Pokhara greatness, Chitwan Park okayness

So I guess after those crazy nights in Katmandu it was time to split, and we headed off to beautiful Pokhara.....Pokhara is the EXACT opposite of Katmandu....relaxed, not heavily polluted, and an easy going way of life. So we take the Tourist Bus to Pokhara which is a fairly harrowing experience, as there's frequently dodgy passes and lots of sharp corners....the bus drivers are really incredible with their sense of space and ability to maneuver through the tinniest spots. We arrive in Pokhara and head out to try and find a hotel that was recommended to us by some Canadians we had sat beside at the OR2K restaurant in Kathmandu.....so Dave and I decide it's within walking distance and we try and walk to the location, and Dave takes the lead in guiding since he has the business card with the map....of course Dave is a bad navigator and soon we're off wandering nowhere near the lake which is where the hotel is supposed to be...one funny part about our lost walk is that we're heading down a sidewalk and a taxi stops beside us...Dave looks over expecting them to offer us a ride and starts laughing....I immediately look over and see that instead of an empty taxi there is a passenger in the front seat and several of his goats sitting in the backseat looking at us....hilarious sight, I wish I had the time to snap a photo but I didn't, oh well! So after several baaaad jokes (we use lots of dry humour involving puns during our travels) we decide to just take a taxi to the hotel. We arrive and check in, room seems alright.

After checking in and haggling over the price, we decide to head out to some cafe that Dave had read a great review about in his Lonely Planet book called Moondance....so we start heading out in the direction of that place and we find it immediately, or so we think...we sit down and have a nice meal and are in the process of leaving when we realize the place is actually called Moonlight, but Dave forgot that we were looking for the Dance instead...like I said, excellent navigator lol....oh well. We then head out and pop by a pub called Busy Bee where we have a few beers and call it a relatively early night. Now we get back to that hotel and try to sleep but find the beds are absolutely terribly hard, and there's a mini farm next door with birds and dogs howling and clucking all through the night....we had a really crappy sleep, and then went to have a shower in the morning and found that the water wasn't working, damn! So this being our first crappy experience we decide to check out early and go find other digs....we end up finding a really awesome place called the Hotel Elia which has rooms for about $5 a night and was pretty sweet....at this point we realized we were so overpaying for our place in Kathmandu where we were paying about $15 to $20 a night for a place that wasn't nearly as good as this place...such is life.


So after checking in and showering, we decided to rent a boat and go for a cruise on the lake, and end up realizing that we're not very good boatsmen, as we basically kept going in circles....apparently I'm a stronger rower than Dave is, but such is life.

We ended up just boating for an hour, some exercise finally! It was starting to look like a big storm rolling in and we were shocked to see people paragliding up in the thunderous clouds...crazy ppl. So after boating of course we decide to book into some paragliding for the next day ha ha. We set that up and decide to actually check out that Moondance place, as we passed the real place the previous day on our way to the pub the previous night...it's actually a Canadian run Nepali restaurant and we have a pretty awesome dinner....I had an amazing Indian Chicken Korma dish...so delicious! At one point, we were randomly waving at some Chinese girl who was taking a picture of the signage, and she started reviewing her photos and started laughing at the site of us two goofballs waving away...so she ended up coming up and joining us for a bit.....After dinner, a few beers and some pool, we were pretty tired, and didn't want to miss our paragliding in the morning by sleeping in, so we head off home to bed...Saturday night and in bed by 10:30...wow.

So the next day of course  we sleep in a bit too late and are rushed to get down to some place called Mike's for breakfast by the Lake before our gliding....we get there and rush to order our food and finish it....I snapped a pic of what may possibly be Dave's last breakfast as shown here.

So then we head out to the spot to meet up for the paragliding, and of course the pilots are 20 minutes late so we rushed through our meals for nothing. So we drive up to the hilltop and it's a fairly far ways up there....quite a bit scary for someone who is afraid of heights ha ha...so here we go off paragliding. Here's a pic of my pilot....99% perfect sounds good to me! And a pic of the aerial view of course...beautiful area it is.

