his is the beginning of a long awaited trip to Nepal, the roof of the world and the land of the Yetis. It started in Singapore with a five hour flight to Kathmandu on Singapore Airlines. On the flight I met a very nice Nepalese lady sitting next to me who was kind enough to introduce me to her language. After a few minutes of conversation I realized what every other person who had been to Nepal had said, that the Nepalese people are extremely polite and very friendly.

"Draped along the greatest hights of the Himalaya, the kingdom of Nepal is a land of eternal fascination, a place where one visit is rarely enough. It's a land of ancient history, colorful cultures and people, superb scenery and some of the best walking on earth." - read the first paragraph of my guide book, the Lonely Planet travel survival kit for Nepal.

After landing in Kathmandu it didn't take much time to meet some fellow travelers. Right off the plane while waiting in line to exchange some money I met Garry and Fiona, both British who were coming from Australia where they had been working and traveling for quite a few months. Behind them there was too Canadian brothers, Gary and Lee, who happen to work here in Nepal for Ultimate Descents, a white water rafting tour organizer based in New Zealand. This was Gary and Lee's fourth trip to Nepal, they'd been coming here every year for the past four years to work during the rafting season. Obviously, they turned out to be of great help to the three of us (Me, Garry and Fiona), as they knew quite well their way around the city. They also knew some taxi drivers who ended up taking the five of us to the city for a fair price.

Ever since we landed I was able to realize how slow life really moves here, it took us about an hour just to clear immigration at the airport and that's not because there was lots of people. After the passport control we went downstairs to pick up our luggage and clear customs. There, I was simply asked if I had a video or movie camera and since I didn't, they marked my bags with chalk and waved me through. They have a fee for video cameras, go figure that one out.

Outside of the arrival area there was a crowd of people promoting their hotels and guest houses, and taxi drivers soliciting passengers. Like I said, Gary and Lee were nice enough to take us into town with them so we didn't have to bargain for a taxi.

The ride from the airport was my introduction to Nepal's' driving extravaganza. Driving in Nepal seems to be a very complicated matter, really. Some roads are so narrow that it doesn't seem possible for two cars to pass by each other, let alone when a bus or a truck is involved in the process. So their technique is to drive one towards the other and at the last minute each one jerks his vehicle to their side narrowly avoiding each other. On top of crazy drivers, the roads are really chaotic, full of pedestrians and all kinds of animals. It seemed like they don't use the breaks very much, instead they constantly blow their horns to clear the way. It's quite amusing from the inside of a car, to watch pedestrians jump out of the way. It's kind of exciting really, nothing you'd ever see in the so called western world.

Garry and Fiona were totally amazed with this situation, personally I think they were a bit frightened and I think they had all the reason in the world to be frightened.

Fifteen minutes later we where at the doorsteps of a hotel called the Star Hotel in Thamel, the tourist ghetto of Kathmandu where souvenir shops abound and everyone seems to own a guest house. The two Canadian brothers brought us here because they had stayed here before and knew this would be a safe bet for a place to stay. The price couldn't be much better, 100 rupees for a room on the top floor without private bathroom. But that wasn't really a problem because there was a toilet right at the end of the hall and the five of us occupied most of the rooms on this last floor. The first and second floors had hot shower facilities which meant that we had to go down about three floors every time we needed a shower. Keeping in count the price we are paying for a room, it's actually a plus that we have hot water, but even more important, that both the toilet and shower facilities are extremely clean - Lets not forget where we are here.

The Star Hotel is one of the tallest buildings in this area and we are staying on the top floor. Outside of the rooms the hall extends to the edge of the building giving us our own terrace and affording outstanding views of the Himalayan range that surrounds Kathmandu, as well as an excellent view of part of the city. The view is absolutely gorgeous - you see, Kathmandu is in a valley surrounded by mountains. It is said that at one time this valley was submerged and was instead a great lake. Different religions recount different legends of how the lake turned into the lush, fertile valley that we know today. The Buddhists believe that it was Manjushri, a Buddhist from China, who slashed the mountain wall with a magical sword, draining all the water; but the Hindus claim it was their goddess Krishna who did it by hurling a thunderbolt through the valley wall.

After settling in, me, Garry and Fiona, decided to go for a walk around town and get the feel for it. My first impression of Kathmandu is everything I expected and even more. On the streets the array of colors is absolutely magnificent and the people are extremely polite. Never mind the kids on the street trying to sell you everything that you can think of. The most common product for sale is with no doubt the Tiger Balm cure-everything medication cream. After that, comes the shoe shining business. These kids will shine everything that you're wearing on your feet whether it is hiking boots, tennis shoes, or even sandals. Today I was wearing a pair of beat up running shoes which attracted the attention of a lot of these four foot high street entrepreneurs just because they convinced themselves that I needed to get my shoes fixed.

- "mista, mista, glue, need glue?", they called as they followed us all the way down the street.
- "No, it's OK" - I kept saying without stopping.

Kathmandu is a frenetic, sprawling city, where every square meter is jam packed with old and new buildings, chaotic streets, a sea of people and an overwhelming array of traffic criss-crossing the streets - not to mention the occasional cow here and there, and the dozens of homeless, weird looking dogs laying around and sleeping all day.

By now I had gotten the real feel of Kathmandu and I have three words to describe it: Dirty, Crowded, Beautiful. It's just an absolutely wonderful city, but not for those with a week stomach or a faint heart, it requires an acquired taste or a sick sense of comfort same would say. Kathmandu reminds me of a low budget movie, where the East meets the West, and where every scene is performed in the spur of the moment.

At Durbar Square me and Garry had a Coke and Fiona bought a bottle of water, all for only Rs40, that made me wonder if there is any other place in the world where Coke is any cheaper. We sat on the steps of this little stall, piled up to the ceiling with boxes of Coke and mineral water, and a few types of crackers and cookies. The building, like almost every other building in Kathmandu, looked so run down that we should have been more worried about it falling on us then about the food and drinks we were enjoying.

From there we decided we'd had enough of sightseeing for today and decided to get back to the hotel. Soon we found out that the maps on the LP guide weren't exactly the best ones because trying to follow that map back to the point where we started was no easy task. Most of the time we had to rely on our sense of orientation which doesn't always work well, especially when there are three people claiming that each has the right direction. But in the end it wasn't so bad because it gave us the opportunity to get to know the city better, while walking through some of the typically narrow, crowded and smelly streets of Kathmandu.

As we soon found out, getting lost in Kathmandu it's easy, however finding your way back it's hard. A good sense of direction and a good memory for landmarks is definitely a plus, to be able to find you way through the maze of narrow streets and dead-end alleys. Above all, I often found myself lost in the beauty of this city, amazed and fascinated at the people, time-worn temples, and all kinds of things going on, and was delighted to be treated to scenes no other place in the world could ever offered me.

At rush hour, stand by an intersection and watch the world go by at a dizzying and frantic pace. Neatly dressed in clean uniforms, young school kids make their way to school. Merchants walk by with baskets on poles on their shoulders, carrying vegetables, meat, or even live animals. Women in colorful saris strolling by and tourists with video cameras pointing at everything that moves. Loudly honking taxis and hundreds of rickshaws scrambling through. This is life in its own existence.

Just before dinner I took a well deserved shower. I didn't only take a shower, I also washed my clothes. From this day on I decided to wash my clothes while I take a shower because it saves time. Later, at around 7:30 the Canadians showed up like we had planned and we all went out looking for a place to eat. First we tried the Clay Oven Restaurant right down the street but tonight there was a live band playing and no one wanted to have dinned to the sound of loud guitars and drums. It had been a long day, with the flight and all, so we walked back and ended up eating at an esplanade right next to the Kathmandu Guest House. Everyone else had just a light meal but I had to have something more consistent, so I ordered a chicken curry. I think Garry and Fiona need some time to get used to the food around here.

After that, to bed we went and it was only 9 PM. The rooms at the Star Hotel are very simple but quite cozy. An old carpet covers the cement floor and the bed is hard but it feels nice nevertheless after a full day. There are windows on both sides of the room so it keeps it cool when it's warm outside. On the wall there's a bathroom type mirror with a little shelf where I kept my amenities. I fell asleep right away to wake up sometime in the middle of the night when I heard the strong monsoon rain splashing against the window. I got up really quick for just a few minutes, enough to bring inside the clothes I had washed and left hanging outside to dry, then I went right back to sleep and woke up the next morning at 6 am. The rain had stopped but everything outside was still wet.

* *

was the first of the group to wake up this morning even though the others were all up within the next ten minutes. We put on some clothes and went for breakfast at this really homey like, very simple restaurant right across the street called Alice's Restaurant. I was feeling incredibly hungry this morning and that made everyone on our table astonished with the amount of food I hate. They say that breakfast should be the most important meal of the day right? I don't only make it the most important but I make it the biggest as well.

All I know is that my breakfast today was something special: porridge, coffee with milk, a set breakfast with toast, eggs, potatoes and a banana. Gosh was I hungry! Needless to say that my bill was twice as high as everyone else's, a whole 109 rupees, just over two dollars. After breakfast it was still very early and so we went for a walk around Thamel, which gave me the opportunity to buy some postcards and for all of us - me, Garry, and Fiona - to take some passport pictures for our trekking permits.

As I found out, the early hours of the day is the best time to walk around and to see the city go about its life, it's like watching the city waking up. It's too early for the tourists and hustlers(sp?) to be up and walking around but yet, late enough for the shops to be open. The air is cooler at this time and the dust hasn't been lifted yet, not to mention that the city is quieter and one can truly breath the most unusual sense of peacefulness and exotism that glides in the air.

After breakfast Fiona and Garry went to the Indian Embassy while I went looking for the Immigration office and the SIA reservations office. I needed to extend the expiration date on my return ticket so that I would have enough time to go trekking. At the SIA office I was told that I had to come back again the next morning because they needed to check with the main office first, in Singapore.

Then, I went looking for the Immigration office which wasn't too hard. Found it, filled out some forms, and was told to come back at 1 PM to pick up my permit. At this point I was done with my errands and since I wasn't suppose to meet with Garry and Fiona until 1 PM, I went for a walk around Thamel. A few minutes later, I came to this alleyway that led to this stupa tucked away in a courtyard, called the Kathesimbu stupa. The fact that this stupa was a bit to the side of the main road, at the end of an alleyway hidden from most tourists and the frenetic street life of Kathmandu, I felt like crossing an invisible gate to a different world. Immediately upon entering I felt this sense of peacefulness and calm like I had never felt before. It was nice to just sit there for about half an hour, relaxing and watching the children play around. Nobody even came over to me for the usual "mista, mista, where you from?".

After a while, a little kid came sat next to me and we just chatted for a while. Like every other kid, he wanted to know where I was from but the fact that he didn't pretend to know where Portugal is, made him different. Usually a conversation with a Nepali starts with "Where you from?". No matter what you say they'll answer "Good Kontry Portugal, very nice Kontry".

From here I headed back to Pumpernickel's where I was suppose to meet Garry and Fiona. Pumpernickel's is an outdoor and indoor cafeŽ that sells delicious fresh croissants and pastries and where most travelers spend their spare time enjoying these delicatessens and writing postcards. It also becomes a common meeting point and with us it was no different.

Later we went to pick up my trekking permit and then we decided that it was time for us to embark on an adventurous walking tour of the city. And so we did. Armed with nothing but our sense of orientation and the badly drawn map on the LP guide book we were determined to explore the less popular parts of Kathmandu. As it turn out, neither our sense of orientation, nor the map, were good enough to keep us from getting lost and having to jump on a tuk-tuk back to Thamel. But until we had to admit to ourselves that we were indeed lost it was a very entertaining stroll.

We started by walking down 'Kantipath' Avenue, turned on "New Road" toward Durbar Square and through 'Freak Street'. Freak Street became popular during the hippie days of the late 60's and early 70's when cheap hotels, pshycadelic restaurants, hashish shops and herds of hippies used to hang around here. Its real name is actually 'Jochne street' but ever since those days it became known as Freak street due to its atmosphere. Today Freak Street is no more what it used to be, since Thamel has grown so popular among shoestring travelers.

Away from the tourist areas, Kathmandu becomes even more exotic. The shops become tiny stalls with doors you must stoop to enter, and the annoyingly persistent street salesmen disappear.

It was our intention to walk southward towards the river but as I mentioned, we ended up getting lost and we never found the river. An hour and a half after we left Thamel we decided it was time to go back and that's when we jumped on a tuk-tuk and had a ride that none of us will ever forget. A few minutes later, for the extraordinary amount of Rs20 and after a close encounter with a cyclist, we made it back safe and sound.

Back at the hotel, I wrote a few more postcards and tried without success to fix my new pair of Oakley sunglasses using my new Swiss Army knife imitation that I bought earlier for the inexpensive price of 200 rupees. Later, me and Fiona went down to this bar right next door to have a cool, refreshing beer, something we'd been meeting to do for a while but never really got to do it. The main reason why we don't bye beer here is because it seems so expensive if compared to everything else on the menu, but after all it's only 80 rupees for a .75L bottle which seems to be the only size they have around here. So we split a bottle of Tuborg while we waited for Garry to come join us.

Meanwhile, we struck conversation with a couple of guys sitting next to us. They had just come from India and seemed to enjoy telling Fiona about all of their horror stories while traveling in India. To be sincere I think they were exaggerating a bit and pulling her leg but I have to admit that it was quite funny.

When Garry arrived, just in time to hear some of these stories, we left to go to dinner. We ended up at the "Clay Oven", the restaurant we had tried the night before but we found it to be too loud for our taste. Tonight the atmosphere was much better, without that live band to annoy the heck out of our heads. One of the reasons why we chose this place was because we wanted to try some of the local food and I have to admit, it was fantastic!

Garry ordered a vegetarian curry, Fiona some veggie momos, and I had the meet momos. In the end we ended up sharing a bit of each other's meals which is a big No-No in this society but we figured they must be accustomed to our western manners, after all most of Thamel is western oriented. It couldn't get any cheaper I don't think, it cost me 45 rupees for the momos and a coke. An interesting thing happened during dinner tonight, there was a power outage and therefore we had to enjoy our delicious food under a candle light dinner. Apparently, power failures are quite normal in Nepal and later I was told that these are scheduled power outages, to conserve electricity.

After dinner we went to a slide show given by Lee and Gary's boss at Ultimate Descents, the company that they work for. This was a very interesting and amusing slide show called "The road to Lhasa", with gorgeous pictures of the Tibetan plateau, taken during an overland trip from Kathmandu to Lhasa. It mainly served to introduce the company and to attract potential customers for their white water rafting trips. It worked with me because it made me start thinking if I should go rafting or not, but it also gave me the opportunity to meet and talk to some other people who want to go to Tibet as well.

* *

t rained all night and when I woke up this morning around 6:30 it was still raining. "I don't really know what to do about going trekking if the weather doesn't hold, it's quite frustrating waiting around in Kathmandu, especially since I already got my trekking permit", those were the words I wrote on my journal that day. It was now Saturday and I decided to give it a couple more days and wait until Monday or Tuesday, maybe by then the weather would get better.

After washing my thick cotton socks I found out what I already suspected, that they don't dry so fast in this type of humid, wet weather.

This morning I was the first one to wake up again but this time I stayed in bed and took the time to read some more of the Lonely Planet guide to Nepal, hoping that that annoying rain would soon stop. But it didn't.

A few minutes later I decided to go for breakfast and since no one else was up yet, I left a note under Fiona and Garry's door saying where I would be, and headed down to KC's, a popular restaurant just a few yards away.

Here in Thamel most of the restaurants are good even though most of them only serve western food. Amongst all the restaurants, I could easily put them in two different categories: those who are mentioned in the LP Guide and those who aren't. It's very simple to find out which ones are which, just look for the prices on the menu.

Garry and Fiona showed up a few minutes later wrapped around in their wind breakers hoping that it would keep them from getting wet. Luckily KC's is close enough to our hotel.

Breakfast was quite pleasant actually, despite the fact that the weather outside was miserable. KC's has a very relaxing atmosphere and on a day like this where we were in no hurry to go anywhere it gave us the opportunity to chat and reflect upon our trip so far, as well as what we should do in the days to come. The nice quite piano music they kept playing in the background seemed to be in synch with the sound of the falling rain beating on the window outside, and that kept us there, very comfortable, for a good two hours.

During breakfast Fiona started getting ideas about taking a Yoga course to kill some time over the weekend, and so after breakfast while me and Garry went back to the hotel, she went looking for this place that she saw advertised which supposedly gives yoga lessons. Back at the hotel, it took us some time to decide what to do for the rest of the day after the rain had ruined our plans of going to the "monkey temple" early this morning.

Meanwhile, I went to the SIA office to check on the situation of my ticket, and guess what? Nothing done, they hadn't heard anything from the main office in Singapore. At this point it was definite that I had to wait at least until Monday before I could leave Kathmandu.

We did finally find something to do. Even though this is a fairly small city, there seems to be something to do always, or at least some exotic location or temple to visit.

Today we decided to go see the stupa of Bodhnath, about 6Km to the east of Kathmandu - or may I say Thamel - just north of the airport. This is the largest stupa in Nepal and is also considered to be a religious center for Nepal's population of Tibetans, and it's also worth mentioning that the history of Bodhnath has always been associated with Lhasa and Tibetan Buddhism.

Stupas were originally built to house holy relics or to commemorate an event or place and in this particular one, it is believed that there is a piece of bone that once belonged to Gautama(sp?) Buddha.

We walked around the stupa and climbed up to the top of the dome were we met some local kids who I believe spend their afternoons after school at this place trying to make conversation with the visitors. One funny thing happened here, as I walked across the gates and into the stupa, an old man wearing an unusual costume and make up, and looking like a monk - also known as a holy men - which I assumed was there to look after the stupa, walked over to me and painted my forehead with some sticky yellow paste and sprinkle some flowers on top of my head, and then asked for a donation. All of this was done so fast that I didn't even have time to react. I tried not to give him anything as I didn't know whether that was legit or not but he wouldn't let me alone and I finally gave him some change. I guess he expected more judging by his reaction, but I never asked for any of that stuff, not to mention that a donation is suppose to be a volunteer act and I certainly gave more than most of the visitors do - not counting with the tourists of course.

From there we headed out into the surrounding hills to go visit the Buddhist monastery of Kopan about 3Km north of Bodhnath. It wasn't easy to get there since we had to follow a monsoon destroyed path that didn't appear on any of our maps. Somehow I found it hard to believe that any kind of motorized vehicle could actually use this so called roads - muddy, streams cutting across, dirt path seems to be a more appropriate name for it - but we did see a few bikes and trucks. For a couple of times I had to carry Fiona piggy back because she was wearing nothing more that sandals on her feet, on a terrain where one should not wear anything less that hiking boots.

We missed our turn to the monastery and kept going towards the east but before I found out about it I really started wondering whether we were on the right path or not. We realized we had gone too far when we reached a ridge overlooking beyond the Kathmandu valley over some of the greener landscapes I ever laid eyes upon. The rain had long stopped, the sky was clear and blue and the hot sun reflected off the green wheat fields deep down in the valley and that brought up an amazing variety of green tonalities.

Finally, we found the right path and made it all the way to the monastery at the top of the hill. The Kopan monastery is known to be a very popular center for courses on Buddhism and other Tibetan related subjects, and people from all over the world come here for those courses. I guess that explains why they have a little grocery store that sells drinks and candy bars. At this little snack-bar we were glad to find a refreshing drink and while sitting there enjoying that so desirable cool drink we learned a little more about the monastery from a couple of monks. One of them offer to show us around the monastery and along with two other Americans we followed him as he took us over to the prayer room.

We had to take our shoes off in order to get in as it is usual, and that's when Fiona realizes that one of her toes was bleeding. A leach had bitten her.

There wasn't much more to see up there and none of us was really into this Buddhism stuff so we headed back. This was a much better walk, not only because it was downhill but also because we knew were we were going. It took us only 40 minutes, half the time that it had taken us to get up, which was good because it was already 4 o'clock and getting late.

