Royal Chitwan National Park
Written by Steven Cozza
Monday, 08 November 2004

This was the craziest day of my life thats fursure. It started off waking up around 7am in the morning to meet with our guides for the day. We left out place and immediatly met the local town pet a 3 year old Rhino named Beauty who was the size of a huge horse already. At first me and my Dad were a bit timid but found out the the banana loving Beauty was a harmless teddy bear. So we got many pictures of Dad and I huging Beauty. After that we went to our dug out tree canoe and took strate to the crocadile infested waters. The Canoe was pretty tippy but we got the feel for the balance of it right away for if we didnt we would be croc meat soon enough. We were so excited to see the crocs. We spotted them right away poking there heads out of the muddy water just yards from us. We crused about 3 miles down the river seing all kinds of birds and wild life including a huge Elephant who happend to be crossing the river. We came to a sandy croc beach and made our way to the jungles edge. We had one guide for the back and one for the front. My book didnt recomend going on the jungle walk for many people get killed every year but adventure Dad and I could not pass it up. The guide told us in broken English before we started the roles of the jungle and how to survive. He told us that if we spotted a Rhino we would need to eather climb a small tree or stand behind a big one. If it charged you are suppose to throw some clothes down and run in a zig zag pattern to a tree. The next animal was a sloth bear whos poo droppings and paw prints we saw all over the beach. The guide said if we see a sloth bear we must yell and clap our hands as loud as possible to scare it away. The last big threat of ours was the Tiger. Our guide told us they are the king of the jungle and if they wanted to kill us they could so there wasnt much we could do. Thank god our guide armed us with sticks with him having one too I thought we should be pretty well off against a 700 pound Tiger. So after all the safety rules were laid down we felt safer than ever to start the hike. My Dad started walking through the think jungle as if he was walking down a dark alley in NY. It was funny but soon enough we felt at home. We first spotted monkeys in the trees screaming as if something deadly was coming. I was able to get many good photos of this so that was exciting. The monkeys were nuts screaming and breaking sticks. It sounded as if the forest was being snaped and broken with all the crazy monkeys everywhere on the ground and flying through the trees. We spotted a diving Eagle and it was huge. Im sure it could of picked up a small child or monkey which im sure it has many times. After walking for a few hours we came to this crazy grass called Elephant grass. It is about 10 feet tall and very sharp. We crossed through this harsh stuff getting cut and itchy. We came to a small river and had to cross it getting nice and wet. We noticed a crocadile sitting a little ways to the left of where we crossed and saw many Tiger prints on the banks where they had come to get drinks of water. With a little bad luck we didnt run into any Rhinos or Tigers on this walk but we gave it a go. The guide new me and my Dad were nuts so he took us strate through the thick of the stuff not going on any trails and walking along a crocadile creek where we spotted a huge one bathing on the bank 10 feet across from us. The guide through a few branches at it to scare it so we could see it move but it moved right into the dark muddy water to disapear out of our site so we booked it out of that area. After about 3 hours of crazy jungle walking we came to a 4x4 dirt track and took that back to our village. I was able to pick all the leaches off of me and not have any full ones so that was good. We arrived to our village and it was the Elephant Bathing time. I was so stoked to get in the water with them for it was so refreshing after the hot sweaty leachy walk through the jungle. Swimming with the elephants was by far the coolest thing I have ever done in my life and I will never forget it. I made sure to have my Dad take tons of pics as I climbed all over the huge anamals backs. There was 3 bathing with me and there masters. The elephant Motly would kneel down for me so I could climb up on his back where I could stand up. He would some times try to throw me off which he did many times. I even did a back flip dive off of him. What a great diving board ha ha. It was so great. The best was hugging the big teddy bear elephant. I would lay on its back bellow down and just hug it and listen to it breath. It was one of the best hugs ever. After my bath we went on a 3 hour elephant jungle walk and were able to spot Deer and Rhinos. It was so great. The Rhinos didnt bother us since we were on the backs of the huge elephants. After 3 hours on the back of an elephant trekking across rivers and jungle forest our butts were pretty soar so we decided to end the evening whaching a local tribal dance. What a day. We are both totally wiped out and ready for bed so we can wake up early to travle to our next stop, Lumbini the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. After that we go to the largest lake in Nepal Pokhara where we will tak it easy for a few days and than fly out of Nepal to Thialand and than home.

