I'm a backpacker!!

So now that my volunteering is over, I've become a real backpacker, traveling all over Nepal by bus. Right now, I'm in Pokhara. The bus ride was 7 hours and I had to get to the bus at 6.30am. I spent the whole time reading "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Wells. It's really engaging but pretty emotionally intense. I highly recommend it.

On the bus ride, I met a Sweedish girl named Erika. She was really nice. We decided to meet up when we got to Pokhara and hike up to the World Peace Pagoda. We got to Pokhara at 2pm and planned to meet at 4pm. I went to the group I was going trekking with to get my money back. After looking through their records for 10 minutes, they handed me a crisp stack of US money. I was going to stay at their guest house, but it was $12 a night!!! WAY expensive. I stopped at a few hotels on the way back into the main part of town. I found one with a single room open that was in my price range 300 rupees ($4) per night. I have a gigantic bed in a room off this peaceful courtyard. AND I have my own bathroom!! Score!

I still had some time, so I got some food and then casually stopped by the paragliding offices. They said I was in luck, they had one spot left at 9am tomorrow morning. It would cost me $95, but I decided it was worth it. I spent nearly all of my trekking refund. Then I met up with Erika. We walked to the lake and rented a canoe. We paddled ourselves across the lake. It is a one hour hike up to the Peace Pagoda. We got there at 5.30, just before sunset. I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful view in my entire life. The clouds had gone and you could see all the snowy mountains. The Annapurnas and Mashapure, the fishtail mountain, along with some others, jutted into a clear blue sky. I got some amazing photos. We met an Israeli group on the way. One of the Israelis took a panoramic picture of me with his fancy camera. He's going to e-mail it to me.

On the way back down, it was starting to get dark. Luckily, Erika and I had flashlights. The boat was not so easy. The place we'd rented it from was completely dark and we couldn't figure out where it was. On the other side, near the shore, we saw some other canoes tied up. We knew it wasn't where we'd gotten ours from though. However, it was pitch black and we didn't have much hopes of figuring out where to go. We'd already paid and they hadn't kept anything of ours; they didn't even have our names. We pulled up the boat as far as we could, left the paddle inside, and waded barefoot onto the muddy bank. We were both laughing hysterically.

The next morning, I got up early to go paragliding. I ate a small piece of bread with Nutella (they said don't eat a big breakfast). I briefly thought "what am i doing? What if the parachute doesn't open." However, when we got to the start, I realized I need not have worried. In Paragliding, unlike skydiving, the parachute is already opened and tested before you take off. You are strapped in with a guide. You kind of walk toward the edge of this cliff, but before you get to the edge, the wind picks you up and gently guides you into the sky. It was really amazing and so gorgeous. At the end, my pilot asked if I was up for trying some acrobatics. I said sure. We went over the lake and started spinning around and moving side to side. Unfortunately, my nutella toast decided it didn't enjoy this and promply ejected itself from my body, landing all over my lap. Oh well, part of the experience, right? After I threw up, I felt tons better. We came in for a gentle, slow landing, and I rinsed my pants in the lake.

After that, I took a nap. Later, I went to Davi's Falls and this sacred cave. It was really cool. I love caves. But I prefer the small, tunnely ones that most people hate. This one was wide and had cement paths, but was still really nice. On the way, I met this American guy and a British couple. Small world, this guy is from VA. He says he really thinks VA will go for Obama. Yay! Everyone go vote! If I can vote from Nepal, you can vote there!!