A Visit to Nepal Scott A. Yost October 23 - December 6, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This journal contains a detailed account of my trip to Nepal in the autumn of 1994. After a brief stay in Kathmandu, I went to the Everest region for three weeks of trekking. I returned to Kathmandu the day after the November elections, and then went to the Annapurnas for ten more days of trekking. Finally, I visited the Royal Chitwan National Park in the Terai region for some excellent wildlife viewing. It was a wonderful and memorable trip, and I am certain I will return. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents Preparations 2 October 23 - Leave Knoxville for Frankfurt on Delta Airlines, via Cincinnati 5 October 24 - Fly from Frankfurt to Delhi on Delta Airlines 5 October 25 - Fly from Delhi to Kathmandu on Indian Airlines 6 October 26 - Make trekking arrangements, tour Kathmandu Durbar Square 8 October 27 - Visit Swayambhunath (the `Monkey Temple') and interview guide 12 October 28 - Final trekking arrangements, visit Bhaktapur 15 October 29 - Fly to Lukla for Everest trek, walk to Phakding 17 October 30 - Walk to Namche Bazaar 18 October 31 - Stay at Namche Bazaar, day hike to Everest View Hotel 20 November 1 - Walk to Tengboche 22 November 2 - Stay in Tengboche, visit monastery 25 November 3 - Walk to Dingboche 26 November 4 - Stay in Dingboche, climb hill for views 27 November 5 - Walk to Lobuje 29 November 6 - Walk to Gorak Shep, climb Kala Pattar (18,450 ft) 30 November 7 - Return to Dingboche 33 November 8 - Walk to Phortse via Upper Pangboche 34 November 9 - Walk to Dole 35 November 10 - Sick day in Dole 37 November 11 - Walk to Machhermo 37 November 12 - Walk to Gokyo 39 November 13 - Climb Gokyo Ri (17,990 ft), return to Machhermo 40 November 14 - Return to Namche Bazaar via Khumjung 42 November 15 - Return to Lukla (election day) 44 November 16 - Unsuccessful attempt to get plane to Kathmandu 45 November 17 - Return to Kathmandu 47 November 18 - Arrange Annapurna trek, visit Patan, dinner with Lal 50 November 19 - Fly to Pokhara for Annapurna Trek, walk from Birethanti to Hille 53 November 20 - Walk to Ghorepani 55 November 21 - Climb Poon Hill for views, walk to Tadapani 57 November 22 - Walk to Chhomrong 59 November 23 - Walk to Dovan 60 November 24 - Walk to Annapurna Base Camp 62 November 25 - Descend to Bamboo 63 November 26 - Walk to Hot Spring, visit the spring 65 November 27 - Visit hot spring again, walk to Landrung 67 November 28 - Walk to Dhampus, take taxi to Pokhara 68 November 29 - Rest day in Pokhara, bicycling, boat rowing on Lake Phewa 70 November 30 - Return to Kathmandu, arrange Chitwan trip 72 December 1 - Bus to Royal Chitwan National Park, explore Sauraha 75 December 2 - Canoe ride, jungle walk, elephant ride 78 December 3 - Elephant ride, bicycling, canoe ride, jungle walk 81 December 4 - Elephant Breeding Center, return to Kathmandu 85 December 5 - Visit Pashupatinath and Bodhnath, lunch with Lal, fly to Delhi 87 December 6 - Fly to Frankfurt, then Cincinnati, then Knoxville 90 This is an unembellished transcript of the journal I kept during the trip. Any errors have been intentionally maintained to accurately reflect my impressions at the time. Copyright 1994, Scott A. Yost. All rights reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Preparations ------------ Although I have traveled extensively around the U.S. and Canada, this year I felt it was time to do something a little different, a little more adventurous. It was time to see some of the rest of the world, and experience a less familiar culture. I had accumulated quite a few days of vacation while working in the physics department at the University of Tennessee for three years, especially since I had taken almost no vacation during my first year. It was time to use them for something interesting. My parents and brother both went to Europe this year, but I had in mind something more exotic. In April, at a meeting of the University of Tennessee Canoe and Hiking Club, two visitors gave a slide show which made it clear where I would want to go. They were two students from the University of Georgia, who had set up an adventure travel agency, and they came to show slides from Nepal, where they would organize two treks in the fall. These treks lasted about four weeks each, and cost over $4000. They were fully organized camping trips, with porters and yaks and cooks. The scenery was spectacular, and the exotic cultures of the people living in the mountains there, between India and Tibet, were fascinating. Someday I would have to go to Nepal. I immediately began to buy books on Nepal, and sent inquiries out on the rec.travel computer newsgroup to try to find people who had been to Nepal. I learned that the best time to go was in October or November, so if I wanted to go, now was the best time, before I found a faculty position and would be teaching then. Summer is the worst time of the year to go to Nepal, since that is the monsoon season. It also became clear that to go with a fully organized trip from the U.S. would cost thousands of dollars more than going independently. Since I prefer independent travel anyway, and since Nepal has a reputation for being a very safe country, I decided to go alone. Some of the