I was so high off the ground that I could see for miles around :)

I love mountains.  I've been lucky enough to trek in mountains on every continent and in Dublin I have big hills (bless) just 10 minutes spin from my house.  Nepal, however, is the ultimate destination for extreme peaks piercing the clouds.  Unfortunately, not during Monsoon!

I finally managed to escape Kathmandu and after a 7 hour bus ride turned into 10 hours thanks to a puncture and landslide I've spent the last 10 days in North East Nepal and mostly up in the clouds :)  Here's 20 seconds of me screaming:

and here's a quick flash of what else happened at altitude:

• Hip hop and hot pants
• Foto OD - Feck it it's the Himalayas and they is pretty
• North Fake and Gore Tex mi hole
• A mini vipassana for me - helped by leeches in the clouds
• When water is more expensive than a bed
• Me being in the Now
• MORE proof that Yoga is good :)

Firstly a note to all at home in Ireland.  I'm delighted you are all basking in the heatwave enjoying a Teddy's on Dun Laoghaire pier.  I'm guessing with temperatures above 30 degrees the good people of Ireland are even sunbathing at night - long may it continue.  I seem to have attracted a 'normal' Irish summer climate here with the average day being like this:

Pokhara is a gorgeous town next to a lake in North Eastern Nepal.  It's where people setup before heading off on most of the Himalayan treks.  It's also home to more foreign volunteers than I've ever met.   Even I feel guilty for not volunteering here.  In a country with even worse regulation of charities than India, Nepal is the fashionable capital to build schools and teach children English   Unfortunately very few are sustainable solid projects, most are just looking for a quick $ in return for some photos with cute kids.  If you are considering volunteering here please do your research first.  Two projects I highly recommend are UK charity The Mountain Trust in Pokhara and Irish charity Team Nepal.

One of my few dry sunsets in Pokhara.  

I spent a few days enjoying the fresh air taking a kayak across the lake and jumping off a hill doing a tandem paraglide.  I then headed to Sadhana Yoga, Nepal's most famous yoga retreat.  It was recommended by my yoga/yoda master Krishna Varma and I didn't know it was the #1 thing to do in Nepal according to The Lonely Planet.  If I had known I wouldn't have gone as the Lonely Planet makes for very outdated non-lonely recommendations. However, it was gorgeous, and a 5am to 9pm schedule of yoga/chanting/meditation/good food was just what I needed.  

My ankle also got it's first test with a quick trek up Sarankot the highest mountain in the valley.  This is the best local spot for views of full Himalayan mountain range.  I was clearly in Pokhara in the wrong season, a decent walk though.

A tandem paraglide from the side....with the World Peace Pagoda in the background

...and this is what it's supposed to look like (NOT MY PHOTO......Pokhara in the winter)

Paragliding goats....

  

Matthias, a swiss volunteer, entertaining the local kids. 

  

The local kids....

You can understand why volunteers want to work here.  The kids are gorgeous......

Most trekking tourists come to Nepal for Everest or Annapurna Base camp but now is not the season, monsoon is heavy, the leeches are on sucking duty and the views of the big peaks are rare. So as I knew the terrain of slippery rocks and monsoon would be a test for my ankle (three months ago I couldn't walk), I opted for the mini 5 day Poonhill circuit.

I went with my two mates Paula and Diego - this is 'team Castellano'  looking up at something BIG (alas it was a cloud covering a mountain)

As a guy who likes mountains I have a lot of technical gear.  90% of which is in storage in Europe.  I didn't get it sent over as I thought for a short trek in the summer I wouldn't need it so I shopped locally with North Fake and Gore Tex (mi hole) local gear.   My Gore Tex Hat turning to mush within 30 minutes of monsoon.  My big mistake, however,  was socks.  I'd happily part with 10euros for a pair of hiking socks in Dublin but seeing as that's more than 1 night's accommodation here with my travelling mindset I put up with shitty socks with holes in.  Compeed, blister plasters, I owe you.

These are a few of my fav mountain fashions I saw along the way: 

These shoes were worn by 'Hip Hop'.  A girl we met along the way who wanted to look cool in the mountains.  She also wore white hot pants.   I'm a fan of hot pants on hot girls but this is Nepal......hot pants aren't really respecting the local culture.  Besides, her hot pants were the sort of pants you could sail across the Atlantic with.  

My favourite bottom of the trip :)  (a far better example than Hip Hop's)

I might have not had the right socks but at least I had decent footwear.  Unlike this chap from England who had been walking for 10 days like this:

Owing to the monsoon our trip was more about nature than mountain views.  ASOMBROSO!

The hillside villages amongst the rice plains

The accomodation was first class....

And the food simple but nutritious (I've obviously been in Ireland too long as this meal was the best I've had in AGES)

Drying out the garlic for the more exotic 'Potatoes and Garlic'....celtic vibes creepin in

Below was my 10 seconds view of the Annapurna summit (middle left of photo at 8,091m).  It was when I realised that unlike other treks I'd done where I'm always at the front pushing ahead this trek I was actually enjoying every moment.  So much so that I didn't pick up my camera whilst the view was clear as I was simply spellbound.

We saw mountains everyday, but to see +5000m mountains was something very special.  The below was our typical sunset and it was amazing how the majesty of the mountains were caressed softly by the silk like clouds, weaving between the peaks like a patchwork quilt.  

Below is me doing Warrior II whilst looking at Annapurna (behind a cloud ;) )

The accommodation on the trek was a nice surprise, I'm used to soggy sleeping bag trekking but there were lodges along the route and for $10US you'd get a bed in a shared room, and three meals.  The rooms might have been on a sloping floor but they were comfy with big duvets.  

The surprise was water.  Supply and demand is an obvious concept to any tourist in a remote area but 1 litre of water was more expensive than a bed for the night.   It was the same price to get local Red Bull which may explain why all the local kids are running around totally wired with 1/2 their teeth missing.  We also opted to have a guide.  I'd had friends that had done it without one but for $10US/day between three people, our guide Shiva made sure we got the best hostels and helped us find the route when the landslides had wiped away the paths.  

The organisation of the trekking routes is good.   All the food and accommodation is maintained at a fixed price and although I got excited brainstorming the potential of a yoga retreat above the clouds it just wouldn't happen based on the regulations.  And that's a good thing for the local community.

Spending time with nature is always a good thing.  Although I missed out on Vipassana in Kathmandu I did find myself silent 90% of the trek.  I'm used to having my headphones on and pushing ahead but for this trek I walked slower and enjoyed every moment.  Thoughts are always there but for once I blocked it out pretty much for a whole trek and just enjoyed the now. Leeches sucked the blood out of me but it was as if they were detoxing my bad thoughts as walking in the clouds I had none.

Below is a day's worth of leeches on their funeral pile of salt

The villages have no access via road so all supplies are carried by these horsies.  They are treated well by the locals who to be fair often end up carrying even heavier loads on their heads 

We finished the trek 1 day early by coming down from 3,000 to sea level in 7 hours, not the brightest think to do with holes in your socks.  Below was a part of the day showing the gorgeous landscape.  For most of the last day the monsoon was so full on that even the cockerels sounded like they were drowning.

We met very few other trekkers.  One group that impressed me was a group of 30 teenagers from the UK doing their Duke of Edinburgh challenge on the 5 day trek.  Pretty impressive for 16 year olds.  However, I found it funny how they were always complaining with aches and pains and yet 2 decades older my yoga had my body feeling amazing every day.  Just sayin ;)

Team Castellano with Deepak the boss man from The Lemon Tree, our favourite restaurant in Pokhara.  

Next stop Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha via Nepals most precarious roads :)