1/19

Phew! Less stressed now. Barely got out of the house in time. Ran to the bus stop only to find the bus 5 minutes late. Which made me worried I missed it. Then I worried about missing my connecting bus. But it turns out that bus was cancelled a few days ago. No notice of that when I checked the web a week ago.

So I get the next airport bus. NBD. Turns out my flight to Philly is delayed. But not so much that I'll miss my connection to London. So I'm in the Ithaca airport with wifi and power for my phone. I might watch The Daily Show :)

In the end, I decided to bring my 0F bag. Don't want to be cold. They didn't make me check my backpacks. Hopefully none of the other flights will either. Both packs are STUFFED! And I'm warm... Wearing a cotton tshirt, button down long sleeve shirt, maroon puffy, and TNF puffy.

[in Philly now] Sprinted! Last passenger on the plane to London. After final boarding call. Hard to sprint wearing two puffies in a 75F airport carrying two backpacks. Feel bad for my seatmates... I show up drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. Like something out of Contagion.

Flight to London is nice. Uncrowded. USB power but no wifi. Movies on demand. Watching Sideways as I type this.

I should have that Kathmandu song. By Bob Seger? It isn't on my phone. Or my mp3 player.

And now, a chop interlude. Like a chop, bro? Yes, a chop. Last month I worked a COE belay test gig that had free food. They had a bunch of extra bags of chips. I brought home a bag of fritos and a bag of soy chips. I decided that they would be a delicious snack while traveling for 40 hours to Kathmandu. So I assiduously set them aside -- I have a habit of eating everything in sight. When packing day finally arrived I discovered the chips weren't an ideal snack. Too much volume. My bags were stuffed to the brim. I managed to get the fritos in my backpack, but the larger soy chip bag I just had to hold. This was inconvenient at best. While waiting for my delayed flight in the Ithaca airport, I ate the soy chips. Technically, I did wait until my 40 hour trip. Success! They were delicious! Or at least acceptable. Turns out I don't really like soy chips. Oh well. And I still had my fritos. Fast forward to my flight from Philly to London. After sprinting across the airport and barely making my plane, I settled into my seat as we pushed back from the gate. I went to retrieve my book and discovered that the frito bag had opened. Either the pressure changes or rough handling. Luckily, none of the fritos had spilled. So my backpack wasn't a mess and I still had my fritos. Guess now I have to eat them! I'm forced! Not my fault! I set the frito bag in my lap with my book, stow my backpack under the seat, and promptly spill the entire bag of fritos. I has a sad :(

Welcome to the UK! My shoes feel at home :) Haven't found wifi. But there is a Starbucks. I wonder if they have wifi...

No luck. But I did find a 16GB microSD card -- identical to the one I just bought for $7.99 -- for £46.97 (about $75) at a travel electronics store.

Being in London makes me miss Misfits. Totes would buy a Cornetto if I could find one.

Flight to Bangkok is 10+ hours. Uncomfortable middle seat. Watched Captain America, Puss in Boots, Real Steel, and Colombiana. None of them were very good.

Made it to Bangkok. Wifi!!! There is a Bangkok song in the musical Chess. Should have that along with the Kathmandu song.

Gross. I filled up my water bottle in the Bangkok airport. I don't want to arrive in Nepal dry since I have to treat all the water there. Hopefully the water in Bangkok is ok. Modern airport with legit water fountains and labels indicating they filter the water. So I give it a try. After, some guy brings his kid over to get a drink. The kid doesn't understand water fountains, so the guy rubs his finger all over the spout. All the fuck over it. Then repeats the process on the other fountain. I have no idea why. What purpose did that serve? Probably wipes his ass with that finger. Actually. Anyhow, hope that kid loved his drink. WTF?

There are a bunch of Buddhist monks on the plane. Which would be cooler if I didn't regularly see Buddhist monks in Ithaca.

OMFG! Now there is a little kid -- different little kid -- and he is licking the water spout. Not even pushing the button to get water. Just licking the spout. Do people in the USA do shit like this and I just don't notice it? Probs.

1/21 (where did 1/20 go? lost in circumnavigating the world)

Ok I almost slept on that flight. Got to Kathmandu and through immigration no problem. Met Dave. Took a bus to Patan and got a room. Ate some food... Including roti!!! Then went to a concert. Really. Now it is 5:30pm. I have to send this before the power goes out at 6. Then I hope to get 14 hours of sleep. Errands tomorrow. Hopefully off to Langtang Monday. It is really dirty/dusty/polluted here. Bothering my eyes.