people who I contacted by computer confirmed that this was a perfectly reasonable way to go. I decided I would stay six weeks, since that would give me plenty of time for a trek in the Everest region, as well as time to see some of the rest of Nepal. I didn't schedule the rest of the trip, apart from the Everest trek, in detail, since I didn't know what kind of travel delays I might encounter. I thought I might visit the Annapurna region for a short trek if I still felt like walking when I returned from the Everest region. I also wanted to visit the Royal Chitwan National Park, in a jungle area of Nepal, which is said to be Asia's best wildlife preserve, with tigers, rhinoceroses, elephants, monkeys and crocodiles. In May, I obtained a passport, and began stocking up on backpacking equipment, since mine was very old and in poor condition. My main purchase was a Dana Design Arclite Glacier pack, a sturdy mid-sized pack, which I bought specifically with the trip to Nepal in mind. I also bought a tent, which I did not yet know whether I would need in Nepal, but would be useful for backpacking in the Smokies. Later, I also bought a Marmot Kestrel down sleeping bag, rated 5 degrees F, since I felt my old one probably was not adequate. On the Fourth of July weekend, immediately following the end of our particle theory group's Radiative Corrections symposium at the Park Vista Hotel in Gatlinburg, I went to Cosby for a four day backpacking loop in the Smoky Mountains to begin getting in shape for the Nepal trip. I carried a 40 pound pack, and it went quite well, except for some soreness in my knee, which I injured slightly last fall while rafting on the Ocoee. I bought a very nice, adjustable walking stick to help with the knee, which had less problems after that. I also discovered a leak in the Gore-Tex liner or one of my Merrill boots, which were less than a year old, and had to return them. They were eventually replaced with a slightly different style with possibly better reinforcement in the toe, but I had to wait until the end of August for them, and in the mean time, hiked in my cave boots, which were neither waterproof nor very comfortable. On my second overnight hike, I encountered a bear while having lunch near Siler's bald on the Appalachian Trail. It walked up behind me while I was eating, and stole my new backpack. It did not carry it far, and I was able to chase it off by yelling at it. There was no food in the pack, since I had it with me for lunch, and I was fortunate to get the pack back undamaged, except for a lot of bear slobber. In July, some political trouble occurred in Nepal which made me wonder whether I should reconsider my trip. The prime minister abruptly resigned, and elections were called for November, when I would be visiting. Attempts were made to exclude the Communist party from the elections, and this led to general strikes, or `Nepal Bandhs' in Kathmandu and the surrounding area, which were very disruptive for several days. Some demonstrations had to be broken up by police, and there were curfews in Kathmandu. If the Communists were unhappy with the conduct or outcome of the November election, it seemed possible that such events could be repeated during my visit. I followed the situation for several weeks in the soc.culture.nepal newsgroup, and it seemed to improve. Also, people who I contacted who had experienced political trouble in Nepal earlier, such as the 1990 democratic revolution, said such things usually have little effect on foreigners, as long as they use some common sense and stay out of the demonstrations. There could possibly be some delays, however. In August, I decided that these problems were no reason to cancel my trip, and started shopping for a plane ticket. It was already getting late to find a flight into Kathmandu during the peak season. I eventually found a fairly reasonable flight on Delta Airlines, through Cincinnati and Frankfurt to New Delhi, where I would take an Indian Airlines flight to Kathmandu. These flights cost about $1600. The pacific routes were more expensive, and had long layovers in Hong Kong or Bangkok. I could have found a $1300 flight on Gulf Air, but it made several stops in the Persian Gulf before arriving in New Delhi, and took three days, so I decided it was not worth the trouble. Also, I had heard people who had mixed experiences with Gulf Air, although they mostly occurred some time ago, so the problems may have been solved by now. The travel agency, Travel Concepts in Knoxville, books a lot of flights to India because it is owned by an Indian man who knows the area well, and Gulf Air is the cheapest way to get there, so they book many of their flights on that airline, and they say it is fine. The owner of the agency was trekking in India last year. He gave me some advice on finding a hotel when I arrived in Kathmandu. I also bought a round-trip ticket from Kathmandu to Lukla, where I would begin my trek, for $166. In August, I also began my immunizations. I got a polio booster, and then went to the county health department for a series of shots for typhoid, meningitis, and rabies. The rabies vaccine was somewhat more optional than the others, but I had read that there were a lot of dogs in Nepal, and there is rabies in the area, so I wanted to be