Thanks for reading.
always peace,
Steven

Altitude sickness and Near Death
Written by Steven Cozza
Tuesday, 02 November 2004

Up the Khumbu valley to Mount Everest (Nepal’s call it Chomolungma) through Sagarmatha National Park in the Himalayans. After a 11 days of trekking crossing the Dudh Koshi River, seeing peaks larger than I could ever dream of we finally accomplished our goal of reaching the base camp of the largest mountain in the world. The chance and opportunity to do this trek with my Dad was something I will never forget and am extremely thankful to have been fortunate enough to have done so. We began our journey by taking a 30-minute tin can plane to Lukla, a Sherpa village most commonly used as a starting point for people trekking to Everest and other peaks or villages in the Khumbu region. From the beginning of our trek both my dad and me were amazed at all the beauty around us. I was walking in complete happiness to be is such a beautiful place. Passing Sherpa Village after Sherpa Village I noticed how friendly the people were. The children especially were something. We saw little kids play with Yaks 10 times there sized and not being afraid. I saw children gathering Yak crap with there Moms to later make patties on the side of rock walls to let them dry out in the sun to use for fuel to keep the house warm. Along our route we came to Buddhist Monasteries and was able to attend some of the chants and rituals. The Sherpa people have such a rich colorful culture that it is not hard to miss. We caught on quickly. As we came closer and closer to our goal we noticed that the vegetation became scarce. It started to feel like we were walking on the moon. About 90% of trekkers we saw did not carry there own stuff and instead paid for porters to carry their bags for them. My Dad and I decided from the very begging that we would carry our own gear. It was weird to see that people would pay people to carry their own stuff. I thought it defeated the purpose of trekking but it is good for the disabled people. As we came to altitude above any I had ever been at before altitudes of 15,000 16,000 and 17,500 feet we really started feeling like we were on a different planet. I have never walked so slowly up a hill in my life. It was a head pounding brain-swelling experience. Nothing like one foot after the other ha ha. Our best shot at attempting Everest Base camp in an incredible 8 days was from the 4930-meter village known as Lobuche. The air was thin and I woke up many times in a panic gagging for air. Finally 5 am rolled around and I woke my father with a stern, “come on lets go get ready.” It was like I was putting my dad through the test. I guess you could call it father boot camp run by the son. Ha ha. We both new it would be along day. What we didn’t know is that it would of turned into a 15-hour trek and nearly loosing our lives in the Great Himalaya Range. We decided to not carry much gear just warm clothes, food water and the essentials so we could be light on our feet. It seemed like it took us years to get to base camp but we made it. Crossing the Glacier was amazing but quiet dangerous at times. Base camp was sooo cool. There was a downed old Russian helicopter as well. I couldn’t believe where I was. I was standing at the base of the tallest mountain in the world and my dad and I did it. We were stoked. We took so many pictures of us there. We thought of Robert Knight the boy who has Cancer who we raised some money for and we thought of all our friends and family along the way. My Dad brought along with him some ashes of his dad and released them at base camp. It was an emotional but exciting time for me. We even took a funny picture of me in the freezing temperature running around camp in just my boxers. What we didn’t realize and think about mush is that we spent way too much time at 17,500 feet. As we said our goodbyes to Everest. I noticed my Dad started to look messed up a bit. He was starting feel carsick and I had the most chronic headache I have ever had. My head felt as if it were going to explode any minute. These were signs of high altitude sickness and we still had 5 hours back to Lobuche if all went well. We trekked and trekked fighting our fatigue from the lack of oxygen to our body and brains. With only two hours left of hiking we came to the highest village before Everest known as Gorak Shep. It was starting to get dark and we needed some energy so we got some rive and tea. We left the hut and headed for Lobuch as the sun set. We both had flashlights so we didn’t care much about walking at night and saw it more as an adventure. About half way back to our sleeping bags and gear my flashlight went out and 10 minutes later so did my dads. We couldn’t use much light from the moon because it started to snow on us. I was doing my best to stick to the trail but quickly realized we were on a yak trail and eventually not a trail at all. I admit that I lost it for about 10 minutes broke down in shame and guilt thinking I lead my Dad to his death. We later found out that the temperature that night was 20 below 0 degrees. I gained my composure after my Dad calmed me down in the dark of night lost in the freezing cold Himalayin mountains. We looked for the trail looking for shoe prints but kept getting even more lost. Finally dad and me decided we needed to find a cave like rock to sleep under. We found an okay one and tried to make it keep us alive. After a half an hour of rapping ourselves together and sharing body warmth I started to realize it wasn’t going to be the best idea for me and that I was going to die of Hypothermia. So my dad listened to my idea. I thought we must hike until we find something and if we don’t find a hut at least we will stay warmer than under the rock. We started moving again through the dark. We were beginning to loose it. Fatigue, altitude sickness and the cold temps was setting in. we went off a ridge in what we thought was our way. I was scouting the ground for footprints. I couldn’t believe my eyes . I came across some shoe prints. From that point on we followed the shoe prints. After going down one ridge following the prints we lost them to a more rocky terrain. My dad got disoriented and started in the wrong direction. I asked him what way he thought Lobuche was in and he pointed in a totally wrong direction. He took a few seconds to get oriented again an we continued with the way I felt was right. I stuck to looking for the shoe prints and amazingly came across them again. We followed and followed them until finally we couldn’t believe our eyes. We were saved. We saw lights up on the mountain and survived the ordeal hiking back into our village after 15 hrs of walking above 4900 meters. We were toasted but were sure glad to be alive. Well that was that. I accomplished a few cool things on this trek. Not only was I able to go to the base came of Mt. Everest but also I went to the base camp of Ama Dablim as well and climbed a bit of Island peak. All and all this was such a worth whiled adventure and I highly recommend it. Just don’t hike too much at nightJ From Everest down it took us 2 days and a half to get back to the Lukla airport. All the way back we hiked even during the night because we sure wanted some apple pie and cake back in Kathmandue. We pushed hard hiking 13 hour and sleeping a bit all the way down. Our next trip is to the last resort on the border of Tibet. There we will get the chance to bungee jump off the longest free fall bridge in the world at 500 of fall. We are also going white water river Rafter so that will be rad. Well until next time. Thanks so much for reading.