1/22

Got lots of sleep last night. About 13 hours. It was loud because my room is right off the dining area (there are about 20 different dining areas, every little landing and patio is in use) but I slept right through it.

Productive day. I've been eating lots of local food... Yogurt, fruit, roti, etc. Bought chocolate balls for everyone too :)

We got all our trekking permits. A two step process and about $35. But overall relatively painless. Josh had just done it for Annapurna, so he had it all dialed. We got tons of money. The largest bill here is 1000 rupees, about $12. So we need bunches. I bought 2 pair of softshell pants for $20 total. One pair is kinda crappy, maybe a bad choice. The other is fake Mammut and seems decent.

Met Urja who runs a trekking company here: Alliance Adventure. Very nice guy. He has done the arrangements for the COE Nepal classes.

Now we are getting bus tickets and maps for tomorrow. The last of the errands.

11 hour bus ride tomorrow, then we start trekking.

No hot water for the showers without electricity. I just care about washing my face anyhow :)

My liquid stuff ziploc bag suffered an epic soap explosion. Luckily it was contained to the bag. Cleanup complete.

I feel very safe here. Even walking by myself in random neighborhoods after dark. Which is what happened after my epic walk across Kathmandu to get maps. Got a little lost, though not badly. Anyhow, people are friendly and helpful. There is a huge police/military presence. But they are courteous to foreigners. It is mostly aimed at keeping the population from demonstrating. The fuel shortages are apparently causing epic hardship. Power is very unreliable due to fuel shortages, but even the load shedding (rolling blackouts) is on a published schedule which seems to be followed.

An observation: In a place like Nepal, the more you pay, the more you are isolated from the country you came to visit.

1/23

Long bus ride. Awake before 5am to leave Cafe de Patan and head to the bus stop. The drive is long and the bus is very full (half a dozen people on the roof throughout the trip) but mostly uneventful. Some parts of the road are sketchy due to slides. Wish we had Mr. Rogers driving (right Jen, Beth and Emily?). About 9 hours total on the bus. My seatmate for about an hour was a 10 month old Nepali elf and her mom.

On the bus I met Young from Korea. Wowed him with my Korean skills :). In Shyaphru Besi, I roomed with him because the guest house is all doubles. $2 per night. Reliable electricity. Luke warm showers. My first shower in Nepal! No internet. All the tea houses advertise internet, but apparently it isn't working now.

Excellent dahl bat for lunch at the tiny cafe where the bus stopped. Only $1.50 for all you can eat. In some countries the busses screw you by stopping at an overpriced joint in the middle of nowhere. Kudos (karma?) for that not happening. Everyone else got dahl bat again for dinner. But I decided to try the mushroom lasagna. It wasn't lasagna, but it was excellent! Tons of spinach and delicious mushrooms mixed with egg noodles. Om nom nom!

My very limited Nepali is more for show than of use. Everyone here speaks English to some degree.

So far this trip has been almost all traveling. Ranging from moderately uncomfortable to "I actually hope this bus slides two more inches and falls off the 1000' cliff, just so I don't have to sit in this position for another three hours. And if, in the wreckage, a sharp piece of debris punctures my bladder, that would be better than waiting longer to pee." But I'm not really complaining. This is what I expected. Ok, I am complaining... though I did expect it. The point is, I'm really excited to start walking tomorrow.

1/24

We leave Shyaphru Besi (1400m) early-ish in the morning. Hiked to Rimche (2400m). Nice day. Glad to be walking. Saw monkeys at one point, but didn't get get a good picture. Packs are too heavy. Should have gone ultralight. There are tea houses every km or two. Some quite large. All are supplied by pack animals and/or porters. My phone's GPS isn't working. Doesn't get any signal. Don't know why. Maybe fewer satellites on this side of the planet, combined with being in a valley?

Rimche is $1.25 for the bed for a night. Nothing more than a cot in a low stone hut, but that works fine. Except for the rat or mouse that ran over me in the middle of the night. They actually have extremely hot water. It runs through a solar panel and comes out burning hot. Made showering a challenge. Really impossible. There is a small solar panel and some wiring, but I saw no evidence of working electricity. Dahl bat for dinner and early to bed.

Our hosts are Tibetan. Grandparents came over 70 years ago, before China took over Tibet. The border is only 20km north of here. Now it is hard to escape China. Nepal generally accepts refugees who cross the mountains, though they are starting to turn some back. We pass several military checkpoints during our trek.

