On the itinerary I had been given by my resort, my second day was to include some early morning bird watching followed by a free afternoon and then an afternoon elephant ride. I was super excited for the elephant ride but not so much the bird watching! How and ever I obviously went and tried to learn something. My guide took me put and around the jungle, village and river bank where he pointed out many different birds, medicinal plants (super cool) and took me passed the elephant breeding centre. I learned a bit about birds but was captured by the cuteness of one of the elephants and it's 1 month old baby.

My afternoon was spent, having lunch, playing some ukulele (which embarrassingly encouraged a crowd of Chinese tourists to want pics with me) in the courtyard, shopping, strolling down the streets eating icecream and laying in the hammock at my resort. One thing that really amazed me was the standard of the meals here at Chitwan Forest Resort. I had literally not tasted such good food in a long time, not even on the pacific cruise. Breakfasts always had eggs, lunches and dinners were always so creative eg stir fries, chow mein, fried rice, veggie parties, spicy potatoes, curried potatoes and they even surprised me with deep fried bananas covered in honey for dessert! It was delicious and I don't think they knew how good I thought it was no matter how many times I said amazing, amazing and gave them the thumbs up! I just wish they had a recipe book!

From 3pm until 6pm I headed off on yet another motorbike but this time the young boy was going about 100lm down a gravel road that said 20km everywhere! I thought I would blow off the bike before is even reached the elephants. The fear contined when I arrived and saw the mechanism for 'boarding' the elephant which was pretty funny...

But nevertheless I was excited! I was first on the elephant followed by 3 cool Nepalese tourists visiting from Kathmandu, each squishing into a corner. We laughed and moaned as we bumped our way around the jungle on Alisa our elephant! Our 'driver' was a funny old man who would hit me on the leg everytime there was a wild animal so I could take a picture of it on my phone which he was repeatedly fascinated by. He imitated the monkey noises and saved our faces from being tree bitch slapped each time.

Along the ride we saw monkeys, crocodiles, spotted deer, wild boar, funny looking spiders (he nodded when I asked of they were poisonous, but I don't think he knew what I meant) and the highlight was definitely the rare one horned rhino, or two...

It was an amazing evening and I was super excited to have finally done an elephant ride especially through the Nepalese jungle. What else would I be doin on a Friday ;) And I still had a day to go!

Pokhara, a lakeside town north of Kathmandu, was somewhere I always had on my list of places to go in Nepal, party because it's the only other place is heard of besides Kathmandu and also because I had heard great reviews from fellow travellers. Described as a hub for travellers and a much more relaxed place than Kathmandu, many people opt to start their trekking here considering the Annapurna ranges are super close by. That was my vague plan.

I took a 'Tourist Bus' as they are aptly named here, from Kathmandu to Pokhara for about $7usd and the journey of 200km would take us 7hours. We left at 7am and arrived in the afternoon some time, having stopped for breakfast, lunch and toilet stops along the way. This is what I got for 200rupees ($2usd)... And it was yummy!

When I arrived I took a taxi from the tourist bus park to my hotel, Hotel Lake House which I had paid a bit more for, to have my own room and space. Having promised hot showers and all mod cons, I was disappointed when I stripped off and made a commitment to my shower, only to be greeted by cold water. I took a very quick shower and headed into town where I roamed around the shops and admired the calmness of the place. I spent 2 nights in this hotel and spent my days inquiring about trips and treks in the locals travel agents, walking along the lakeside, picking up free wifi over lovely meals in the yummy restaurants and posting home gifts I had purchased for my family for Christmas. My days weren't busy but I seemed to constantly have something to do, plan or sort out. Being in a private room meant I wasn't meeting people, like I had in Alobar hostel in Kathamndu, I decided to change to a new hostel, a cheaper one and one which had a dorm room. I moved to Hotel Cherrygarden on my third day and planned to stay one night to not conit myself too much. I left my bags and headed out for some breakfast and that was when I decided to go to Chitwan instead of trekking expensively by myself. It turned out that trekking with a porter and guide would be way too expensive for me alone and so I decided to go to the National park for some safari adventures while I decided what to do. I booked a bus/rafting tour which was what I had overheard from a couple staying at my hotel, and it seemed pretty fun! Afterwards, I headed to Maya Bar where I grabbed a juice and took advantage of their wifi. Little did I know what the night would bring. After chatting to an Irish girl at my table, we decided to stay for happy hour, popcorn and sheesha. We chatted about angry high and everything until it got so late that we decided to head across the street to Amsterdam Bar where we drank weird cocktails and listened to a Nepali rock band sing U2 and Adele covers for the best part of an hour. Before we knew it, we had invited a Slovakian guy (living in Canada as far as I remember), to our table, and we chatted for a whole before carrying on to a local nightclub (the only one open to the wee hours)- Ozone bar! We spent a while dancing and mingling with the locals there before we headed back home, until I realised I'd forgotten where my hotel was. We all headed about 20 minutes out of town and when I comprehended that my hotel was definitely nowhere near there, Emily the Irish girl invited me to crash in her twin room.