Also we were lucky enough to make it down to Bodhnath just before it started raining. There we got on a tuk-tuk and headed back to Thamel. In the end this tuk-tuk ride turn out to be the most exciting part of the day. The driver was the worst I had ever seen, every time I looked over, Garry had his eyes closed and his face was as pale as a white sheet. We almost got into an accident with a big wood-carrying truck, barely missed a small child, a sacred cow, and a dog.

It was 5 o'clock by the time we got to the hotel. We showered and once again went looking for a place were we could have some real local food - almost impossible. Off all the restaurants named on the LP guide, all are either too expensive or we couldn't find them. Since most of the restaurants only serve western style food, we ended up back at the Clay Oven, a restaurant that we knew was good and cheap. We ate the same as the night before but this time I ate twice as much - I was starving!

Tonight the service was amazingly slow, I imagine they only have one stove so they can't cook all the food at the same time. Once again there was a power failure and the candles were lit. "I'm starting to get used to this candle light dinner thing" I said, "it gives a more exotic, far out, kind of atmosphere." Thankfully enough no one had to use the restroom.

Because the service was so incredibly slow we decided to go for dessert somewhere else, more specifically to Helena's Restaurant, where we had seen chocolate cake earlier. So each had a delicious slice of chocolate cake and some coffee. Garry had tea.

Earlier in the day someone handed out to us a few flyers advertising this place called 'Spam's', so even though we were very tired we gave it a try. As expected it was a disappointment, this place wasn't exactly hopping with excitement. Then again, what can you expect from a place called 'Spam's'? Yes, sure there was a couple of guys there with guitars - more like resting the guitars on their laps - but they didn't seem to play much and the crowd just wasn't there. So from here was back to the hotel and sweet dreams.

* *

oday I woke up at the usual time, 6:30, and for my surprise Garry and Fiona were both up and almost ready to go. The night before we had planned to go to the "monkey temple" early in the morning.

It didn't rain all night and the sky was fairly clear with just a few scattered clouds, and a cooling breeze blowing from the mountains kept the smell and the dust from hanging around. It was almost 7:30 when we stopped at Pumpernickels for breakfast but this was still closed and so we set out towards the temple without eating breakfast hoping we'd find something to eat on the way. Not so!

It took us about 20 minutes to find the right path to the temple, through some very unusual parts of the city where we'd never been to. The road wasn't asphalted and therefore it was very muddy from the rain that had fallen, almost unpassable(sp?) at some points. As I said before, it is this early in the morning that one get the feel of the city and all of its activity as people here get up and working at the very early hours of the day. It is also by adventuring out on our own into the less touristy parts of the city that we travelers see and learn about a different culture, and things that the regular tourist will never see or even dream it exists.

A few times we saw people carrying baskets of fresh animal flesh up and down the street. We also saw them cleaning and arranging this meat right out there, on the side of the road, a sighting totally unthinkable in our so called western world where we can bye our pork chops nicely cleaned and wrapped in some supermarket counter. But then again, not everyone can handle this type of sightseeing tour without almost immediately turn vegetarian, that's what happened to my two good friends Garry and Fiona.

The minute we arrived at the temple we understood why they call it the "monkey temple", dozens or even hundreds of monkeys live on this hill and it seems that the reason why they're there is to spend their time amusing the visitors.

This is a Buddhist temple and its real name is 'Swayambhunath'. Located on the top of a hill west of Kathmandu, Swayambhunath is one of the most popular temples in Nepal amongst tourists. Visiting this temple can be a very hard task since it is necessary to climb up a staircase of 325 steps all the way to the top - yes I count them all - but the result is definitely rewarding as one can have a magnificent view of the whole Kathmandu valley from up top, not to mention that this is one of the most impressive Buddhist temples in Nepal.

While we were up there some monkeys didn't seem to appreciate our presence as they started what it seemed to be a fight and all of a certain we were involved in it.. One of the monkeys grabbed Garry's T-shirt and as they (Garry and Fiona) tried to get away by hiding behind me I found myself in a middle of a very awkward situation. On one side two scared British and on the other side a very angry monkey. The funny thing is that I didn't really become aware of the situation until I saw this very upset monkey in front of me, as I was very calmly reading the description of the stupa on my guide book. "OK, it's time to go".

After a quick shower I met Garry and Fiona for breakfast and then they wanted to go find more information about the rafting trips so we went over to the office of Ultimate Descents and ended up spending the rest of the morning there lazing around on the floor and watching rafting videos. Then we tried to get Garry and Fiona's trekking permits but because there was a long line of people waiting to do the same, we simply got the application forms. Since we didn't have anything else planned for today, we went back to Pumpernickels where we had a little snack and just relaxed and enjoyed the cosyness of the place.

At about 1:30, after a very quick nap, I decide I had enough of resting and so went out. I needed to change some money and also had in mind buying a new backpack as they seem to be much cheaper around here. Soon I found out why they're so cheap, most of them are locally made copies of well known brand names, and of really bad quality, especially the back support. Later on I met Garry and Fiona at Pumpernickel again, and since it was still early we decide to go check out Patan, one of Kathmandu's neighboring cities.

So we run up to our rooms to get what we wanted and that's when I found out that my camera wasn't in the room. My first thought was that I had left it at Pumpernickels so I quickly run over there but no luck, the camera wasn't there. I backtracked all I did on that afternoon and at that point I was sure that I hadn't taken the camera out of the room with me so all I had to do was to accept the fact that even in Kathmandu things can get stolen from your hotel room. I reported the theft to the hotel management and headed out to fill out a police report (not that it would bring my camera back), but not until I decided to go check Pumpernickel's once again just to double check - actually it was Fiona's idea. And for my relief there she was, hanging by the cashier's window. Now I realize that nothing can be better than a good scare to bring us back to reality while traveling through such a wonderful land.

When we finally set out to Patan, it started raining like never before and the best thing to do at that point was to turn around and stay at Pumpernickels. We sat there for about an hour until the rain stopped. While it rained, one of the waiters constantly kept sweeping the water with a kind of a brume while at the same time trying to stay dry, in a way that it seemed like he was washing the ground. Either that or he was just helping the drainage of all that water.

We sat at a table with this South African couple that we had just met and most of our conversation was about our ideas and experiences in southeast Asian countries. We all decided to meet later for dinner at a place I had seen earlier called "Nepali Kitchen". Supposedly that night there would be real live nepali folk music. We met for dinner at 6:30 and it turn out to be quite a good dinner as we all ate nepali food of course.

Before we returned to the hotel Fiona made a phone call home - a rip off - and at about 8 o'clock we were back and ready to go to sleep. This had been a very long day today.

* *

oday our day started earlier than usual, I woke up around 6:00 am, Fiona was already up, and Garry woke up just a few minutes later. We left for breakfast at 7:00 o'clock and went to this place a couple of blocks down the street, called "The green leaf". They served breakfast outside on the front yard, on white round plastic tables surrounded by rose plants and green trees. Very pleasant, quiet, cheap and good food - except for the toast that was a bit too hard to eat.

From here we went to the SIA office to check on my ticket. Fiona and Garry also wanted to change the date on their flight so they came with me. There is a pile up of garbage like I've never seen before, in a corner on 'Tridevi Marg' right near the Immigration office which is also on the way to the SIA office, that stinks so bad that every time we walk by we have to hold our breath and run as fast was we can until we reach a place that's far and safe enough to breath again.

At the SIA office there was still no answer from Singapore regarding my ticket but I was told to wait that they were going to try and work something out. A few minutes passed and then I got a computer print out stating that my ticket validation had been extended until the end of October - finally!

From here, we walked back to the Kathmandu Guest House, past that stinking corner again, to buy our bus tickets to Pokhara. The agent that we went to first - "Marco Polo" - had tickets for Rs200 but another one just around the corner was selling the same tickets for Rs150. The guy from Marco Polo tried to convince us that his bus was of better quality but we didn't fall for it. In the end as we found out, all the buses look the same and most importantly, feel the same - very beat up (but not necessarily old), with seats uncomfortably tight, and a suspension that makes the ride as smooth as a washing machine on the rinse cycle.

After we bought our tickets we headed back past the stinking corner once again, to go to the Immigration office to apply for Garry and Fiona's trekking permits. At the end of the day the toll of stinking corner passes was at 6 on foot and twice by car. It worked like an immunization against bad smell, something I encountered during the rest of my trip.

In the afternoon after a short stop at Pumpernickels for a quick snack, we hopped on a taxi to Patan. After an interesting ride through less attractive parts of the city, we arrived at Patan's Durbar Square. Patan is separated from Kathmandu only by the Bagmati River and is the second largest town in the Kathmandu valley. Patan has a very long Buddhist history and the four corners of the city are marked by Stupas, that are said to have been erected by the great Buddhist emperor Ashoka around 250 BCE. Patan's Durbar Square is incredibly packed with temples that look as old as they really are. Tufts of grass grow on their red ceramic roof tiles as to show that these temples haven't been touched since the day they were built.

We walked for a while around the square and visited a few temples, including the Golden Temple, a unique Buddhist monastery only a few minutes walk north of Durbar Square. This temple was probably the most magnificent temple I'd seen so far. Its simple entrance gives no idea of what's inside but as one walks through the doorway decorated with painted lion figures, into the inner courtyard it's beauty is nothing less than spectacular. Inside is a small but very richly decorated three-story temple with a golden roof and sacred small turtles wondering around the yard who play a mythical role of temple guardians.

After the Golden Temple we spent some more time walking around the narrow streets that surround the square and ended up eating lunch on the roof top of a cafe overlooking Patan's Durbar Square. We were back in Kathmandu by 12:30, early enough for Garry and Fiona to book their rafting trip with Ultimate Descents and to go pick up their trekking permits.

Then I took off on my own to go for a walk through the streets of Thamel where I finally bought a cheap pair of sun glasses that would later be very useful on my trek, and met up with them later at Pumpernickels. Fiona introduced me to a guy from Egypt she had been talking to, who was looking for a partner to do the Annapurna Circuit. His name was Khaled and I told him I was leaving the next morning at 7 am and that he was welcomed to come with me.

Later back at the hotel Fiona and Lee decided to go out for a snack, more like a search for ginger tea. None of us had ever tried ginger tea and since we were told that in Nepal there is good ginger tea and Lee hadn't stopped talking about it since we arrived, we really wanted to try the damn thing. Unfortunately we'd been looking for it for the past two days without any success and today it was no different, so we had to settle for coffee instead and after that decided to go for Dahl Bhat, a typical Nepali recipe made up of lentil soup, rice and curried vegetables. Garry took us to a place - almost like a private home - where tourists don't go, and I had the most delicious meal I've ever tried since I arrived in Kathmandu. And boy, were those portions big! - that rice just kept on coming, and the veggies, and the curry, everything was perfect.

It was only 6:30 when we finished dinner and as usual we came back to the hotel but this time we had a reason to retreat so soon - we had to pack all of our stuff because very early tomorrow morning finally, we would be leaving for Pokhara. Just a few minutes after I had turned the light off and gotten into bed I heard a knock on my door. It was Khaled, the Egyptian guy I had met earlier at Pumpernickels, letting me know that he had been able to get a bus ticket to Pokhara as well and that he would be meeting us the next morning at the bus stop.

* *

t was only 5:15 am when I woke up, after a not so good night of sleep. In part it could have been the excitement of finally going out into the unknown to do what once was merely a dream, to visit the land of the high mountains also known as the roof of the world. I wish it was just that, something more serious was starting to take over me. I'd been feeling sick lately, with what seemed to be a cold, and because of that I had quite a rough time falling asleep last night.

Since it was still very early I decided to re-pack all of my stuff, also because it had started raining again, in fact it rained all night and it hadn't stopped yet. I thought it would be better to wear long pants instead, and have some rain gear handy just in case.

At about five past six we left the hotel, Fiona and Garry stored some of their extra luggage there because they wouldn't need all of it, and on the way we stopped at a little bakery shop where we bought some fresh croissants and water for the trip. At this early hours of the day all the restaurants were still closed and buying these snacks was a very smart thing to do since we didn't have a chance to eat anything else until 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

The bus station is non-existent, all the buses from the many bus company operators just park on the side of the street and as the passengers arrive there seems to be a few ticket inspectors for each bus who direct the passengers to the right bus. It all seems very confusing and disorganized and I couldn't stop wondering how common it is for a person to get on the wrong bus, but I guess on their own particular way they understand each other and know exactly what they're doing. Then all the luggage is neatly stored on top of the bus, covered with a water proof linen and tied down with ropes.

When we arrived at the bus stop the rain was still coming down and we were told to wait on the side because our bus wasn't there yet. There was no shelter what so ever and I was very thankful that I had re-packed my bag earlier and had my rain gear handy. Later we moved across the street to look for shelter from the rain under an entranceway. I think our bus was the last one to arrive and therefore the last one to leave. When it finally showed up, I think most of us were pleased to see a minibus instead of a regular bus. Minibuses are relatively faster and more convertible which makes any trip more pleasant.

We all rushed to put our packs on the roof and grab a seat inside, although feeling very untrustful(sp?) about the idea of having our luggage up there. We weren't quite sure how the seating was assigned and as expected none of our seats matched the numbers marked on our tickets.

All this rain, and me getting wet wasn't really helping my cold but I tried to make the best out of it. One thing I noticed though, these are Indian made buses, made for short people and obviously not designed to accommodate the tall westerner. I was put way back on the last row in the far right corner seat where I could really feel the used up suspension and with barely enough leg room to put my legs. After a few painful head bangs on the ceiling and enough leg twisting we were on our way, and soon I started to assure myself that this was going to be a very shaky journey.

We stopped a few times still inside Kathmandu to let people in, something I didn't quite understand, and soon we were on the hills outside the Kathmandu valley. It was now twenty past seven in the morning and little I knew what a trip from hell that would be.

The first 20 Kilometers out of Kathmandu were nothing less than exciting, the roads were at best in very chaotic conditions, washed out by the monsoon rains, extremely narrow at some points, and with a constant zig-zag of curves good enough to make a snake feel dizzy. To the left there was the side of the mountain waiting to slide on us at any moment, and on the other side the deepest valleys I've ever seen, and a never ending drop that offered no protection in case a car would go off the road.

Fiona and Garry seemed terrified with this situation, a few times I saw both of them cover their eyes with their hands. The truth is, we all were feeling very uncomfortable about it but at that point there was nothing we could do but to hope for the best. Oh, just one more thing, the driver didn't take it easy either. He drove the bus like an experiment professional who knew exactly what he was doing - not too much sarcasm here - just like the maniac taxi and tuk-tuk drivers in the city. Sometimes I wondered if that was skill or total disregard for the safety of others.

Two hours had passed and when I realized that it had taken us 2 hours to cover only 20 kilometers, then I knew this was going to be a very long trip.

We stopped for a few minutes at a road side food stall used by many of the bus drivers to get something to eat before the long journey ahead, just at the beginning of the 'Prithvi Hwy', the main road that connects Kathmandu with Pokhara and the Indian boarder. In fact this place was nothing but a run down shack on the side of the road looking quite dodgy - we played it safe and decided not to get anything to eat here. At this point I met a guy from Brazil named Luis who just happened to be looking for someone to do the Annapurna circuit. The funny thing is that he was sitting right next to me on the bus. He looked like a nice guy and his English was not so good. I asked him if he wanted to join me and Khaled to go trekking and he accepted the offer.

Soon we were once again back on the road. We had our little group on the back of the bus (Fiona and Garry were sitting right in front of me and Luis), a fairly nice highway, a smooth journey ahead, great views, everything was looking good - NOT!

The highway is nothing but a well paved road with only one lane in each direction and with the zig-zag curves and the deep valleys still there. All of these could only add more to the danger and the excitement since now the drivers could go much faster and therefore the opportunities for disaster were much greater.

But it didn't take long until we run into our first land slide. They were just starting to clear it out and so it was another hour and a half until we were able to go through. This was a massive one, it almost looked as if half of the mountain had fallen upon the road. It soon became a ritual throughout out the rest of the trip - a land slide, the bus stops for some time, everyone gets off, the incoming vehicles get trough and then very slowly we get back in the bus and continue our never ending journey. It seemed that the cars coming in the opposite direction always had priority to advance before us, so we constantly had to wait for the very long line of cars to go by. On both sides the huge line of vehicles remained idle as the people, patiently waited outside admiring the landscape and watching the waters of the Trisuli river flow down stream, parallel to the highway.

Three land slides later, at around 2:30 in the afternoon we arrived in Muglin, a small town between Kathmandu and Pokhara, a popular stop for truck drivers and bus drivers. This is a city where poverty is quite visible all around and where most white water rafting trips down the Trisuli river reach their terminus. We should had been in Pokhara by now but we were still half way there. Things were looking pretty bad and it just got worse when we arrived at the local police check post and were told that we had to wait until five o'clock due to repairs on the bridge - "Great! Just what we need".

Fortunately a Nepali man sitting next to us was kind enough to, in a very rusty English, tell us what was going on since no one bother to explain the situation. The only good thing about this set back was that it gave us some time to finally eat something, even though at that time of the day it didn't seem like we were going to find much to eat - at 2:30 in the afternoon it's kinda hard to find a decent meal in Nepal - There are no McDonnalds or KFC's here.

I walked into an empty restaurant and in my improvised Nepali ordered a meal of Dahl Bhat. I figured that if there would be anything to eat it had to be Dahl Bhat. Fiona and Garry simply got a soda and a candy bar each, and so did Luis but he soon realized that it wasn't enough and ordered Dahl Bhat as well. In Nepal one can never go wrong with Dahl Bhat, it seems that everywhere I went it was good, and here in the middle of nowhere, in some run down truck stop restaurant it was no different, even though I believe that what we ate were leftovers from lunch - Fiona wanted some too but there wasn't any left.

After lunch me and Fiona went for a walk along the road outside of town since there was still two hours left to kill. For our surprise, after a while we see our bus pull out without us.

- "Is it leaving? They're not leaving without us, no way! They really are! I'm sure Garry will say something to the driver - Maybe - Run! Run!"
But the bus kept going and we became really worried.
- "Maybe the bridge was closed until 3 and not 5. Maybe we misunderstood the whole thing."

We waited and waited, and after waiting long enough, we waited even more. It rained, sometimes harder sometimes just enough to smell the wetness in the air, until two hours later when we were finally allowed to cross the bridge. Meanwhile, among the maybe hundreds of people waiting, I met Khaled, or should I say, he found us. We spent most of this time either inside the bus when the rain was stronger, or in a little shack by the road drinking hot tea and chatting among other things, about our presence within this people of a different world. I introduced Khaled to Luis and we planned on meeting at the New Tourist Guest House in Pokhara, the one Lee and Gary had advised us to go to.

We had to cross the bridge on foot as people are not very sure whether its structure can hold the buses loaded with people and luggage. I think it was better that way too. From here on everything went smoothly and soon we were in Dumre, just about two hours away from Pokhara. It was also during this stretch of our trip that we had our first glimpse of the high Himalayan peaks. In the distance, rising above the green valley to an altitude of almost 7000 meters, I could see the Machhaupuchhare, or the Fish Tail as it is known in English. Seeing these beautiful mountains and its snow covered peaks rising above the horizon had to be the most exciting and exhilarating feeling I had so far on this trip. Being able to witness this beauty has always been my dream of years, and making this dream come true has to be the most exciting thing that ever happened to me. These are some absolutely impressive mountains, and its not easy to put into words the feelings that went through me, let alone describe the beauty that lay before my eyes. Usually when we want to admire the mountains we kinda look in the horizon - well, here I have to look up, high above the clouds.

The sun was now slowly setting behind the mountain tops which made this moment even more unreal and magical, almost like a set on a Disney movie. The different tons of red, orange and blue reflecting off the snowy peaks gave the sky the most colorful sensation ever. Definitely a beautiful thing to see, even more when combined with the green deep valleys of the Himalayas. "It can't be real", I thought to myself. But it was and I was right in the middle of it.

