Hello # 3 - Happy Holidays and may 2010 treat you all well!

Hello hello!!

A long and much over due update, but never fear I've made it to the other side of the world guys!! I’ve been writing this update for a long time now (as you can tell from it’s length, and I’m sorry it’s gotten so long!) but I just can’t seem to catch up with where I’ve been before I go off and start something new…. In short if you don’t have the time to the following (I sent it as a word attachment), Sean and I have left Nepal, gone to Thailand for 2 days and spent a week in Southern Laos relaxing on a small island on the Mekong river (which is a stunning place!). Then Sean and I flew over to Melbourne via Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Adelaide (all stop overs) to a warm welcome from his family and many holiday festivities with many more family and friends. Currently I’m taking a Permaculture Design Course in The Channon (just west of Bryon Bay), which is really interesting, and focuses on a variety of design systems and strategies to help human’s establish sustainable permanent agriculture systems. The course ends Jan 23rd in which my friend Jemma is coming to pick me up and we’re going to drive back to Melbourne together as fast as we can (it’s about 2,500km south west) as Sean and I have fortunately been luckily enough to have very recently been invited to join in on the third annual Kimberley Expedition up in the Northern Territories which is set to take route this January 26th (I'm meeting up with the team and we're then driving about 3,500km north of Melbourne into the Northern territory. Once there the intention is to talk with some local elders to learn a bit more about the history of the area and hunting the infamous bush tucker before heading off on some first decents of a couple rivers with a collection of our friends from all over the world while documenting some of the world's rareist/oldest flora, fauna and recorded rock art! You can check out daily satellite updates and read more about it at http://www.kayakthekimberley.com/ ☺

We’re aiming to be back in Melbourne mid March, in which we’ll then be 'Woofing' ('working on organic farms' in exchange for free board and food) back up the east coast as far as our budgets can take us until we fly back to Vancouver April 22nd.

Hoping this update finds everyone happy and healthy as per always and that the winter blues hitting any of you too hard! Thinking of you all often, much love from OZ!
Ash xx
☺

Update # 2 from Nepal !!

Hey hey! Here's another update from your traveling nomadic friend who's been off wandering in the valleys of the wonderous himalayans! (if you havent gotten the first im sorry im kind of embarrassed to write mass emails and dont really know who wants to read them... but if you want to read more/think of anyone that would just let me know and ill make note... they come slowly and full of rambles!)

First off, apparently I've been horrible at "updates" but i guess that's because i've been out living and not finding much time around any computers (let alone power!) this past little while... :)

anyway im back in pokhara now... got back 2 nights ago... since my last update we went off and did a 3 day trip on the kali gandaki which was a lot of fun. It used to be a 5 day raft supported trip but since they've built new dams its been cut short to 3 days and drowning out some of the most infamous sections... regardless it was beautiful! We went out with paddle nepal (a local rafting company which is amazing and our friend from OZ Lachie has been saftey kayaking/photographing for) and joined in on one of their trips. It was kind of funny as there wast the rafting trip of maybe 6 people was totally outnumbered by Lachie, Sean, me and a crew of some japanese friends of Min's who
were all just joining on for a fun ride (Min is Paddle Nepal's owner- an amazing kayaker and raft guide who used to manage a company out there)... The trip started out with two class 4s and then the rest was easy and fun read and run class 3s... i think a month ago the first rapids would have been raging and much scarier... but i was happy regardless :) we camped out on white sand beaches, met another crew from teh UK who were also kayaking along with a guide (one of them knew some of my friends- rosie - her name was "chuck"??) Anyway pulled up to a white sandy beach and we slept out under the clouds (found out thats a good thing! when there are clouds you get less dew, otherwise it literally rains dew on you with a clear night and sean and i were sleeping out ON a tarp! then as the sun set i helped watch as we cut up the chickens for our dinner which was interesting... its amazing watching how the crew works together to get from river mind sets to getting camp all set up and going in no time (rafts all flipped into shelters, paddles holding up dish drying set up and toilets, etc...and it's neat to think that to work out here not only
do they need first aid and guide training but cooking courses too!) The 2nd day was fun, beautiful valley, lots of waterfalls and by the second night i finally realized that the 4 women on the trip were all lesbians which became hard to explain to the guides and how they weren't "not having any luck" but that they "had no luck" in picking
them up! haha then we chilled around a camp fire (which they rafted out across the river to another local town to get the wood from) and we talked to a local boy who walked down with his mother from the mountain side from the local village way, WAY up above.... they had come down to sell us chocolate, beer and rum haha... anyway 3rd day started out really well and we passed some really small villages, there really weren't many rapids as the dam flooded them out so lachie had to entertain us by jumping off a 60ft bridge! ... this section used to have the most renouned rapids though and now its a warmer pools of distilled water, murkey and filled with much more garbage....
too bad.