safe. I took practice hikes almost every weekend throughout the summer and fall. By my final hike, one week before leaving for Nepal, I felt I was in pretty good shape. On this hike, I carried a 60 pound pack up one of the biggest climbs in the Smokies, the Baxter Creek Trail, which gains 4100 feet in 6 miles. I hiked 24 miles in all that weekend, and brought my new Olympus Infinity Zoom camera to test with slide film, since I planned to bring a small second camera to Nepal to take slides I could show to the Canoe and Hiking Club when I returned. I normally don't like to take the trouble to view slides, which are expensive in any case, so I brought my Nikon camera as well with print film. The leaves were very beautiful this weekend, and while photographing them from the Mt. Sterling fire tower, I lost a nut from the shutter release button on my Nikon camera. Fortunately, I was able to find a replacement the next week, before I left for Nepal. When I developed my slides, I found that the Olympus camera has a serious flare problem, but hoped it could be avoided if I shielded the lens from direct light. Finally, after months of preparation, reading guide books, getting immunizations, shopping for plane tickets, and taking practice hikes, the time came for the trip. Just before leaving, I bought $2000 worth of traveler's checks at the AAA office, and had my final injection, immune globin for hepatitis A at the health department. I also filled all the prescriptions for my medical kit, which included two altitude sickness medications and four antibiotics. These included doxycycline, which I was bringing to prevent malaria when visiting Chitwan National Park in the jungle, and for treatment of pneumonic plague, a more serious form of bubonic plague, which was causing a scare at the time in India, including New Delhi, where I would be spending some time between flights. I mailed a copy of my itinerary to my parents, although it was somewhat tentative at the time. I felt that I was ready to go, but could not be sure, since I had never done anything like this before. October 23 ---------- I didn't sleep all last night in anticipation of this trip. There were some last minute concerns over exactly what I should pack, and whether I really knew what I was getting myself into. It was warm as the taxi took me to the airport for the 7:15 PM flight, which began with a short leg to Cincinnati. I would be taking Delta Airlines to Delhi, then Indian Airlines to Kathmandu. As I boarded the plane, I noticed that my Nikon camera was missing: I almost left it on the seat in the boarding area. My backpack just barely fit in the overhead compartment. In Cincinnati, I only had 45 minutes to make the connection to Frankfurt, but the plane arrived on time and this turned out to be no problem. The flight to Frankfurt was very long, and I slept a lot. We saw an in-flight movie, Renaissance Man with Danny DeVito. October 24 ---------- We arrived in Frankfurt at about 10 AM, in the new terminal there. I had to wait until 1:45 PM for the flight to Delhi. This flight turned out to be at most half full. The pneumonic plague epidemic in India probably scared people off. When I booked the flight, the only window seat was just in front of the smoking section, and now plenty of them were vacant. Most of the center seats were vacant as well, which was nice, because it was possible to stretch out across them for a nap on the long flight. Dinner included an Indian selection, which was not bad for airplane food. I slept through the in-flight movie. I got out my guide books and started looking for possible hotels to stay at when I arrived in Nepal. I selected about five mid-priced hotels which looked promising, all in the Thamel area, the center of tourist activity. October 25 ---------- The flight arrived in Delhi at 1 AM, where it was very warm and humid. The terminal was new, but somewhat decayed looking in places, perhaps due to shoddy construction or the climate. The airport is very confusing. As I left the plane, it was not clear what to do, since the only place to go is customs. All other ways out were blocked by police. However, I was not supposed to go through customs, since I was in transit and do not have an Indian visa. A customs officer directed me to some seats off to the side, and told me to wait there until someone brought me my baggage. Several other people from other flights eventually showed up, all going to Nepal. I talked to a German who was doing a two week solo trek in the Everest region, where I was going as well. His trek begins a day later than mine, but we could meet in Namche Bazaar, since I have an extra day there. The others were a couple from Holland, who had no detailed plans yet. The German had done a previous solo trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary, and recommended it, especially for the view you get from Ghorepani by taking a short detour on the way back to Pokhara. After about an hour, an Indian Airlines representative appeared, and escorted me upstairs to the main terminal area, where someone brought me my suitcase. I still had an eleven hour wait ahead for my flight to Kathmandu. There were a lot of police around, and the terminal was open only to travelers, so I decided it was safe enough to try to get some