It was almost dark now, we were still far from reaching our destination on this never ending journey to a place called Pokhara. Still, out there framed by the window of our bus, lay the most beautiful painting I've ever seen. The sky still bright due to the reflection of the sun on the snowy peaks, while down in the valley it was already dark. This was a unique moment of peace and contemplation despite all adversities.

At about 8 PM we finally arrived in Pokhara. After noticing just a few lights scattered around, made me realize that this would definitely be a much smaller city than Kathmandu. It is indeed a much smaller city but as we later found out the reason for all this darkness was because there had been a power cut from 8 till 9 PM.

As we got of the bus into what it looked like a very dark field in the middle of nowhere, to what people around here seem to call "bus station", we were literally swallowed by a crowd of taxi drivers and guest house owners. Still with our eyes not adjusted to the darkness of this place, we quickly grabbed our packs from the top of the bus and followed a guy who said he'd take us to where we wanted to go.

- "Do you have a taxi?" we asked.
- "Yes taxi, I take you, where you go?"
- "New Tourist Guest House" - I said.
- "kome with me, kome with me" - he said.
Turns out, he was a hotel guy, not a taxi driver. The same happened with a couple of other men until we found someone who'd really take us there.
- "New Tourist guest house, do you have a taxi?"
- "Yes, lets go, here, here" we followed him as he took us to his car.
- "There are four of us, 4, do you have enough room for all of us?" OK I admit, it was a dumb question but I'd been in Nepal for less than a week.
- "Yes no problem, enough room" - "Yeah right, I wanna see that".

At this bus station there were two types of people: those who have a taxi and will take you wherever you want to go, and those who say they have a taxi but they're really hotel people and have to borough a taxi from somebody else. So this gets a bit confusing since the taxi drivers don't want to give a ride to the hotel people and their guests, without a commission. Often the taxi drivers also have an hotel or a particular hotel that they work with and it would be unethical for them to take a guest to a different hotel than the one that they work for.

But we finally made it to the New Tourist Guest House. I went inside to look at the rooms and agreed to a price of Rs165 for a double. The lady wanted Rs200 by I asked for 150. We settled for 165 as this sounded like a good price because the people here seemed really nice and the rooms were also very good, clean and with private bathrooms. But what I really liked was the verandah outside in the front of the building overlooking the front yard.

I was desperate for a shower, unfortunately there was no hot water but it felt good anyway. Downstairs there's a dinning room - very cozy - and the prices are actually pretty good. We stayed right there as we were starving and without any intent to go look for a restaurant that late at night.

I wasn't feeling very good either, my cold was getting worse and now I had an headache to deal with as well. A hot chocolate and a banana pancake felt like heaven and later I boroughed(sp?) tiger balm from Fiona, took a couple of Advil tablets and went to bed - it was now 10 o'clock, much later than our usual bed time. The next day I woke up feeling much better but my nose still stuffed.

* *

woke woke up this morning at around 7:30 to the unpleasant sound of heavy rain. Well, unpleasant for those who want to go trekking - Great! Just what we needed.

Both me an Luis got up and went downstairs for breakfast. A few minutes later Fiona and Garry showed up, as well as Khaled. I had a very nice and inexpensive breakfast of porridge and toast with eggs and coffee. As I had noticed last night, the menu prices here at the Guest House are unusually cheaper than outside and the food is really good as well. We enjoyed our breakfast while the rain kept coming down, and remained at the table afterwards, mainly trying to figure out what to do next since it didn't seem like the rain was going to stop at any time soon.

At about 10 o'clock, me, Luis, Khaled, and two other Danish guys who are staying at the Guest House as well, went to the immigration office to get their trekking permits since I was the only one in the group who already had a trekking permit. After filling up all the appropriate documents we returned to the New Tourist. which at this point seemed like the right thing to do because we were already soaked to the bones and the rain was still coming down strong.

After waiting at the hotel for some time we decided to go out and face that incredible rain again. Besides, it was time for lunch and we also needed to exchange some money, but when the lady at the guest house heard that we needed to exchange money, she reminded us that she could do it as well. Turned out that her rate was better than the bank and so we got that out of the way, and since the other reason to go out was food, we stayed right where we were, avoiding a very wet stroll outside.

After lunch we decided to be brave about it and go face that rain for good. So me and Luis went to get his permit back while Garry and Fiona went for a walk around town. We met them later browsing around at a grocery store when I went to buy medicine for my cold. Then we went to shop for things that we would need in our trek and after that returned to the guest house. I bought a pair of sandals, a water bottle, cold medicine, and a can of Tiger Balm.

It was about 5:30 when we got back to the New Tourist and I was in need for a nice hot shower, after such a wet day. Unfortunately, I don't think there was such a thing because none of us was ever able to get one, except Khaled on the first morning (this morning). So I just had to rough it up and take a cold shower instead - "I better get used to it anyway since I don't think I'll find hot water on the trek."

I also washed some of my clothes. As I expected, drying clothes in this kind of weather must be almost impossible but luckily we have a ceiling fan in our room that helps to dry them.

It just stopped raining and I could barely see the peaks beyond Pokhara and above the lake. It must be a gorgeous sight when the sky is clear. I've never seen so much rain in my life - wearing rain gear doesn't help much, sooner or later my clothes and me were soaked.

Well, since the rain has stopped we thought it would be a good idea to finally get out and so we all went out for dinner to this place called 'The Moondance', fairly good atmosphere although a bit hippie like, nice music -mainly 'Dire Straights' and 'Neil Diamond' - and pretty good food although above the average price. But still, I paid only Rs145 for a steak with fries and salad, and a coke. After eating we chatted at the table and played a few card games until someone had the bright idea of going to look for a place that sells good desserts - didn't find any.

I just now realized that the menus are the same all year round and everywhere in the city, but now during the low tourist season they just don't offer many of the choices shown on the menus. On the way back to the guest house I went to sneak a peak at this German bakery and when I saw a chocolate cake on the window got all excited and started shouting to the others - "I found chocolate cake, chocolate cake!" They didn't hear me and so I went to get them and when we came back the cake was gone. I asked the guy about the cake and he said that they didn't have it and that they don't bake it during the off season. Funny I thought, what happened to the one I just saw? I guess they only had that one cake to attract customers and so that cake must be weeks old and that's why they don't sell it to people.

So, since there was nothing else to do really, except to come back to the New Tourist and go to sleep. Meanwhile, by now me and Luis had decided to hang around for one more day and don't leave tomorrow.

* *

nother day in Pokhara, another boring, wet and frustrating day waiting around - "This is my second day in this city and it hasn't stopped raining." It's been decided that tomorrow morning we're leaving for our trek, no matter what, no matter how much rain - "I have never seen anything like this before. I think that by now we're all mentally prepared to head out, even in this pouring rain. We just can't stay here any longer and waste a day doing nothing."

I went out into town after breakfast to see if I'd find anything that I'd really need for the trek but all I ended up doing was walk up the main street to the old town and then continued down to the lake. There's a very nice pier that goes into the lake where I assume, it would be very pleasant to just stand there for a while and admire the view. Even in this weather it is pretty so I can't imagine how much prettier it would be if it was a nice day. It's amazing how those huge mountains are right there above the lake but I couldn't see them because of the very dense low clouds that have been hanging over Pokhara for the past few days.

Pokhara is a fairly small city that resembles a little westernized island in the middle of a sea of mountains. Full of tourist oriented guest houses, restaurants and cafes where all types of western music floods out to the street and the menus offer just about everything except local food, where everyone speaks English and the whole atmosphere around is as relaxed as it can get, it's not surprising that it was first discovered by the hippie travelers in the early seventies. Just like them, I came for a week and stayed for a month.

I had lunch back at the guest house with Garry. After lunch the weather just got worse and so did our brains, we were going mad, really really bad. The rain just wouldn't stop and soon we found ourselves doing some pretty stupid stuff just to kill some time. We played "guess the prices" with the menu and made up games of our own. We asked each other dumb questions such as "If you could go out on the lake in a boat with anyone in the whole world, who would it be?". We laughed a lot at our insanity and killed a few hours doing this but it looked really sad. Good thing no one else was around to witness this sorry display of human insanity.

I think that paranoia had settled in at this time and we were just out of our minds. At one time Garry had this bright idea.

- "Let's run upstairs to our rooms, put on all the clothes that we have in our rucksacks, and then run back here and see who can do it faster."

I finally bought the bus tickets to Dumre for tomorrow morning, The weird thing was that we had to buy a ticket for the whole trip to Kathmandu even though we just wanted to go to Dumre which is just about 3 hours away from Pokhara, I hoped - what a scam that was. From Dumre we'll have to catch another bus that will take us to where we wanna start our trek. Just a few years back the walking started right at Dumre, a lot of trekkers still do it but now supposedly there's a road for that first stretch.

In the afternoon, me, Garry and Fiona went into town for a walk, they needed to rent rain ponchos for their Poon Hill trek. Then we went to get some coffee in a restaurant with such a hippie setting that I had the feeling of being in the movie "Hair", but where all the actors were Israelis.

We've exhausted all of our topics of conversation and trying to come up with more wasn't easy. We talked about each other's musical tastes and past relationships but we never really got anywhere. I did manage to exchange 1000 rupees into small denomination bills, that must have been the only useful thing I'd done all day.

Then I took them both for a walk to where I had been earlier, up to the old town and to the lake. At this point the rain seemed to quite down a bit but the views didn't get much better. On the way back to the guest house it started raining harder again - what else is new?

I sat outside on the verandah re-planning my trek once again. I studied the trail one more time - by now I knew it by heart and could follow it with my eyes closed - and wrote down some more notes. At about 6:30 I went to dinner with Fiona and Garry and a few minutes later Khaled and Luis joined us for our last candle-light dinner together. The lights were out once again and the rain had finally stopped - at least for now.

* *

t was 5:30 when my alarm went off and quickly I felt that something was different. Then, as I managed to wake up I realized that the whole place was awfully quiet. Not just because it was very early in the morning but because I couldn't hear that so familiar sound of rain coming down. "Could it be? Is it possible that it's not raining?". My first instinct was to jump up, pull the curtains open and look outside.

Out of my window, the sky was blue, the valley was green and the rain had finally stopped. I could barely believe what my eyes were seeing, we've all been waiting for this day for so long... There was still a mist in the air, as well as a few low clouds here and there but what it mattered was that it wasn't raining anymore. I was ecstatic, what a relief I felt.

I couldn't sustain myself from waking up Luis, who was still asleep, totally unaware of my excitement. But he also was very pleased to see that the rain was no longer falling. Amazingly enough, today September 16th is the official day for the end of the monsoon season - you gotta love mother nature. A few minutes later we had the lady from the guest house knocking on our door to make sure we'd get up in time.

I got up, packed all of my stuff and headed downstairs for a quick breakfast which I had prearranged the night before. A few minutes later Fiona and Garry showed up - they wanted to come down to say good-bye. "I'm really going to miss those two - we've only been together for a week but I've gotten so used to have them around". I guess it's all part of life, some good things have to end. Maybe I'll see them again, who knows? I sure hope so. After breakfast we all said our words, wished each other good-luck and good-bye, and were off. Me and Luis set out for our adventure in the Annapurna circuit.

We walked down the road to the agency where we should catch our bus and soon we were told that no buses got through to Pokhara from Kathmandu the night before because of all the land slides. I almost had a cow but they quickly realized that we were going only up to Dumre and not all the way back to Kathmandu. I also noticed how different Pokhara is when it's not raining, and it sure is more pleasant.

A small, banged-up bus picked us up for a shorter than expected ride to Dumre, only 2 hours. Our next destination - Besisahar. When we got off the bus at Dumre we were told that we had to catch the bus to Besisahar down by the river so we followed these two very excited guys who lost no time in directing us there. In the middle a broken down English conversation I caught something like "other side, no bridge". I also heard "need guide? me good guide" and soon I realized why they were being so helpful.

When we got down to the river I couldn't possibly believe what I saw. The oldest looking, most beat up and run down bus you can possibly imagine, and when they said the bus was down by the river I guess they literally meant it. There was a water pipe bridge that allowed people to cross between the two banks of the river and so we made our way across trying to keep our cool like if this is something that we do everyday in our lives.

We were told the ticket would cost us Rs100 each. We knew it was too much but we are not locals and that was the only bus going in that direction so we had no choice. We paid, got our tickets and put our stuff on top of the bus. We stayed up there too. At the time it seemed like a good idea, more comfortable and safer than inside where we assumed it would be extremely crowded and hot.

We waited for about an hour and a half. The sun was hotter than ever and we had very little water and hardly any shade to hide under. I guess wearing a dark blue t-shirt didn't help much either. The way the local buses run here is that it only leaves when it is FULL - and I really mean full, by all means. There is no scheduled time nor planned stops - "wait here, bus leaves when more people come", we were told. As we later found out the road this bus took would hardly be safe enough for a mountain bike trail in our world, but this is Nepal and in Nepal, as long as there is a road there's a bus to go with it.

It took us about 5 hours of a bone-jarring trip until the bus broke down - how unpredictable! Throughout the whole trip lots of exciting things happened, things that if someone else would tell me I wouldn't believe it. We drove across rivers, through slick and muddy roads, on the edge of cliffs and through valleys so deep that we had to climb out so that the bus could continue on. Up on the roof where we stayed the whole time it felt scary at times, as the bus rocked from side to side, with me always ready to jump, one foot in, and one foot out. A couple of times I almost did.

Our journey had finally began, there was no turning back now. From here on everything was unexpected and very confusing. A bottomless box of surprises I'd say. I sat back on the railings that kept me from falling off and tried to relax.

The sun was hot - torrid is the right word - but when moving, the wind kept us cool. I can't imagine the temperature inside, down below. Aside from this natural cooling system, the other reason to ride on top of the roof is that when the bus is about to flip over or run off a cliff, we can always jump off. We'd brake our legs but we wouldn't die, hopefully. Accidents like these if you can call it that, because it felt more like our unavoidable destiny, do happen way too often. On this road, that could have happened at any time.

I was surprised the bus lasted that long until it broke down, I think it broke the front axis. So we climbed down and walked the rest of the way. Fortunately we were just about 500m short of where this bus was going. We didn't know that we would have to change to another bus. The reason was that the road crosses a river where a bridge doesn't exist but during the dry season, when the water is not so deep, the bus can cross it. Fortunately there was a suspension bridge - the first of many that we would have to cross.

On the other side under the cooling shadow of an enormous tree and surrounded by a bazaar of people and bags, fruit and vegetable stands, and the obligatory number of stray dogs laying around, was the bus that we hoped would take us to Besisahar. This was just a small hamlet with a police-check post, a guest house and a few other houses. Some trekkers stay here overnight before continuing on to the next destination although I couldn't see why, only if there was no bus.

We bought another "expensive" bus ticket - Rs70 - for a ride that would take only an hour and a half. That would put us in Besisahar at around 6 PM. Well, at 6 we were still waiting to fill the bus, because as I said before, in Nepal buses don't leave until they're FULL.

Meanwhile we started talking with a few policeman that were sharing the top of the bus with us. They were really excited to talk to us - even though they could barely say a word in English. One of them asked me if I could take a picture of them, I took a couple and that really made their day. They tried to teach us some Nepali but nothing that we could really use for trekking, maybe if we'd find a brothel in some village but I don't think that's what we're looking for here.

After a few hours they told us that the bus driver didn't want to leave because he didn't think that there was enough people to make a profit from the trip. Also he had been drinking so he wasn't in the best of shape. Some of the passengers got mad and after an hour or so of agitated discussions we were off, but not until we had to pay 30 more rupees.

By now I was getting pretty sick of this journey and many times I wished I would've never come. I was tired, exhausted actually, probably suffering from heat stroke. All I wanted was to return to Pokhara and not have to deal with all the hassles of putting up with people whose only goal in life seems to be to get as much money as possible from tourists. Unfortunately I'm not a tourist but that doesn't really make a difference to them. Foreigner equals dollars and that's all that matters. Fortunately this was the only time that we found ourselves in such a situation.

I kept telling myself to get those thoughts out of my head and just make the best out of it and enjoy the ride; that this was all part of making my dream come true, and that tomorrow it would be a better day. Soon the sun went down and we saw a few snow covered peaks that reflected the orange sunset onto the sky - I felt good again.

Meanwhile down at the wheel, the driver was really mad and driving like a maniac. We grabbed onto anything we could to avoid getting thrown off the roof. After the sun went down it became really dark and we could barely see anything in front, but that didn't keep the driver from accelerating and going faster. At one time the people down inside started yelling to us "sleep, sleep". We looked at each other and then looked ahead and a cross bar over the road was coming at us as fast as we were moving. Our first instinct was to dive and keep our heads low - I felt the wind on my hair as we went under - "I guess sleep means dive, duck. Uhff that was a close one."

A few times we had to get off into the total darkness of the valley so that the bus could climb a steeper hill. The best part of the trip was the last hour when a bunch of school kids of all ages jumped on the roof with us and started playing and singing lively Nepali folk songs. For a while that took our minds off the danger that surrounded us.

We finally reached Besisahar, it was now 9 PM and we were so tired that we didn't waste time and walked right over to the first guest house we saw. It wasn't that good but it had a shower (cold only) and two beds and that's all we wanted. It was now a bit late but the owner was kind enough to cook us some dinner. After dinner I fell on my bed like a rock, closed my eyes and was out like a light.

After all that rocking and shaking on the bus I must have hurt my neck quite bad because when it cooled down over night, it hurt so much that I couldn't find any good position to sleep the whole night.

Our room was on the second floor and the bathroom facilities were on the first floor, so after a few trips up and down the stairs half dressed, we were ready for breakfast. Breakfast was good and a big. Today we started a new breakfast diet - porridge, milk tea, and Tibetan bread which looks and tastes much like fried dough.

By 8:30, later than we had planned, we set out. Soon we met other trekkers going in the same direction and that's when I realized that this is definitely a no-guide kind of trek. The trail followed the Marsyandi river all the way up its lush valley - it was also a very easy trail to trek with just a few ups and downs and a very clear path. In front of us another trekker led the way, followed by his porter/guide which I have to admit, helped us a bit because in the beginning we didn't expect it to be so easy, therefore, knowing that there was a guide near by made us feel more secure. But soon we passed them and went ahead. We met up with them a couple of times later but never saw them again after today. I did overestimated the heat and humidity and didn't carry enough water with me, so by the time we reached our next stop I was as dry as raisin.

We stopped at a village called Bhulbhule for lunch, our first feel of village life in the valley. Here we treated ourselves with a couple of Sprits since it is still fairly close to the main road and such things are still quite inexpensive. The further we get into the mountains, the more expensive these things get because they have to be carried by porters as roads are non-existent. We washed ourselves under a running water tap, slipped out of our boots, had some Dahl Bhat and rested for a few minutes. The sun was really hot and we were a bit tired and at this point I didn't think we'd reach Bahundanda, our final destination for the day.

When we started walking again we thought of spending the night in Ngadi instead, an hour before Bahundanda. This afternoon's stretch was the only part of today's trek that took us more time than expected. I think it was because it was our first day, it was hot, and it was after lunch when we usually feel pretty slow anyway.

The trail to Ngadi was pretty easy as well, we stopped there for a few drinks and to refill our water bottles and give our legs a rest. Since it was still pretty early we thought we could push it forward to the next village - Lampata. The men who runs the restaurant here where we stopped told us it would take about 2:30 hours to reach Bahundanda so we planned to sleep in Lampata which is just, according to my map, at the foot of the mountain before Bahundanda.

Less then two hours later we asked this kid how far we were from Bahundanda and he said 20 minutes - I guess we did make it then. We must have missed that other village if it actually exists or maybe it's even smaller that I expected.

This last part of the trail from Ngadi was extremely steep and difficult, I thought Luis was gonna die. He did really good all day but on this last climb his face was totally washed out.

- "it's been a tough day but we made it. I think that the two things that keep me from quitting are not wanting to do that bus ride again, and the fact that I'm so close to finally see the Himalayas from up close. Now I understand why there are psychology students, after all that may not be such a blow out major. I've realized that being psychologically stronger is more important than being physically stronger in occasions such as this journey, and if one wishes strong enough, anything is possible."

