I never really realised just how much abuse a Jeep could take.

Sorry this update has been a long time coming, finding a reliable Internet connection has been quite a mission.

I've had a week or so just bumming around, doing the temple thing and catching up old friends and making new ones.

From Kathmandu it was a 7ish hour bus journey to Pokora, from there I made it to Beni. It took me 3 hours in a shared taxi to get there on the worst 'roads' ever (later I found roads can get a lot worse). Most where just mud and the taxi was slipping all over the place. I'm amazed that it got here, I would have thought that you would have needed a 4 wheel drive to get up there. However the dude's cab was an ancient rust bucket that had a light switch instead of an ignition and we had to stop twice to top it up with water from a waterfall. Beni wasn't a particularly nice place and being the only westerner in the whole town I was a great source of amusement to it's residents. There's something very disconcerting about an entire, busy high street, stopping, pointing and laughing at you. Having swapped my shorts for a long skirt things improved, but it was all too much and a found a warm beer and retreated to my (bright purple) room from the night.

The next morning Chitra (I think he works for Wireless Nepal, but I haven't quite worked that out yet) I and 13 others, jumped in a Jeep (or cheap Dawoo equivalent) and precessed to drive for 3 hours on a newly created 'road' towards the village of Nangi. I never really realised just how much abuse a Jeep could take and have never in my life experienced a drive like it. We got stuck in mud numerous times, had to make a makeshift bridge over a river and did some of the climb in reverse while the passengers walked behind. Most of the time there's a 100 foot drop one side of us - even the local women where shouting as the Jeep started to slipped backward on several occasions! Still, at least it meant that I didn't have to walk for 9 hours, and all this fun for a little under £3...
Be sure to check my Facebook photos!