 So we ended up getting about 20 minutes of paragliding, as the sun was starting to become covered with clouds which reduces the high temperature wind currents that carry up the parachutes to keep you afloat....we had a pretty awesome time, and had a great landing (unlike some of the other pilots....we watched one guy crash into another landed pilots parachute and cause them to land on their asses, while another pilot nearly missed a rock pile and had a bit of a rough landing for the female passenger ha ha....oh well they were all okay!

So after the paragliding we head back to the hotel and then stop by a coffeeshop for a coffee, a small bite, and some free WiFi......now we had been in Pokhara and knew some Danes we had met on the Everest trail who were there for some Electronica fest.....several times we had thought we had seen the Danes, and each time I would yell the one guy's name out and run up to the person we thought was him, but it ended up not being him each time much to my embarrassment, well okay I don't really get embarrassed so that's all good he he.

So anyways, I'm drinking a coffee and Dave spots this Jens guy, so we actually get it right and he comes and pops by and tells us where to get the tickets for the fest, and where their hotel is, and invites us to stop by for some drinks later on. We agree to meet up in a few hours and chill out for awhile......we then start heading over to their hotel, when we're suddenly caught in a massive downpour....absolutely crazy storm....one of the funnier moments of this huge storm was that this random cow from the street wanders over to take shelter under the same awning I'm hanging out under...the store owners try to shoo him/her away, but it refuses and hangs out.....after waiting for awhile we realize the storm isn't going to let up, and I'm the only one with an umbrella, so I run over to a store and buy Dave an incredible umbrella, and a few beers for the pre-party. Here's us with our sweet umbrellas...

We arrive and have a pretty awesome time with a huge group of different nationalities including Danish, English, New Zealander, German, and a few Canucks....we have a few drinks, share some stories and laughs, and are somewhat entertained my some crazy drugged out lady in her late 40s....she was called the Rainbow lady, and she was quite the character....at one point she got up and gave a toast to rainbows and told us how we were all her rainbow children....I became concerned that I had stumbled into some cult, and that my drink was poisoned, but it ended up being okay....the rest of the group just looked at each other in awe and shock at the strangeness of this lady (here she is in all her glory)

....so anyways it's getting late and we all paid 52 euro to go to this festival, so a bunch of us pack into this small compact taxi...I think we had about 7 of us in a taxi that normally fits 3 passengers comfortably....we head off to the fest and rock out for awhile. Eventually Dave shows up with a few others from the party and tells me about this hilariousness of the rainbow lady who hopped in their cab and had no money whatsoever....she said she was going to be fine and would just share rainbows with the security guards and get into the festival no problem....well apparently she didn't get in, and it was probably about a 45 minute walk back to town at least lol

So after having our hilarious DJ stage crashing night a few nights back, we decide...what the heck, let's crash this stage too.....I think I got kicked off about 10 times, but just continued to go on stage and eventually they just stopped kicking me off lol....here's Dave and I again on stage.

So eventually I lose most of the group,  and decide I'm quite tired...I then start opening random tents asking if I can sleep in them, but apparently people don't appreciate being woken up at 5 am by random strangers, and I received several nos....looking back, it probably would have been funnier just to crash in one and see what the people had to say in the morning but oh well..So I eventually find one of the guys that we went to the festival with and he's lost his wallet and money and has no way to get back...I offer to share a cab with him and we head back to town...I have no clue where Dave is, and he has our room key.....so I drop off the English dude, and then give some pretty bad directions to our taxi....he stops at my hotel and won't accept that 900 I have left, as he wants 1000 rupees....so off to the bank machine...arghh.....I'm also hungry at this point and offer to buy him breakfast if he comes and joins me, but he refuses....hard to make friends at 7 am I guess! So I get back to the hotel, and of course I"m locked out...I somehow convince the staff to let me into our room and crash....Dave returns around noon, apparently he thought I had the key and crashed at the other hotel with the ppl we went out with, and then realized he had the key in the morning when he sobered up a bit...damn Dave!

So we get up around 3 pm, and Dave hops in the shower....now I decide to get some revenge by locking him in the shower room, as there's a place for a padlock ..I lock him in there for awhile and go for a wander to purchase some things and return...unfortunately I didn't take off for too long and he barely spent any time in solitude...