The following morning my pounding head was interrupted by the sounds of 'Hansons, Mmm Bop' my alarm ring tone. It was 6am and I had to make my way 20 minutes back to my hotel to get picked up for my tour regardless of the fact that I had to repackage my bags, change and pay my hotel. It was hen that I realised I'd ran out of cash. I rushed through the streets with my sunglasses on- a signature hungover look- and hope Id get there on time. I stopped at an ATM which was closed and so I carried on and made it to my hotel in time to see the jeep waiting for me. I told then to wait 5 minutes for me while I ran into my hotel where I was greeted by the owner who in a dad like manner said 'you didn't come home last night', I agreed and off I went to freshen up. The owner wasn't happy when I told him I had no cash and declined my credit card stating hey didn't accept them, so he told me to sort it out with my tour guides. I told them my predicament and they just hurried me into the jeep. Feeling super nauseous, we drove down the bumpy road to the ATM where I grabbed some cash. A few minutes down the street when we stopped for some more people who didn't show up, I hopped out without warning and legged it to the store for some water and on the way back grabbed a freshly baked 50Rupee croissant to line my stomach that hadn't been fed in 24hours. Disgraceful!

My next mode of transport was the tourist bus to the starting point of my rafting tour which I had no idea where. I was squeezed up in the bus drivers cockpit behind the drivers seat with another 6 people all clinging on for dear life on these bumpy roads. I made some drunken small talk with some Japanese girls before I conked out. When we made our second stop for break, I began to get a familiar feeling, a negative one. I felt anxious and stressed, I could feel a panic attack coming on. The thing with panic attacks are that they make you panic even more so the key is to relax yourself, which definitely isn't as easy as it sounds. I pictured myself having to hop across all these people and get off the bus but after a lot of concentration and a quick shut eye, I calmed myself and hoped to make it to my destination in one piece.

As If the day couldn't get any more stressful, during the white water rafting tour following the bus ride, I let go of the side of the boat, too busy paddling that I got completely thrown from the boat during one of the biggest rapids on the river. I ha rafted many times before but had never been thrown out like this and I will never forget how scary it was. The current dragged me and a young Chinese girl under over and over again, making us gasp for breath while trying to shout for help. All of a sudden she disappeared and the boat, which had tried to grab me and my paddle, got further and further away from me. With no way of swimming against the current to the side of the river, I just kept being dragged under by the rapids and eventually after a lot of struggle and a lot of mantras to myself, I made it to a rock which I clinched on to and made my way up onto it. The boat eventually came back for me but it didn't give me any trust in them during the rest if the journey. My worst nightmare is to drown and I'll never forget thinking to myself that this was it, this was how I was going to go. My heart raced and my life flashed before my eyes. I just about wet myself with fear, until it luckily found a way out. Grade 3 rapids my ass!!

My next mode of transport was the tourist bus to the starting point of my rafting tour which I had no idea where. I was squeezed up in the bus drivers cockpit behind the drivers seat with another 6 people all clinging on for dear life on these bumpy roads. I made some drunken small talk with some Japanese girls before I conked out. When we made our second stop for break, I began to get a familiar feeling, a negative one. I felt anxious and stressed, I could feel a panic attack coming on. The thing with panic attacks are that they make you panic even more so the key is to relax yourself, which definitely isn't as easy as it sounds. I pictured myself having to hop across all these people and get off the bus but after a lot of concentration and a quick shut eye, I calmed myself and hoped to make it to my destination in one piece.

As If the day couldn't get any more stressful, during the white water rafting tour following the bus ride, I let go of the side of the boat, too busy paddling that I got completely thrown from the boat during one of the biggest rapids on the river. I ha rafted many times before but had never been thrown out like this and I will never forget how scary it was. The current dragged me and a young Chinese girl under over and over again, making us gasp for breath while trying to shout for help. All of a sudden she disappeared and the boat, which had tried to grab me and my paddle, got further and further away from me. With no way of swimming against the current to the side of the river, I just kept being dragged under by the rapids and eventually after a lot of struggle and a lot of mantras to myself, I made it to a rock which I clinched on to and made my way up onto it. The boat eventually came back for me but it didn't give me any trust in them during the rest if the journey. My worst nightmare is to drown and I'll never forget thinking to myself that this was it, this was how I was going to go. My heart raced and my life flashed before my eyes. I just about wet myself with fear, until it luckily found a way out. Grade 3 rapids my ass!!