1/25

Hike up. Temps are about a high of 45 and lows around 25. Hot hiking in the sun, chilly sitting in the shade.

Had a great lunch with a very cheerful lady, Chuke. We all sing together. Dave has video. I ate chapati with yak cheese. Nak cheese, actually. Nak is the term for a female yak. Chuke said we should stay at her sister Yangi's place, Lovely Lodge. So we are there at 2:30 pm. Nice to stop early. 3000m. Prices keep getting cheaper. Here the room is free. We will buy dinner and breakfast. Spending a total of maybe $7.

We meet and have tea with Spandan (Nepali names usually mean something, his means "the beat of heart") who wants to do a geology masters in the US.

Young is leaving us. He doesn't have as much time and wants to make more miles. We will email photos.

Josh goes for a run. Dave decides that he and I need an ab workout and some pushups. We make a valiant attempt.

After dinner I attempt some star photos. My camera isn't well suited to the task, but at 15 seconds and ISO 400 I get some shots I can live with.

1/26

We say goodbye to our friends at Lovely Lodge. They give me Sherpa tea to try. It is made in an ornate churn and is very salty. There is a dusting of snow on the ground and it is very cold... until we hit the sun, then we are hiking in shirts again. We pass a bunch of langur monkeys (Semnopithecus entellus) and this time I get good pictures. We also spot a very pretty woodpecker, but no photos.

Josh and I check out the temple of Kangtangsa which belongs to the Buddhist Nyingma-pa sect. We are given a tour by a very nice lady. Josh was a religious studies major. So he gives me the 30 minute summary of Buddhism.

We pass through the village of Langtang. Because it is low season, there aren't enough tourists for all the lodges. So rather pushy operators are in the street trying to drum up business. We continue on to Mundu at 3500m. The hike tomorrow to Kyanjin Gumba should be short and relatively level from here.

We eat chapati, order our dahl bat, and Dave and Josh go off to explore while I stay and pet Kumba the pony.

The guest house here has a beautifully carved front door, a wood stove in the sleeping area (a first on this trek), a small Buddhist shrine... and a rather out of place Britney Spears poster.

No shower for two days and no electricity for three. Both appeared to be in Langtang (both solar) but we didn't stop. Hopefully in Kyanjin Gumba.

I'm looking forward to Kyanjin Gumba. Charge my batteries -- mental, physical, and lithium ion. I'm going to take a full rest day and check out the nak cheese factory.

Right now I'm feeling the altitude. We have been ascending at a reasonable rate and should be acclimatizing well. But it is still nontrivial to hike up to 11,500' where we are now.

Clouds and fog roll in as the sun sets. First time we have had anything but bluebird skies. Makes for good photos.

1/27

It was below freezing in my room last night. My drinking tube and most of my water froze. I'm plenty warm in my 0F down bag.

Easy walk to Kyanjin Gumba. 3900m. The terrain is becoming full-on alpine. We walk to Viewpoint Lodge past all the touts for the other places. Dawa, who is Chuke and Yangi's brother, manages the place. It is really nice, as are many of the places here. Solar showers are shut down because the tubes freeze. So they will boil water for bucket showers. Fine with me. And they have sufficient electricity to charge devices.

Psyched to be here. The place is really nice. I can even stand up straight indoors -- a first on this trek. Very cool because we will be here a while. Usual deal of free room if we buy food here. Food is more pricey than what we have been paying. Even so, room and board will be $10/day or less.

No internet in Kyanjin Gumba. Oh well. And my GPS still gets zero signal.

We go for a short walk and I check out the nak cheese factory. They don't make cheese in winter, but they sell cheese they made over the summer. And they give tours. For $1.50 I buy 200g of cheese as an appetizer.

It is at or below freezing here, even during the day. In the bright sun temperatures are comfortable. But out of the sun it is cold.

Our packs are surprisingly heavy considering we aren't carrying food, stove, or shelter. Other than about 5 pounds of snack bars, we aren't carrying consumables, so our packs don't get lighter. Still, I don't feel like I overpacked, and now that we are basecamping for a few days, I'm happy for luxuries like a book and a change of clothes. The one thing I forgot is my lip balm. Left it in the pocket of the pants I left in Kathmandu. My lips are hatefully chapped right now. I put sunscreen on them each day to minimize damage.

As the sun sets, the light streams down the valley and illuminates Gang Chhenpo (6387m) to the east. It is stunning and makes for great photos. After the sun sets, the stars are amazing. I take a few pictures then pile into my warm bag for the night.

