Whatever knocked me out for 36 hours passed as quickly as it set in so after one full day of missing things I was back in the saddle. Turns out I didn’t really miss much – just a bouncy bus trip and time in town. My first day rejoining the group started with a canoe trip on Lake Pehwa. It was a beautiful lake with the jungle starting pretty much right at the shorline. Of course, my boat also got a nice round of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” going. We win 😉

We stopped at an island in the lake with a Hindu temple. Full of pigeons. A lot of worshippers were waiting at the shore to come make their offering. It was quite interesting to see their rituals on a much smaller scale than in Kathmandu. Next stop was Davi’s Falls followed by a stop at a Tibetan refugee camp. We got some background on the Tibetans that have re-settled in Nepal. It is quite amazing to see their houses with Free Tibet spray painted on the side. For these people, it is much more than a slogan – it is their past, their present, and possibly their future. I then partook in one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done – went paragliding. So. Much. Amazing. I ran off of a mountain, strapped to a guy, and a parachute of sorts. We had good wind so stayed up for awhile and got to see the beautiful lake and valley spread out below us. I have a DVD with some photos and videos (I didn’t trust myself to use my own camera on the flight) which I’ll upload at some point.

Next big adventure of the day was a shopping excursion into town with two of my travelling companions. I ended up wandering around the shops for about an hour by myself just taking things in. There were people from all over the world walking the streets – with the various languages mixing in with “Namaste”. I got some sweet gifts and also got to have some Baskin Robbins and hear some sweeeeeet karaoke. (Video to come).

I met back up with Kellie and Pam and we visited a few bars (they had local beer – I still nursed a sprite) and ended up staying out until midnight. It was totally amazing and odd to be walking through streets which hours earlier were full of cars and motorcycles and now completely empty. Plus, sitting halfway across the world, chatting, sharing stories, laughing and sharing a drink is something everyone should do at some point in their lives.

Pretty sure the boat guy that had to take us to the island where the hotel was wasn’t too happy to be woken up that late. . . . 😉

I am so happy that I bounced back after the illness. The paragliding was awesome as was the other things we got to do.

Yesterday we flew to the Chitwan National Forest area and landed on a grass runway. And the airport terminal was amazing. Again photos to come.

Once we made the trek to Tiger Tops we settled in and then went on an elephant safari. O. M. G. it was amazing. I took like 400 photos and we got to see a mama and baby rhino just hanging out. Absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to see the photos on a bigger screen. I can’t even describe the two hours we spent out there. I’ll let the photos do that. Today, we are off for a pretty full day in the jungle. I’m hoping to fill most of my remaining memory cards over the next day or so. I have hit over 4000 photos I think. I am shutter happy.

Time to head off for a boat ride now. Namaste.