we got back that night (everything here involves long bumpy bus rides as even a short drive in distance takes hours- dew to bumps, endless curving roads and crazy drivers!) and decided to hike up and do the modi kola river up in the annapurna region the next day... but as we decided too late at night to get permits and didnt have much lee way in time (it's a 3 day mission) we decided to just risk it and enter at a point where we didnt think they had check points and sneak up... all went great apart from sean stubbing and breaking his toe in the first 5 minutes of the 8 hour hike of our 1st day and smashing his video camera's lens in... end of footage... start of biggest, most beautiful + technical creeking we've done here! then we got lost in a rice field, didnt have watches but hiked for 8 hours to the new bridge section where we were planning on staying, work up to the beautiful mountian and sun and amazing tea, then put onto the hardest, most beautiful longest continual class 4 ive ever done in my life! (i opted out of hiking farther up to do class 5 as my legs were beat and i had no desire to be that scared!) then we ended the day at old bridge and slept in a really nice little tea house, before putting back on the next morning and starting our day with a 20ft waterfall and a bunch of read and run class 3 and 4.... then lachie and sean went and ran some waterfalls in a tributary at the end of the section and we caught a local bus back to pokhara late the 3rd night (crazy music, lots of tinsle, lots of people and bumps!)- the boys rode on the roof but sveta (a russian kayaker girl we've met out here who knew lachie too) and i choose the warmer/safer inside ....

then the next day i woke up at 6 the next day and re-packed my stuff and went out to the trisuli river on a section next to a very small town called 'fishling'where i met up with Inka (a swedish woman who has been coming out here for the past 9 years) and I was helping her teach the nepali girls kayak course for 5 days (really cool!). Time away from my friends and immersed in a real nepali culture (eating 'dal bhat' twice a day - rice with really good currey and sauce)
forced me to work on my nepali and really get to know some of the girls a bit more. this river has some fun big waves, one big section and some more wave trains before a more technical section (next to where we camped)... if only i had my play boat! I had come expecting to have to teach everyone how to roll their boats, but from last year's clinic with them every girl rolled right off the bat which was really, really impressive! then to go through the rapids and get to
spend teh time teaching them technical stuff was a lot more fun than i was expecting. Its really crazy to think that for us in the western world working for a rafting company really doesnt seem that valuable but to these women it can help them earn a decent wadge, prove to men that they can be independent, and find a way to meet people from other
countries and get work permits for their off seasons in places such as India, Japan, and Iceland! ...

Sean and a crew of the Paddle Nepal people showed up a couple days later to start setting up for the annual Himalayan white water competition and then have we were all helping them with judging/commentating while also trying to compete and help coach the girls. This was a really cool event where every day there was a
different aspect of kayaking that was focused on with salmon, freestyle and down river. Some of the girls didnt compete in all 3, but to watch the ones that did and to watch the ones go out and surf for their first time in this big wavey hole (in front of tons of TV cameras, friends/strangers and not to mention above a big rapid) was very impressive to say the least (ok, ok, to then find out that one of the women i was teaching who competed in all 3 was also 2 months pregnant blew me away!).... Long story short all was a success and sean came in 1st over all and i came in 3rd (out of 50 men and 14 women!) Luckily for sean all 1st place winners got prizes so he's set to go paragiding tomorrow and then we're off to the bhoti kosi to bungee jump :)

Now finally that brings me to yesterday when we were finally back in pokhara relaxing... lachie, sean and i had a slow morning then rented motor bikes and missioned around town to get their permits for some waterfalls they went off and ran today in the annapurna park and see the infamous devi falls (where the seti river flows underground... cool but not worth a trip here for!)... really cool motor bike adventure though regardless of how i dont know how the guys who rent the bikes can trust strangers who stall their motor bikes on the way out of their shops, with no ID required, just about $8 for both bikes with no return time specified haha :)

Unfortunately i've found out im not invincible though and since getting off the trisuli a few of us have been coming down with ghardia... but i have a new found love for drugs and am finally, FINALLY feeling better today (fingers crossed!)

Ok running out of time... tomorrow after sean's flight then we're set to be tourists for the day and see the mountain museum.... Headed back to Kathmandu day after tomorrow with 3 of our friends (its a horrible long 7 hour bus ride...but we're hoping to sit on the roof a bit to add excitement!) ... we were going to go see some elephants but we've
decided to go spend some more time on the bhote kosi as apparently its nice and i think it'll be nice to relax rather than run all over this place before we leave.... fly back to hong kong on the 7th and over to bangkok on the 8th where lachie's god mother lives so we may see her and wander around a day or two before taking a train to laos and
spending 2 weeks reading books in hammocks, wandering around some waterfalls and renting motor bikes and exploring a bit (on existing trails dont worry!)

i'll try and get you some photos soon... till then i hope all is well with you all and that you're all happy and healthy!! and to mariel, jeff janie and joe- happy belated american thanksgiving!!!

lots of love!
ash
xox
ps. as always i never know who wants to read my rambles so please forward to anyone you may think will be interested ;)

A quick hello from Nepal!!

Namaste guys!!