1/28

Rest day! Dave and Josh go off to explore a glacier. But first Josh cracks a joke before 8:30am... His goal for the trip. I finish In A Sunburned Country. Really not a very good book. I start Michener's Caribbean, which has more promise.

A bucket bath leaves me very cold. They boil water for me, so the bathing part is fine. But toweling off outside chills me. By the time I'm wearing warm dry clothes, my feet are numb. 30 minutes in the sleeping bag solves that issue, but I don't fully warm up for several hours.

Back to the cheese factory for a tour and more cheese. I get a tour of the facilities (which are idle in winter). But no cheese. The guy gave his key to someone and can't get into the cheese room. He says to come back in 15 minutes. I end up returning four times before he finally has the key and I get my half kilo fix late in the day.

There is a Nepalese mountaineering group camped here. They are going to climb Yala. They are training in town, and I watch. Clearly a few instructors and a bunch of rank novices. The instructors are all very good. I can't understand the language, but the lessons are still quite clear. I give the instructors high marks. The students are a random assortment, but most spend the entire time joking around and performing the skills very poorly. A few seem to get it, but the rest are haphazard and just can't remember that gear loops aren't load bearing. At least their harnesses are doubled back.

A contingent of six Spanish trekkers show up. I wow them with my Spanish skills :) I can still speak a fair bit, and they all speak English to some degree. My first chance to introduce myself as Jefe this trip :) :) :)

I accompany them on a short hike above the town. Back at the guest house it is time to charge batteries. But the charger isn't working. Oh well, dinner and bed instead.

1/29

The toilet here has frozen and won't drain, even after Dawa has poured boiling water down it. Yes, I realize the toilet is just a hole in the floor, but when it freezes solid then it is... just floor. So we have to do everything outside. No big deal during the day, but at night it is cold.

Battery situation is not as good as I had hoped. They have a solar cell that charges a HUGE battery, and an inverter so we can use chargers. But they don't like to use it. At first they told us to only charge at night which seems silly if the system is solar. Now they say maybe charge during the day, but only for a few minutes. The battery is big enough to charge 1000 AAs, and the sun is bright. So I don't really understand the problem. Anyhow my camera batteries are very low and my headlamp is around 50%. Not to mention a nearly dead mp3 player and iphone at 81% charge. Those last two aren't a big deal, but camera and headlamp are important. I have one spare set of brand new AAs and a backup headlamp. So the situation isn't dire. I'll just be conservative with power and do my best.

I'm so disconnected from the world here. This morning I realized that the primaries are probably over, or at least that Romney has it locked up by now. Or not. No idea.

Today we did a day hike up the valley north of here. Up to about 4300m. We were directly below the massive east face of Langtang Lirung (7227m) and near the south face of Kinshung (6781m) and their glaciers. Gorgeous mountains! Got some great photos. Good day! Back at guest house by 3pm for a late lunch and some reading. Then dinner and bed.

1/30

Great day! I swear it is a bit warmer. We do our own things today. I hike east along the Langtang Khola (stream). It is a great hike. I spend time sitting with a bunch of yaks so they get used to my presence. Get some great photos. One little guy really likes me and wants to say hi. I'm flattered, but keep him at least six feet away so mama doesn't get pissed. He is REALLY cute, but yaks are big and have very sharp horns. They seem quite docile, but I'm not taking chances.

I get great shots of Gang Chhenpo and Langshisa Ri (6151m).

Discovery of the day is the apple momo. The momos here are like calzones. In Kathmandu they are more like dumplings. All the momos are great, but the apple momo is like a dessert. Where do they get apples here? The nearest apple tree must be 1000 miles away. Dawa says the come from Kathmandu, but I don't think they actually grow there. Dave thinks they originate in China.

None of us have nail clippers, but I discover that the wood stove on the dining room is very rough. 20 minutes with a very hot emery board and my nails are perfect. I think this system for manicures could really catch on.

1/31

My water didn't freeze last night! A good omen.

Dave and I set out to hike up Tserko Ri (4983m). It isn't on our maps, but there is an obvious trail. I turn around at the base of the final ridge, maybe 4700m or 4800m. This is right about equal to my previous lifetime high point of 4760m in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountains. Here in Nepal, I'm light headed and can only take two steps between rests. I'd like to summit, but my body is rebelling. And I've never been one to push onward once the task changes from fun to onerous. Descending makes me feel much better. Though by the end of the descent my right knee is swollen like a grapefruit. Don't know why. Took ibuprofen and iced it for 30 minutes back at the lodge. At least there is an infinite supply of ice here.