So we eventually head out for a late dinner at Moondance again, and meet some random ppl at the tables by just being friendly...we also see the Danes and some of the others from the previous night walk by, and we yell out to them, but only the Kiwi girl acknowledged us...we felt snubbed! so we hang out at Moondance, and eventually decide to head down to the BusyBee for a night cap....on the walk there, I start walking down the middle of the road instead of using the sidewalk and meet some cute Danish girls.....I end up convincing them to come with us to the pub, and they come along. At one point, I decide that I should pass on "the Tee" which is a Quiksilver T-shirt that myself and my Aussie buddies have all worn around the world at some point....we agree with the girls that they should try and get a woman at a ping pong show in Bangkok to wear it and take a photo....there's plans to hopefully meet up with them in Roskilde ( a music festival in Denmark in the summer and maybe I'll get it back!)

So we hang out with these girls and meet a few others and have a great night of beers and lots of laughs...it was a very eclectic mix and I was really on top of my game when it came to humour...I had the whole table laughing on end...it was a fun fun night....we also somehow got to stay well past close and have beers with some of the staff....we then get back to our hotel at like 3 am and try to grab some sleep.....we have to get up at 7 am and leave for the bus station...so we get up and...wow.....we are about to get into the taxi out front, and I jokingly ask if I can drive....to mine and Dave's surprise, the driver lets me drive...yikes.....so I drive us to the bus station.....Nepal is loose....I don't know how we get away with these things!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PrnTldaepE

So after getting to the station, the other taxi drivers are in awe and howling with laughter that some foreigner is driving the taxi instead...I give a generous for this display of awesomeness.....

We hop on the bus and head to Chitwan.....most of the drive was spent sleeping of course. We get to Chitwan, find a cheap hotel (250 rupees a night or 3.50 CAD) and check in there...it's an absolute dump, but so cheap so who cares......we then go and find some lunch where I find a new friend...

I ordered too much food, so I offer him some helpings.....after rehydrating and laughing about the taxi incident...we head out and book some tours for the next day. After booking that, we stumble upon this beauty while checking out the village we're staying in....

He appeared to be breathing but was pretty messed up. So after wandering around some more, and trying to nap a bit, we grab a bite to eat and hit the sack early.

We get up the next day and head out for some elephant ride where we have some laughs at some of the tourists in the area, including this kid who appears to be wearing a purple dress...well it's just a shirt too long, but still seems quite dress like....

We manage to poke some fun at him, and then sit around waiting on our platform to jump on an elephant, but our tour guide dude ended up ditching us and only putting the other ppl on elephants....we figured we were just going to be screwed out of a ride, but ended up getting put on one finally....it was okay...kind of bumpy and fun, but went on for way too long......we entertained ourselves with stupid banter such as "Dave, if you were an elephant and had a cellphone, who would you call?" to which Dave would give an equally stupid answer "The Meerkats, to warn them I was coming to stomp on them"...it definitely helped the ride go well.....eventually a rhino was spotted, and all of a sudden the poor rhinos were surrounded by about 12 elephants with tourists snapping photos....our elephant was particularly aggressive and not afraid of pushing through the shrubs and bushes to get right into the rhinos faces....we felt kind of bad for the rhinos...but such is the price of tourism I guess....here's the baby rhino.

Well okay...Rhino....and then here's a pic of some other ppl riding their elephant through water since it was kind of hard for me to snap a photo of us.

After the Rhino ride, we went for a late breakfast, as we were absolutely starving...this point our waiter had an amazing shirt that Dave absolutely loved...the shirt makes no sense, but it was so awesome that I offered to buy it off the waiter for Dave....I bought it, and Dave called it the nicest gift anyone has ever given him lol.

Yes, the English fail is epic..and we look like the coolest guys around..especially with our mos!

After our late breakfast we took in a Jungle Safari tour...which truth be told, kind of blew goats.....after being on the South African one where you could see so many animals, this one was pretty crappy cause the jungle coverage was so thick, it was pretty hard to encounter any animals....that being said, Dave hadn't been on one, and since I'm a good friend, I tagged along, hoping to see Tigers!

Here's a good pic of Dave and my Safari tour, where we not only saw a Tiger, but also we saw Rhinos going at it, double win!!