Tulasi River-1 Jade-0

As if it wasn't bad enough, we had another hour or so to go, and heaps more rapids before we reached the end. I decided to block out what had happened and not let the fear take over. Each rapid had me quivering but hoping bit would've be strong enough to capsize us like last time and they weren't. I made it till the end, soaked to the skin, freezing and with a newfound fear of uncontrollable deep water.

The next step of my mad day would be catching a local government bus to Chitwan which I hadn't realised was the plan until just then. After some yummy Dal Bhat (typical Nepali food) and a change of clothes, my guide took my bag and walked me down the street to catch the local bus. When it came, he uttered some words to the driver, wished me well and off I went. I had no idea where I was going or when to get off. After an hour or two of listening to heavy Hindi dance music blaring through the buses speakers, I was called to get off and was pointed towards a small blue mini van which would apparently take me to Sauraha, Chitwan. I hopped out, grabbed my dirty backpack from the roof and followed some random lady in red to the van. She put my bag on yet another roof and after squishing to the back of the mini van, we headed off own the dirt road. I was ordered to pay 25rupees for the ride which made no sense to me but I did anyways and hoped to be at my hotel sooner rather than later. I was in transit for almost 12 hours and with the day I'd had, if one more thing went wrong I didnt know what I'd do. Luckily with the help of some fancy suited young man who told them where I needed to go, I arrived in the warm aired national park of Chitwan, a shadow of the person I was the day before and ready for some replenishing.

So my plans to go to Chitwan didn't come from seeing some big jungle safari sign at one of the many tourist offices scattered in Pokhara, nor did it come from a recommendation I heard from a fellow traveller. My plans came about just like a lot of my previous 'plans', spontaneously. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do after Kathmandu- spend a few days in Pokhara, meet some people and join a trek somewhere around the Himalayas but things changed when it proved rather difficult to meet people there to share trekking costs with. I had overheard a couple in the last hotel I stayed at, telling the owner that they would go white water rafting to Chitwan instead of bussing the whole way and so I thought that was a pretty cool idea. I went and booked it and within a few minutes I had my bus ticket, my white water rafting trip included and I had booked two nights at Chitwan Forest resort in a dorm for $3 (surely id meet people there to go trekking with right?).

As previously mentioned in my Pokhara blog, the ride there was far from easy and i just so happened to arrive in Sauraha, Chitwan flustered, exhausted and stressed. I wasn't expecting much from my hotel considering the price and the fact that it was a dorm room but when I arrived I was very pleasantly surprised. It was like walking into the Garden of Eden and I was instantly greeted by a nice man who showed me through the jungle resorts courtyard to my very cosy dorm room which I would've sharing with a Chinese family. I had began to think that this was the afterlife and that I had intact died in the Tulasi river.

As if life couldn't have picked up even more, I was welcomed by a steaming hot shower before bed, which was the first id had since coming to Nepal a week ago- Not that I hadn't showered of course but just this time I could enjoy it and not cringe at the thoughts of it- After availing of this luxury, I headed to reception where I was kindly informed of the activities going on in Chitwan. I decided to purchase a 3 night/4 day package to included all my activities, meals and a bus ticket to my onward destination afterwards. It worked out to be around €90 which was well worth it considering I would be out and about doin activities from 7am until the evening time. Day 1 was to include breakfast/canoe ride/jungle trek and end with a jeep safari. I was super excited.

The morning started with a lovely breakfast of eggs and toast not forgetting the soup beforehand (they love their soup), before we headed off down to the river to begin our boat ride. The group of us (including the Chinese family from my room) carefully got into the wooden carved boat trying not to rock it too much and placed the wooden seats under us. Like something from a movie, we slowly made our way down the crocodile infested river through the mist of dawn. We laughed, spotted wild animals, enjoyed times of silence with just the wild animals to hear and then we laughed even more (or maybe just me), particularly when the Chinese dad stood up all of a sudden and wanted to take pictures of us, only to lose his balance and topple over into the water, camera and phone in hand. It was pretty funny because the guides had both repeatedly said 'sit down' to him, yet he didn't listen and to be honest it was the highlight of my day.