2/1

We stock up on a kilo of cheese, then power hike west down the valley. 18km to Lama Hotel (2600m). This is actually the name of the town, we stay at Friendly Lodge in Lama Hotel. On the hike we see monkeys. With an hour for lunch at Lovely Lodge, we reach Lama Hotel by 4:30pm. My knee seems better, which is good. The Friendly Lodge is run by Dawa's wife's parents. We are sticking with the family for all our lodging needs. Dawa sent us down with some fragrant juniper to give them. They give us free tea and the usual free room deal. Sending us with a delivery helps ensure we will stay there. So I suppose everyone wins.

Our hosts assure us that there are hot showers. Even after sunset? Oh yes, very hot all the time. A quick glance at the solar heater confirms that I will, in fact, be taking a frigidly cold shower. Oh well, at least the air temperature is much warmer here. It is a windy, cloudy day and we are glad to be at lower elevation.

They want to charge us a lot of money to charge batteries. This is particularly grating because the entire solar system (big solar panel, batteries, wiring, inverter, switches, lights, etc.) in this town was donated by a Korean university. We MacGyver our chargers into the wiring for the room lights. This works great until we are caught 30 minutes later and forced to take it apart. Oops. The funny thing is that the light switches are in the hallway. I think that is how they caught us (switch on, but no light leaking from the many holes in the wall). I suspect that the reason they were in the hall is that they were two switch bundles, so there was no way to put them in a specific room. From the markings on the wall it looks like the intent was to put switches in rooms. Dave says, "broken, like everything in Nepal." This solar system looks like it cost six figures to put in the town, but they couldn't spend the extra few dollars to get the switches right.

2/2

Another long hike. We get to Thulo Shyaphru (2200m). It is only about 10km of hiking, but lots of up and down. Lots. That is three hard days of hiking in a row for me. And the two days before that were moderately strenuous. We eat three meals by 1pm. For energy or to take breaks? You decide.

We stay at Langtang View. Our host is the local school principal and english teacher. Her english is the best I've heard in Nepal. There is good power here! We are finally charging. No roads to Thulo Shyaphru, but it is close enough to Shyaphru Besi that they run power lines. Also a solar shower, but it has been very hazy all day and the water is frigid.

With power all night, I might treat myself to an iphone movie. I'd like to take a rest day here. Especially since the next two days will be very hard hiking as we climb to Gosain Kund at 4300m. We will see if the boys agree. Maybe even find internet. I like it here. Free room. Free, working electricity. Potential hot showers. Inexpensive food. The menus are all mostly identical -- regulated by some tourist board -- and food is cheaper the closer you are to a road.

2/3

Only 7km to Laurebina, but it climbs about 1700m. Ends up at a pretty good altitude too. A killer day. Dave and Josh are going today. I'm going to stay here and rest for a day. I'll catch them in two days in Gosain Kund.

Rest day is awesome. Warm and sunny. I wash my clothes. Do a bunch of stretching. Listen to music. Read. Eat. Ahhhhhh! Tonight I'm going to watch a movie (I Am Number Four). No hot shower, but I got fairly clean with just the sink.

I managed to get a facebook status update sent on the outrageously slow internet. Then I spent two hours helping Cheesum (my host here) send four emails. She is pretty impressive... English teacher, principal, runs a guest house, all while eight months pregnant. And she speaks nepali, tamang, tibetan, sherpa, english, and some german. Today she had to deal with a bunch of teachers who were very unhappy that their pay was docked for repeated absenteeism. And the emails I helped her send were to some organization which had promised to support the school, but completely vanished. And she was trying to manage a bunch of kids -- her daughter, a kid who lives with her because his parents are too poor to care for him, and a bunch of village randos. Luckily they have satellite tv with 1000 channels of bizarre programming from India so the kids stay occupied. The point is...Yikes!

BTW, watching a movie inside a sleeping bag is an awesome experience :)

Big climb tomorrow. Hope one rest day was enough and my legs are up to the task.

2/4

Hard climb! I woke to a beautiful sunrise on Ganesh Himal. Ate breakfast and started walking up. And up. And up. Made it all the way to Laurebina in 5.5 hours which is a lot faster than I expected. So I started the day at 2200m. My map puts Laurebina at 3600m. I was exhausted at 3570m, but at least almost there. WRONG! Turns out it is at 3900m. Only one hotel is open, so no deals on the price. Good thing I'm not coming tomorrow. The hotel will be closed so the proprietor can attend a wedding. It would suck to get here and not have anywhere to stay. We are right on a ridge, so very cold and windy. Also great views.