Ha ha okay, well we didn't actually see any Tigers..sigh.....but we did see a few Rhinos...at one point our crazy tour guide decided to try and goad one of them into coming closer to the vehicle...

We also saw a fair bit of elephants, but they were all human driven, so it's not like they were wild or anything...here's a few pics

So the rest of the safari was pretty dull other than seeing a few monkey, so I even managed to fall asleep at one point..much to Dave's delight...it's not easy sleeping in a bouncy jeep, but I somehow managed to find a way to do it ha ha.....other than that, we just basically poked fun at the other couples on the trip.

After it was all wrapped up, we decided to chill out and have a beer and watch the sunset, which was quite nice! Just the right amount of gay I think ha ha....here it is.

We then had a nice dinner and a few more beers at a cool place called K.C's which went well with my KC baseball hat I've been sporting ha...I asked for a discount but they weren't going to oblige. We had a pretty early morning bus so we headed off to try and catch some sleep and not sleep in of course....

Well trying to catch sleep was a terrible experience, as our room was filled with mosquitos, we were plagued with weird dreams due to the malaria pills (although I might add, the dreams have been quite incredibly entertaining from what we do remember....Dave was Batman in his dream...had saved the day, and was riding up an elevator to go to a nice dinner (as Bruce Wayne) when something happened to the building and his lift was falling down and going to crash into a huge fireball from an explosion....yes Dave managed to kill Batman!!! I"m not the least bit impressed over that dream, seeing as how Batman is my superhero of choice...thanks Dave! Another one of his dreams involved me getting murdered on his front step..like wtf!! Oh well, to be fair I've also had my share of odd dreams, such as me going back to Canada after Sri Lanka for a few days cause I couldn't decide where I wanted to go next, and I randomly showed back up at work and started working for free for a few days...yeah weird eh.

So anyways, that night also had the usual mix of Chickens, Dogs, and Birds all in succession cawing, woofing, growling, chirping throughout all hours of the night..and our place didn't exactly have sound proof walls, so we struggled to sleep. We actually ended up sleeping in...and ran off to catch our morning bus....

Now we get to the bus station, and find that the ticket that Dave bought us wasn't actually a ticket, just a receipt, so it looked like we might not even get on a bus...I jokingly mocked him for buying fake bus tickets, but eventually we got on one and were on our way.....we arrived back at Kathmandu in the late afternoon, and were going to go get KFC, but decided to have showers and head back to OR2K again....we just love that place, even though we're not vegetarians! I quite enjoyed the bus ride..sticking my head out the window at any opportune time to taunt or to just smile at the pedestrians.

So after the much needed showers, and the delicious falafels at OR2K, we just chilled out having a few beers and then I started chatting up a nice Belgian girl....we ended up heading out for a few drinks with her and her friend at an Irish Bar where, for the first time in Nepal, we managed to get in trouble for something!! I had been told to try a local drink called Roxy by my paragliding instructor, as well as a few other Nepali people, so I ordered two glasses of it, and the server got mad at me and said we don't serve that and don't serve people who want to drink that, and took away our menus!! We were in shock that we were being asked to leave for ordering a drink, but eventually he caved and at least let us order a beer.....so after this shock we juts had some useless banter over who's moustache and toque was better...and the Belgians agreed Dave's was better, so I was a pouty again, since all the girls we've been out with seem to agree on that one, boo!!!

So after the Irish bar was closing we tried to find some other places but nothing else was open since Kathmandu kind of has a dull night life so the Belgians called it an early night....but since it was our last night together, Dave and I decided to try and make a go of the night, but with much failure....We got a rickshaw driver to drive us to the Monte Carlo casino which is at the Yak and Yeti hotel (where we partied for New Years)...as we were pulling up, our driver said Dave wouldn't be able to get in cause he was wearing flip flops....so we decided that he should wear my socks and pretend they were shoes.....well the security staff at this uptight, modern place didn't think we were as funny as we thought, and refused to allow us entry...Dave for lack of shoes, and myself for lack of trousers....so we offered to buy the trousers and shoes off the security guards, but they still weren't having it...so sadly we decided to head back to Thamel to see if we could find something else...at this point, Dave, being jealous of my driving of a taxi, in Pokhara, asked to drive the Rickshaw, which he was allowed to do....I goaded him and harassed him accordingly and we had a good laugh at the ride.....we got back to the guesthouse, and found nothing else open so we called it a night.