sleep. I got a little. The terminal was full of people waiting for Nepal connections, many with huge stacks of baggage. Cats roamed around the airport, and some birds flew about, around the ceiling and through the doors. A cat took a drink from the water fountain, which was dripping. I didn't see any rats, whose fleas carry the plague. After a while, I got out my plane ticket to check the departure time, and noticed that my tickets for the flights from Kathmandu to Lukla and back were missing. (Lukla is where I would begin my trek in the Everest region.) I searched my luggage a several times for them, but could not find them, and I began to suspect that these tickets, which were not stapled to the others, had been left on the plane on one of my flights. I still had the photocopies, and would have to see if I could use these, since they seemed to be all I had. The German and the Dutch couple eventually showed up as well. When time finally came to check our baggage for the flight to Kathmandu, the German man woke me up, and I followed his lead, since there were no signs saying where to check baggage, and there were no airline representatives in sight. The only officials were police, who didn't all speak English, at least apparently. Then we went through security, which is very tight in the Delhi airport. The guard tried to tell me the X-ray was safe for film, as a sign there claimed, but I persisted, and he passed it through by hand. I was carrying the forty rolls of film I brought in a mesh bag to facilitate inspections. No one ever looked at my passport in India, however, as they did before I boarded the other international flights. There was a horde of Nepalese U.N. troops on our flight, returning from Somalia. One sat next to me. I had the window seat on the Himalayan side, for excellent mountain views. The Nepalese soldier pointed out peaks for me, and I let him lean over to take some pictures out the window. I asked which was Mt. Everest, but he insisted that you couldn't see it from here. When we arrived at the impressive, new brick and glass international terminal in Kathmandu, I first exchanged $50 for rupees at the bank window, to have some spending money. Then I filled out a short arrival card to go through immigration, and a card asking questions about whether I was at risk for the plague. It listed symptoms and gave instructions for treatment. After having my visa stamped, I went downstairs to go through customs. There, I was simply asked whether I had a video or movie camera, and when I said no, they marked my bags with chalk. They have a fee for video cameras. The departure area was full of people promoting their hotels, and taxi drivers trying to solicit passengers. When I went to the tourist information desk, a representative of Hotel Manang offered me a deluxe mini-suite for $30, a large discount from the published rate of $65. I checked my guide book, and it said that this hotel "had it all", and that his claim that the room should cost $65 a night was true, so I went with him. I had not included such expensive hotels on the list I made on the airplane, but for $30, it sounded like a good deal. A child tried to get some money to carry my suitcase, but I ignored him, and we drove to the hotel. The Nepalese drive on the left, but most roads in Kathmandu barely have one lane, and are really chaotic, full of pedestrians and animals such as dogs and cows. People drive like crazy and blow their horns a lot to clear the way. It was an exciting ride, watching pedestrians jump out of our way (an important survival skill here), and narrowly avoiding on-coming vehicles. The big multi-lane roads are just as chaotic, but without pedestrians and at higher speed. We drove by the Royal Palace and stopped at the northern end of Thamel, the tourist district. The hotel was set back in a courtyard and looked impressive. There was an intricate Newari wood carving in the center of the elaborately decorated wood and brass lobby. As we took the elevator to the top floor to see the room, the hotel representative told me he was a Buddhist. The room was not exactly a suite, but a large room with a living-room section with a couch and chair, and a bedroom section with two beds, a chair and a dresser. It also had a private bath with a tub and shower, a phone, satellite TV, a wet-bar with alcoholic and soft drinks (at reasonable prices), and heating and air-conditioning. These features make it a luxury room by Nepalese standards, and the price reflects this, since it is not unusual to find decent but basic rooms, with shared bath, in Kathmandu for around $5 a night. It would be impossible to find a room this nice in America for $30. I signed up for two nights, the maximum available. This hotel was often filled by tour groups, I was told. The hotel representative who brought me here took me to meet a trekking agent, who turned out to be his younger brother, the owner of Himalayan Waves Trekking, a short walk down the street. He said I could hire a guide/porter for $30 a day, which would include all of my and his expenses, except the bar bill, which includes any cold drinks purchased on the trek. My guide would handle all of the arrangements for me. I had only two days to set things up, so I had to make a decision quickly. It was already