Saw a really cool bird on the way uphill. It had an outrageously long tail. There were three or four of them moving tree to tree. Didn't get a photo :(

I spend the evening sitting as close to the stove as possible, chatting with a pair of Israelis (whom I impress with my few words of Hebrew, obviously) and their guide, the only other guests here. I'm in bed by 8pm. My water will probably freeze tonight. Gosain Kund is another 400m higher. Gonna be COLD!

2/5

For the altitude and howling wind, it wasn't that cold last night. My water didn't freeze.

I have an easy hike today. Only 6km and 400m gain. So I'm slow getting started and hiking at an easy pace. Then someone heading downhill gives me a note from Dave and Josh. There are no hotels open in Gosain Kund. It is cold. They are headed south over the pass at noon. They hope to see me before then. Shit. I double my pace. At this altitude, it is killing me. I reach them by 11:30am. Phew! Now I'm beat. The weather is nicer, and I explain that a hotel is about to open. I've talked to the owner twice on the trail. They agree to stay. Good. I didn't want to go over the pass. My legs are done for the day.

I spend the day relaxing. Take a nap, read, chat with other guests. We get some really good bouldering shots. Gosain Kund is very picturesque. In the summer it is a huge destination for Hindu pilgrims. I'll have to look up all the mythology, but the lakes were supposed to be formed by a god's trident and you can see Shiva's head in the middle of the lake. There is a yogi or monk or mystic or whatever here. He is dirty and disheveled. He just sits and stares at the lake 24/7. I was told he speaks English, but all I've ever heard him say is oooooommmmm (which he also yells at everyone who passes). If people give him food, he eats. Otherwise not. Apparently he is going to do this for three years. WTF!

The moon is nearly full. I get some spectacular moonrise shots and moon lit landscape shots. A-grade, as Dave would say. I have to wait until I get my photos on the computer to be sure, but I think there are a few real gems on this trip so far.

2/6

Coldest night yet. My pee bottle froze. Our original plan called for staying in Gosain Kund for about five days. But it is cold and expensive here. And not much to explore. We head south over the pass.

The winds are horrific. And the ground is icy and treacherous. I'm hiking in my puffy for the first time this trip. When we stop for lunch in Phedi, Dave realizes he left his journal behind. He is going to try to contact the hotel or pass a note to people going uphill, but he doesn't want to walk back through the pass.

This is a long day. We start at 4300m, climb the pass at 4600+, then drop down to 3400m. With a whole bunch of up and down along the way. At least it is warmer at this elevation. We reach Ghopte at 5pm just in time for a gorgeous sunset.

My knee swelled up again. Seems like epic downhill days do that to me. I think it will be better by morning.

The food here in Ghopte is very good. The menu is the same in every hotel, but some cooks are better than others. Here they add just the right amount of curry and serve everything like a five star restaurant. Chuke was a good cook, as was her brother Dawa (who always set us up with huge portions). In Laurebina it seemed like most of the cooking was done by a twelve year old kid who just dumped a bucket of salt in everything and called it good. Everywhere they have to use pressure cookers for the rice. At this altitude it just won't cook otherwise. And a boiled egg took about 30 minutes in Mundu. I'm still trying to vary my choices, though chowmein is a goto fave. Josh gets dahl bat every night, but I can't eat it that often. I do get milk tea with almost every meal. None of the other teas come close. Though their coffee-tea mixture has an interesting flavor.

2/7

Tired! My legs just aren't up to this much hiking. And without recovery time, I just get weaker each day. Still can motor along flat sections, and downhills aren't bad, but I can't go up for shit right now. Luckily it is more downhill than up to Kathmandu from here.

Started the day hiking up to Thadepati Bhanjyang at 3600m. Took a long lunch there. I finally got some potato parautha. Fried bread stuffed with potato. It has been on the menu everywhere since crossing the pass, but was never available. The ingredients seem pretty simple, so I think it is just too much work to make. The guy here seemed reluctant to make it. Anyhow... delish!

Most of the hiking today was along a ridge. Great views east and west.

Spending the night at the Red Panda lodge in Bhanjyang Kharka (3275m). There are a bunch of new lodges on this stretch of trail. The Panda is still being built and is mostly unfinished.

Full moon tonight. I took pictures. Josh has an intervalometer on his camera, and he shoots one or two timelapse series each day. Some are gorgeous!

