since I didn't have a chance to blog early on I am catching up now. This should have been the first one of our trip.

We arrived in Delhi after our plane out of Denver was delayed over and hour and we only had a half hour layover in chicago to begin with. We barely made our flight to Delhi so needless to say our bags had no chance. we decided it would be easiest to just wait for our bags and then go on from there. Well that laft us in Delhi for three days rather that overnight. Traveling in Delhi is very difficult and we thought somewhat miserable. Anywhere we went people saw the white skin and it was attack time! How much money could they get from us. So, we decided our new phrase was "Let's get the heck out of Delhi". We went to see a couple of the sights but would get so sick of peopl all over us we were tempted to hide in our hotel.
We did, however find a very great guest house that was a reasonable price. The Wongden House in the Tibetan colony... very nice people it was a refuge.
And then we got the heck out of Delhi and escaped to the mountains of Darjeeling. What a contrast traveling here was ten times better!

Indian Idol

Okay, I know it has been awhile since I blogged but it has been really hard to do so through India. The internet is a little slow by the time I get through my email there is no time. So, I might try to do a few catch up blogs.

I begin with Indian Idol.
I just had to tell you about Prashant Tamang who invaded my life for weeks. Well, Indian Idol is a very big deal here. Especially when you are in the hills of Darjeeling district and one of the finalists is a lowly Nepali from Darjeeling. Everywhere we went there were "Vote for Prashant" signs. On our way in they even would stop all the share jeeps on the road to collect money to send in more votes. "This is unprecedented" people would tell me as they frantically sent SMS votes in during the final hours of voting. It came down the the final show starting at 9pm 3 hours after the voting closed. Everyone was wathcing waiting for the verdict, Prashant or Amit. Just after midnight it finally came Prashant you could hear all the screaming and cheering all over the city of Kalimpong. Fireworks were going off everywhere! Prashant Tamang the Nepali Gorkha is the new Indian Idol!
Well the following day consisted of all the school kids parading through the streets and dancing and celebrating in the middle of town. The bad part was the following day we were going to try to go to the river to raft but everyone took a holiday! The were no taxis to go anywhere and no restaraunts to get any food. Thankfully we were able to find a small little shop to get bicuits and juice and the equivelant of Raman noodles to make it through the day.
If you want to see more you should definately go and google Prashant. He's a big deal!
Posters everywhere!



The party the next day