after 5 PM, and offices would be closed in an hour, at dusk. I had to give the agent a $100 deposit to cover the cost of getting a plane ticket for my guide and a trekking permit for me, and paying the entrance fee for Sagarmatha National Park, which contains Mt. Everest. (Sagarmatha is the local name for Mt. Everest.) The agency would also see if they could take care of my lost plane ticket, and I left the photocopies with them. I went back to my room with a boy from the agency, and gave him a traveler's check, my passport, and two passport photos, which were needed to complete the trekking arrangements. I could decide later whether to actually hire the guide, when I interviewed him. If I chose not to hire him, I would lose the cost of his ticket, but this was only about $50, since the Nepalese pay less than foreigners for airline tickets. Hiring a guide through an agency increases the safety of the trek, and can simplify lodging and meal arrangements, since they should know good places. However, it triples the cost of the trek, and can limit one's flexibility, since the guide may have definite ideas about where he wants to stop each day. When I returned to the hotel, it was already dusk. Inside the hotel, the electricity had just gone off, and the staff was lighting candles. I became suspicious about my choice of hotel, until I learned that this was a scheduled power outage which affected the whole area, except for people with generators. Apparently a hydro-electric dam was low on water, and there were two-hour power outages every Tuesday and Friday evening to conserve electricity. This hotel turned out to have a generator, but it took them a while to get it working. Once it was on, I took my valuables down to the safety deposit locker and checked them. By the time I went out to dinner, it was dark. I walked down into the center of Thamel looking for Indian food. The street was unusually dark due to the power outage, but by the time I settled on a restaurant around 8 PM, the lights had come on again. I chose The Third Eye, which was supposed to be good and had an Indian menu. It was crowded and I had a long wait. I was eventually seated at a table with two other parties. One was another solo trekker, who had just done most of the Annapurna Circuit before cutting it short in Jomsom due to an ankle injury. He advised against hiring a guide because "they can't tell you anything anyway, they are inflexible, and just get in the way." He said he never once felt unsafe hiking alone, but that he hired a porter for the Thorung La pass, the most difficult part. He said he had heard of people being robbed by their porter, so he was most concerned about this part. In fact, hiking alone seems to be especially popular with German trekkers, who value their solitude. Since he couldn't walk anymore, this German was preparing for a rafting trip on the Sunkosi. The meal, tandoori chicken tikka masala, was fairly bland for Indian food, and the serving was small. I also ordered some naans. At about $5, the meal was rather expensive by Kathmandu standards. When I finished dinner, it was already 10 PM. We had been talking a long time. Almost nothing in Kathmandu is open at this hour, so I returned to the hotel. Since it was only 11:15 AM back home, I was not very sleepy, and spent a few hours practicing packing my backpack for the trek. It was somewhat heavier than I hoped it would be. I adjusted the aluminum stay in the pack to make it more comfortable. This is a difficult adjustment, involving bending the metal to fit the shape of my back, which I had never managed to do properly until now. When I went to bed, sleeping was somewhat difficult, partly because it was daytime back home, and partly because Nepalese beds have no springs, just a mattress on a wooden platform, so they are rather hard. October 26 ---------- Sounds started coming through the window early. I had been up late, so I didn't pay much attention, but I noticed a melody playing, perhaps over a loudspeaker in a bell tower. It repeated a couple times. The simple, haunting, and stayed in my memory.* I wondered if it had some special significance. The sounds of traffic picked up quickly, and became harder to ignore. I was glad, at least, that my window faced away from the main street. I got up late and showered. Hot water took some time to arrive. The tap water was cloudy and yellowish, but a pitcher of clear drinking water was provided. This water is usually filtered, but not necessarily safe to drink. I purified some with iodine and used it to brush my teeth. There was an impressive view to the west from my room on the top floor of the hotel, and I could see Swayambhunath, the `Monkey Temple', on a hill in the distance. People were preparing breakfast on patios of the apartments below, which looked rather poor and run-down to me. Laundry hung on many rooftops, and I noticed that the upper floors of many buildings had been left unfinished, with concrete reinforcing bars protruding from the top. I got out my camera and took some pictures out the window. I then went down the street to Pilgrim's Bookstore, a nice shop, which will also deliver mail to the post office for free. I bought some postcards and went to an outdoor cafe for an omelet and to write some of the cards. I would send