Observation... kids here are always sick. I'd say 80% of the kids I see under the age of seven have a runny nose and hacking cough. 80% might even be on the low side. You feel bad for them. You also wish they would stay out of the kitchen when food is being cooked.

2/8

Snow day! School is canceled!

A storm raged all night. I think part of the building blew away. Massive amounts of thunder and lightning, high winds, rain, sleet, snow! We wake to eight inches of heavy, wet snow. And more falling. It is a full on blizzard out there.

This actually works out really well for me. I needed a rest day. We are low enough that wood is plentiful, so the stove is roaring all day (did I mention that the stoves at higher elevation mostly burn yak dung?) I get a lot of reading done. Ahhhhh, rest days!

When the storm clears for a few minutes we see that we are just above the snow line. Maybe 200m lower it is all rain. By the time we go to bed the storm is less ferocious, but we have accumulated 12" and more is still falling. I've got a good two inches of snow in my little bedroom. The buildings here aren't very weatherproof.

2/9

RED PANDA!!!!! I SAW A RED PANDA!!!! So we woke in the morning to a total of about 18" of heavy, wet snow. But the storm has passed and it is a sunny morning. We are packing to leave when a red panda pops out of the woods and walks toward the Red Panda guest house. Even our hosts are thrilled. By the time I have my camera out, it is gone. I follow the tracks through the snow for several hundred yards... through drifts up to my crotch. When the tracks reach a bamboo grove on a very steep hillside, I give up and return to the lodge. Still... RED PANDA!!! It looked just like the ones at the Syracuse Zoo :)

So we walked for a while through deep snow. We descended a ridge and within an hour dropped below the snowline so our feet could dry. Stopped early for lunch and got a concert on a tuna -- the local stringed instrument -- from our host.

Then we continued to walk. If the red panda was a trip highlight, the rest of this day was a trip lowlight. Basically, we took a wrong turn. This was obvious to all three of us within a few steps. Really. But Dave and Josh want to see where the trail goes. Ok, I'm fine with that. But pretty quickly the faint trail disappears and we are bushwhacking through increasingly sketchy terrain. And all the plant life has huge thorns. And it just kept getting worse. It was never death potential, but there was plenty of injury risk. We finally reach a faint trail which leads to a village. We are kilometers and two ridges from where we are supposed to be. People point us in the right direction and we walk.

Just as it gets too dark to see and we would have to pull out headlamps, we reach the Lama Guest House in Thankune Bhanjyang (1800m). It is clean, cheap, and they have dahl bat. They also have electricity and gas hot showers. Neither work.

So I don't mind being lost or trying random trails or being caught out after dark. But I didn't like the risky traverse off trail. Thinking about it while walking in the near dark, I realized that I felt like a lobster put in a pot of cool water which is then boiled. The change in temperature is so gradual that the lobster never notices it is being cooked (at least that is what I've heard). The terrain kept getting worse and worse, but I'm not sure that I can identify the exact point at which it became unacceptable. Yet had I just stepped off the main trail into the worst of it, there is no way I would have continued.

2/10

I think the last fruit I had was on my flight into Bangkok. Plenty of veggies here, but I'm really starting to crave fruit. I suppose there were those apple momos, but it isn't the same as actually eating an apple. So I see they are selling apples at the guest house. I buy one. It is simultaneously wonderful and disappointing. Wonderful because... fruit! But judged against other apples I've eaten in my life... not so good.

We walk for about two hours to reach Chisapani (2200m) at the edge of Shivapuri Nagarjun national park. It looks like a resort town. I see no reason to blast through the park just to spend the night in Sundarijal or Kathmandu. Can't be half as nice as this. So Dave and Josh continue hiking while I get a room for the night. Best decision ever! I get a sinful lunch of apple fritters and milk tea. Then I take an actual warm shower. My best shower in Nepal. Finally clean! I put on my clean set of clothes and wash my dirty clothes again and again and again until the water stops turning black.

Hanging out on the roof of the lodge, I get an awesome panorama from the Annapurna region to the Langtang valley to the Everest region. Wooo!!! I meet two Korean doctors and their guide and porter. Needless to say, I wow them with my Korean :) We all have dinner together. Nice evening.

2/11

Day 20 on the trail. My final day hiking.

I wake before dawn to get sunrise photos. Nothing spectacular, but maybe a good panorama. I have breakfast with the Koreans. They worried about me traveling alone, so they gave me Korean Army survival food, a type of hardtack. And a bunch of breath mints. Hmmmm.... I've been brushing every day! Honest!