I hope all is going well with you all back home and that everyone is healthy and happy :) dont have much interenet time but just wanted to send you a quick update to let you know what we've been up to and to let you know we're still alive!

sean and i spent just under a week in kathmandu (about 5 days too long!) where we wandered around a main tourist hub called 'thamel' for
a while checking out the rafting companies, learning the scoop on boating, meeting with inka (the woman who is in charge of the local
women's kayak initiative we're helping teach in 2 weeks), sean took a massage course (not too bad as he has to practice on me!), and then i met with a local woman who's heading a really interesting health clinic and working with CIDA.... then sean and i rented a motor bike
and went up to this loacl 'monkey temple' (unfortunatly i can't remember the name right now but it's nick named that as there are hundreds of monkeys all around it)- very scary driving a motor bike on
the left side of the road yet at the same time a lot of fun! then we spent a couple days with our bellies grumbling and feeling all gross as we think we got sick from brushing our teeth with tap water.... note to others- don't do that! but nothing a handful of meds couldn't
fix though!
then a couple days ago we ended up catching a 7hour tourist bus up to pokhara (a wonderful beatuful oasis after kathmandu!) and even got to ride on the roof of the bus for a section of the drive- luckily one of the bus drivers ended up getting out and telling us to get back in before the really bumpy/fast section of the road (with cliffs on the side and rock walls on the others with random waterfalls and beautiful greenery all around as the roads wander in and around the mountainous valley)... once we arrived our friend lachie (who's been here about a
month working as a safety boater for a local company called 'paddle nepal'- check out their website if they have one, they're really sweet!! ) was actually out on a river trip but left us his room key
and told everyone at the company that we were coming so luckily we arrived to a warm welcome, a compfy bed and a very friendly family that welcomed us in and showed us all the local spots! then we joined in on a 1/2 day raft trip on the upper seti (the local afternoon run) which was a fun 3+ with one 4 surrounded with the beautiful mountains and rice fields all around! then the next day lachie returned from a multi day trip on the sunkosi and we all woke up early the next day and headed out on the marshyangdi with 7 other kayakers (its a 3 day raft trip normally with solid continuous class 4 boulder runs and one class 5--> but due to all the monsoons and loose sedimet the river bed is infamous for constantly changing so we all went out to do the upper/harder section in a day and scout it out to make sure the raft trip would be alright the following day)... the company explains it
as:

"draining off the Annapurnas with some of the wildest class 4-5 rapids in the world, this raging river is steep, powerful and not to be underestimated. This spectacular adventure shares one of the most scenic rivers in nepal with some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. This trip demands 100% commitment from both crew and guide"

... and so i was understandably maybe slightly a bit nervous, but all went really well! a lot of fun and nothing too crazy- for us at least! (i dont know if id want to be the one guiding the raft!! haha)
but in all honesty probably the best river i've ever done actually! - the 3 1/2 hour shuttle drive there and back was a bit rough, and the local meal we got after with fried little fish in their entirity that
we ate were also interesting... if you didnt look at the heads and pulled out the occasional bones all was actually good for our hungry bellies! it's also been very interesting being incorporated into not
only a very male donminated sport but more so into it within a very male dominant society where i need to remind myself not to do such things as change in front of the men or even take off my rash top and walk around in a sports bra etc.. (commonly something i'd otherwise not even think twice about when getting off a river)
then yesterday sean and i wandered around the local lakeside area and spent the day relaxing. lachie has gone out on another multi day and we're going out on the upper seti again today. Lachie should be back tonight and then we're all going out again on the kaligandaki tomorrow
with their 3 day rafting trip! i'm really excited to spend a night out on the beautiful river side beaches and waking up to the sun rising over the anapurna range. paddle nepal's description of this
one is that:

this river is dubbed "the mighty kali" and is named after "kali" the goddess of destruction and is one of nepal's most holiest rivers. its carves into one of the deepest gorges in the workd between Dhaulagirl and Annapurna offering class 3+/4 rapids, fun wave trains, lovely mountain views and beautful white sandy beaches to enjoy camping under the stars"

After that we're hoping to get out canyoning for a day (a really cool eco sport that's relatively new where you rapell down waterfalls and slide down little shoots) before starting to teach the local women's kayak course along the trisuli river on the 22nd with Inka (we'll be
camping out along the river eating with locals -- Lachie actually had a funny story about their 10 day sunkosi trip where they bought chickens from locals for their chicken currey they were going to have
for dinner and when the 2 chickens were brought down they were clucking away and a british customer was like "oh! they're live chickens! we're not actually going to eat them are we??" and lachie looked back and said "of course, they're live fresh meat! where else did you think you're meat came from?" then another guide clunked their heads, killed them and started preparation for dinner right there at their camp next to the river.)

After that I might meet up with another woman from the states who is interested in women's reproductive health here that i've been put in touch with from the woman i met in kathmandu and we might meet with another nurse in pokhara and see if we can do a little study/ write an update on the current situation that's going on here (and maybe meet some more doctors back in kathmandu).... we'll see!

then sean and i are also hoping to get out on the sunkosi for a couple days and go over to a local national park to ride some elephants...lots to do and we're definatly not going to get all on our list
checked off... so unfortunalty it looks like we'll have to return someday! maybe a little crew of us all can meet up here someday and all do a couple multi day raft trips together!!

Now I must run, but i do hope all is well and send my love to you all!! Sorry this email is so scattered I dont have enough time to re-read it all and i've spent far too long rambling already as is!!

Lots of love,
Ash :)
xox