From Tibet to Nepal...

Dear Friends and Fam,

I am having trouble coming up with something catchy to start this entry so I'll keep it dry and say "Hello" in English because we've made it to Nepal and people finally speak English, YAY! I left off as I remember at a road block for construction in a little village close to the Tibet Nepal border so I began there...

I now know why the road was closed off, which we didn't at first, major major construction along the "friendly HWY rd" that connects China and Nepal. This drive was insane both from the landscape and the blisters I acquired on my hands from grabbing so tightly to the "oh shit" handle bars above the doors! This drive was on a dirt road with pot holes galore alongside a mountain range about 2000 ft. up at times overlooking the river below. What a ride as we crossed sections of partially finished bridges, narrow gaps where I could look out and see no road on one side meaning our tires where grazzing the edge and over waterfalls that flowed over the roads! In fact, at one point I made a smart ass remark about our car being so dirty and "why don't we just wash it off by driver under a water fall" and literally 10 minuets later we did just that, absolutely an incredible experience. As Di, my auzzie mum, kept repeating I don't know out of fear or just shear amazement, "far out!" It's hard to describe such a tense and exhilerating moment as our adrenaline rushed like crazy and we all definately thought about death at one point I am sure. Making it to the Chinese border we were releaved that it didn't rain and we had good weather still, but our journey wasn't quite finished.

The transition into Nepal from China was both vividly apparent culturally and scenically ( not sure if that's a word haha). The people ironically enough look exactly like Indian people except I think dress maybe a little differently with their color schemas. The landscape transversed to sub-tropic and became immediately warmer. Arriving after a half days drive to our hotel, we all were super anxious to settle into out luxurious hotel compared to the guest houses with lacking ammenities we had been during our Everest journey. What an awesome hotel, set on high hillside overlooking the Nepal grasslands and houses in the valley and when the clouds ceased you could get a glimpse at the Himalayans. I feel like I say the scenery and landscape gets better evertime and this is no exception! After eating a club sandwhich I began to feel the same stomach pain that had followed me all the way off and on from Beijing. My stomach acted up and like so many times this trip came out the back end as a chocolate shake that smelled like what else, heaven! I decided to fast yet again, except this time for two days only drinking water and hydration packets that had been given to me by our adopted family I am so grateful to have had. During these two days i became super fatigued and warn down and definately lost some weight. I remember walking down the stairs with my pack on when we were leaving the hotel and being so dissy and nautious because of starving myself that I thought at times I was going to just collaspe. Thinking it was bacteria and this would starve the bastard in my stomach I ate again as soon as we got to Kathmandu and yet again, deja vu an hour later. So yesterday I went to the hospital here and saw a doctor finally, which I was unable to do as the hospitals are crap in China. It turns out I have gardia, which is a parasite you get from the water, and I've had it since Beijing. I got some anti-biotics and it should hopefully be out of my system by tomorrow we're hoping. I found out at the doctors I have lost close to 20 pounds!

Kathmandu is a very lively hippie city with close to a million people jammed tightly into the narrow streets. We've met the owners of a cool reggae bar and have been going there at nights and listening to live music and chilaxing. The food is excellent here as I can finally eat and we went to a monkey temple on the top of the hill today that was spectacular. The monkeys greated us on the way up the long stairs and picked a fight with Jay, kind of like the goat in Tibet! The monkey got the best of Jay and took his water bottle to compile it with his collection of about 5 others! These monkeys were hilarious and a bit scary showing their fangs occasionally to let know who was boss. The temple itself was very different than those in Tibet, more colorful on the outside and much more cluttle of stupas and other items devoted to buddah. Our cab right back was pretty hilarious, picture a minature slug bug VW bus, with five of us crammed into it and it puts a smile on your smile I promise! Anyway, as always i have to get going, we met some girls from Vancouver BC and are going to meet up with them as it's their last night in Nepal as well. We leave for Thailand tomorrow and can't wait! White sand beach and a cold beer sounds freaking amazing! It's hot and muggy here so we're ready to jump in the ocean!

Prunos,
Grant