Air, Sea, and Land

Namaste!

Before we begin, let us make it clear that the E on this keyboard is really quite finicky, so we cannot be held responsible for typos of that nature. We will, however, take the blame for the rest of them.

This past week, we have undertaken a bunch of activities which have taken us up high and down low. The first of these was Paragliding. We had booked this adventure waaaaayyy in advance, but it kept getting canceled because of the weather (obviously, no one will ask you to jump off a cliff if the wind is bad). Then, out of the blue one day, our volunteer coordinator was at our door at the orphanage telling us that we had to leave right now to go Paragliding. We hurried into appropriate flying gear (i.e. real shoes, with socks and everything) and rushed out the door. Then, we waited 45 minutes at the paragliding office, of course. A somewhat sickening 20 minute drive later and we were at the top of a hill in Sarangkot, ready to leap off, entrusting our lives to a very pretty parachute. The flight took us over the town of Sarangkot and gave us great views over Phewa Tal, the lake that defines Pokhara. We flew and flew for about 30 minutes (just enough for Steph to start feling nauseous) then landed right on the edge of the lake. Very cool, indeed!

A few days later, we packed up our stuff and headed to Chitwan National Park for the weekend. On the way there, we got dropped off on the bank of the Trisuli River. There, we were supposed to go white water rafting. Unfortunately, Kas was unable to join us because he had some kind of weird finger infection/ingrown nail/puss-filled fingertip and he felt sick from it. He told Steph to go on without him, so she did and, though she tried to not fully admit this to Kas (to make him feel better, you know), it was freakin' awesome. Because we are in the middle of the monsoon, the rapids were at their highest and fastest. One minute, we were sitting in the middle of a nice quiet pool, floating along nice and slowly, then suddenly the water seemed to want to swallow you whole and huge waves were being thrown your way. Although we nevr actually feared for our lives, there was a fair amount of screaming involved.

Chitwan was a furthr hour down the road - an hour which Kas chose to spend on the roof of the bus, at the expense of his hair and (relative) cleanliness. When we arrived in Chitwan we were spoiled with a very tasty dinner of God-knows what vegetarian dish, then we just went to bed for the night. Finger infections and rafting can really knock you out.

The next day, our day was completely action packed. We started out at 6 am with a canoe ride. This would have been uneventful if one of the othr volunteers hadn't been freaking out (in a funny, not annoying, way) about the integrity of our boat (fair enough) and the fact that there were crocodiles in the water. Sh kept saying "Oh no... alligators!", to which our guide replied patiently "No, no, they're just crocodiles". When we exited our canoe, we headed out on a jungle walk, but not before hearing a short security briefing - "If we come face to face with a rhino, run". Fortunately, or unfortunately, no such thing happend, but we did get to see a rhino from a distance (big enough that we didn't have to run!).

The jungle walk took us to the Elephant Breeding Centre, which was cool because we got to meet a set of 1 and a half year-old baby elephant twins. They are th first elephant twins born in Nepal, th second in Asia, and the third in the world. Pretty sweet.

From there, we took a jeep to the lake, where we got to participate in elephant bathing. SO FREAKING COOL!!!! The elephants come down to the lake evry morning to wash and, when there are tourists (probably always), they take them on their backs and into the bath. As we sat there on their backs, they would gather a trunkful of water, then splash it onto thir backs and us. It was incredibly rfrshing and probably the best way to shower evr of all time. The only problem is that, when the elephant has had enough, it just plops itself down in the river, letting you tumble down as well... it requires some pretty quick thinking to get yourself out from under th elephant before it's too late!!

That afternoon, we got back on the elephants for a safari. At first, it was very calm... a slow stroll through the jungle, spotting a few rhinos, taking a few photos... whatever. Then, in the middle of the jungle, the elephants stopped. We heard a huge roar, then saw a bunch of deer run frantically our of a clump of trees. Th elephants started freaking out, trumpeting, stomping the ground and turning in circles. Our guides also kind of started to freak out and so, needless to say, did we. Much as we would have loved to see a tiger, a nice, sleeping one would have been fine for us! Unfortunately, or fortunately, we didn't actually see this one, but it's pretty certain we won't be forgetting its voice!!!

The next day, we headed back to Pokhara on the roof of a different bus to finish off our volunteer stint. On Friday, our last day at the orphanage (already!) we took all th kids out to a restaurant. This seems lik nothing, but for most of them, it was their first tim ever. They were so cute... they got all dolled up in their Sunday best (genitalia-free clothes) washed their faces and started asking us if it was time to go as of 2 o'clock in the afternoon!! At the restaurant, we ate buffalo momos (dumplings), pizza and onion rings. Most of the kids had never had any of this, so it was pretty funny to watch some of them... try to imagine Manoj, putting his entire slice of pizza on his fork and trying to eat it sideways... priceless! At the end of the evening, we got a big THANK YOU from the kids, which is really something sinc, in Nepali culture, peopl don't say thank you unless you've really done something exceptional for them. When we got back to the orphanage after dinner, we put the kids to bed and said our final goodbyes. Much to our surprise, these had to be hurried a little at the end, because we wer getting all choked up and teary-eyed. We're really gonna miss those kids!!!!!

We're hanging out in Pokhara for a few more days (in a hotel with actual SOFT beds), then we'r back to Kathmandu for some serious shopping, then off to India before coming home.

We'll lt you know how it goes!!!

Steph and Kas