I rose a bit early, did some shopping, then we grabbed our last breakfast together *big tear*...we reminisced about the past few weeks and the awesome times, and then went and finished up a few errands.....I packed my bags and headed off to the airport, over 2 hours early (which is pretty much a record for me).

Of course, with Nepal's dodgy power strikes, when I went to check in, the computer crashed, and I received some dodgy piece of paper for my boarding pass....oooh Nepal....so unorganized....so I got on my plane and landed in Dubai, where I found an equally unorganized mess...I had 2 hours before my flight, but cause of the dodgy paper ticket, had to go get a new one printed out....well the ticket counter itself was a mess, with heaps of people pushing and shoving their way to the front...I got to the ticket till, and the lady informed me that I needed a return flight to board my plane to Sri Lanka due to Visa regulations......so at this point I became somewhat worried, and was going to sort out some internet or book some random flight, but then her supervisor said it was okay for me to board the plane without one....well I was happy about that, and went through another dodgy airport security check, then got on some bus which took forever to get going...I didn't even get to the proper terminal and gate area until 15 minutes after boarding was supposed to commence....I grabbed a quick bite, but found the flight was delayed due to issues getting ongoing passengers over to the gates....the plane was quite empty so I had nice leg room and relaxed....I got to Colombo at 1:55 am, and had no issues with getting a visa or through security....went and found a guest house near the airport, and tried to sleep....well that was a miserable failure again as there was a dog fight outside my window...and the one dog must have been mortally wounded, cause the howling of pain kept me up for 3 hours....i tried putting on my ipod to try and block it out, it was so miserable...i felt like going outside and shooting the damn thing to put it out of it's misery....

So I managed to find a bus to Colombo, and have found I can only get a night bus to my next destination, so here I sit in some internet cafe, escaped from the rain, and just chilling out....been on the net for almost 2 hours now...not much else to write....would like to upload some more videos, but the computer here is pretty old and dodgy...at least this post is nearly complete.

Until next time, keep fit and have fun!

The most random funniest two days of my life!!!

Okay, I have gotten to the internet cafe because I have to have to have to have to blog about the last 2 days....the past two days have been the funniest, most random days ever!!

Okay so the begin, we were woken up at 5:30 am in Lukla to get on our flight, and we're still pretty buggered from the previous night....we get to the airport and as I mentioned in the previous blog, I pretended to be security and asked ppl for their VIP access tickets, which was pretty funny. Then we line up for the flight and I break out into a loud rendition of the Lion King's "In the Jungle" much to the delight of Dave and the Kiwis.....so we fly back to Kathmandu and get into our tourist taxi van and start driving back to the hotel....at some point I decide to start informing ppl out the window that I've been kidnapped against my will and watch in delight as people are genuinely shocked and unsure of what to do...good laughs.

So we get back to the hotel around 8:30 am and are unable to sleep, so we figure we may as well just have breakfast beers and breakfast, so we do that...we end up sitting around the restaurant in our courtyard for a good 6 hours just having coffee, beer, food, and great conversation with our new German friend Marleen; at one point Pete and Rebecca (the Kiwis from our tour) walk by, and Pete is wearing these awesome short shorts so Dave and I start talking about how awesome his thighs look which makes him feel a bit awkward and they take off for their massages....

we then decide to head to a cool Israeli restaurant called OR2K for lunch and a few drinks....this ends up taking a few hours and is highly enjoyable...then we decide to go for massages, as I promised Dave I would pay for his massage since he never had one....we pick a spot and go inside....all is well for the hour long massage until we both realize this isn't a normal massage parlour....so yeah those massages ended up costing a bit more and lead to some awkward conversation afterwards..oops ha ha... so after the massage we head back to the hotel to meet up with our tour group and head out for our last group dinner.

