Trekking in the Himalayas

Here I am in Kafleny with some of the local Thapa and Tamang kids. They don't speak much English, but it was really fun to hang out with them. We were at the same camp for 2 nights because of some Maoist trouble on the regular route. In the mornings the kids would show up and in the evenings they'd play nearby. On our last night there we taught them duck duck goose and ring around the rosy. We couldn't get them to understand Red Rover with the language barrier. We played tag Nepali style.

That was a four day trek in the middle Himalaya. Afterwards we went to Chitwan national park and rode elephants around in the jungle. We saw lots of rhinos. Now we're in the Kathmandu airport waiting for our chopper to Langtang. The power flashes on and off so I loose my internet connection periodically. Kathmandu is an interesting place. The traffic, noise, and general griminess is spectacular (not in a good way). The people on the street selling all kinds of crap are annoying. I've already snapped at a flute seller to not touch me and I slapped some guys hand when he stuck a wilty marigold in my face. Every day the power goes off for a few hours and people turn on generators so they can power the lights in their shops (and in the hotel).

Last night I ordered Kashimi Naan. I wasn't sure what it was, but I love Naan. It showed up at the table (where we were sitting around on cushions) and it was naan with cold fruit salad on top. Eek! I'm only supposed to eat hot food or I risk illness. But the fruit looked so tasty and I've been fruit deprived except for a couple oranges and bananas (since under the peel they're unpolluted). So what did I do? I ate the fruit salad and I enjoyed it very much. I was living dangerously (I've been so careful up to now). Thankfully, I didn't get sick. If I did, there are two nurses in our tour group and they came with tons of medications. I feel fairly safe. Especially since one of the nurses ate some of the fruit salad to.

There are 7 people total in my group, me and 6 others. We've got the best tour guide. He's from Nepal and I can't describe how nice it is to have a local guy wheeling and dealing and translating on our behalf. I'm going to really miss K.P. when I head off to India.