- "Tibetan Guest House, nice room, clean room, shower, good price, only 10 rupees", he said. We looked at each other - "Only 10 rupees!? OK, we'll go there."

This place wasn't more than a very rudimentary(sp?) lodge with rooms upstairs, and walls made of board with cracks so large that we could see what was going on on the other side. The shower room was a little compartment in the basement, open to the outside and an outstanding view over the deep valley. We didn't even bother looking for the toilet as I didn't think it existed, but we were so tired that all we really wanted was a bed and nothing else mattered. The place wasn't as quiet as I expected either, mostly because those walls don't do such a good job at blocking the sound coming from downstairs and from the outside. Whoever said that in these villages the people go to bed very early obviously never spent the night here, in this place.

Since we were so dead tired we didn't have much trouble falling asleep right after dinner, even thought the noise outside was incredibly loud. It was only 7:30 and I didn't wake up until the next morning at around 6:30.

* *

mazingly my body wasn't sore at all from the hike the day before, except for my neck that still hurt although it was doing much better. I got up and naturally enough I wanted to do my things. I snooped around, went downstairs to the basement but couldn't find anything that resembled a toilet, except this little room next to the shower, where one of the walls didn't exist and looked as though a door should be there. Well, from up where I was it was a good 10 meters drop and I had no other choice but to do my things from there. Later in the day we thought how sickly funny it would sound, had one of us fallen down while doing our things.

We had the same porridge, milk tea and Tibetan bread for breakfast and set out at around 8 o'clock. At this time little did we know how much harder of a day we had ahead of us.

To start we had to walk down a very steep and slippery path, just like the one we had to climb up yesterday. I don't understand what's with the people who settled over here, they seem to have all the villages on the top of the mountain in such a way that if we want to get to a guest house we have to climb all the way up. Then, the next day in order to continue on we have to come all the way back down - it makes no sense. But then again I'm just passing by, they're the ones who live here so it probably makes more sense for them. Another thing I realized is that over here NOT all that goes up must come down but all that goes down must come up, twice as high - kinda psyched us out every time the trail headed downhill because we knew that we would have to climb it back up.

OK, even though the trail was steep and slippery, and early in the mooring, and yesterday we had a rough day, the air was still cool, the sun was low and the valley covered with beautiful steps of rice paddies bordered by chest high stone walls and streams of fresh water running down to the bottom where they joined the main river. We felt pretty good and enjoyed our morning walk. After we got to the bottom of the valley, the trail followed a steady path of slight ups and downs until we reached Syange, a small village down by the river, where we had to cross one more of those suspended bridges. In the beginning I had to think twice before I set foot on each one of those things, but even though this is only our second day it feels like we've been doing this for quite some time and it becomes quite an amusing game trying to find which one of them looks the worse.

After Syange we stopped near a waterfall where we couldn't resist taking our clothes off and enjoy a cool, fresh water shower and even took the opportunity to wash some of our clothes - good thing no one walked by at that time. Had this taken place a month later I'm not so sure that would be possible, as trekkers from all corners of the world flood out to these trails.

We now felt refreshed and more excited to continue our little adventure but it wasn't long until we found our first major climb of the day. A huge and steep stairway carved on the rocky side of the mountain led up to the next village of Jagat. It was hard and long and after that, lunch just felt like the right thing to do. This must have been the hardest climb until now, personally I find it much more difficult to climb stairways than simply an uphill path as steep.

After Jagat the climbing continued for another hour, as steep as before, up to the village of Chamje where we stopped to rest and have a drink. At this point I didn't think that Luis was going to make it to Tal where we had planned to spend the night, since the trail to Tal would continue climbing and we were still a good couple of hours away. He was feeling really beat from all the climbing we did today, especially his legs. We talked and I was willing to stop there but he decided to push it till the end - "If we have to die lets do it now", he said laughing. At least he still had his sense of humor which I think it's always important, after all we were doing this for fun right?

We crossed the river once again in Chamje and right after that the trail headed up, and up. I felt as though we were climbing our stairway to heaven except that it felt more like a stairway to hell. At this point we were moving slower than usual in order to save what was left of our energies and make sure we make it to Tal. About an hour later I asked this little boy how long would take us to get to Tal, it sounded like he said half an hour. I really hoped so because I expected at least one more hour to go, at least. Well, I either misunderstood him or he just forgot to say that it was half an hour for him that's probably used to all of that climbing and wasn't carrying anything on his back.

At that point the trail became even more steeper and turned into another never ending, rock carved stairway. As we climbed higher, the closer we got to the clouds that at this point were working their way down to the valley and cooling down the air. It wasn't as warm anymore and the sky was now covered with thick, rain filled, gray clouds that threatened to flush all that water on us. Down bellow the river run wild through a narrow gorge, looking more powerful than the amazing mountains that raise from its margins and touch the sky.

Forty-five minutes later, tired as all hell, we reached the top and a wide flat valley surrounded by a wall of mountains opened up before our eyes. Down near the river, its chimneys spitting smoke into the air and a beautiful waterfall as the back drop, lay the small village of Tall. The river that runs by it, the same one we've been following for the past three days, gray in its color from the silt sediments that washes out, gives this little village a touch of mysticism.

On the way, an advertising sign for the Annapurna Hotel read among other things - Hot Shower. I couldn't think of a more pleasant reception after what had been a most strenuous and exhausting day. We paid Rs20 each for a double room in a newly built building. Although they used the same construction techniques as for the one where we slept last night, this one is much better finished, and it seems much quieter and comfortable except for the beds that were really hard.

Luis was dying to go take a shower on that waterfall but it seemed quite far to me. Under any other circumstances I would be the first one to go splash myself in that waterfall but I'd had quite a long walk today already, and instead I went to enjoy that so much expected hot shower. I hadn't had a hot shower since Kathmandu.

The trip to the bathroom took me downstairs, across the main dinning room, out through the back door, across the backyard around the kitchen house, to a little wooden shack that looked like a outhouse just like all the others I've seen on this trek. Tied to a board on the low ceiling a rubber hose hangs down but this one was different, this one was a hot water shower, heated by the wood stove in the kitchen just a few feet away, so close that I could smell the wood burning.

When I got back to the room I found Luis there, he never made it to the waterfall because it was indeed too far. So, while he got ready I went downstairs and ordered dinner because by now - even though this is only our second day - I knew that it would take quite some time. Well, it took even longer than I expected. We had time to sit outside for a while and drink a whole pot of tea, for me to catch up on my journal, to prepare tomorrow's trek, and even to go look at this lady's Tibetan souvenir store. She had lots of nice Tibetan handicrafts that would be great souvenirs but I didn't really wanted to start buying stuff now and having to carry it for the rest of the trek. My backpack was pretty heavy as it was, at this point.

After all of those activities we still had to wait for our food and since it got darker and colder, we moved inside to the living room. This was really a common area to the house that serves as a living room, sleeping room, dinning room, and in some houses is also the kitchen because the heating fire is used for cooking as well, or vice versa. The food finally came and it was very good and very hot. I think they exaggerated a little on the pepper, either that or they simply mistaken that for some other condiment. After dinner we went to bed and slept for another eleven hours.

* *

gain we woke up at 6:30 today, it seems like we have an alarm clock inside us. It was a bit cooler outside and the ground was still humid from the rain that fell overnight. The low, thick clouds hung above us like a gray ceiling waiting to fall on us at any moment. We were looking at a second day in a row without sun and maybe, a rainy day. Our clothes don't dry and so we were running out of clean clothes - not that that had really bothered us until now, but a person can only take so much bad smell.

So we left at around 8 as usual and right outside Tal we met an American couple from Seattle - Robert and Patricia. The first part of the trail was pretty easy with no major climbs - anything is easy after yesterday. We walked along with them, chatted all the way but then we left them behind and soon it started drizzling and raining.

The rain became a bit of a problem since we weren't used to it and so we decided to make an unplanned stop for lunch, earlier than expected, at a village called Dharapani. Some trekkers stay here over night as the next stretch is pretty long.

Since we didn't walk too far into town, there wasn't many good places to eat but we ended up finding the Annapurna Guest House, right next door to the police station, the one that the lady in the guest house in Tal told us to go to for lunch.

We ended up spending an awful lot of time here. The motivation to continue under pouring rain wasn't very strong and so we waited hoping that the rain would stop, or at least calm down. We stayed here for 2 hours and by the time we left it was still raining hard and it was getting late so making it all the way to Chame today as predicted was out of the question. We hoped we would find some place to spend the night not as far as Chame, even though we couldn't really see anything on the map.

So we headed out, at a very good pace considering the conditions of the terrain and the weather. The trail didn't follow any major climbs - at least for the first couple of hours - then we hit a few good ups and downs, but nothing compared to what we did yesterday.

We met a couple of trekkers coming in the other direction and asked how long until we reach Koto, they said 2 hours, and 2:30 to Chame. Koto, according to some information we had gathered, has a few guest houses that are comfortable enough, but also according to the same source it is located an hour and a half from Chame and not just half an hour like we just found out.

So we kept going not thinking to even make it to Koto, but to stay in some place about an hour away from Chame. We could make out for that extra hour tomorrow.

At this point Luis started looking pretty bad again "It seems like he can take the first 5 hours pretty good, the problem is the rest". That would be OK if he was trekking at a normal pace but I guess I'm just not normal.

So we kept going even though I felt really sorry for Luis but there wasn't any other choice, we were in the middle of nowhere and it didn't look like we would find any place to sleep before Koto. Our journey was interrupted by a few land slides due to the rain that fell all day. At each one of them we had to look for different paths to get through, some of these land slides were so recent that there was still mud and rocks sliding down, a bit scary but exciting nevertheless.

One good tip I learned about trekking in the rain, there is no reason for putting much rain gear on, except a cover for the backpack and a poncho because if you do, you'll get soaked anyway, from sweating.

We did find one, on a beautiful valley right by the river, about half an hour before Koto but it was getting very cold and when I asked about the showers the keeper pointed to the freezing cold muddy river and said "that water". I said "See ya".

OK, we knew we could do it, we were just half an hour from a much better room, maybe even a hot shower who knows. There was only one problem that we didn't count on - from now on it would be up hill, all the way until Koto.

After an incredible 7 hours of walking we passed under the stone gate and entered the village of Koto. The sun had long gone to sleep but the day was still clear. The gray skies still hung above our heads, now closer than ever as we've been climbing higher and higher each day. The green rice paddies are long gone and the vegetation as turn to pine trees and short spiky bushes.

At the first Guest House we found I asked the keeper if he had a hot water - "Yes, hot water", he said, "come look at the room". The room was average really, an unfinished upper floor with walls made of cardboard and wooden boards but what really attracted me was the hot water, except that I forgot to ask to take a look at the shower facilities - big mistake! When I went down to take my so expected hot shower the lady gave me a big pan with boiling water, that was their version of hot shower. They were right though, they said hot water not hot shower. "Well, I guess this is all part of fun", I thought. So I just washed myself right there on the backyard, and boy was it cold outside? I wonder if they use the same pan for cooking?

After washing ourselves up we went downstairs for dinner. We stayed inside where it was warm - they cooked in a wood burning stove inside the house and use the cooking fire to heat up the house. Also, when I went up to the room I was surprised to see electrical light - that's a nice change. Supposedly, it comes from the nearby village of Chame. Chame is a big village just half an hour away that has all basic amenities including a bank, post office, grocery shops and a small hospital and of course, electricity.

Dinner was unusually quick but delicious as always. We ate potatoes with egg and vegetables, and a separate plate of plain rice. A big pot of a very good milk tea was put on the table and we drank most of it before dinner. At dinner we were told that there is some kind of Tibetan music and dance show "but we are so tired that we might just go to sleep". Tomorrow should be an easy day of only 5 hours up to Pisang.

We have climbed quite a bit in the past few days and I think I finally started to feel the effects of the altitude today. Either that or I was just tired. We slept at 2530m, the highest I've ever been so far.

* *

vernight the temperature dropped substantially and Luis' cold got worse. We woke up a little later than usual - 7:00 o'clock - and went down for the same morning breakfast ritual. At about 9 o'clock we set out.

We almost missed the police check post in Koto were we had to sign in. At took a peek at the previous logs in the log book and noticed that only 4 or 5 other trekkers were within a day's walk - as expected, not a very crowded period this one of the late monsoon. I couldn't see Rob and Patricia's name on the book and we haven't seen them since we left them behind yesterday when we stopped for lunch, I assumed they were still behind us.

Like we were told, half an hour later we walked by Chame. This was actually as I imagined it to be, a much bigger village than any other we'd been to so far. The stoned, narrow pathways zig- zaged through many small houses and many of the guest houses that abound here. I was happy that we stayed in Koto instead, because Chame is so popular, a room here costs much more than in Koto and unless we'd need to go to the bank or post office I don't see any reason to stay here.

The first part of today's trek was a bit slow, with lots of ups and downs - we actually hit some very steep parts. We stopped for lunch two and a half hours later in Bhratang, a very small, very empty village where the few existent houses were made of bare rocks and slightly covered with mud. We had a ball with the food we ordered there. We spent most of our lunch cracking jokes about the little things we kept finding in our Tibetan bread - ants, flies, worms, you name it. Maybe they thought we could use some protein since we have become total vegetarians after we left Pokhara.

We sat outside on a big wooden table, surrounded by a wall of mountains and half a dozen small little houses made of rocks from the near by mountains. It started drizzling during lunch but that didn't worried us too much. One hour later we were on our way again, and about 20 minutes out of Bhratang we crossed the river at an altitude of 3010 meters - now nothing more than a narrow little river - and right after that, another killer climb. A very steep ascent - very beautiful despite the weather and difficulty - through a pine tree forest and with a few mountain views here and there. It took us about 40 minutes of constant climbing just to get to the top of this exhausting hill. I did feel the thin air on this one and my breathing became heavier.

From this point on everything was much easier and fairly smooth up until Pisang. We crossed a gorgeous vast plain field dotted by a couple of lakes, that reminded me of "Little house on the prairie". It also started to get colder, a sign that we're reaching higher altitude.

"Pisang is at 3190 meters above sea level but I still haven't felt any major altitude symptoms except a little heavy breathing although, I still think that's because I'm tired". Pisang is much smaller than Chame but it looks more modern. Even though there is no electricity here, the buildings seem more solid and show a more modern architecture.

We found a really nice looking hotel called Ghalung Gurung Hotel or Pisang Peak Hotel as it is better known. It has an architecture that reminds me that of the Alps, a three story building shaped like a U, painted white with a few pinkish/orange and blueish lines and with wooden verandahs all around the front side. The view from our third floor room would be excellent if the weather would allow us such a privilege. Instead, the sky remains cloudy and we had to settle for the great atmosphere amongst the many trekkers that stop here - "I really hope the weather gets better."

As soon as we got to the room I went to take a shower. The shower and toilet facilities are pretty good here but they use the river's water and are located a few yards away, down by the river. As a result, I almost froze my butt but I managed to survive. Some people would argue that my brains are already frozen for being here. I say - "I'm having the best time of my life." Luis didn't even try it, he said he'd rather wait for a hot shower tomorrow in Manang.

Our 'old friends' from Seattle - Robert and Patricia - also arrived while we were having our early dinner. Because our trek today was so much shorter than on the other days - actually today we did a normal length - we had more time to socialize with the other trekkers and started eating earlier. During our dinner conversation we all agreed that if we're not suffering of any altitude symptoms when we get to Manang tomorrow, we might just keep going further (and higher) the next day, up until Lattar. Since Manang is only just 300m higher than Pisang, I couldn't really see how much of a difference would that be.

Rob and Patricia are both fellow athletes, they often do the triathlon, so that gave us a new topic to keep our conversation going.

The food here is really good too. Of course we ate the same as yesterday but this time we ordered fried rice. But since that wasn't enough, we each ate a delicious apple pancake.

At about 5:30 when the sun went down, it became very cold. For a while we all moved inside where it was warmer and we spent some time discussing tomorrow's trek, sitting around two big wooden common tables, under the flickering light of a petrol lamp and sipping hot Tibetan black tea. At 7 PM I went up to my room and that would not be the end of my day.

Tonight I started to feel the effects of the thin air, it became really difficult for me to fall asleep as my hart kept pumping really hard. At around midnight I got up to go to toilet. The wind had died down and it wasn't so cold anymore. The night was really bright, the almost full moon lighted up the sky in such a way that it would be almost possible to read. This light reflected off the huge Paungda Danda rock face, giving it the shape of an enormous reflecting mirror. This rock face is a huge curved slab of rock rising more than 1500m from the river near Bratang where we had lunch today.

I finally fell asleep, to wake up the next morning around 5:45 to an astonishing view of the Himalayas. The sky had finally cleared out.

* *

he minute I opened my eyes I realized that something was different today. I looked around and the brightest, most refreshing light came into the room through the wooden shutters of our window. In a jump I was out of bed and opened a crack on the window and for my astonishment, the biggest, tallest, most beautiful mountain I'd ever seen, rose up from the river below and touched the clear blue sky above. Today it would be different - "The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here."

Then I run outside, totally unaware of the cold air of the early morning - that didn't really matter now, the mountains were right there, that was all I could think of. Excited as I was it would never be too cold for me to go outside and fill my eyes with that beautiful opulent scenery. From the verandah of the top floor of the building, the third floor, our floor, I could look in the distance and see a long stretch of amazingly high mountains, and at the very end, rising at 6584m, the Chulu peak. The view was breathtaking.

A few minutes later Luis woke up as well, looking and feeling much better from his cold.

- "The sun is out! Hey man get up, you've gotta come out and see the mountains! They're all out there! It's beautiful, just beautiful!"

As I went around the third floor verandah to get to the stairs - I had to go to the toilet - I look up and hidden by the roof I see these incredible peaks, even more beautiful and taller than any of the others - "the toilet can wait, it's time to bring out the camera" - it was nothing less than the Annapurna II. "So that's how they look like in real life ugh? What an impressive view!"

Little by little everyone else in the hotel started to wake up and soon everyone was up and totally fascinated by the beauty of these magical natural wonders. Some people didn't look too thrilled by all of this early morning fuss - after all it was only 5:30 in the morning - but the minute they stuck their heads out the door the greatest smile of happiness just filled their faces.

The cameras never stopped clicking and everyone was dying to hit the trail. We all had breakfast together on long wooden tables set outside on the front patio. Happiness was in the air and the rain was finally gone. soon after, one group after the other headed out to the trail, this is the first time since we started that we're not trekking alone. This are all very nice people and it is a very pleasant break in the monotony of our trek.

The views got even better as we left Pisang behind. The pine tree forest disappeared and now there are only a few smaller trees here and there, lots of small bushes, and beautiful snow tipped mountains all around.

The village dogs followed us for a while and one of them kept up with us for the first couple of hours. These are much better looking dogs then those found on the streets of Kathmandu, but that's not saying much really.

Anyway, we walked much slower now. There was much more to see, lots of pictures to take, and no hurry at all. According to my calculations our next destination - Manang - was only 4 hours away.

About 20 minutes after we left we hit our first and only climb of the day. It was quite hard, my breath was a bit heavy, but nothing new for us. Besides, excited like we were nothing could stop us now. Up on the top we had a great view over the whole Hongde valley with its airplane landing strip at the very end of it. We stopped up there to admire the views, take a good look of what we would soon be walking across - we'd have to walk across the length of the entire valley - and to take some pictures.

A couple of local porters also used this beautiful spot for resting. I walked by many porters since day one, and I was curious to find out how much weight they usually carry with them - or better, on them. I'd seen them carry everything from meet, crates of coke bottles, boxes of canned food, and so I asked one of them. 80 kilos he said. "Unbelievable! My backpack only weights 10 kilos and I'm starting to think it's too much."

We made it to Hongde, the village by the airfield, in less than 2 hours (1:45 hr's), and we took a short break there. Everyone did. It's funny how we all get separated when we start walking but we end up meeting again when we stop for a break. The sun was very strong and bright now, and that made it difficult to be outside without sunglasses and just to play it safe, a little bit of sunscreen sounded like an excellent idea - I really miss my good Oakleys.

