Saija

After beeing in Agra, and seeing the beautiful Taj Mahal, I spent a night freezing my ass off. And to make it even worse, there was only cold water in the morning. Beeing so dissapointed at the fact that India was a lot colder than Nepal, I booked an impulsive flight to Mumbai to escape the cold showers and all the damn fog!

So here I am, after some difficulties, since there were no trains from Agra to Delhi (demonstrations going on) so we had to take a 6 hour long carride instead and almost missed the flight. So now I'm at Mumbai Airport, with only the tiny backpack I had with me to Agra (the rest of my stuff is at the hostel in delhi, and I didn't have time to go and get any of it), with no accomodation, at 2 am in the morning. Oh well, it's impulsive all right, and a lot warmer!

Still Alive! And still around for a new years celebration in Pokhara (yes, I did change my flight!).

Chitwan was surely a nice experience, if we look away from the beginning of the junglewalk when we had to run for our lives from a family of aggressive rhinos! I spent the rest of the walk trying to spot good threes that weren't to hard to climb, knowing I'm might not be the bendiest person alive (need to start doing that yoga again when I get back).

All that's left now before the departure to India is 3 days of work and a great new years with all my friends!

Tomorrow I'm off to celebrate the most unusual christmas at Chitwan nationalpark! I'm guessing it's gonna be an adventure, prepared with a couple of bottles of wine and our animalhats.

Don't know if the animalhats are the best idea we had so far, since there might be encounters with wild animals (and frankly I don't even want to know how they would react on a finnish girl dressed as a cow!).

I've got some great tips on what to do if I would encounter one of theese interesting (I say dangerous) animals:

Apparently the best way to deal with a sloth bear, is to climb a tree. Cause the male bears will go for your face, and the females will attack you down under... When encountering a rhino, one must climb a big tree! If that fails, it's good to run in a ziczac pattern whilst dropping an item of clothing! If you come upon a tiger, one must back up very slowly, and then turn and run.

And best of all; You cannot run from an elephant and climbing a tree will not help. If an elephant charges, you die.

So merry Christmas folks! Hope to be around for new years!

After we got back late yesterday we (what else could we do?) went out partying with our nepali friends! It nice to know a lot of people here now - but all those free drinks really makes you feel sick the next day. oh well, it was totally worth it! now I need to get serious and get to work.

Last weekend got a bit wild in many ways, so that's why the lack of updates.
On friday we left for Thamel (the turistpart of Kathmandu) and the hotel had once again given our rooms away, and we could only find a doubbleroom we had to fit 5 people in (which is why I spent the night sleping under one of the beds).
Well, it could only get better from there, and after a couple of drinks we went out partying with theese nepali-guys that work at the reagge bar in Thamel. It was a great night, but after only 3 hours of sleep and with a major hangover, white water rafting was about the last thing I wanted to do.
It was great though, 2 days of rafting and camping in tents on a beach - but I think we spent more time in the water than in the raft, cause when we didn't fall in because of the rapid waves, we were pushed in by the 3 nepali guys that worked as our guides/instructors. They even had a bucket they filled with water to keep us properly soaked the entire time.

So, where should I start? Maybe at the beginning?
It all started monday morning with a 9 hour busjourney from Kathmandu to Pokhara, which can be best described as a mix of a massagechair from hell and a rollercoaster - in a sauna. I still managed to fall asleep (cause I always do that in moving vehicles) and banged my head several times in the window.
If this wasn't a good start, it was getting even better! Cause the thing is that none of us "trekkers" knew that we were supposed to climb 3210meters in 2 days (except for the last 450meters that we climbed at 4.30 in the morning, day 3, to be on the top in time for the sunrise). Now I feel like I've been run over by a train, but my God how beautiful it was!!! Totally worth it!
On the way home yesterday it was raining, and a car crashed into our bus on the small roads in the mountains - luckily the bus didn't slide of the road, and everyone was doing fine (well, not the bus that got a big hole in the side). It resulted in many hours waiting for the police and a trip by the policestation...
I'll say it again: the Himalayas are incredibly beautiful!!!



      

Trekking-Queen no.1

    

And today we had lunch at this orphanage, to celebrate Dashain, and we all got blessings (tikas).



Me and Nat.