cards to my parents, brother, the physics department, and the Canoe and Hiking Club. I was sitting in the hotel lobby with my guide book making plans for the day when a man came up to me and said he was from the trekking agency, and I had to come with him immediately to Royal Nepal Airline's ticket office, because there was a problem with my ticket. He had come by motor-scooter, so I got on the back for a hair-raising ride to the ticket office. The motor-scooters in Kathmandu are particularly aggressive. At the ticket office, my guide talked to the reservation man in Nepali, and through him, I learned that they would not accept the photocopies for a domestic flight, although they would have for an international flight. They suggested that I file a police report, although I couldn't figure out how this would help, since the tickets were lost, not stolen, and were in another country anyway. I asked them whether the reservation was on the computer, and was told that I did not have a valid ticket to begin with because, as far as I could tell, there was some problem matching the name on the ticket to the name on the computer. I would have to buy another ticket. I tried to get some written proof of the problem so I could show it to the travel agent at home, but they would not provide any. The Royal Nepal Airline officials are indifferent bureaucrats who have no concept of `customer service' and conveniently become unable to understand English when it suits them. To have space for my guide, I had to get the ticket for a day later than I originally planned. The man who brought me here would obtain the ticket for me, and I could pay later, since I did not bring enough money with me to pay for the $166 ticket now. After riding back to the hotel, I finished writing the postcards and mailed them at Pilgrim's Bookstore. Then I set off on a walk south of Thamel, through an old part of town. I was concerned about carrying an obviously expensive camera through unknown parts of town, so I left my Nikon camera in my safety deposit box and brought my little Olympus, which fit in a small pouch attached to my belt. Along the way, I stopped in a couple of thangka shops. Thangkas are Tibetan Buddhist paintings with gold highlights. They are very popular souvenirs, and good ones can be expensive. One shop tried aggressively to sell me one, and didn't want to take "no" for and answer. In the second, an elderly man took time to explain what made a thangka have higher quality, and what the paintings mean, and showed me many, but never pressured me to buy one. I thought I would consider buying one from him later, if I could find the shop again. I came upon a small copy of Swayambhunath (the `Monkey Temple') stupa down a side street. The original is on a high hill across the river, and this copy was made for people who could not walk to the original. An annoying sweater salesman followed me and tried to get me to give him an American dollar for his "collection". He was hard to lose until I left the stupa area. Eventually, I accidentally came upon Durbar Square, a collection of temples, many medieval, around the old Royal Palace, which has been turned into a museum of the royal family. I toured the museum, in which taking photos is not permitted, and then talked a while to some students from the local university I met outside its entrance. The university was on break, and one was working as a guide, and tried to interest me in a trek in the Annapurnas. He tried to tell me it was too cold now to trek in the Everest region, and there could be snow there. I told him I was not interested, but he gave me the address of his agency, across from the museum, toward Freak Street (a popular hippy hang-out at one time). Another student with him wanted to talk about soccer, and was curious about why it was so unpopular in the U.S. Outside the old palace is a large square full of people trying to sell souvenirs to tourists. At the north end of Durbar Square is a collection of thangka shops, where I didn't stop, because of the aggressive salesmen in front of them. I climbed one of the temples, which was pyramid-like, for views of the square. It had erotic carvings around the roof struts, as do many Hindu temples. Near the palace is the home of Kumari, the Living Goddess. She is a young girl who is believed to be an incarnation of one of the Hindu goddesses. I did not see her. Photographing the goddess is prohibited, but post cards are sold in front of the house. Durbar Square contained a number of `holy men', who wear unusual costumes and make-up. Some ask to be photographed for money. Others try to sprinkle yellow flowers in your hair and put a red dot on your forehead, and then ask for money. I took a picture of one who was particularly colorful. I had been informed by the students that his picture was in one edition of the Lonely Planet Nepal guide book, although we couldn't find the picture in my copy, and that he had been doing this for many years. He wanted 400 rupees, quite a lot for a picture, and I offered him half that, which is still rather generous. I headed back to Thamel without getting lost, and brought a payment to the trekking agent for my plane tickets. Getting lost in Kathmandu is easy. Most streets have no name, and if there is a name, there is