The next stop would be a small village named Mungji, where we planned to stop for lunch. It was so small that we missed it. We walked right by it without realizing it. Meanwhile met up with Rob and Patricia a while back and have been walking with them since then. Actually I recall walking past a very tiny little conglomerate of houses, maybe 4 or 5, but it looked as though they were abandoned. Oh well, so we kept walking towards the next village - Braga. Just our luck, there wasn't any restaurants in this village and that was bad news since we were all getting really hungry. Actually the guide book mentions the fact the this is one of the very few villages on the trek that is not spoiled by tourism - or trekkers for that matter - and that means no guest houses and no restaurants.

Supposedly, Braga's gompa is said to be the largest in the district and has an outstanding display of statues and manuscripts estimated to be 400 to 500 years old. Unfortunately we were told that we'd have to come very early in the morning because at that time there was no one there to show us around and the gompa would probably be closed. This is harvesting time so everyone is out on the fields working and there's no one around in the villages. Maybe that's why a lot of the villages that we passed through seemed unusually quiet and empty.

Well, for a few minutes we rested and observed the village women at work, harvesting the dried wheat fields. It's all manual labor here, there's no such luxuries as machines. Then we kept going. After all Manang was only half an hour away and a nice shower and meal would be waiting for us. What a pleasant thought that was.

A stone gate shaped like a stupa marked the entrance of Manang. It was about 1 PM when we finally walked across it, and above, on the wall a few guest house signs gave out the impression that this would be a very popular trekkers hang out, just like the guide book advises.

At first sight, Manang doesn't seem to be all that's talked about. It's probably the biggest village on this side of the trek - true, with expensive hotels - true, we paid Rs100 for a double room, but in the end it's just another village. Maybe it just looks like that because the trekking circus hadn't started yet. Later in the day when we needed some bandages for blisters - one of our trekking pals, Luc, was in serious trouble - not even the health post was open.

Yup that's true, we did find an health post and we waited around for a few minutes until finally we saw an old men walk in carrying a pile of fire wood on his back. Luc followed the man to see if he could help. We followed.

The place was a pit! I'd be afraid to bring a wounded wild animal here. The men tried to clean Luc's wound with the same piece of cotton that he used to clean his table full of dust and who knows what else. So we got the heck out of there.

There's a real health post here run by European doctors, but since the trekking season hasn't started the post isn't open yet. Later on I tried to take care of Luc's blister wounds by putting a gaze pad over it and taping over it. No one else but me had some kind of adhesive or athletic tape, and even I didn't have enough. I really didn't think that was gonna last for too long. Here's something to remember for next time - never go on a trek with new boots and always bring a good first aid kit. Obviously, Luc didn't do it.

As I was saying, after looking at rooms all over the village we settled for what it seemed to be the most popular place in town - the Tilicho Hotel. I can see why, the place is clean, the food is good, the rooms are cozy, and it has a roof top deck with tables upstairs where one can enjoy a meal and at the same time contemplate the breathtaking views of the Himalayas. The hot shower room was still under construction, they were at that moment installing the solar heating system.

Of course we spent most of the afternoon sitting upstairs, talking and eating. Since there wasn't much to do we ate. "Eating has become my favorite past time on this trek. It's always fun to taste the unusually different types of fried rice, Tibetan bread, or Dahl Bhat."

After the sun set behind the mountain, the temperature dropped and we moved inside to the dining room where it was warmer. Here we ate some more, and talked a lot more. Especially about our plans for the next few days up to the Thorung La pass. Also, Rob and Patricia are going to China next month and since I've been there and I'm also going there next month, our conversation was kept alive, sometimes washed down by cups hot tea and nepali rum.

At sunset the sky was filled with those beautiful fiery colors of red, orange and yellow, with a few patches of blue here and there. It most resembled an oil painting than anything else, absolutely unreal. This land just never ceases to amaze me.

I went to bed at around 8 o'clock and tonight I had less trouble falling asleep, maybe because we only gained 300 meters from Pisang.

* *

oday it would be another relaxing, easy day for us. No hurries, just another nice day on the mountains, surrounded by infinite beauty. We could only go for about 4 hours, up to the next over night stop, a small village called Lattar at 4250 meters. We couldn't really go any further because we decided not to stay in Manang for acclimatization and therefore, pushing any further than Lattar could result in serious consequences.

When I left the room at about 7 am, the sky was as blue and clear as it can get. The contrast between the blue sky, the white covered mountains and glaciers, and the yellowish dry valley at the base couldn't be more stunningly beautiful. The bright shinning sun still trying to get up from behind the mountains, the full moon floating just above what it seemed to be the Tilicho peak at 7134m, made me feel like I was in paradise. What a gorgeous picture that was! That alone made the day for everyone around, and of course many more pictures - "Simply the views that we've had during the past two days have already made this trek very well worth it."

So we had a relaxing breakfast - no hurries, paid our stupidly high bill of Rs767 for one night, and at 8:40 sharp we headed out. Throughout the whole trek today we had to walk very slow, not just because the thin air made the breathing process very difficult but also because according to the map it looked like we would be climbing all day, about 750 meters in only 4 hours. Luckily it was a very progressive climb, not one big steep climb at once. At the end of the day we didn't think it had been that bad after all and we weren't that tired even. I guess all of this exercise has put us in perfect shape for the big climb of the next two days.

About 3 hours out of Manang we stopped for lunch at a place called Yakkarka Lodge. The sign half a mile back read - "YAKKARKA LODGE - Wel-Come, fresh bread and Yak cheese." They grow a lot of Yaks here, we did see a few on the way up and even had the chance to get close to one. Although they might show some respect because of their size, they're actually not that wild and their milk makes some really good cheese.

Lunch wasn't that good today, we simply had some potatoes, rice, veggies and tea, followed by a bit of yak cheese. After lunch Rob and Patricia showed up, they'd behind us all day but now they were thinking of staying here in Yakkarka overnight and continue to Phedi the next day. Initially we were gonna stay in Lathar for a day to acclimatize to the altitude but since Phedi is just 200m higher than Latar, we might just keep going, if we feel good in the morning.

This idea of not spending a day acclimatizing sounded good, but only if we feel good enough of course, it permit us to take full advantage of the excellent weather that we'd been having. It would be a bummer to spend an extra day on this side acclimatizing and then, on the day we're suppose to go over the pass, we have a miserable day. "Anyway, we'll see how we feel tomorrow."

We finally reached Lattar at 2:20 PM and went looking for a room. There was only a couple of lodges here and not much more. One of them seemed closed and so we had no problems choosing. We stayed at the Churi Lattar Lodge, it seemed good enough and the views were excellent. Our room looked like a very badly constructed add-on to the house, put on the roof of the original home. This gave us excellent and clearer views from up top but there was also a couple of down sides to this lodge - the rooms are extremely drafty and expensive, Rs120, the same as in Manang - "I'm pretty sure that this is going to be the standard price from now on, up until we cross the pass. They have us here and there is nowhere else where we can go, so they ask for as much money as they want and there's nothing we can do."

Back to the drafty windows, quickly I went to work - I pulled one of the curtains down and stuffed one of the windows with it. And the others I stuffed them with strips of plastic that I found outside - Much better!

The shower was only cold water and after seeing Luis almost freeze in there I decided to pass on it today and simply wash up. Then we went downstairs to eat something, rest a little and enjoy the rest of the day while the sun was still up. Now, at about 3:30, the sun was still so strong and bright that we had to be careful and wear our sunglasses and sun block.

The view from our room is magnificent. There's a window facing south through which we can see the Gangapurna rise up at 7454m and Annapurna III at 7555m. Outside to the Northeast are the two peaks on both sides of the Thorung La pass, through which we're gonna be passing in a couple of days. They are the Khatung Kang on the south side and the Yakgawa Kang to the north, both above 6000 meters. Also to the East we can see the Chulu at 6419 meters.

I believe we all know the expression "When hell freezes over!". Well, that's how it felt right after the sun went down. It became so cold that we had to put most of our clothes on and wait for dinner in our sleeping bags in our room. It was just too darn cold and neither of us had enough clothes for it. You see, Lattar is deep in a narrow valley, almost squeezed by two very high mountain ridges, and when the sun sets behind the western ridge all heat is kept from coming in and the cold air just slides right down the valley.

At about 5:30 we went down to eat dinner and ordered Dahl Bhat to be simple and quick. Except that we forgot where we were and that nothing here is quick, especially the cooking, and much less at this altitude where the boiling takes longer. It took about an hour and a half for dinner to be served and we almost froze waiting for it. It must have been close to 0 degrees Celsius in there but luckily the food was delicious and the portions were humongous. Then we went straight to bed because that was the only place where we could stay warm.

The room was freezing cold and still a bit drafty so I went to bed with my clothes on - except my boots. I woke up the next morning at about 6:30 with Luis calling me to come out and see the moon set behind the mountains. But it was really cold out there and I had already seen it yesterday, so I stayed in bed where it was warmer.

* *

s I just said, this morning I stayed in bed until a bit later than usual. Two reasons - first, it was too cold outside and the second, there was no hurry to go anywhere today again. I finally got up and went downstairs for breakfast at around 7:30 but it was still so cold that I had to wear my gloves, wool hat, and winter jacket. Funny how I consider 7:30 to be late uh? "We've gotten used to wake up at 6 am or even earlier so 7:30 kinda feels like we're the laziest people in the world - but it feels gooood."

The sun finally came out at about 8:30, shinny and bright as it's been lately, and it soon started to warm up the valley. We went outside and sat in the sun waiting for its warm shiny beams to heat up our blood and our brains again. We patiently watched it rise up in the sky like if it was the first time we had ever seen it, and hoped for it to warm us up.

A few minutes later we saw Rob and Patricia walk up the trail. We weren't ready to go yet so after a little morning chat they headed out towards Phedi, our next destination. Everything was going really slow today and it kinda felt good to be able to relax like that. This is the essence of Nepal I think, this is what Trekking in Nepal is all about, to let oneself be emerged in this natural wonder and be totally oblivious to what's going on everywhere else in the world.

It was already 10 o'clock when we finally got on our way, and why should we hurry? Phedi was only a couple of hours away. It was a very difficult walk nevertheless, breathing became really difficult and tiring, to the point where simply lifting my feet was hard, let alone walk and climb, carrying a load on my back.

We met up with Rob and Patricia about an hour later in a little tea house built high on the mountain wall overlooking the whole valley bellow. The view was amazingly peaceful and beautiful, and the enormous Annapurna range looked even more opulent and unreal. We all had some tea and cookies and took a few group pictures to remember. Even more unreal than the place is the fact that even here in the middle of nowhere we can enjoy a delicious tea and cookies break - Humm!

From here it was just half an hour till the first lodge of Thorung Phedi. Actually the book said that there was only on lodge here and that during the trekking season it gets filled up quite fast and that some trekkers have to spend the night on the floor. I thought it was weird how this lodge sits right on the bed of a partially dried river, the same river we've been following since day one and crossed its suspended bridges a few numerous times. That wild flowing river has now become simply more than just a wide stream, quietly flowing down stream. Phedi means 'foot of the hill' and that's where it is, at the foot of the 5415 meter Thorung La pass.

So we went in to check it out, the place was very basic, with wooden platforms covered with a thin mattress serving as beds and not much more. The keeper asked for 120 rupees for a double room and said he could provide us with a bucket of hot water for washing.

At first we thought this was the only lodge around, the one that the guide book refers to, but higher up we saw what it looked like to be another lodge and decided to take a look at it as well. We walked up 15 more minutes and found ourselves a much better lodge, in all aspects. This one was a newer construction, it had a real shower with hot water, a nicer restaurant, better but more expensive rooms (Rs170 versus Rs120 down at the other lodge), and a few other trekkers were staying here as well. Besides, it was still early and the more we'd walk today the less we'd have to walk tomorrow.

Me and Luis ended up taking the dorm room for Rs60 each while Rob and Patricia got a double for Rs170. Since there are very few trekkers we assumed it would be a good idea to get a dorm room, this way we would still have the room for ourselves and pay much less. Our plans worked out just right, no one else showed up.

The room was pretty shabby though, the beds didn't have much cushion and they looked more like a couple of wooden platforms set one on top of the other three feet or so apart from each other, and that's what they called bunk beds - "No problem we'll take it", we said.

We spent the whole afternoon doing some laundry, and preparing for tomorrow's long day. In other words - doing nothing, sitting around and eating. Amongst our companions of laziness there was two Germans from Berlin, Jerry the 70 year old Australian who we met two days ago in Manang that's doing the Annapurna circuit solo, and of course our long time friends Robert and Patricia. Both Jerry and the two Germans have been here acclimatizing since yesterday. The Germans planned to go up this morning but one of them had symptoms of altitude sickness and so they had to stay behind for one more day. Jerry himself is thinking of descending to a lower altitude and delay his crossing for another day or two because he's not feeling too good either.

- "Among the four of us who just got here everything seems fine and unless something worse than heavy breathing happens, we have our minds set in going tomorrow." - I was sure that even though we didn't spend an extra day acclimatizing we had done an excellent job planning our overnight stays so that we could acclimatize and not loose an extra day.

Later we ordered some Dahl Bhat for dinner again, and again we almost froze waiting for it except that this time we waited even longer, for about two and a half hours. It was really cold, way too cold, beyond cold, close enough to call it a freezing hell if this place wasn't so beautiful. I can't imagine what would be like had I come here a month later like most trekkers do. Maybe then I would have more appropriate clothing and it wouldn't be so bad.

During dinner someone called us outside to go see some Himalayan wild blue sheep that had come down the mountain looking for better pastures and were now grazing just a bit further up from where we were.

After dinner we quickly went to bed, not just because we hoped it would be warmer but also because tomorrow would be a long and though day for all of us. We planned to wake up at 4:30 am in order to start climbing still before the sunrise. That way we could make it to the top before noon when the winds start picking up and it can get dangerous, and also we thought it would be a wonderful experience to witness the sunrise from up top.

Tonight I felt unusually cold, more than anyone else, to the point where I wondered whether it was all cold or was I getting sick too. Even after a couple of Tylenol pills I still didn't feel good enough, in fact the idea that I could be getting sick didn't make me feel very comfortable.

I could not fall asleep tonight because of the cold and how uncomfortable it was without a pillow, but most of all I think it was the excitement of tomorrow's hike. Before, I could always find something to put under my head and I never really had to zip up my sleeping bag but now I felt like a mummy, like a frozen mummy I must say. I finally dozed off for just a couple of hours or so and when I got up in the morning I felt really sick, nauseated and cold.

* *

he big day has arrived, the day we all had been waiting for, the crossing of the Thorung La pass. There is no trekker in this world who would not want to be here, who never dreamed of crossing this pass, and I'm here, all ready to go. This has got to be one of the most exciting days of my life.

It was still dark outside like I expected but the full moon lighten the valley clearer than ever. I was feeling seek but I made the decision to go on anyway. Staying behind for one more night would probably make my condition worsen and then I'd have to go back down for a few days. I believed I was sick because of the cold weather and not because of the altitude, and that's why I decided to go on. So we had a quick breakfast that we pre-arranged the night before, together with the whole group, and an hour later we were on our way up.

And up it was! The trail started climbing right out the door. My breathing was extremely heavy, something I had never experienced, and there was times when I didn't think I would make it. The first part was one of the most difficult, along with the last stretch to the top. The trail climbed very steeply in the beginning and then it was just a question of getting used to it since it would be like that all the way up. Slowly the sun came out and I started sweating but I was still shivering with cold.

About two hours after we started my breathing got really bad and kept getting worse but there was no sign of a headache or any other symptoms of altitude sickness. The last half hour was the worse, terribly devastating despite the beauty that surround us. Had I been doing that alone I probably would have turn back and never made it across the pass. I could barely move any part of my body without feeling exhausted and that's when I started dragging my feet and having a hard time just keeping my balance.

But the pass was right there and there was no use in turning back. That's when my own self determination came into play. By now we were clearly above 5000 meters and the views kept getting better and better. Everywhere I looked my eyes just couldn't assimilate all the beauty that surrounded us. Nearly three and a half hours after leaving Phedi we reached the top of the Thorung La pass, at an altitude of 5,415 meters.

Rob and Patricia who we kept seeing all the way up, ahead of us, were already there, and so were the two Germans, and also two Swiss who were crossing the pass in the opposite direction. I just threw myself on the ground while everyone else seemed totally overwhelmed by the view. And they had a good reason to feel that way. It wasn't until a few minutes later, after I felt more rested, that I realized what lay before my eyes. I have no words to describe the feeling or the picture in front of me. I wish I was a writer, maybe that way it would be easier to describe what we all were going through although, I don't think there exists a writer or any other type of artist capable of describing our feelings well enough at that moment. You just had to be there.

We stayed there enjoying the pleasure of such a feat, for almost an hour. I almost fell asleep, so tired that I was. I was amazed at how well Luis was feeling, he was still running around from side to side trying to get the best angle for pictures. This is the same guy who struggled to keep up with me throughout the whole trek so far, and now the situation was reversed. I guess it's true what the specialists say about altitude sickness, that there is no pattern to predict if a person will feel better or worse than another under such conditions. But I still think that the reason why I was feeling so sick was in a big part due to the cold and not so much the altitude. I still didn't have a headache and I believe that would be the principal symptom of altitude sickness.

The wind was cold but the sun was warm so it felt really nice to lay there for a while in what seemed to be the most peaceful place in the world. The wind blew lightly, looking into the horizon to the west side it was possible to see a never ending stretch of the Himalayan range, all the mountains down below made us feel like we were on top of the world. But when looking to the East, we could see nothing more than a few enormous peaks still rising up in the air. Here I realized all the grandeur that surrounds these mythical mountains to which we call the Himalayas.

Then, it was all downhill from there, literally of course. Me and Luis were the last ones to leave - "sick or no sick I didn't come all this way for nothing, I will enjoy every little extra second I can while I'm up here".

Climbing down wasn't as hard on me as it was on everyone else because I had stronger legs and knees than all of them. But it was a 1600-meter descent and it was very hard nevertheless, there's nothing more tiring on your quads and knees than hike down a very steep hill for over three hours - just try to squat after that one and you'll need help to get back up. My only problem were the blisters on the tip of my big toes but luckily I took care of it early enough, way before it got out of hand. I had seen enough after seeing what happen to Luc, a few days back in Manang.

They were all complaining about the downhill, saying that going up was much easier - not for me it wasn't! It felt like an endless descent that's true but at least I could breath again. The valley below kept disappearing and reappearing even deeper below at every turn. Then, a few patches of green appeared down in the distance and then a little village, and soon we were at the bottom. We passed by Rob and Patricia on the way down and met up with the Germans at the bottom in a little tea house in the middle of nowhere, where we had some food and drinks. With the exception of water and a few crackers, neither of us had eaten anything since breakfast, we were starving and weak. We looked at each other, half dead but still managed to show a little satisfaction - "we made it!"

Now I had an headache but I think it was because I was so hungry and sick. I took one more Tylenol but it didn't help. All I needed was a nice hot shower and a warm bed. We saw Rob and Patricia come down the trail and they also joined us for some food and drinks. We were all very tired, we looked exhausted, but the satisfaction of having passed the Thorung La pass helped to keep up our motivation to continue. The day wasn't over yet.

The final stretch from there to Muktinath was longer than we expected - about an hour, which at this point felt like 24 hours. The reason why it took us so long was because there was a bridgeless river in between, that run through a considerably deep canyon. We had to find a good enough path to go down that canyon, then find a part of the river that was both narrow and shallow enough for us to cross it, and then climb up the canyon again. And only then we were able to see Muktinath down in the distance. There was still some ways to go. We all did this last part together.

The two Swiss guys that we met at the top gave us directions for a nice guest house according to them, and when the Swiss say it's nice we can be sure that indeed it is nice. So the North Pole Hotel we looked for. We walked across the whole town until we saw a Mexican style two story house and a sign - 'North Pole Hotel'. We walked in and were greeted by a friendly woman that showed us a very comfortable double room for only Rs25. The hotel had a beautiful roof deck with tables and a magnificent view, a much different menu from what we were used to (Mexican and Italian), and a hot water shower - "oh it feels so good to be back down", I thought.