We get to dinner and Dave had bet me I couldn't get Pete to eat off my fork at some point during the dinner....I didn't get him to eat off the fork, but I did hand feed him popcorn early on, so that made for a partial satisfaction of the bet.....so dinner wasn't that great, but the banter was hilarious as we kept making reference to Pete's great thighs and kept trying to take sneaky photos of them...Then dinner finishes and we get outside and still get some hilarious photos such as this beauty...

Pete took it pretty well and was a good sport about it all....so after dinner we head back to the hotel and decide to shave moustaches....yesssss....We then head out to the Shisha lounge for some internet and some shisha and beers....which turns into a pretty wild time as well....at one point Dave decides to smoke shisha, our cigar, and a cigarette simultaneously....and then I lend out my sweet cap to our server and get him to walk around serving ppl in it...all in all a pretty sweet night. We then stop by a supermarket to get a beer, and find for only 9 dollars we can buy 3 packs of cigarettes, several bags of chips, beer, and water...we don't even smoke but Dave makes the remark that he's losing money by not smoking...classic Dave ha ha. We then return to the hotel and find a giant cleaning trolley and in one last act of mischief and torture to our kiwi friends we decide to put the trolley in front of their door for when they wake up he he he...oh poor Kiwis but we love them. That recapped a 16 hour day of drinking and debauchery

So we awaken the next day which is Nepalese New Years and this is where things get really whacky....first I spent over $30 on a stupid phone call to Etrade trying to sort out my account that is suspended, pretty frustrating stuff. We then decide to take a taxi to get a bus ticket to Pokhara...well the taxi driver takes us to where the locals get these dodgy mini buses and right away some guys he conveniently knows start touting and trying to force us to buy bus tickets..we also find out that the more reliable tourist buses are actually close to our hotel and nowhere near where we've been taken to..damn! So we decide to start shopping around and I find this amazing Tshirt and I haggle it down to 4 dollars...yes!!!! Here's a pic of it as well as my dirty stache...look at the awesomeness and swagger!!

We then try and find Dave a sweet tshirt and as we're walking some Nepalese kid starts bothering me for money and I politely decline...then all of a sudden he drops down and latches on to my leg and won't let go ha ha ahhhhh...this totally freaks me out and Dave turns around and sees this kid holding on to my leg as I'm trying to kick him off so Dave pulls him off and I'm like we gotta get the eff out of here now! So we turn around and start leaving the area and then the kid starts chasing me so I'm running away which is quite the site to see...finally I lose the kid and we continue walking back to our hotel...at one point we come across a big street brawl which we observe for a bit and then continue on our way.....at another point of our walk, we find cows standing in the middle of the road blocking traffic...at this point, I figure I gotta show off my sweet t shirt and I hop into the street next to the cattle and get this beauty taken....

And I'd like to point out that's a fairly major street and there's a lot of traffic!...fun times

So we then get back to our hotel drop off some stuff and decide to buy Marleen a present so she can be part of our sweet group....we get her a toque and then hang out waiting for her as the specified meeting time, but she doesn't show...we think we've been snubbed again (she had promised to meet us twice in the previous days and didn't show up ha ha) So we head back to OR2K and hang out...have some food and drink and then she shows up...we give her the present and we are now the Three Best Friends that Anyone Could Have! (from the movie the Hangover)

Look at us and our awesomeness.

So after OR2K we head back home and decide on our New Years Eve plans..we decide on some hotel party, so we prep for that....Dave and I decide to take as many photos as possible with moustached men, and we even start our own moustache club....great times...we found this sweet street vendor and let him join our group.














So we hop in a cab and head off to this party and during the taxi ride I start taunting out the window, inviting individuals to our moustache club and telling others that they've been rejected due to lack of moustache.....I also inform some ppl that I've been again kidnapped against my will and get the usual funny stares. So we get to the party and find double vodka red bulls are only 5 dollars...that's a win for us.....we rock out to some awesome djs and also enjoy the fact that out of probably 300 to 400 ppl there are only 10 white ppl, the rest Nepalese...greaaaat times, we were hits....we also decided earlier the previous day that we enjoy chef hats and thus decided to get photos with them....our new profession! On top of that we also decide to start photographing pictures with other moustached men at the party, as well as continuing on with our funny tradition of sniffing random girl's hair lol

 

 

Look at that great stache...the chefs of course he he. We then decided to get our free buffet meal, which was pretty exquisite and we figured we were really going to get our moneys worth as you can see from this photo!