The walk to Sundarijal is easy. I go over the final pass at 2400m then down all the way to 1400m at the trailhead. You get some amazing trail cuts in old, heavily used trails with no water bars. 20' deep trail cuts in places. It felt like canyoneering.

The park is very popular and crowded right at the trailhead. I take pictures of monkeys, buy a disappointing orange, and hop on a very slow bus to Kathmandu.

From the bus stop in Ratna Park, I walk an hour to Patan. I check out a Parent's Day performance at a local grade school (dancing and karate performances... ok). And I meet an artist who is very nice, but I'm not buying his stuff. Collecting the bag I left at Cafe de Patan, I learn that Dave and Josh have left. This I expected. Unfortunately, wifi is down, so I can't figure out where they are. Funny thing, as far as I can tell, the wifi is working fine but they set a password and nobody in the whole joint knows it. "Nepal... Everything is broken!"

I borrow a phone to call Dave and arrange to meet them. Needing to go to Thamel, and not wanting to walk or bus for an hour with two bags, I grab a cab and go straight to Urja's building where I buy some good apples and bananas, then meet Dave. He and Josh are at Travelers Inn which is nice enough, but the cheap rooms are full. I head across Thamel to Elbrus Home, the place the Israelis recommended. It is awesome! Nicest room I've had in Nepal. Attached bathroom. First bed I've had that is comfortable enough to use without my sleeping pad. They claim 24x7 hot showers, and that the lights and wifi work even when power is out (21 hours a day typically). The rooftop garden seals the deal.

Thamel is like one enormous REI closeout rack, but all the gear is really crappy and there are five people per block offering drugs for sale. I'm cautious about buying too much stuff (REI stuff, not drug stuff). The zipper has already blown on my Mammut knockoff pants.

Dave, Josh and I get somewhat caught up with email then get a mediocre dinner. At this point, I'm exhausted. Off to my comfy bed!

2/12

Breakfast with Urja and his family.

We hear that Gosain Kund got 2m to 3m of snow and is completely shut down. Nobody can get in or out. We missed getting stranded by just two days. We would have plowed out eventually (walking through snow is something we know how to do), but probably through Dunche, not over the pass into Helambu.

Josh is running errands to extend his visa and Dave is using the internet. I head out for a walk. Thamel gets old quick. Everyone is trying to sell me overpriced crap. At least it gives me a price baseline... tea, prayer flags and candy will all be purchased for 50 to 85 percent less a few blocks south.

I'm very quickly sick of Thamel. I can see why Dave hates it here. Head south into shoe district and sari fabric district. See lots of temples, eat tons of junk food, run errands, discover chocolate rum balls :) :)

I spend a bunch of time in the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Normally foreigners have to buy an expensive ticket, but everything was free because of a festival. Woo!

While there I use my Africa negotiating skills. Thats where I walk away from someone selling something I actually don't want. After five minutes of him following me, the price has dropped 90% and suddenly it seems like a good deal.

I get rum balls for Dave and Josh. Walking back to Thamel, I ignore someone spouting the usual "hey my friend, hey my friend, hey my friend" until I realize it is Rajesh from Laurebina and Gosain Kund. I apologize, explaining that I didn't realize it was actually one of my friends :) We chat for a bit.

Dinner with Urja and his family, then back to my comfy bed.

2/13 - 2/18

Was resting at one of the myriad Buddhist temples. This is one of the most impoverished countries in Asia, yet they maintain their beautiful temples with meticulous care. As the giant Buddha eyes looked down on me, it reinforced how important spirituality has always been to the human race.

And then I chundered everywhar! It was like, sorry Dharma, you're covered in vom! Guess I've altered the state of your intrinsic nature!

(Chundered reference: Gap Yah)

Le sigh... almost made it a month without getting sick. I was even prepared to gloat to all my friends with Nepal experience who said, "you WILL get sick, expect it."

Things get hazy at this point. I get a pretty bad GI infection and can't do much for the rest of my time in Nepal. I do a bit more touring of temples, eat almost no food (but do get some really good chocolate apple cobbler), visit the central library which has awesomely fast internet, read a bunch and finish Bonfire Of The Vanities.

On the 17th I begin my 42 hour trip home. Kathmandu to Bangkok to Frankfurt to Newark to Ithaca. Nothing like traveling with GI distress. But I survive and make it home right on schedule by the night of the 18th.

I'd like to close this story with something profound. Or at least pithy. But I've got nothing. Enjoy the photos.