The end of the trek and Chitwan National Park

Now that the trek has come to an end we wanted to give you an overview of what we will remember most (other than the obvious) the first of these being the end of trek party at Lukla

On the last night we had meat for the first time in 12 days, as well as a couple of congratulatory beers! This descended (very early in the evening) into a singing competition between the Nepalese and the British... they won! Depressingly they seem to have many more national songs than we do, or more to the point that we could remember all the words to. Much laughter and clapping along ensued followed by a dance off to Nepalese music which got the whole lodge on it's feet... and we have the videos to prove it! We even went to bed late (10pm) as we'd all been in bed before 8pm on the trail.
Playing Uno with upwards of 10 people from at least 5 nationalities most nights (Nepalese always won!)
Ian and Martin (one of the other guys in the group) playing cricket at 4800m with some friends they made at one of the lodges (too much yak dung on the pitch was the only complaint)
Lots and lots of soup
Lots and LOTS of fried potato (gets very boring)
Our fantastic group that we spent the time with, we were really blessed with a great group of people to share this experience with
The views were something else and the sun rises made you jump out of bed in the morning no matter how early or cold it was (apart from if your Pete :-).. (sorry Pete))

Now for the things that we haven't told you so far. Ian actually suffered really badly with altitude sickness on day 6 with a really bad headache that had me call the Sidar. He told him to drink more water and eat garlic soup (which was his answer to everything) and which actually worked (garlic is natural Diamox). I twisted my ankle on day 5 of the trek which wasn't initially a problem but the more I walked on it the worse it got so I spent the last couple days of the trek with my ankle strapped up by 'Dr Ian' (another Ian in our group) and limped into Luklar after our mammoth 9 hour last days walking! This meant I (along with 3 others of the group) didn't get to summit Kala Pattar on day 10 of the trek but Ian and the other 4 from our group did us proud by making it up there and nibbling kendel mint cake on our behalf.

After the trek we headed to Chitwan National Park which was brilliant (but very hot after the cool mountain air). On our first night we went on an Elephant back safari, just us our Elephant and our guide walking through the bush! We saw Crocodiles and Deer and lots of different types of birds which was amazing. At the end the guide let me take his spot on the front of the Elephant (on its head with my feet behind its ears) and drive the Elephant home... although I'm not sure it went anywhere because I told it too, it was still following the voice commands of the real driver sitting on the seat behind!! The next day we took the Elephant and its baby down to the river for a wash (just us and one other couple with no other tourists for miles) which was amazing! We were even lifted up onto the Elephants back by its trunk which was awesome, they are just so strong but so gentle.

As all this was happening though I was developing a 'travellers tummy' So I spent the rest of the day in bed whilst Ian went out again on the Elephant and tracked some Rhino, hopefully the pictures came out! I meanwhile wasn't well at all so we decided a visit to the medic was in order... 20 mins in the back of a jeep was an unforgettable experience (for all the wrong reasons) and the doctors surgery was even hotter than our unairconditioned hotel room (no electricity most of the time). After waiting to see the Dr, needing the loo and getting hotter I passed out before he even got to take my blood pressure... it wasn't till afterwards when Ian explained the whole thing that I knew what had happened. Apparently I had a narrow escape from a trip to the local hospital for a drip as I was very dehydrated! We got yet more rehydration drinks (the Nepalese ones are worse than the English ones) and as there were strikes planned on the road we made our way straight back to Kathmandu and the relative coolness. The least said about our 7 hour car journey over night back to Kathmandu the better!! We got in at 4am and after Ian had come down with the same thing, we spent the day and a half we had there sleeping and eating boiled rice lol!

We are in Hong Kong and about to go and see the famous laser show :-)

In case anyone is worried we've been keeping an eye on the situation in Bangkok and according to the FCO the situation is now safe for travellers and we are flying in on the 28th April, we'll obviously continue to be careful (and not wear either a red or a yellow t-shirt by mistake!!)

Speak soon

Love Helen and Ian xxx