Hello!
A change in format from my old blog posts. Since my last official post in 2015, I've never stopped writing. I've filled multiple diaries with my excursions, food consumption, poetry, emotions and daily thoughts. Although my pen-to-paper work has been pretty good, translating this online hasn't happened. I can't promise my organisation will improve, but here are a couple of emails from the last 15 months since I left the UK that I've written to keep everyone updated! After an amazing 9 months in Sri Lanka I arrived alone in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 9th September. I met a group of travellers on the plane and at the airport and haven't looked back since! Most people in Nepal are travelling alone so it's really easy to meet super interesting people from all over the world! One of the travellers I met was a Sri Lankan coming to meet his Nepali friend he'd gone to uni with in the US, so she took us round Kathmandu on the first day to show us the sights! On day 3 a group of us went 7 hours north on the bus to a town called Pokhara, which is basically a tourist hub around an amazing lake and glacial mountains to prepare for trekking! After the rush of Sri Lanka I ended up spending a week in Pokhara having a little relax, seeing some sights, doing day hikes, eating lots of food and learning about the mountains! I ended up choosing the longest but most popular trek, and got a 5 hour bus alone to the starting point. On the bus I met an American travelling alone, so we ended up doing most of the trek together plus and minus about 10 other people along the way! The trek was absolutely incredible and very challenging for my fear of heights at points! The altitude was not too bad but by the time we got above 3500m we were a group of about 6 and had done lots of research so took things carefully. When I have more time (give me a few years) I will type out my whole diary of each day! The whole trek took 17 days and we walked between 6-9 hours most days :). During the trek I met an Australian girl Jasmine who decided she also wanted to do the Annapurna base camp, so I went back to Pokhara for a week to wait for her as my blisters did not agree with another 5 days! During this time I went to a 3 day Buddhism, yoga and meditation retreat which was really interesting to learn more about Buddhism and the different strands of it around Asia. I then went to Lumbini which was about an 8 hour bus ride to the South of Nepal. I met a Danish girl on the bus there so we spent a day and night together exploring the land of temples and the temple where Buddha was born. It was a very different area - extremely hot with lots of Asian tourists but very few westerners/english speakers! I then went and met Jasmine again in Chitwan National Park after opting for the local over the tourist bus to get there. It ended up taking me 4 buses and a taxi and about 6 hours which was an adventure! Anyhow, we ate dinner and watched a rhino walk down the street! The next day myself, Jasmine and another girl from London did a 6 hour safari trek through the jungle where we saw lots of deer, monkeys, elephants, a rhino and tiger foot prints! Then we stayed the night at a jungle watch tower in the jungle but unfortunately didn't see anything more than noisy crickets and tree frogs! After this I took 2 local buses about 2 hours to a farm the other side of the national park in a place called Meghauli. It was a tiny little village but I spent a week working on the farm; weeding, planting veggies, cleaning, replastering and painting a swimming pool, playing volleyball and football, Nepali dancing, drinking tea, and getting up at 5am every day for yoga and meditation! I then took an unbelievably long 11hr bus journey (with only two, 5 minute stops!) back to Kathmandu. I have spent a few days here now seeing some more temples and another old town nearby called Bhaktapur. I have been hanging out with friends from the farm and some I trekked with, waiting for friends from uni to arrive in Nepal tomorrow so we can spend a few days together! I have just under 2 weeks left in this amazing country, so just deciding if I can squeeze in another short trek, yoga retreat or some volunteering next week! I'm then off to Myanmar which I hear is beautiful! I've met lots of people here that have been/are going so have lots of great advice and hoping to meet some of them on the way! I hope you're all well and enjoying autumn (as I sit in sweltering heat it's weird to imagine!)
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About meI enjoy writing and have had experience from my degree and through working on news posts. I hope to use this blog as a summary of extraordinary things I've discovered or witnessed in everyday life. Archives
March 2020
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