So this is the time in the night where we really start to get loose and decide to start exploring the side doors of this hotel....we end up wandering into the kitchen then make our way into some storage areas...

we then find a locker room and investigate that...where I find a pair of purple socks and decide that they would go well with my shirt and sunglasses lol....so I take the sweet purple socks...here they are...


 Then Dave finds a sweet chef apron which he also models quite well...
 

then we find some random elevator and take a few lifts in it, not knowing where it's going....then someone catches us and asks us to stop wandering around ha ha....oh wow.

At this point we figured why not jump up on the stage and hang out with the DJs since the security was so lax here...so here's some hilarious photos of us joining the party up on the stage...the DJs didn't seem to mind ha ha so surprising.



So after this stunt, the place is closing down so we decide to try and find an after party...our taxi takes us to some Reggae Bar where we proceed to constantly try and get on the speakers and start dancing..the security didn't like us doing that so the one guy would come running over to my speaker and ask me to get off, meanwhile Dave would be jumping up on the other speaker and then the security guard would run over to his speaker and get him off, while i would jump up on the other one...back and forth...hilarious...

.then that place shuts down so we come outside and somehow convince a rickshaw driver to drive all three of us to another after party....we end up at some hotel and find a massive catwalk there, which would have been used for some sort of fashion show...this gives us an idea of course...but first I introduce myself to the locals by doing a bunch of somersaults over the grassy area, and all of a sudden 5 Nepalese dudes come running over and tell me I'm crazy and start chatting me up...we make friends with these guys, and are chilling out when Dave and I decide it's time to start doing our fashion show....at this point we go back and forth modeling such things as water bottles, old newspapers, flowers, shrubs, and the real killer was this hilarious plastic bag that I found on one of the speakers...these pictures just tells the story of our night ha ha ha oh wow.....

So after this we then decide we're going to jump up on the stage at this party and hang out with the DJ who ends up being the DJ from the previous party ha ha ha.....so finally that party shuts down and we head back for the night....wow what a night..so much fun

So we get back to the hotel and to cap off the night we sit down for a bit and start chatting with some Czech fellow who tells us his life story about how he came to Nepal to meet up with a girl and how she crushed him and that he was quite upset....it was a very long winded story and when he got to the part about him being quite sad Dave had passed out and was loudly snoring...soooo bad but still hilarious...very fitting end to the night

That's about it for now..heading off to Pokhara tomorrow for some relaxing times and some crazy street festival...woop woop.

later!

Base Camp holy hell

So I'm back in Kathmandu after completing the Everest Base camp trek, and wow that was exhausting!

I last left you folks in Namche Bazaar, which is a resting point that has some decent high speed internet, but after that there was no Net available and my computer died, now I'm with Dave and the Kiwis at the Shisha lounge next door to our hotel. We are having some Shisha, enjoying a cigar, and of course Dave and I are having some beers...no surprise eh.

So when I last left we were just getting into the crazy hard part of our trek...we left Namche and moved on to the next village where we got to some of the more rustic parts of the trip....no more flushing toilets, just holes in the ground...squatting...he he. Also, no shower boooo...we went about 6 days without a shower which is pretty awful and starts to really smell.....without a doubt this was the most exhausting endeavour I've ever taken up...in total I think we walked around 120 km throughout our trek....There's definitely a lot of different emotions going through ones head. The cold wasn't too bad, since I'm a Canadian and all, but it still takes it's toll on you....it was also interesting to go without eating meat ( due to Dave's sickness we avoided all meat until on our way down ha ha). Eating meals the vegetarian way, and not drinking was a good thing for one's body I suppose. Every day was around 5 or 6 hours of trekking with the obligatory stopping points every few days for a rest. Not much sleep, and wild dreams really ruled the evenings. Every morning over breakfast we would recount our crazy dreams that were a result of the lack of oxygen, and the cold environment. One of Dave's dreams consisted of me being shot at his doorstep in Australia, and in the process of dying I cock blocked him from getting it on with some hot lass...hilarious except for the part of me dying! Another dream of his consisted of us randomly going to Pakistan for a few days so we started looking into flights to Pakistan from Kathmandu, but unfortunately it's looking like it will cost 3000 US for a return flight so I guess that's a no go...this also lead to us investigating random flights to other destinations such as Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Dubai, etc....we still haven't decided on a locale to go visit although Dubai does sound awfully tempting, but of of course our Gov't and the UAE gov't are squabbling over airline carriers or some sillyness like that, so it might actually be difficult to obtain a visa for entry whereas Dave, being Aussie, can get a visa at the airport upon arrival...damn you Canadian gov't...first time I've been a bit chapped at our gov't but oh well.