Muktinath is a pilgrimage center for both Buddhists and Hindus. Among the many religious buildings here, there's a Buddhist gompa and a Vishnu temple within each other, in a grove of trees. Nearby these two, an old temple shelters a spring and natural gas jets which provide Muktinath's eternal flame - it's the earth-water- fire combination that accounts for this town's religious significance.

On my way to the shower I walked by one of the guests, another fellow trekker, and I assume she noticed my washed out face.

- "Congratulations!" - she said.
- "Ugh, thanks."
- "Was it hard?"
- "Oh I'm dying..." - was all I could thing of - "I feel sick."
- "Yes but it feels good doesn't it?"

After the shower I sat outside on the deck like everyone else, still trying to catch my breath. I chatted with some of them who had made the pass the day before and decided to stick around one extra day. They all seemed really nice, there was an American girl with a German guy, one Swiss/American girl and her German friend, a really funny English guy, and the six of us.

I started feeling worse and went to bed while I waited for the dinner. For once I was glad dinner took so long to be served because it gave me the chance to sleep for a while. I woke up an hour later when Luis came in the room to tell me that the milk tea was on the table. At this time I was feeling even worse, shivering with fever, and I just knew that I couldn't wait any longer to take some more Tylenol tablets. This time I took two of them and closed my eyes again. A few minutes later I was fine, like nothing had really happened. What a strange thing that was, just too weird!

So I went back out, now they were all in the dining room downstairs waiting for the food. My timing was perfect, they served dinner just a few minutes after I sat at the table. I ordered a bean burrito but I ended up getting someone else's order of something else. It didn't really matter, we had been warned by the other trekkers that every plate here looks the same and tastes the same, whether it is pizza, burrito, or lasagna. Everything comes in a sizzling plate bubbling away with heat, and melted cheese on top. It was hilarious seeing all of us trying to guess the right order. But at least it was tasty and it was a good change from what we'd been eating for the past nine days.

Luis and the others who arrived today went to bed right after dinned but now I was awake and feeling good so I stayed at the table updating my journal. At about 9 o'clock I closed it and that was the end of another great day, surrounded by great people and interminable beauty.

* *

his morning I was feeling really good when I woke up. I went outside but no one was up yet so I came back to bed for a little longer. Later I heard some noise outside and got up again. The two Germans were out having breakfast and I joined them. Then, little by little everyone else showed up, first the two girls, then Rob and Patricia, then Luis, and soon all the trekkers were eating breakfast together, around a big wooden table and chatting about our real lives. The German girl is here to work as a school teacher after she finishes her trek, and her friend is going back to school in Switzerland after this. They are both really friendly and nice, and so is their friend, that crazy English guy. He's not only nice but he is a very funny guy, always cracking jokes and with an attitude of "don't worry be happy" like any of us would like to have.

Since today's trek to Jomson is short and easy, and most of us are still tired from yesterday, we were all moving slow and showing no signs of being in a hurry - "I love this!"

After breakfast I hung my wet/humid clothes on the wire up on the roof to see if they would dry while I packed the rest of my stuff. We left around 9 o'clock at the same time the other three left (the two girls and the funny English guy). They were going to a village on the way to Jomson called Kagbeni, and so were Robert and Patricia who decided to hang around for a little while. So we said good-bye to them, exchanged addresses, and headed out.

On this side the landscape looks much different, a desert landscape with very few plants and huge arid brown mountains and valleys, the grimmest landscape I have ever laid eyes on. We walked passed pretty meadows and streams, across one very pretty village where most of the houses were made of rocks as usual, where the irrigation canals followed along our path and white and yellow wild flowers footed the little houses. Behind us, in the distance was the Thorung La pass, cutting across two peaks and dropping down to the valley. The hugeness of these mountains is overwhelming.

I felt like a different person today. My state of mind was one of happiness, of having accomplished something important in my life, something that made me feel better than ever and now my motivation to keep going was stronger than ever. I was a happy man.

About an hour and a half later the trail split into two and we said good-bye to our new friends. They headed down to Kagbeni while we still had a few hours ahead of us before Jomson. Luis was in a lot of pain today, his quads were very sore from the walk downhill yesterday and he could barely walk. We stopped for lunch at a hotel right after Kagbeni were we met the two Germans. They had left earlier and went through Kagbeni.

We were now on the banks of the Kaligandaki, one of Nepal's holiest and biggest rivers but up here it looks rather dry. The last stretch to Jomson was very easy. Once the river was quite dry, and to avoid the little ups and downs of the trial we had the brilliant idea of get off the trail and follow the river. We had studied the map and saw that that river would take us all the way down to Jomson. And that we did. About an hour and a half later we reached Jomson.

The only problem of this part was the very intense and strong head wind that kept blowing huge clouds of dust and sand on our faces. But after a few mouth full's of sand and a couple of hat chases we made it. On the way we passed a few caravans of mules and local business man heading out of Jomson, most likely coming from as distant places as Hong Kong and Bangkok. Jomson is the nearest airport around and it's often used to bring in merchandise from those places.

Jomson is a very different town, with two and three story buildings, clean and wide "streets" - dirt roads - a bank, an hospital, a few government institutions as well as lots of good hotels. As I said, it even has an airport, and a German bakery.

Earlier we had planned with the Germans to meet at this hotel called the Monalisa hotel, near the airport. Nearby, across from the police check post was the office for Everest Air, one of the airlines that operates from here to Pokhara and Kathmandu. Luis had long decided to take the plane the rest of the way down to Pokhara and so we went in to buy his ticket. I didn't yet know what I wanted to do, I really wanted to keep going all the way but everyone else seemed to be taking the easier way out and I didn't feel like continuing alone but still, I didn't buy a ticket just yet. Maybe, just maybe I'd find someone to trek with the rest of the way.

The Monalisa Hotel was a very good looking hotel, perhaps way out of our league or at least something we never expected to find on a trek in Nepal. This just goes to prove how commercialized the trekking industry has become here, especially in this part of the Annapurna circuit, also known as the Jomson trek.

When we arrived at the hotel, the only vacancy was a double room with a private bathroom. If it weren't for the price of 300 rupees we would have taken it but that was way too much for our budget and so we opted for the dorm room downstairs which cost us only Rs30 each. As we'd noticed earlier, during this time of the year dorm rooms will do just fine as there aren't enough trekkers to fill them up, and so once again we had a whole dorm room for ourselves.

In the lobby, the wall facing the south was all glass, top to bottom, giving a beautiful panoramic view of the Nilgire mountain at about 7000 meters. This mountain was so high and so close that it gave the impression of rising up from the backyard. On the second floor, in the front of the building with large windows all around overlooking most of the main street outside and a few mountains as well, there was a cozy and nicely but yet simply decorated dinning room. The shower and bathroom were excellent, considering where we've come from. I finally took a real, very hot, steamy shower that I could only dream of in the past 10 days. There was also a mirror and that allowed me to shave for the first time in a long time - I knew that there was a reason for me to be carrying my shaving stuff.

After the shower I was talking with the two Germans and they told me that Royal Nepal was selling student fare tickets. The office was right across the street, if you can call that an office. Also, the Royal Nepal Airline officials are known to be annoying bureaucrats who have no concept of customer service and conveniently become clueless and unhelpful when it suits them. Fortunately I had no problems - They had a seat to sell and I had the dollars to pay for it, so we were all happy. I did observe the lack of friendliness and professionalism that I didn't see at the other airline office.

I decided to buy a ticket for US$38, what the hell - "If everyone is going why shouldn't I, it might even be a good experience, after all we've heard about these airlines, and the views from the plane would probably be excellent as well."

Besides, after calculating my expenses, there was 5 days left, times 7 dollars per day, that would be 35 dollars. The plane ticket cost me 38, not much of a difference there and it saves me 5 days.

Then I went back to the hotel and guess who shows up? Robert and Patricia. They had decided to come to Jomson and fly out tomorrow as well. They were also staying in this same hotel, in that more expensive room.

"It's funny how we all have different departure times and flight numbers for tomorrow morning's flight, except for Luis because he's flying on a different airline. I don't think that kind of information really matters here, what really matters is to have a ticket and then we'll see how it works out."

After showering, me and Luis wanted to check out the town and went out to the airport. We walked up the main road and back. Not much to see around here really, a few souvenir shops and lots of little hotels and guest houses.

Back at the hotel we ordered dinner. The menu was very similar to that of yesterday and once again I ordered a burrito, and once again it took two and a half hours to be served. But no one seemed to mind, we sat at our tables and had a few drinks (started with tea, moved on to soda, and ended up with beer to celebrate the end of our trek), relaxed and talked for hours. We chatted about the most varied topics of conversation possible but most of them seem to evolve around politics - definitely not one of my favorite topics. We shared our views of politics in the US, Germany, and Europe in general. We talked about the unification of Germany and Europe and how people from East Germany feel about it. We talked about JFK and the Gulf War, about computers and world traveling, about sports and hobbies, we talked just about everything possible that came to mind.

At the end of the room, a curtain separated the dinning area from a little TV viewing room, with a big color TV placed in a corner and a couple of couches around the room. We saw a satellite dish on the roof but when we tried to turn the TV on all we could watch was "snow". Later on during dinner a few excited Nepalese went into the room and started watching BBC - I guess it worked. The news came up - this was the first time in over two weeks that I had any contact with the outside world via any kind of media. I still didn't pay much attention to the TV until I started hearing a Portuguese dialogue coming from there. I looked up and it was showing a Portuguese movie with English subtitles. In Nepal!? Unbelievable!! I think it was some kind of movie reviewing program that BBC was showing. We all laughed about it and went back to our conversation.

We finally realized that it was already 10 PM and although that had been a very pleasant evening we really had to go to sleep.

This was a very late night compared to all the other nights since I arrived in Nepal but this was also the last night on the Annapurna circuit so it was OK. Tomorrow the day would start very early (about 5 am), and it promised to be no less exciting than any of the days we've spent on this trek. Everyday in Nepal promises a new adventure, new experiences and lots of fun and that's why I love this country and these people so much.

A little past 10 PM we shut the light off and Good Night.

* *

his morning we were suppose to get up at 5 am in order to be at the airport early enough for our flight. I either didn't hear my alarm clock or it didn't go off, because I only woke up at 5:30 with the noise of people moving around outside. Lucky us! We still made it to the airport by 6:00, well ahead of our 8:00 departure time. Everyone else was already there, I guess they all, or rather, we all want to make sure we get a seat on that plane.

There was a fruit and vegetable street market kind of thing near the gate in front of the "terminal" which turn out to be great because we didn't have enough time to eat breakfast. When I say gate I really mean it, a real pipe and wire, dog house kind of gate. And the terminal wasn't really what most people would call it an airport terminal, this one is a small, one story building next to a gravel landing strip. Inside there are a few semi-empty rooms used for the various airport activities.

At the time the terminal was still closed but it opened soon and we went in to do the check-in. As I predicted we were all in the same flight, even though our tickets showed different flight numbers and departure times. The whole check-in/security process was quite amusing and somewhat odd, almost to the point of being ridiculous, but we were in a different land here and that was how things worked there and by now we all had learned to deal with it. I didn't make it less amusing though.

We knocked on a big wooden door and one of the many officials from the different airlines stuck his head out and we showed him the tickets. If it's not his airline he calls the right official and we're in. Now, in this room there's a huge scale where we had to weight our baggage (and where we had some fun weighting ourselves to see how much had we lost/gained on those days of trekking) and further down there's a long wooden table where our bags have to be searched - well, they sort of searched it really. Then, each person has to pass from this check-in area to the waiting area through another little room which is closed on both sides and where you are alone with a guard who body searches you. On the other side the waiting area was just a larger room with windows and wooden benches all around it.

Those windows provided a great panoramic view of the landing strip and the mountains behind it. A warning siren went off a couple of minutes before every plane appeared from nowhere and glided its way down to the landing strip. Next to those huge mountains as a backdrop, those planes looked as small as little flies. We were all expecting to see them come from somewhere higher up but instead, they flew at such low altitude that made it difficult to see anything. These are most of them old and small prop driven airplanes although some of the new airlines such as Everest Air use newer planes.

When the planes arrived, and they do arrive all at the same time - this is because they have to take advantage of the good break in the weather or else they might never make it - everyone moved closer to the door. We didn't know what to do and weren't sure if we should go out or not as no one came in to give us any indications.

When some of the locals decided to cut us off and headed out to the plane we assumed they knew what they were doing and kind of run to it in order to try to get the best seats. I was almost the last one in and missed getting a left window seat so I sat all the way in the back and took the right window seat. The view from the left seats are suppose to be the best because it overlooks the Annapurnas, that's why everyone wanted a seat on the left even if it meant to crawl over everything and everyone on your path.

I was surprised to see an attractive and well dressed flight attendant serving candy for a 30 minute flight. She ended up seating in the back right next to me and even offer me her left seat so that I could have a good look at the Annapurnas.

It's amazing how after taking off, that little plane climbs straight up but the mountains are always much higher then the altitude at which the plane is flying. The view from the right side after taking off from Jomson was pretty good, unfortunately the windows were a bit dirty so my picture came out a bit blurred. It was a short 20 minute flight down the valley, through green mountain walls and tall white peaks, until we landed in Pokhara.

As I said, the flight attendant offer to switch with me while we were passing Annapurna I and that was one of the few times I got a good enough look at that impressive mountain throughout the days that I visited Nepal. Unfortunately the sky became cloudier at this point and it just got worse the rest of the flight down.

We were back at the New Tourist by 8:15.

- "Portugal!!! You're back!!" - said Santi the lady who looks after the guest house - Wait here. We clean the room for you.

Santi gave us the same room where we stayed 10 days ago. Oh, it felt just like being back home again.

After we settled in, I went for a walk around town, I wanted to buy some postcards and find out about the rafting trips out of Pokhara. What a different town that was from just 10 days ago! There was tourist poking everywhere, taxis beeping at every corner, rental bicycle stands popping out everywhere and loud music flowing into the street from the numerous restaurants and coffee houses along the main street. The weather is not that much better but the tourist season has definitely started - "I can't imagine how this place will look in two weeks time."

So basically today I spent the day in and out of town, I washed my clothes that were begging for some soap and wrote some postcards. It felt weird to have nothing to do, no trail to follow, no far away destination to go to, no plans to keep up, just simply sit there and do nothing.

I did find a fairly cheap rafting trip down the Kaligandaki but I was afraid that the organizer wouldn't be so reliable - "I'll have to check it out first, before I book the trip." The Ultimate Descents 5 day trip just left this morning and the next one is not until next Monday and I didn't feel like waiting around for a whole week.

At night we were suppose to meet the German guys for dinner and then to go watch a movie at the 'Pushkar Guest House' but when we left the New Tourist guess what? It started raining. We had to look for shelter and since we were both really hungry we went into 'Once Upon a Time' for dinner. After 10 days of trekking and vegetarian meals, tonight's dinner called for a celebration. We had made it and we deserved a good meal - a nice steak with potatoes and salad, and a nice smooth cold beer. We chatted and relaxed and enjoyed the fact of being back down, most of our conversation was about traveling and Luis gave me some good tips about Koh Samui in Thailand.

Later we headed over to this Pushkar guest house but the Germans weren't there and the place didn't seem to be the most adequate to watch a movie - the sound was horrible. On the way back we stopped in at a reggae bar where we had a couple more beers to the cool sound of reggae music. Around 10 o'clock I decided to call it a night and walked back "home" while Luis went somewhere else for another beer.

Back in the room, I studied a bit more of my China guide book and right after I shut the light off Luis came in. This was Luis' last night, he had decided to leave in the morning for Kathmandu. The next morning I woke up with Santi knocking on our door at 6:00am to wake up Luis but he was already up.

* *

t was still very early but since Luis was leaving I went downstairs with him to say good-bye and wish him a good trip. His bus left at 6:30 and after that I went for breakfast - "It feels weird now that everyone is gone. First there was five of us and then, there was one. I really miss those days when Fiona, Garry, Khaled and Luis were here but this is a vacation and I should learn not to get attached to people."

The other guests that are here now, seem pretty nice and fun too. After breakfast I went to my room to try to plan something out for the next two days that I have left here. Later I went out, bought some more postcards as usual, and booked my rafting trip with Everest River Adventures. It was much cheaper but hopefully it will be OK - only 125 dollars for a five day trip down the Kaligandaki.

Done this, there was nothing else left to do but to write some more postcards - I wrote one more to my friend Sue whom I miss as much as all of my friends.

A group of New Zealanders asked me if I wanted to go with them check out this Tibetan refugee camp and I agreed. They all have rented bicycle and I rented one for myself just down the street for just Rs50 for the whole day. We rode out through the streets of Pokhara and out to the suburbs. It took us about half an hour to get to what we thought was the camp but as we found out later that wasn't it. That was the Binde Basini Temple, Pokhara's best known temple.

The temple sits atop a small hill north of Pokhara on a very pleasant and shady setting and if the sky was clear the view would be even better.

Then we came back down to Pokhara, through a different road that brought us towards the old part of town, and we ended up going for a snack in a really nice outdoor restaurant right down by the lake. I thing it is called the Boomerang, or at least it was next door to it. It is conveniently located right next to the German bakery where we stopped afterwards to buy some pastries and cake.

On the way back to the guest house we stopped at the Viena - not Vienna - restaurant near our guest house, for a taste of some delicious home made ice-cream.

Later in the afternoon I decided to go check out the famous Devi's Falls just outside of town. I picked up my camera at the New Tourist and rode my bicycle there. I followed a road that went through the other popular part of Pokhara, the Dam side and then took the road to Kathmandu. Devi's falls was quite an OK place, nothing special really. This is a place where the river falls and disappears into a hole on the ground, to come out again some 200 meters further down. It is a pretty deep hole, and that's just about all the excitement there was.

Back in the city, I went to drop off a few postcards and on the way to the rafting agency where I had to pick up my passport, I found Robert and Patricia at Once Upon a Time. I had a coke with them and they told me they were on their way to the Royal Chituan Park. Maybe I'll see them later in Kathmandu, or in China, or back in the US, or somewhere else in this world. The waitresses here treat me as a regular by now, this is the hippie looking place where me and Luis had dinner yesterday, and where I had coffee with Fiona and Garry a couple of weeks back. Back then there wasn't so many tourists around so the relationship customer/waitress was less formal and more friendlier. This city already feels like home to me.

Back to the New Tourist, I took a shower and went down for dinner. I had a plate of Santi's delicious Chowmein followed by another scheduled power outage. Then the whole gang decided to go out to dinner and I went along, even though I had already eaten. We went to a nice, straw hut, Caribbean looking restaurant called "Captain Cook" were the food was delicious.

These people were a blast. At the table we talked about the grossest things that you can possibly imagine. Two of the Kiwis are the medical students who are studying here in Pokhara - Angus and Mick - and they kept reminding us about the gross operations that they sometimes perform at the hospital. Then the Kiwis started ragging on the Queen of England and the British royals to see if they could annoy the English girls that was with us but she was really cool and simply became a bit speechless. She was actually surprised that they knew so much about the royals, even more than she did. It was hilarious the things they were talking about, most was stuff that they had read in tabloid magazines and newspapers. Angus and Mick get all of these tabloids at the hospital and sometimes they have plenty of free time to read them - at least that was the excuse they gave us.

When we finished, there was no one left in the restaurant but us. I guess no one else had the same sick sense of humor as we do. On the way back to the New Tourist we found ourselves in a farting contest. I think Angus won this one.

* *

his morning we decided to give it another try at that Tibetan Settlement camp outside of town. This time we took two other Kiwis with us, Raj and Marj, a young couple returning to New Zealand on a traveling honeymoon after recently gotten married in London. I met them at the New Tourist and although they were staying in the guest house next door they were hanging around with the crowd from the New Tourist.

