Mountains, Monks and Mojitos

As the title suggests, I have seen many awesome mountains, freindly monks and the bottom of too many buckets of mojitos. I am in Laos at moment, recovering from a night out followed by a an early morning mountain trek. It is an amazing country though and an absolute breeze after India.

I spent 2 weeks in Nepal with Daniel, "sometimes trekking, sometimes rafting". This was the chorus of the song our Sherpas made for us. I then headed into India when Daniel went back to Australia. I started in Darjeeling and saw nothing because a vast fog had settled over the northern regions. I went south to Bodhgaya, the place of Buddha's enlightenment. Here, I was adopted by a family from Bhutan on their religious pilgrimage. The head of the family was a lovable Monk who guided us around the town to all the important Buddhist sites. I dig what was Buddha was all about but I am not ready to give up all my vices. Maybe in a few more lifetimes.

I went to all the usual places: Khajuraho (lots of Karma Sutra carvings), Orchha, Agra, Varanassi, Delhi and the desert state of Rajasthan. I was alone for most of this time but met loads of people on the way and visited friends living in Delhi. I didn't really have any major problems but i was well and truly over the same conversation that I had with billions of Indians:

"Hello, where are you from? you know Ricky Ponting? Shane Warne? Come look in my shop, looking is free, are you alone? why are Australians hurting Indians?". Over and Over and over again.

I was grateful when the time came to meet Lara (Paris Forrest's better half) in beautiful sunny Goa, where we swam, drank cocktails on the beach, had pedicures on the beach and ate fresh seafood on the beach. Lara was on a volunteer program in a village in the most conservative Hindu state in India. She ate nothing but rice and watery vegetables for 6 weeks and although she was meant to be there for 8 weeks, the pull of Goa was too strong. She legged it out of there as soon as she could. We both cried when we had to leave the beach. From Mumbai we (Lara and a couple of my friends) flew to Laos.

Life is a dream here. They have fresh bread, milo, cold beer and accommodation is like hotel rooms ($5 a night). If you need transport, they make a call and a bus comes and picks you up - no dramas. Its quite amazing. Lara left us a couple of days ago to watch Paris in his stadium Muay Thai boxing fight in Thailand. We are yet to hear the outcome.

Every trip I go on ends up in photo disaster. This one is no exception with my memory card developing a virus. The only photos I have are of Nepal so enjoy. I will try and fix the virus when I get back to Sydney. Next stop is Cambodia, followed by a quick stint in Sydney, then Morocco, Dublin, Sweden, Germany and Italy.

Annapurna Ranges, Nepal

"Rafting" - its the dry season so it was more like like floating

I swam with an elephant - the cheeky bugger kept flipping me off into the river

Daniel's cabin

Does anyone else see a resemblance?