usually no sign, and if there is a sign, it is always in Nepali script. A good sense of direction and a memory for landmarks is needed to navigate the maze of narrow streets. The streets would feel perfectly safe if it weren't for the maniac drivers. Beggars are rare, and are not seen away from the temples. However, street salesmen can be annoyingly persistent, and follow you for a long time. Common items include `tiger balm', small wooden chess sets, sarangis (stringed instruments, often crudely made), and Ghurka knives. Shop keepers vary. Some aggressively try to get you into their shops, while others ignore you if you do go in. Bargaining is rare in Kathmandu, except for art and craft items, and taxi rides. I bought a tape of Nepalese folk music from one of the sarangi salesman, but was not interested in buying his sarangi, which he played for me. At dusk, I wandered around looking for an interesting place for dinner, and ended up on a street a couple of blocks east of Thamel. Away from tourist areas, Kathmandu becomes even more exotic. The shops become tiny stalls with doors you must stoop to enter, if you enter at all. People cook dal bhatt, Nepal's national dish, consisting of rice with a lentil soup, in small stalls along the street. These stalls emit a distinctive, perfumy, smell. Water comes from communal wells, and the streets quickly become dark as night falls, without all the bright lights of the tourist businesses. I went around the block and back to Thamel and decided to have dinner at La Dolce Vita, an Italian restaurant. I ordered a pizza, which seemed to take forever to arrive. While waiting, I became very sleepy and dozed off a few times. When it finally arrived, he pizza was somewhat disappointing, since they apparently used no seasonings. Italian spices may be hard to find in Nepal, perhaps. Also, all Nepalese dairy products I have tasted have a very recognizable, but unusual, taste which takes some getting used to. The restaurant had an excellent selection of Italian deserts, however, and I had a kind of caramel custard pie, which was wonderful. ---- * I wrote the melody down after I got home. It was still a mystery more than a year later when I heard it in a New Zealand grocery store. One day in February, 1998, it went through my head again, this time accompanied by Peruvian percussion. I put on a CD of "Music of the Andes" which I've had for quite a while, and found the song: "Llorando se Fue", from Bolivia. This probably accounts for the odd feeling of familiarity when I first heard it, but it was too far out of context to recognize. October 27 ---------- For breakfast, I walked a short way down the street to a German Bakery, which looked like it had good pastries. I bought a croissant and cinnamon roll, with coffee. The pastries were very good. Some Germans were in the bakery as well, and they had pictures from the Everest Region, where they had just been trekking. They said they wanted to send some pictures to their guide, and asked if I would bring them to the Himalayan Hotel in Lukla. I said I would do so if they dropped them off at the Hotel Manang. I had to move this morning, because Hotel Manang was full today. I chose a somewhat less expensive hotel, Hotel Garuda in the center of Thamel, which sounded good in the guide book. I got a room with a private bath (the only kind at this hotel) for $13 a night. This price makes it still one of Kathmandu's more expensive hotels, but two stars instead of three. Unlike Hotel Manang, this hotel had no elevator, just a lot of stairs. The room is more basic than my last one - no heat or air conditioning, no TV, no phone, and no shower curtain. This last feature is typical of Nepalese bathrooms. When taking shower, the whole room gets wet. Shower shoes were provided outside the bathroom door, but I had my own. They are needed after showering, since entering the bathroom without them gets your feet wet, and wearing street shoes in the wet bathroom makes a mess. As before, the room is spotlessly clean. This location was much noisier, being directly on the street. There was constant hammering during the day in the building next door. Also, the hallways are open-air, not enclosed as in Hotel Manang. A Tit Bit deli and pastry shop is next to the hotel desk, near the entry, and a doorman holds the door and salutes whenever you come or go from the hotel. The hotel lobby is open to the sky, but enclosed, and covered by a metal roof high above, over the fourth floor high above. I took a bicycle rickshaw to make the move, of several blocks. The driver asked for 100 Rupees, and accepted 30 when I started to walk away. After settling into my new room, I got both my cameras out and set off on a long walk through town to the Swayambhunath Stupa, better known as the `Monkey Temple' after its inhabitants (monkeys are sacred), across the Vishnumati River. Now that I had been in the city long enough to realize that it reasonably safe, I had no further concern about carrying my expensive camera. I have never been in a city anywhere that felt as safe as Kathmandu. I originally was not sure weather Nepal's reputation for having little crime was due to cultural reasons, or strict enforcement, Singapore-style. However, few police are seen in Kathmandu, and they are usually unarmed, so