After a long and fun bike ride, way past the place where we were yesterday and out to the Pokhara valley, we found that camp. We were spotted by the Tibetan women way before we could realize what was coming. They stuck to us and never left us alone, trying to sell all their Tibetan crafts and souvenirs. I don't know what's stickier, them or the leaches on the Poon hill trek. We tried to ignore them and went into the local rug factory where a team of very skillful women hand weaved huge typical Tibetan rugs.

The weaving of Tibetan carpets is encourage among the Tibetan refugee population of Nepal, and with the help of the Nepal International Tibetan Refugee Relief Committee and the support of foreign governments such as Switzerland, this once indigenous industry has become the biggest in the country and earns more than half the country's foreign exchange.

Soon after that we just couldn't say no, those women just wouldn't leave us alone. We agreed to look at their stuff.

- "Just look, don't need buy" - they said.
- "Yeah right - OK, just look."

Everyone bought some stuff from them except me, I just looked. I was never interested in buying it but the two American dudes, gee, they would not stop. They weren't good bargainers either but I guess they weren't really worried about the prices, they just wanted to buy. Now, Collin, there's a bargaining pro. Here's a guy who was able to drive those women crazy with his bargaining skills.

After trying very hard to get rid of these women, we finally manage to do it and went to visit the local temple. This was a fairly large temple and judging by it's appearance it would be fair to say that it was a fairly new one too. We took our shoes off - well, our sandals off - and went in. Inside, the praying pillows were all taken by young Buddhists doing their prayers, and the walls around covered with hundreds of little statues of the Buddha. Outside on a separate little temple inside a dark little room in between the main temple and the souvenir shop, a giant praying wheel spins endlessly while two little kids played on the steps in front, under the watchful eyes of an old man peacefully waiting for the day to go by.

As we were walking out, a bus full of tourists pulled up and you should see the excitement on those women's faces. You should see them run. They were probably thinking - Oh joy, finally some rich tourists to by my merchandise, we don't need those cheap, flip- flop and t-shirt tourists, we have real ones right here - "Oh, ask me if we felt left out."

Nearby there was a soccer field where a whole bunch of young school kids chased a soccer ball up and down the field, some of them bare footed. We thought twice and yes, went to play with them. For about half an hour we run and kicked and dribbled alongside little 7 and 8 year old kids. We played and we talked, some of them were very curious and interested in showing their knowledge of the game. I was amazed at how much they knew, especially regarding the last World Cup considering that they didn't even watched it on TV. We had two teams - well at least we pretended there was two teams - but what it mattered was all the fun we had and certainly all the fun the kids had. I don't think many westerners ever come here like us and play soccer with them, their contact with westerners must be minimal. I sure can't see those flower-shirted/straw hat/video camera tourists who just arrived, playing soccer here.

On the way back to the city we went for a nice cool shower on a waterfall on the side of the road. The bugged eyed locals might have thought we were insane as they passed by. Then we went for a swim in the river rapids down below. The water was shallower than it appeared and the rides a bit painful for some of us, as we bumped our rear ends on the hidden rocks at the bottom. The next day Collin could not seat down without a moan. Dinner again was lots of fun, tonight we went to Captain Cooks again.

After dinner I tried not to go to bed too late as tomorrow I have to get up early to go on my rafting trip - "I still feel a bit apprehensive about that agency but hopefully I'm just over- concerned." It could also be due to the fact that for the first time since I arrived in Nepal I was going to be away from "my friends".

The more I get to know this new group of people the more I love them. They are a really fun bunch, crazy and extremely nice people. It seems as though I've had the best luck in the world on this trip, just because of all the great friends I made and the nice people that I met. I believe it must also have something to do with this wonderful country called Nepal.

* *

KALIGANDAKI WHITE WATER RAFTING TRIP

met the other people at the office of 'Everest River Adventures'. It was then a little past 6:30 in the morning and everything and everyone was almost ready to go. The whole group was fairly small, there was me, two German guys whom I still don't know the names, two American girls - Jordie and Amanda - and five rafting guides. At 7am we left Pokhara and for the first time since I arrived here the sky was clear of clouds and the view of the Annapurna range was just marvelous. I was finally able to see in real life what I could only see in postcards until now.

It was a smooth uneventful ride from Pokhara on a small pick- up van with an extra row of seats inside the cabin. In the back we carried all the rafting equipment, as well as food for the next 5 days, and a few guides. Our only problem was a flat tire but that was easily taken care of, actually quite fast for our surprise. They even offered us some tea while we waited.

The most boring part was setting up the rafts. Actually, it was boring because we just sat there under that torrid sun while the guides took care of it. We had two rafts, one regular size raft that carried 6 people and all of the gear, and a small 4-person catamaran that was a bit more trickier to put together. They didn't really seem like they had done that many times before and that kinda worried me. A while later we were all helping out and in a way it made me feel better, at least now I knew that all the nuts and bolts were well tightened. Then they gave us peanut butter-jam and salad sandwiches with lemonade for lunch and four hours later we were on the water. Wait, but that wasn't it yet. As if setting up the catamaran wasn't hard enough, tying everything to the rafts in such a way that we wouldn't loose all of it on the river, proved to be another big challenge.

As I said, we had one 6-person raft and one 4-person catamaran that looked as fragile as a baby's toy. While we were taking places we realized that someone had to ride on the Catamaran and I made the mistake to offer myself to ride on it.

On the Catamaran one has to kneel on either of the floating rafts and there's nothing to hold you there but your balance and a strap that goes over your quads - "OK, here we go. My first white water rafting experience." And what an experience that was!

The Kaligandaki, one of the top rafting rivers in the world, snakes down from the high Himalayan mountains between mount Dhaulagiri and Annapurna to form one of the world's deepest and most beautiful valleys. From different parts of the river it is possible to spot such mountains as Langtang, Manasalu and the Annapurnas, unfortunately I never got to see any, maybe because I was to busy keeping my eyes on the white water or just on the river itself.

This river is also one of Nepal's holiest rivers named after the goddess Kali. Because of that, it is a religious costume to cremate the bodies of dead people at the confluence of every tributary or simply at its banks. People here believe that the soul of the dead person will this way be taken by the goddess Kali through the flow of the river. All along the river we saw rings of ashes left by the such cremations. On the last day of this trip as we were packing all the stuff to return to Pokhara, we actually got to witness the cremation ceremony of a young child.

But now lets get back on the raft. Not for too long though. As I said I was riding on the catamaran, and this was my first rafting trip ever, and it was expected of me to go for a swim on our first major rapid. It didn't take long to hit it, but when we got there I knew I was in trouble. All I saw in front of me was this huge wall of water and since I was new at this stuff and also a bit overwhelmed with it, I didn't attack it like I should have and just let myself stay there, staring at it. I just froze.

The result? As soon as the water hit my chest I was outta there. At first it felt a bit scary because the waves were really big and they wouldn't let me see anything - they don't look that big when you look at them from the river banks. But a few seconds later I gained control over myself, stuck my neck up and was able to see that the raft was right there alongside me, and that our main guide was also in the water. I was enjoying the ride down the rapids now. I reached for the raft, looked around for my paddle which was also floating right near me and put it up on the raft. I remained in the water for a few more seconds enjoying the ride but finally I had to crawl up on to the raft. All of this happened in a matter of seconds but it felt like eternity. Maybe because it was so much fun.

I learned my lesson and from that point on I had no more problems getting through much stronger rapids and deeper holes, not on that day, not ever.

Half way through the day my knees and my toes were really hurting because of the position that I had to put myself in, in order to paddle.

We stopped towards the end of the day, on a white sandy beach surrounded by lush vegetation. A crowd of kids from the villages nearby run down the valley and shouted loudly with enthusiasm. I guess this is a big thing for them, they don't get to see that many outsiders and the rafting people are like a big happening on their lives. They walked around us and paid careful attention to every single move we made. When the night settled in, they went back to their villages and we sat around a table waiting for the dinner.

The sky was flooded with stars, as many as my eyes could see. An abundance of little fireflies dotted the air all around our heads. At this moment I realized that I might have pushed my back too far because my old lower back injury pain was back and it kept getting worse at every minute. At this point I just knew that this was going to be a very painful journey and there was no way back. I had to go all the way down, put up with the pain for the next 4 days and just make the best out of it.

The meals throughout the whole trip turn out to be very good and sometimes it amazed me how could it be possible to cook such delicious meals with such unusual facilities like the ones our cook had. For breakfast we always had milk, coffee or tea accompanied by such delicatessens as pancakes, Tibetan bread, toast and jam. Lunch was usually our lightest meal, sandwiches and salad, but dinner was again a very delicious and well prepared hot meal. At one time we even had pop-corn!

When I woke up the next day I could barely move, such was the pain on my lower back. But the funny thing was that once I got out on the raft, and even on powerful rapids, I would barely feel anything - well, at least for the first couple of days. The most pain was every time I tried to walk or sit down, and most of all, after waking up in the morning. My knees also went from sore to bruised, to wounded, but that was nothing compared to my back pain.

After the second day I started to look for the most comfortable position and spent most of the time sitting instead of kneeling. That way it hurt less but what I really needed was a nice bed where I could rest for a couple of days. On the third day the pain was so strong that I had to ask to be put on the bigger raft, maybe there it wouldn't be so strenuous on my back. In fact it didn't hurt at all and I was able to enjoy the ride for a change.

I swapped with the two girls - Amanda and Jordie, who went on the Catamaran together. When we stopped for lunch it came up in the conversation that they didn't quite enjoy the type of conversation the guides were having on the raft, and that they were ready to go back to the bigger raft. Actually, I brought up the subject because I had noticed a bit of the frisky behavior of some of the guides towards the girls, especially the ones on the Catamaran who might think they're some kind of radical hot shots. Well, the right thing to do here was for me to offer to switch back, so pain or no pain I was back on the Catamaran.

Lucky for them, or lucky for me, or maybe for all of us, I don't know, all I know is that right after we switched we hit the biggest, most powerful rapid of the whole ride. The river followed a sharp right turn and then it narrowed significantly and at the same time it dropped. All so well disguised that it didn't look dangerous enough that we had to inspect and study the run beforehand, like we did on the other ones. When we realized how strong it was, it was too late. We started fighting the incoming masses of water and when I look up I see the big raft turned upside-down. After seeing them capsized we realized this was even more serious than it looked and started fighting just to keep the momentum going. Up to this day I still don't know where my strength came from considering how my back was feeling.

The guide kept screaming - "harder, harder, left-back, forward, harder". No matter what he said I just kept fighting, reaching forward to the waves trying to sink my paddle in the water before they could throw me off the raft. Then I see this huge drop right in front of me and I thought - "we're not gonna make it" - and then another one - "oh, come to papa baby, camon" - we went right by it, just missing it by a few inches. Massive waves of water kept coming from everywhere and throwing us from side to side like little puppets with such violence that a screw on my sunglasses jumped right out. I felt like there was nothing we could do, it didn't seem to matter whether we paddled on the right or on the left, but in the end we made it across. Had we fallen into that hole, I don't even wanna know what could have happened to us. At this point I knew I was ready to face any kind of rapid. Hell! We had just run a class 5 rapid.

Now the other guys were in the water, grabbing on to the life cord and drifting down stream. We threw a line at them that was tied to their raft and then pulled it to shore. Three of us had to climb on the capsized raft and flip it back over while all the others helped lifting it. By now I had forgotten all about my back pain but I knew that later it would hurt like hell.

Half way through the third day we stopped to visit this unusual sight, an old derelict palace built on a hill overlooking the river near the town of Ranighat, and still showing some of the splendor of its best days. This palace had been built in the 19th century by a former government minister who was exiled to this spot for plotting a coup. The whole thing just looked like something out of "Indiana Jones", with stone terraces and beautiful carved stone stairways coming right down to the water.

At the end of this day we were told that this trip would actually last only for 4 days instead of 5 days, I guess the 5th day is the trip from Kathmandu to Pokhara for those who came from Kathmandu. This was actually OK with me since my back was really hurting and I had reached the point where I could barely walk. Actually this was only a 3-day trip since our last day was just a nice, quite half hour ride through narrow, green, beautiful gorges and cooling water falls down its walls. But this was another great experience, a very much worthed rafting trip.

I was also under the impression that the pick-up van from the agency would be waiting at the end to take us back to Pokhara but nope. We had to catch a local bus and carry all the gear with us. This was another excellent, hilarious, out of this world, bus ride. I was getting accustomed to it but for everyone else on the group this was their first roof-top bus ride. It turn out to be the most comfortable so far. All the equipment that we were carrying served as padding and we could actually lay down on the roof, enjoy the ride and admire the landscape below. As usual the road followed a snaky road up and down the valleys and at one time or another the views were way below our feet.

Unfortunately all of this comfort didn't last long, a couple of hours into the ride we were sent inside by the police and everything looked more complicated. Needless to say that the bus was cramped with people, and bags, and little packages, and bigger ones, and more people.

- "How the heck are we gonna get in there? It's impossible!"

But, as we always say there's always room for one more. Luckily we were in Nepal so there was room for five more. Actually all the way in the back of the bus there wasn't anyone standing on the isle and so we managed to find ourselves a little room. It seems to me that the people over here don't know the concept of moving to the back of the bus.

After 5 long hours we arrived in Pokhara the city that has become so familiar to me, and I didn't waste any time in getting back to my home away from home, the New Tourist Guest House and its friendly staff. This time I wasn't lucky enough in getting a room. I kinda predicted this, I knew that Ultimate Descents had a rafting trip leaving tomorrow and they put all of their rafters in this Guest House, for the night. So I went across the street and found a very nice single room for only Rs50 a night.

Fortunately my camera seems to be working better tonight. My camera was the only thing in the "sealed barrel" that got wet when the raft flipped over yesterday. I had to pull the film out with 15 pictures still left, to see if I could still save the other ones. As a result, I don't have that many pictures of my first rafting experience - Oh well! It could be worse.

At night I was supposed to meet Amanda and Jordie for dinner, we kinda talked about it but I could never find them and so I ended up joining the New Tourist crowd. Again, I met some more people including this really funny Scottish guy named Stuart who had also just come from a rafting trip on the Kaligandaki, with Ultimate Descents. They even named a rapid after him "Mac Attack" - because like some of us, he went for a nice swim.

As I get to know better all of them, the more I enjoy being with them, especially the fact that they're all a bunch of sick puppies.

* *

woke up in the morning still feeling a lot of pain and went over to the New Tourist for breakfast. Collin is a masseur and offer to give me a back massage - "everything will help at this time. " It felt really good and it alleviated the pain a little. Then I went up to my good old room, this time I had to share it with Stu, but it was OK because he turned out to be a great room mate.

Later in the morning we all went out to order some t-shirts to give out as presents - I rented a bicycle again as this is the best form of transportation around Pokhara. Between the five of us I think we ordered something like 60 t-shirts. "I think I'm going to keep all mine instead, they look really nice and I don't have time to order more." I regretted not ordering more.

In the afternoon all we really did was hang out in the hotel and hop from restaurant to restaurant. Earlier in the morning we had asked for chocolate cake at the 'Old Viena Restaurant', supposedly the best chocolate cake in town. This place also has some of the best ice-cream in town and is conveniently located just around the corner from the New Tourist. Later in the afternoon we stopped by to get some of that cake and ended up buying the whole cake. The waiter didn't wanna believe that we wanted his whole cake, I guess he wanted to have some to show off but we didn't even give him a chance.

- "How many slices?" - he asked.
- "Uh, one, two, three, ...How much for the whole cake?"
- "All cake!?" - the waiter looking very surprised.
- "Yea, how much for the whole cake?"
- "Uh..." - He thought a bit - "200 rupees?" - he still wasn't very sure about it.
- "OK, bring it over to the table, and seven plates too please, and some tea."

Since Stu was leaving in the morning we all went out to dinner at "Once Upon a Time" where I ate the best Lasagna I ever tasted and we all had an awesome time. It was loads of fun to be with all of these people. There were seven of us: me, Stu, Collin, Brett, Raj, Marj, Valerie, and two other Aussies whom I didn't know but the guys did and they were also crazy enough to fit in the group. After dinner I was introduced to a new card game known as "Dick Head", a lot like the more famous "Asshole" but more simple and with a vocabulary to make a dead person blush.

* *

woke up really early this morning because Stu was leaving for Kathmandu. He left around 6am and I went back to sleep for one more hour. After breakfast we all went out to run a few last minute errands. I finally bought some Tetracycline while Collin and Raj went to get a hair cut. They love the hair dressers' over here, but I didn't really need one and so just sat there and watched it. The place was just a regular stall on the side of the road, open to the outside so every passerby can see what's going on - it gives a totally new meaning to window shopping. For the equivalent of just one dollar they give you a hair cut that also includes a head massage, and then if you ask for, they give you an half body massage while the customer rests his head on the shelf in front. You can also get a full body massage, there's a dark little room in the back for that procedure. A couple of days earlier they all went there for one, I guess they lined up outside and one by one got their massage. It was funny to see the admired faces of the tourists walking by and seeing us there.

For the rest of the morning we did nothing really. Well, we did our routine of riding our bikes from restaurant to restaurant or from cafe to cafe, and stuffed ourselves with all kinds of snacks. Actually we did that the whole day, with a break for lunch at Captain Cooks and an afternoon boat ride on the lake. The food at Captain Cooks was excellent as usual and after that we finally did what we'd been talking for days, we rented a boat for an hour or so and went for a ride on the lake.

Even though the water near the banks looks (and actually is) really disgusting, with all kinds of animal excrement (and maybe some human too), and a normal person would probably find it absolutely unthinkable, we went for a swim. And guess what? it felt great! We paddled our boat to the middle of the lake where the water looked much cleaner, and had quite some fun. Rising up from the water, at the center of the lake, is a little island with a pretty little temple. Even in this location, as in every temple, we found a group of Tibetan women selling souvenirs.

We met a few other people also in the lake, someone whom they had already met, and talked them into joining us for dinner tonight. We went for dinner at the Moondance, ironically the same one I had been to with Garry, Fiona, Khaled and Luis, a few weeks back. This time it was different, there was 13 of us and the restaurant was crowded, unlike before, prior to the start of the trekking season. We started pulling tables together and soon we were sitting at a long table and took over almost half of the restaurant.

Back in the New Tourist it was time for one last game of Dick Head in Pokhara. This time we had two more people, a couple of guys from England. The game was interrupted by a huge rain storm that drove us out of the verandah and into the house. We all stayed in Collin and Brett's room while the rain outside flooded the verandah. It was getting late but none of us was going to go anywhere, no matter how late it was. Getting soaked clothes on the last night would not give enough time to dry them until the morning and packing it would be a impossible. Well, the other two English guys decided to leave anyway, but they're not going anywhere tomorrow. Neither are Collin and Brett because they're still waiting to hear from their insurance company.

Both of them had planned to head out to India but since the Pneumonic plague broke out they decided not to risk it. Here in Nepal the news about it aren't very clear so no one really knows what's going on. Supposedly their insurance company is paying for them to skip India but they are still waiting to get a response. A few days back Collin started complaining about some itchy bug bites on his skin. He first thought was that it could be bed bugs but after he switched his mattress the problem continued. If it is really bed bugs it's kinda strange that his room mate Brett, who sleeps just 3 feet away from him, doesn't have any problems. So Collin decided to investigate the matter, and it was quite amusing to witness this bed bug hunt. At first he couldn't find anything wrong with his bed and we of course had to rag on him and make our wise cracks about the whole situation.

- "You see Collin, they only come when you're asleep. Why don't you pretend to go to sleep and turn the light off?"
I even got him the amplifying lens that's attached to my compass - "Use this," I said - "they're really tiny, this will help find them."

When the rain finally stopped it must have been past one o'clock in the morning, Raj, Marj and Valerie left and since we're leaving tomorrow early in the morning I thought it would be a good idea to pack my stuff now, before going to bed.

This was a great vacation. Pokhara absolutely deserves mark 10. I can't think of any other place where I'd rather be. So nice, quite, calm, relaxing - I could go on forever - but yet, exciting enough not to make it boring. The people I met here were all extremely super and I couldn't be luckier. I really want to come back, I really wish that Pokhara doesn't become just another spoiled tourist destination like so many others, even more that it already is. It would really be a shame.