So anyways with regards to trekking, every day we just basically walked numerous KMs uphill which is really good for the cardio...I think I've lost about 5 or 6 pounds since the beginning of the trek...and for me thats quite a bit considering I'm a fairly skinny dude to begin with...I haven't been this thin since probably my Europe trip, so now I'm focusing on eating as much meat and meals as I can to try and regain some of that weight so that I'm not confused with being a malnourished individual ha ha. Every day was a pretty early start, getting up at 7 am at the latest, eating breakfast, and then trekking on....there was some amazing views and some really challenging climbs...fortunately our group made it to Base Camp with only headaches to complain about and the lack of sleep.....I would say the worst day was probably the first day when we started our trek down as it was super windy for several hours (I hate the wind) so this really wore on my spirit and made me pretty stressed out...I don't get stressed out too often, but in this case I did.....fortunately we made it all the way back down, and had some pretty fun nights in the process.....when we got back to Lukla (our arrival/departure point) we had a pretty big night out, and met some cool Danish folks....I'm going to go meet up with them in Denmark this summer when I go to Roskilde which is a music festival....throughout our trek our porters kept awkwardly staring at me, I think they might have contemplated killing me so I was always on edge lol.....fortunately they didn't! :) I ended up playing cards with the guys a fair bit and learning some Nepalese card games which was pretty fun...Dave just usually slept in the afternoons while I made friends with our guide and the porters...or at least tried to keep my wits about me and try and make sure they weren't in fact going to kill me ha ha. We made pretty good friends with our one younger guide and we nicknamed him Mogly (from the Jungle Book) cause we didn't know his actual name....he actually ended up responding to that nickname which was pretty sweet.....it's a tough life being a Nepalese guide as they only make about 9000 rupees for the 12 day trek which amounts to about $120 CAD...not the best job...but they were all friendly enough and a good time.

So I don't know what else to really say about the trek other than it was exhausting and I've realized I wasn't cut out to be a mountain climber......anyways we're back now and I'll just upload a few pics to give you guys an idea of what we saw and encountered.

We're probably going to go to Pokhara next.

Dave just reminded me to tell one funny story of the trek, and that involves this morning at the Lukla airport...we rolled into the hotel around 12 last night and were a bit intoxicated..we woke up the whole hotel by wrestling with Mogly ha ha...oops. So we go to the airport this morning at 6 am and we get through security and say our goodbyes to our porters and our guide....so the waiting area has a VIP area which we go down into and there's not many ppl...In my wise state of mind I decide to act as a security guard and begin asking any person that attempts to come down the stairs into the area for their VIP pass....about 10 minutes of this goes on where ppl are in shock that they're being asked for their vip card...several ppl actually reach into their pockets and pull out their airline pass to present to me....absolute hilariousness for the Kiwis and Dave....great times. Anyways...I'll just add pictures and hopefully get a chance to tell some of the more funny stories from the trek in person.

Cheers!

 Dave eating chicken for the first time since his epic sickness!!

 Well said by some random....Base Camp was absolute death...so exhausting

 Namche Bazaar

 Dave and Rye enjoying the view

 Damn snow day during trekking!

 Contemplating my future as a vagabond

 Yeti and Dinosaur!!

 Everest is just to the left of my hand

 At Base Camp...yes we are f***ing nuts!

 Emphasis on that way to Base Camp!

 Oh mountains!

 Dave looking sexy as hell

This was us locked out of our hotel in Namche at 1030 at night...damn