It's Mr Gordon's last day in Nepal.
My stomach is thankful; one's dietary requirements cannot be fulfilled on chowmein and buff momo's alone, despite what Mr Momo Man in the cafe over the road would have the world's press believe. Indeed the consistency of my bottom toilet droppings has been wavering around the 1-2 mark on the ten point viscosity scale for sometime now.
Calum and Chris have gone back to sunny England, a place where rivers are for punting as opposed to Kathmandu where any such endeavor would lead to even the most able Cambridge puntsman being drawn inexorably downwards into an oozing channel of septic effluence. Waste disposal seems to be a big problem here, as in India, people drop all their rancid rubbish in piles on the street and wait for the rain to wash it onto somebody else's doorstep. It's as much to do with individual's attitudes as it is lack of civil waste disposal facilities. Mum, I'm sorry to report that for every Waitrose carrier bag you save with your beloved 'Onka bag' there's 100 million south Asians tossing a crisp packet out a bus window and spitting on it for good measure. It's not because Nepali people are particularly heartless, on the contrary, I've never met a nation of people so accommodating and friendly. There's clearly a necessary job for the government/authorities to educate the populous. I'm sure they would, smiles wide, welcome a new friend, Ms Environment, if only they could see she was down there, under their feet, choking on all their plastic waste.
My next report on 'waste disposal around the world' comes from Thailand. I know you can't wait.
Overall my experience in Nepal has been hugely positive. The country has fantastic natural assets from the Himalayas, to the national park forests. Among other things we hiked up to Everest base camp, and visited Chitawan National Park where we were almost brutally savaged by a rhino (if he'd been like 300m closer and in a rage he probably would have done someone a mischief). We rented motorbikes in Pokhara, and rode up the most funnest winding hill ever. My bike chugged to a halt half way up, certainly not a result of karma for earlier when cackling with glee, I ragged it like a dishcloth past Chris, his bike struggling with his heavier frame. On freewheeling down I gave a local man a lift. I've never been so terrified in my life. I'm pretty sure the guy had a boner, I was seriously considering trying to flip him off with a well timed front 'wheelie'.
We finished our trip with a canyoning excursion. Canyoning is a pursuit for those who find abseiling by itself just isn't wet enough. One makes one's way down a river, abseiling down waterfalls, swimming, sliding and jumping into pools. I've done it before in Germany, this time was different, in a way that can only be described as notably 'Nepali'. The harnesses and rope were, to put it kindly, 'retro'. On the positive side was our guide who was so jolly I thought he (or I) might explode, there was a canister of laughing gas plugged into one his orifices I'm sure. He found it a particularly hilarious joke when, after implying that he would lower me gently down, he subsequently dropped me from about 3 meters onto my bottom. This added to our unease when he told us to leap, 6 metres diagonally down into a pool only 1.5 metres deep. "It's fine" he said. It wasn't. My bum landed on the bottom of the pool, taking a beating worse than Calum's on a typical Friday night.
Gluteal blunders aside Nepal is a brill place. You should totally visit.
Laterz Geeks
x
My stomach is thankful; one's dietary requirements cannot be fulfilled on chowmein and buff momo's alone, despite what Mr Momo Man in the cafe over the road would have the world's press believe. Indeed the consistency of my bottom toilet droppings has been wavering around the 1-2 mark on the ten point viscosity scale for sometime now.
Calum and Chris have gone back to sunny England, a place where rivers are for punting as opposed to Kathmandu where any such endeavor would lead to even the most able Cambridge puntsman being drawn inexorably downwards into an oozing channel of septic effluence. Waste disposal seems to be a big problem here, as in India, people drop all their rancid rubbish in piles on the street and wait for the rain to wash it onto somebody else's doorstep. It's as much to do with individual's attitudes as it is lack of civil waste disposal facilities. Mum, I'm sorry to report that for every Waitrose carrier bag you save with your beloved 'Onka bag' there's 100 million south Asians tossing a crisp packet out a bus window and spitting on it for good measure. It's not because Nepali people are particularly heartless, on the contrary, I've never met a nation of people so accommodating and friendly. There's clearly a necessary job for the government/authorities to educate the populous. I'm sure they would, smiles wide, welcome a new friend, Ms Environment, if only they could see she was down there, under their feet, choking on all their plastic waste.
My next report on 'waste disposal around the world' comes from Thailand. I know you can't wait.
Overall my experience in Nepal has been hugely positive. The country has fantastic natural assets from the Himalayas, to the national park forests. Among other things we hiked up to Everest base camp, and visited Chitawan National Park where we were almost brutally savaged by a rhino (if he'd been like 300m closer and in a rage he probably would have done someone a mischief). We rented motorbikes in Pokhara, and rode up the most funnest winding hill ever. My bike chugged to a halt half way up, certainly not a result of karma for earlier when cackling with glee, I ragged it like a dishcloth past Chris, his bike struggling with his heavier frame. On freewheeling down I gave a local man a lift. I've never been so terrified in my life. I'm pretty sure the guy had a boner, I was seriously considering trying to flip him off with a well timed front 'wheelie'.
We finished our trip with a canyoning excursion. Canyoning is a pursuit for those who find abseiling by itself just isn't wet enough. One makes one's way down a river, abseiling down waterfalls, swimming, sliding and jumping into pools. I've done it before in Germany, this time was different, in a way that can only be described as notably 'Nepali'. The harnesses and rope were, to put it kindly, 'retro'. On the positive side was our guide who was so jolly I thought he (or I) might explode, there was a canister of laughing gas plugged into one his orifices I'm sure. He found it a particularly hilarious joke when, after implying that he would lower me gently down, he subsequently dropped me from about 3 meters onto my bottom. This added to our unease when he told us to leap, 6 metres diagonally down into a pool only 1.5 metres deep. "It's fine" he said. It wasn't. My bum landed on the bottom of the pool, taking a beating worse than Calum's on a typical Friday night.
Gluteal blunders aside Nepal is a brill place. You should totally visit.
Laterz Geeks
x
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