Nepal: An outdoor enthusiasts paradise....

I was planning on spending three weeks trekking the Anapurna region. The route that i took was 120 miles and in stead of taking my time I pushed myself and finished in 9 days instead of the usual 16-18 days. My longest day was 27 miles, and it was a long day. The pass, which is the highest pass in the world is 17,769 feet. You are supposed to take your time when going to altitudes such as this but since i only slowed down for the last two days before the summit, i didnt allow myself enough time to acclimate and i got altitude sickness pretty bad. I pretty much never take pain killers but this headache was incredible and probably one of the most painful experiences ive had. So i took a half a pain killer and a altitude sickness pill after spending 30 seconds on the top and rushing down the other side. Along with the pain, I was overcome with tiredness and had to take a nap for an hour under a boulder before i could finish the decent.

On the way up to the summit, we went from a subtropical jungle area filled with marijuana fields to pine forests to glaciers and massive peaks that towered over us. When coming over the pass, the terrain changed vastly. The trail was ridiculously steep, killing my knees, and led down in to a mountainous desert. The next few days down were long but easy in comparison and went from the desert to the pine forests and back into the subtropics. All along the way I was confronted by rolling expansive views with local porters trudging up and down the paths carrying insane loads on their backs with straps around their foreheads instead of their shoulders. They carried everything from crackers and cookies to cast-iron pipe assemblies. Their calves bulged so much that they looked ready to burst out of their skin and run up the trail on their own.

The last day of the trek, I started my morning with a soak in some hot springs next to a rushing river before walking the last 5 hours to civilization where i took another 5 hours in a bus to get to a city called Pokhara where i stayed for the next 4 days next to a fog-shrouded lake eating vast quantities of food and resting my sore knees before going back to Kathmandu.

After another week of rest, my friend Keano (that I met in India with Madeleine) and I went on a rafting trip for two days with rapids varying from class 2-5 and on one rapid, a class 2, our psychotic guide made our massive 9 person raft capsize and we were briefly stuck under the raft while be smashed against rocks. It was Badass!! Even though I severely bbruised my knees. The views were gorgeous, my team was really energetic, and our crazy guide was bent on smashing into and up on any rock that poked its head out of the water. It made for an exhilarating day.

The next day Keano and I got up at 5:30 am and walked/hitched for half an hour to a site, aptly called "The Last Resort": and Adventure resort that hosts numerous activities such as Canyoneering, rafting, kayaking, Bungee Jumping and The worlds Longest Swing. Both the Swing and the Bungee are 160 meters (about 525 feet). We were supposed to Jump straight away, but a break down in communication held us up for an hour and a half. So we sat and drank chai in a well groomed resort while we waited. We also got a "Bindi" put on our forehead by a really cute little girl that was running this shop we popped into.

We first went on the swing, which required a ridiculous harness that also acted as a seat. The free-fall was amazing. You drop for a good 5 seconds before the rope gently catches and swings you across the gorge where you proceed to pull yourself back to the canyon wall hand over hand using another rope and climb up the 500 feet to jump down again.

Bungee Jumping was nothing short of incredible! It was one of the most peaceful experiences i have ever had. Free Falling is a feeling thats hard to describe. its like imagine all your tension built up the moment you jump off the platform and you feel so tense your like a stone falling through the air and you don't notice anything except how rapidly the ground is approaching. Then, in nearly the same instant, you (hopefully) tell yourself to let go of the tension and a whole new world opens up and its like your breathing for the first time.

Standing on that edge, I felt like I had this massive weight that was increasing with every millisecond trying to pull me back onto the bridge. So before it got any heavier, I shoved over the edge and followed it down. Except I left it at the bottom of the gorge and (metaphorically speaking) dove back into myself. I feel strangely centered and calm Now.

After Bungee jumping, we raced back to our resort to make sure we didn't miss the rafting trip. We luckily caught a bus and made there in time to scarf down a gigantic, fabulous meal before shoving straight off into the rapids for our 2nd and final day of rafting. There were two girls in our boat who didn't much like the capsizing from the day before, but the rest of us did. Most of the trip went without incident aside from the occasional thrashing around as we bounced off rocks and shot through rapids until th very last rapid. We got sucked back into it and were stuck there. My side of the boat (front-right) was being pulled in and I almost was sucked in. Luckily I was able to grab a rope before it ripped me off. We miraculously got free before being run down by the following raft. We proceeded to the edge, let the raft go by, and our new guide (who until this moment seemed quite sane) decided to have us paddle at full speed and vigor, back into the rapid to ensnare us again. After a couple minutes of fighting and screaming (screams of joy from the guys and "why are we going back in" and "No" from the girls, though they kept paddling) against the current, we manage to lodge ourselves in the violent convulsions once again. This time one of the girls really freaked out, but the rest of us were having a blast as the rapid would push us away just to suck the other end back in and shove us around. We tried to row the best we could while we were all flopped over one another to no avail and after a few minutes the guide told us to abandon ship. Everyone eventually jumped except me and the guide. We tried to get us free but couldn't so I jumped to have a swim while he got assistance via a rope from the shore. It made a perfect end to my day, though not so much for one of us (who we later found out had a near drowning incident a few months back).

Since I got back Ive been hanging out and enjoying my time just sitting and being in one place. I go out and meet friends for lunch and dinner, play guitar, and read alot. I am planning on going back to India to Daramshala where the Dalai Lama lives to take a course on Buddhism and meditation before moving on from India. But right now i cant be bothered to take epic local bus rides through crazy terrain and across borders for 40 hours, so im stuck in kathmandu until I gather the motivation to leave.