Flush your brain down the toilet

In Gorka, recieving the tika
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After spending four days in Kathmandu (two more than anyone should) I went to the Nepal/Tibet border and spent two days at the Last Resort. The point of the trip was to bungy jump 160 meters, around five hundred feet, off a bridge, over a river. The bus ride was beautiful and the resort was really peaceful, especially after being in Kathmandu.

The bungy instructor explained how things worked and then about eight to ten of us went out on the bridge. The best advice he gave was go to the bathroom and when your in there, flush your brain down the toilet, it would make it easier to jump. It was a nice group, mostly in their twenties, mostly Americans. The nice thing about being on a bridge with a bunch of other people before bungy jumping is that you become acquainted really quickly. Mostly because we were all pretty nervous.

bamboo swings for the Dashain Festival
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After getting all strapped in I walked to the end of the platform. The only way I could jump is to give up my own free will and just do what I was told, so the bungy master counted down from three to one and said jump, so that's what I did. It was probably the most intense seven seconds of my life, really, really great.

The next day I did a canyoning trip. Basically canyoning is lowering one's self down a waterfall, and on a rare, but very funny occassion, getting to sit down and slide like at a waterpark. It was pretty cool, and I'm expecting some good pictures from the waterproof disposable camera I picked up for the occassion.

this is what the tika looks like
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After two of the best days of my trip it was back to Kathmandu for the night and then the next day a six hour bus ride to Pokhara where I did a tandem paragliding trip. It was good, but there really was no adrenaline rush, and it kind of paled in comparison to the days at the Last Resort, but I tried to appreciate it for the experience that it was.

Tomorrow I go back to Kathmandu and deal with my airline. They cancelled all Monday flights for the rest of the year. I was supposed to fly out on a Monday in about three and a half weeks for Bangkok and then straight to Hanoi. Now I'm trying to move my flight up so that I can spend three weeks in Thailand. Nepal is great, and if I have to stay longer I can't think of a better country to be in, but I feel complete with the country and wouldn't mind getting to see a little more of South East Asia. It should all be figured out tomorrow one way or another.

With Deepak's family
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Hope everyone has a good Halloween.