MORE PEAVE AND MORE ADVENTURE

TO THE WORLD YOU MIGHT BE ONE PERSON, BUT TO ONE PERSON YOU MIGHT BE THE WORLD.

steven

The Last Resort
Written by Steven Cozza
Sunday, 07 November 2004

Right now Im sitting in the heart of the Terai (southern part of Nepal bordering India) being eatan alive by masquitoes. My Dad and I just got back from the Last Resort on the Tibetan side of Nepal where we bungee jumped off the highest bungee bridged in the world. Just the ride alone to the Last Resort was worth it. We were able to sit on top of the bus alot of the way and that alone was totaly insane as we roared around cliffs and drove head on at trucks. I have never seen such insane drivers. My Dad prayed for his life the whole way:) Finally we arrived to the Last Resort and got right to it. Heaviest to lightest jumps and that was how the order went. We were with mostly people from Holland so that was cool because I could talk to them a bit about cycling. Well would’nt you know it just my Dads luck they were all skinny to the bone people on the trip and would’nt you know it he was up first for the 500 foot 160 meters of free fall over a roaring Bhoti Kosi river below. He was so nervouse. I did not believe my dad would do it for he is so afraid of hieghts. I came up with a plan to help him. I told him to keep his eyes closed all the way out the rope bridge and to the edge as they guided him out and once he got to the ledge I would yell jump. He stepped to the ledge and I screamed jump at the top of my lungs. He later told me that he kept his eyes closed until halfway down than he opend them. Well he did it and I was so proud of him. I could’nt believe it as he disapeared below and turned into a little ant. It was great. Finally it was my turn and I love every minute of it. I made sure to look and see where I was going. I stepped to the ledge and leaped off as if I was flying. It felt great We felt like bullets shooting towards the earth. We were able to buy the DVD of us jumping to so that will be neat to see later on. After that adrenaline rush the next day we went white water rafting down the most dangerouse river in Nepal the Bhoti Kosi. This was our first experience of this so it was pretty nuts going down some pretty challenging rapids. We made it though and were glad to have dinner later that night in Kathmandu to talk about it. Our last leg of the trip is now down in the south of Nepal the Terai region in Royal Chitwan National park were the Tigers, Crocadiles and Rhinos roam free. Tommorow we will be canoeing with the Crocadiles and riding Elaphants with the Rhinos and Tigers. Later in the night we will be attending a local tribe’s dance festival. It should be pretty dang nuts but we are so excited. After a good 7 hour crazy native Nepali bus trip we arrived here in this town called Sauraha today and found it to be great. On the way to the bus this morning we were in a taxi going around this round about in traffic and I noticed this lost puppy about 5 months old running across the street. I saw this big bus coming and the puppy went right under. It was like slow moe. The puppy seem to have plenty of time to walk under the truck for it was traffic so the truck was going slow but as the truck drove on I looked after its cloud of exaust and saw the poor puppy laying there kicking on the ground with blood coming out from its head. I was so dam sick to my stomach. I got out of the taxi and went up to the kicking puppy and did something I will never forget. I took my right foot and stomped down breaking its neck completely putting it out of its poor misery. The puppy was going to die and it was screaming in pain so I thought that was the least I could do. The poor dogs here in Nepal are so unlucky and I think have it the hardest. The people don’t seem to care about the dogs here and they just roam free on their own fighting for survival. Well that was the start of my day today. All the roads are dirt and it is totally like a safary place down here in the south. It reminds me of the fake safary places at theme parks but actually real. The British came here in the 19th century for hunting trips to hunt the Tigers and Rhinos. Now it is a protected park thankfully. Well im not sure what is next but I can’t wait to help bath and ride the Elephants throught the river. more soon.

Thanks for reading.
Steven