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 ;)