* *

woke up at around 5:30 this morning and a few minutes later Marj was excitingly knocking on my door. I couldn't think of why in the hell she was doing that since it was still so early but since I was practically ready I went out. The minute I stepped outside I realized what was all the excitement about - today the sky is an absolute sea of light blue and the views are absolutely breathtaking. In the middle of all of these we woke up half of the hotel, including Brett and Collin, but no one seemed to mind. The reward was just unbelievably worth getting out of bed earlier.

Witnessing such a wonderful setting, the yellow bright sunrise reflect off the white snowy peeks that surround the city, was the best farewell to Pokhara we could ever had.

We all run over to the Guest House next door where Raj and Marj had been staying, because it has a much higher roof deck than ours, and watch the unique sight of a sunrise over the Himalayas - "There can't exist many more things more beautiful in this world."

But it was getting late and we did have breakfast waiting for us, and a bus to catch back to Kathmandu. Raj's and Marj's bus was already there, at the good old bus stop, and so they left right away. Mine didn't leave until about half an hour later. Also on the same bus were the three Kiwi girls that I had met the day before - Sue, Lisa and Carol. Really nice girls too, not so much into the crazy wave that our group goes for but I thought they had good potential to make it in our environment. I got the front seat next to the bus driver, right there where the action is. It didn't bother me, by now I'd gotten used to the driving habits of Nepal and I enjoyed the trip quite a lot. I had plenty of leg room, dozed off a couple of times, and talked to the girls most of the way. We talked so much that by the time we got to Kathmandu I felt like I knew them for months.

The bus ride lasted "only" 8 hours this time. That felt so incredibly quick, compared to the 13 hours of the ride to Pokhara three weeks ago. We had two rest (food) stops - one for lunch (Dahl Bhat) in Muglin, and one for tea (Coke) just outside Kathmandu. No one seemed the understand that last stop.

- "Why stop when we're just a few minutes away from Kathmandu?" - we asked.
- "It's tea time." - we were told. I guess tea time is more important in this country than keeping up with the schedule. Oh the wonders of Nepal.

Kathmandu is definitely a different city these days. There are tourists - I mean, real tourists - everywhere, the prices have doubled, and it's hard to find a good hotel room. The only good thing I noticed was that the piles of stinking garbage on the street corners have disappeared. Other than that, every extra day that I have to stay here is just a waste of time and money.

When we arrived at the hotel the receptionist was outside and immediately asked if we were friends of Stuart - "Yes Stuart" we said. Stuart had reserved a room for Raj and Marj but we never asked him to get one for us as well. The hotel was full with the exception of a triple room, which was perfect for the girls. Luckily Stu was around and I ended up sharing his room. This was definitely the best room I've stayed so far - for 200x rupees it had better be. Private bathroom with hot water, wall to wall carpet, a fan, and big enough for me to set up camp on the floor and for all of us to spend a couple of late nights playing Dick Head.

The first thing I did was to take a nice shower. Also, for the first time since I left Kathmandu I see a real toilet bowl again. I almost felt like taking a picture, so pretty, so shiny, so great.

Well, then I went out. I couldn't wait to see what was going on around the city. My first stop was of course - Pumpernickels, where I had a cup of tea with a couple of fresh baked croissants. Then I went around the corner to the office of Ultimate Descents to see if I could find Lee and Gary but they were out on a rafting trip and won't be back for another 10 days. I didn't really feel like walking so I came back to the hotel and waited around until dinner time.

A couple of days ago, in Pokhara, we all planned to meet tonight at Helena's for dinner, in case we wouldn't find each other here in Kathmandu. Stu was in charge of reserving a table for 7 o'clock, so at seven we all went to dinner. The food was pretty good and the banana cake was simply delicious. We all had western food of course, pizza, steak, pasta - you name it. A group of three English girls showed up and sat at our table. I didn't know them but I'm sure that someone on our group had met them before. I don't think they enjoyed our company so much, we're probably not sophisticated enough to be with them, especially if we're the kind that plays Dick Head at the dinner table. Oh well! That's the way we are and we're happy that way. We stayed at Helena's until as late as 10 o'clock - funny how time moves fast when you're having a good time.

* *

fter an excellent night of sleep, me, Raj, and Marj went to Pumpernickels for a delicious breakfast of fresh backed croissants, tea, and porridge. Over there I bumped into Robert and Patricia and they told me that they overheard the news that it has been difficult to cross overland into Tibet. Not such good news at this time of the day, I'm afraid. A few minutes later while strolling around Thamel, I bumped into Allen and he told me almost the same thing, but that we should find out more about it and meet later to talk about it. This is how the whole trip has been - no long term plan but yet a change of plans almost every day.

Today was also a local holiday and every office in town was closed. I needed to get an extension on my visa but I guess that will have to wait for now.

Later in the morning I went for a walk down to Durbar square with Stu, Raj and Marj, where we had some fun observing the flashy tourists in their big guided tour groups, taking pictures of everything that moves and buying anything that resembles a souvenir. We came back to KC's for lunch, a huge step down from Pumpernickels, very expensive and an horrible service.

In the afternoon I went to see what was the deal about going on to Tibet. I wanted to buy my ticket today but no luck. Student Travel said I could fly into Lhasa for $190 but I double checked with Tibet Travel and Tours, a specialized agent in tours to Tibet, and they said that the only way to get into Tibet from Nepal is with an organized tour group - Out of the question, way too expensive - "I'll keep trying and if worse comes to worse I'll fly back to Singapore." After all I still had that return ticket.

By now I was kind of disappointed. On the way back to the hotel I found Lisa, also strolling around. We both went for a walk through the clogged roads of Kathmandu, now much dustier because it rains less. Lisa has just come back from traveling in Africa, and so we talked about that. We chatted about school and what the heck are we gonna do with it. and we talked about our stay here in Nepal. I enjoyed this conversation a lot, she's a really nice girl.

But the streets were really crowded and I decided to cut through a back alley that took us through little inside patios where children played their games and where the crowded streets seemed like something far from reality, and narrow pathways where two people can barely walk side by side and the smell of clay bricks replace the smog and dust of the main squares.

Back at the hotel only Raj and Marj were there so the four of us went across the street for a mid-afternoon snack where I got a refreshing mocha milk shake and a creamy slice of chocolate cake.

At night I picked the restaurant to go for Stuart's going away dinner - The Clay Oven. It was slow as usual but is was delicious as always, and lots of fun. Having all this great people together really makes this trip special.

"Stuart's flight doesn't leave until tomorrow morning but the poor guy has to catch a taxi to the airport tonight at midnight and spend the night there just because the taxis don't run before 6 in the morning and he's terrified of missing his flight." After dinner we came back to our room for a few rounds of Dick Head, until it was time for Stu to leave. Guess what? He left Dick Head. That means that he lost three games in a row.

* *

woke up a bit later than usual today and took Raj and Marj, the only that were up, to my favorite breakfast restaurant - Alice's Restaurant. In my opinion they have the best set breakfasts in Kathmandu. A few minutes later the girls joined us and after that, already late into the morning, I went to get my visa extended.

I absolutely forgot that now we were in the peak of the tourist season but the huge crowd outside of the immigration office was a quick reminder. Fortunately there wasn't as much people on the visa's window as there was for trekking permits and it "only" took me one hour and a half to add 5 miserable days to my visa.

Behind me in line was a girl who had just come back from Tibet and gave me some good tips that were worth checking out, about traveling into Tibet. So in the afternoon I went back to Tibet Travel and Tours and came out with a much better price but still very steep for my budget - $315 just to put me on the other side of the border, by plane ticket of course.

We wanted to go to Baktapur this afternoon but instead we ended up seating on our butts at Pumpernickels most of the day. Oh, we did some of the usual shopping as well - t-shirts, t-shirts, and more t-shirts.

Later in the day we went for a snack back at Alice's Restaurant and after that, at 7 o'clock went next door to the office of Ultimate Descents to watch their slide show - "The Road to Lhasa." This was my second time watching it and it was still interesting to see, except that now there was much more people in the room and we all had to stand. I had also planned with Allen to meet here to talk about our trip to Tibet but in the end neither of us had been able to find a cheap enough method to get to the other side. "So, as of tonight, going to Tibet is out of the question and most probably I'll go back to Singapore on Sunday, the day after tomorrow."

After the show we all went back to Alice's for some food but instead we got only dessert and a drink. All except Lisa, who had to go to bed because she wasn't feeling too god. I felt really sorry for her, the poor girl has asma(sp?) as well as some king of lung problem and she's having a really hard time here, with all of this dust floating in the air.

I believe she must feel even worse just for the fact that she's suppose to be on vacation and enjoying herself but instead, she keeps running to her room because she feels sick. I kinda know how she feels, I had to go through almost the same situation when I hurt my back on that rafting trip. So after dinner, before I returned to my room I picked her up a slice of banana cake at Helena's, Lisa's favorite cake.

Back at the hotel, we went up to Raj and Marj's room for the usual few rounds of Dick Head. Earlier this morning when I woke up, I overheard the lady that was staying next door, complain to the staff about all the noise we made last night when we were all in the room playing Dick Head, so we decided to move to a different location tonight.

I don't think the staff explained to her that we were celebrating Stu's last night but anyway, who cares. The funny thing is that tonight there's some kind of party going on in a bar right outside her window, and the music is really loud. She must be loving this place!

* *

his morning we all went for breakfast across the street, to the same outdoor cafe where I had my first meal here in Kathmandu. Lisa had a really bad night and she still wasn't feeling good enough so she stayed in bed most of the morning.

Breakfast was pretty good but most importantly, the outdoor atmosphere was extremely pleasant and relaxing. We all spent most of the day wondering around like zombies, with no plans and nothing to do. Me, Raj and Marj spent the day alternating between a few games of Dick Head at the hotel, and last minute souvenir shopping.

We also arranged to have a mini-van take us for a ride to Nagarkot and Baktapur. Around 3 o'clock we all met up at the travel agent next door where we had talked earlier and headed out. About an hour and a half later the driver dropped us off in a little mountain village where we continued on foot, just a few meters, to a newly, beautifully built, modern restaurant with an outstanding view. This was Nagarkot, not the restaurant but the place. Located way up on a ridge about 40 Km's East of Kathmandu, the view from here is said to be so outstanding that on a clear day one can see the whole Himalayan range all the way to Mt. Everest. Well, today wasn't like that, it wasn't too cloudy really, but it was hazy enough to cover the high peaks so the view wasn't that spectacular.

They do have a really nice restaurant up on top, with outside tables, as well as an inside glass walled dining room, where the service is nothing less than first class. The place is extremely clean and very well taken care of, but all of this has a price and therefore the menu was a bit overpriced for Nepalese standards. It was also the first time that I saw a very well dressed, suit-and-tie man, here in Nepal. Across from the restaurant they're building a hotel as well. This is all very nice but who is going to use it? Not the Nepalese, nor the backpackers that's for sure.

On the way back we stopped at Baktapur's Durbar Square, no doubt the best square so far when it comes to temples. Unfortunately the sun had just gone down which wasn't so good for pictures. The sky still fiery red sheltered the empty square and the opulent stone temples, to give this place an even more mythical appearance.

There is some kind of gate to the square and a sign shows the entrance fee of 50 rupees. While me and Raj were a bit apprehensive of whether we should pay or not, the girls just walked right in and of course, we followed. Although this is a very popular tourist spot, this is also a public square, and I think it kind of beats the purpose of being a public square if you have to pay to get in. Well, obviously that's not the officials point of view but despite all their calling and shouting, we just kept on walking and pretended we didn't hear them.

I've had enough of this crap that tourists have to pay more than locals. Today was my last day and it's about time I do something against that hidden rule. We quietly walked around the empty square and admired the beauty of its mythical buildings and statues. Soon the sky had turn into a sea of blackness dotted by the millions of bright stars and the moon rose from behind the old roofs. It was time to get back to Thamel.

After a quick shower, me, Raj, Marj and Carol went out to dinner to a very nicely decorated restaurant - the Roadhouse Cafe. This was one of those restaurants that I walked by everyday and wonder how would be like, but never actually went in. Well, tonight we did and what a wonderful surprise it was! The dinning room upstairs overlooks the main street outside and is decorated in such a way that brings out the atmosphere of colonial English club in the land of the far east. The staff always very attentive and the excellent food made this a very special place for our last dinner in this very special country. The restaurant was unusually calm tonight and our conversation just spilled into the night.

I got to know these wonderful people even better after tonight's dinner. I enjoyed very much chatting with them and sharing each others life stories. I loved talking with Carol about her experiences in Africa - she has just come from there and I lived there and love that land as much as anything else. It was good to hear fresh comments about what is going on there.

Really nice girl this Carol, very simple and polite. She comes from a very hardworking family, her father was a farmer in New Zealand. It kinda reminds me of my parents who worked they way up from almost nothing, to give me the opportunity to have this wonderful experience.

We all shared our plans for the future, not that any of us really had any. I don't think many of the people I met here are the kind of people who'd want to make plans for their life, to settle down and build a career, but deep inside we all know that sooner or later that's bound to happen.

Raj and Marj are an excellent couple, they seem like a role model to me. I don't think there's anything else that I could say to show my appreciation for their friendship.

Really nice people I met here, I never get tired of saying how lucky I was for meeting these wonderful people who call themselves travelers. I feel honored to be amongst them and I sure hope we get to see each other again.

After dinner as always, it was time for a few rounds of Dick Head over at Raj and Marj's room, before I went to bed. I had a very hard time falling asleep tonight, I believe it was a combination of excitement (disappointment?) for going back tomorrow, and the horrible return of my allergy. I had a stuffed nose all night and kept sneezing constantly. At about 2 in the morning I was still wide awake, which pissed me off, but soon I finally fell asleep.

* *

woke up very early, left a note under Raj and Marj's door and went down to Alice's for breakfast. Carol left earlier this morning to Bangkok and since the girls were awake I stopped by on the way to see if they were ready for breakfast. Nope!

So I went down by myself and enjoyed a very slow, relaxing, delicious breakfast with fleshly squeezed orange juice, while reading the local newspaper. A few minutes latter the whole gang showed up, this has definitely been the best breakfast place around, not just for its quality but for its value as well.

After breakfast, while they all went to pack, I went for some last minute shopping. I also needed to change some money in order to pay my hotel bill and departure tax at the airport.

We had arranged with the same people who took us to Nagarkot, to take us to the airport in the mini-van. Well, at eleven o'clock sharp we all met downstairs but there was no sign of a driver or a mini-van of some sort. Surprise, surprise!

We waited a few minutes but nothing. So we decided to walk over to the taxi stand down the street. By now we all had more luggage than we should but we managed to walk the short distance, past Thamel's main street where we were quickly spotted by the many drivers of various kinds of transportation that exist in this city.

- "Need taxi? Where you going?"
- "Airport. Can you take us there?" - we said.
- "Yes, come with me." - he excitedly directed us to his small, beat up Toyota.
- "We have five people. Can you fit 5 people in your taxi?" - Dumb question! All this time in Nepal and I didn't learn anything.
- "Yes, 5 people OK. Come with me." - Obvious answer. Why didn't that surprise me? I guess some of these people are so desperate for our money that they don't even think before acting. The trunk wasn't even big enough to fit two backpacks and this guy wanted to take the five of us? You gotta love their attitude.
- "No problem!" - He said.
- "No problem my ass, there is no way we can possibly fit the 5 of us plus our luggage in that little Toyota." - So me and Raj caught a Tuk-Tuk while the girls went in the taxi.

Luckily it turn out to be a short 15 minute ride and at the airport everything was also surprisingly fast. They checked my bag right away even though I didn't have an OK on my ticket. We had about an hour and a half, as well as a few rupees to spare, and went upstairs to the restaurant. Ordered a couple of mineral water bottles, a few shamuses, and certainly enough, played a few last games of Dick Head.

The restaurant looked nice but after being in there for a while I noticed it was just appearance and nothing else. It was overpriced - after all this is an airport restaurant - and the service was terrible. But the chairs, which were actually couches, were very comfortable and so we stayed there.

The time to say good-bye finally came, all of a certain I felt a knot in my stomach and wasn't feeling so happy no more. I guess I didn't think this day would ever arrive.

It's been a great month, maybe the best of my life and these people were and will always be part of it. The bond we've created amongst ourselves goes behind our understanding. Maybe we were just at the right place, at the right time, or maybe it was because we were all on the same boat, away from home in a strange but yet wonderful place. All I know is that while I was here I got to love a few people, and maybe even got to hate a few, but above all I'll always remember the kindness, hospitality, and generosity, present in the hearts of everyone I met.

I kissed the girls good-bye, shook Raj's hand, sadly raised my hand to wave good-bye as I walked away, turned around - and that was it.

Some of them I might not ever see again, although I hope I'm wrong about it. I know this is a big world but as I'm now finding out, it can never be too big.

Downstairs while waiting to go through immigration I didn't realize that I had to fill a disembarkation card, so when I got to the counter I was sent back to the end of the line where I had to fill one up.

Their flight was leaving just half an hour after mine so I got to see them once again before I had to literally run to the plane. While I was waiting to get through immigration, standing in line leaning against a pole, someone came from behind me and pinched me in the butt. I guess that was Lisa's way of saying good-bye one last time.

Going back to the end of the line made me be the last person for that flight. Actually, I believe everyone else was already on the plane since the ground staff excitingly shouted for me and hurriedly directed me for the plane. When I finally got to my seat I looked around and noticed that the plane wasn't anywhere close to be full and I had a whole row of seats to myself.

It finally dawned on me that one of my long time dreams had been achieved and how I owe it all to my parents. Sadly I had to leave my new found friends and this wonderful country called Nepal behind, but I made a promise to myself that this is one of the few places where I would one day return. I don't share this opinion alone, I believe it is common for people who are fortunate enough to visit Nepal, to make a promise to come back. Lisa thinks that way too, maybe we'll meet here again, who knows?

As my plane rolled out, I see them board their Thai Airways flight. Sue and Lisa turn around and wave me good-bye, maybe hopping I would see them. That touched me very deeply and tears came to my eyes and that's when I realized that they might just miss me as much as I'll miss them, and no matter how much that might hurt, it also makes me feel happy to know that somewhere out there, there is someone who misses me. That is how I remember them right now, waving good-bye from the top of the stairs of a Thai Airways plane.

I tried to wave good-bye with my little red bag but I don't think they saw me. Hopefully I'll be able to see Lisa and Carol once again when they visit Singapore in a couple of months.

After taking off and high above the clouds we were able to get a bird's eye view of the Himalayan range, including Mount Everest. I thought I'd leave Nepal without seeing the highest mountain in the world. The views were actually quite impressive but it didn't take long until I started talking about Nepal in the past tense.

We had a short stopover in Dacca before continuing to Singapore. On this last part of the flight I started to feel worse about my allergy which had now turned into a very bad cold, and by the time I arrived in Singapore I just wanted to go to bed and close my eyes.

I called home from the airport but nobody was there. The same when I got there, so I went to the security guard and called one of our friends. I figured if my parents weren't there at least they would know where they were. My mom was there but my father was flying - to LA I believe. When she came home she looked as surprised as she sounded on the phone, for having me back, since I had written on the postcards not to expect me so soon. She was even more shocked when she realized how dirty my clothes were and that I hadn't shaved for days.

- "You came on the plane looking like that??" - she asked.

It is not possible to explain to someone else what I'd been through in these past five weeks. There are no words to describe my feelings or to explain why I did it. People often ask me - "Why did you do it? Why Nepal?". I don't know, I just knew I had to go there. I just knew that something was waiting for me there, but you know what? I still haven't been able to figure out what that something was.

I realize now that I am a traveler. I've gotten to know the difference between a tourist and a traveler but no one can put it in better words than Paul Theroux in "The happy isles of Oceania":

That's right, that's how I see myself right now. Maybe someday I'll know where I'm going but for now, I'll just try to follow my dreams and make the best out of every day. And today was no exception, today was just another good day.