After our canoe ride, we took to the jungle for a 3hr hike, where I picked up a few blisters from my new hiking boots (at least they're broken in for trekking now) and spotted all minds of wild animals. We finished the trek down by the river where we got up close with the elephants during their bath time and i couldn't believe the cuteness of them rolling around in the water just loving every minute of it. We had an amazing lunch of rice, boiled veg, a delicious veggie patty and some stir fry and before I knew it I was rushed off on the back of a motorbike to the river once again. My guide passed me on to another guide and off I went back on this dodgy canoe across the river. I made a Norweigian couple and a guy from Singapore laugh when telling them about the mishaps of the Chinese dad that morning which set the mood for the test of the safari. We laughed most of the way along the trip and made jokes about there not being any wild animals and that it was all a trick on us etc. having gone over many small bridges we joked that we were just going round in circles and laughed evey time we saw another bridge. During that while day I saw two types of monkeys, crocodiles, eagles, kingfishers, peacocks, storks and elephants but not tigers nor rhinos were to be seen. Maybe next time.

My first day was great and I was super happy with my accommodation, the food provided, the activities and the attitude of all the people looking after me and definitely this resort as a whole. Here's to 3 more great days in Chitwan national park, Nepals first ever national park.

Having left Brisbane early Thursday morning, I arrived around 17 hours later to Kathmandu and stopped over in Guangzhou (again), China. The flight was pretty good apart from a cranky bitch on my second flight who yelled at me and dobbed me in for having my phone on. I was due to stay at Alobar 1000, a hippy hangout for travellers which id pre booked online and I really couldn't wait to check in. It was midnight when I arrived and I worried that the hostel may not be open this late but following a quick prepaid taxi ride, it was. I had met a girl from my flight in Guangzhou and after having a coffee together, we arranged to meet up around Kathmandu or Pokhara which was pretty cool!

My hostel was bright yellow and green and had a real rasta feel with it's cosy rugs laid out on the rooftop floor. There was a restaraunt with pretty cheap food and beer and there were many tourists hanging around chatting and planning adventures in the cosy booths. The next morning I picked a cute rooftop restaurant to have some food and chai while planning my day. I spent some time wandering the streets and getting information about Tibet/Bhutan tours in the many travel agents scattered around. I had initially deciding to go to Swayambhunath aka Monkey Temple (can you guess why?) but instead was guided towards Durbar Square where I was encouraged to see first. After declining one guide, I eventually said yes to the second young boy who was very knowledgeable and funny. We spent a couple of hours visiting many of the temples in the square including visiting the god of alcohol, the hippy temple (60s rockerstars used to hang here and smoke weed back in the day) and gazing at all the different architecture.

After a lot of laughs and a cup of Nepali tea, we finished the tour and I headed off back towards my hostel, stopping at the various shops along the way and even got two random dreadlocks at tattoo parlour I spotted along the way!. Back at the hostel I met two girls Katherine and Siobhán from England and we decided to take the free Naplese language class on the rooftop. After learning a few words we then took ourselves and our hungry bellies to the rooftop restaraunt where we had some Everest beers and food with Adam from Australia. We chatted about travels for ages and I loved being in the surrounding once again.

The next day I spent walking through the city to another part of town to visit Swayambhunath the monkey temple. I roamed passed very poor parts of town but still the people smiled and seemed content. I was welcomed by everyone along the way and had various chats with people, one man outside the temple gates even told me his dream of going to live in Holland and riding around on his bike over there, he was planning to leave in march and I wished him luck. He was a tour guide and even though I declined his services, like many before, he had no problem with that and wished me a good stay in Nepal. This was the sheer difference between Nepal and India that I had come to realise. Bartering only got you so far because they won't push you, people won't stare at you in the strests and if you decline a service it's not a big deal at all, nobody will chase you down the street. I liked this!

I took photos, did some Xmas shopping at the stalls at the top of the many many steps and even had another great chat with a shop owner who gave me a Nepali tea while I browsed. We chatted for a while and I was on my way with a bunch of gifts for family and friends. That evening the girls and I had some dinner and had a beer on the rooftop while laughing historically at Adams travel stories and our own political arguments. I retreated to bed having booked a bus to Pokhara the next morning which I would be up super early for. Luckily the bus stop was the street over from the hostel. Kathmandu was a pretty cool city and I was amazed by it's chilled out vibe, just like id read about before.

Next stop- 7hrs to Pokhara