it seems to be cultural. Still, I was reasonably cautious, since I was not sure I knew what a shady character or bad neighborhood would look like here. The Monkey Temple sits high on a hill overlooking Kathmandu, and was visible from my room on the top floor of the Hotel Manang when I stayed there. As I crossed the river to the temple, I came upon a Buddhist funeral ritual, in which a body was being prepared for burning next to the river. A large number of monks were present, and some tasteless tourists who were video-taping it. Drums and other instruments were played. In the river, which was very shallow, was a wild-looking pig. The other side of the river was more peaceful than the city, with little traffic and few westerners (most of whom take a taxi to the temple, rather than walk). Hundreds of steep steps lead up to the temple. At the base of these was a congregation of gamblers, and makeshift shop stalls. Gambling near a temple is apparently lucky. The steps were full of beggars, mostly cripples, and `holy men'. Before I knew it, one of the holy men got me, and I had flowers in my hair and a red dot on my forehead. I didn't give him as much as he asked for, just a few rupees. There were a lot of monkeys and dogs on the temple steps. Kathmandu is swarming with dogs, but these were the first monkeys I had seen here. At the top of the stairs is a huge stupa, which is a bell-shaped temple representing the Buddha watching over the earth. The stupa is white, with gold panels and a pinnacle, surrounded by prayer wheels. The eyes of Buddha are painted on the pinnacle. These appear often on stupas, and look like a pair of eyes, with a small `third eye' centered above, and a `nose' which looks like a question mark, but is actually the number `one' in Nepali script. The eyes look in all four directions. Monkeys climb all over the stupa, and people feed them. There is food inside some of the windows in the gold panels. A Buddhist temple sits to the right of the stupa, with a big Buddha inside. Visitors are allowed inside on a wooden walkway. Behind the stupa were women making holy substances from flowers and some kind of red stuff, which is often smeared all over the statues at temples, making them look gory. There were souvenir shops all around, and a bunch of `mini-stupas' like stalagmites growing around the big one. After taking numerous pictures with both cameras, I went back down the stairs and took an auto-rickshaw, a little three-wheeled cab, back to town. On the way, we had numerous near head-on collisions. (Actual collisions seem to be rare. I saw a rickshaw and bicycle collide once, but that is all.) Once a herd of cattle came up the street the other way and blocked our path. The driver reached out and whacked them as they passed. He originally said he would just take me to the river, because going back all the way would cost more than he quoted. For some reason, he changed his mind and took me all the way to Durbar Square (much further) for the same price. I stopped at the tourist office there for their trekking pamphlets. The Himalayan Waves Trekking Agency did not appear in their list of registered agencies, but the list was old, so I would have to check this. I walked back to Thamel via the grocery district. There were numerous stalls where people sold vegetables, beans, spices, and meat, all without the benefit of refrigeration. Many of the vegetables looked like they had seen better days. A cow walking down the street sampled some vegetables from a bin, and was chased away. Cows are sacred and are allowed anywhere they want to go. The butcher shops are disgusting: big bony carcasses with scraps of meat on them sat on the floor drawing flies. Chickens were also available. Back in Thamel, I went to the trekking agency to meet my prospective guide. I asked first if the agency was registered, and was told that it was, and shown a certificate which apparently said so. I was told they had been in business for only two years. Then I was given a Coke, and a guide was brought in. I was disappointed in their choice. He barely understood English, and had to answer most questions through the agency owner. He also seemed reluctant to go to Gokyo, the second valley I planned to visit. His main qualification was being from the Solu region, which is near where I am trekking. I said I would decide tonight whether to hire him, but had already made up my mind not to. I would rather give up the $50 I paid for his plane ticket than hire a guide I did not feel comfortable about. This morning, the Germans in the German Bakery (who never did drop off any pictures at the hotel) said they had obtained a good guide through the Himalayan Hotel in Lukla. That is another possibility. It may make more sense to see what the situation is like in the hills before making a decision. It is important to hire the guide through a responsible business, however, since most problems trekkers have seem to be caused by irresponsible guides or porters they hired off the street. If no business is responsible for them, you have little hope of finding them if they decide to run off with your equipment during the trek. Solo trekking is another possibility. I think the dangers of solo trekking are overstated for popular routes, such as where I am going. Hiring a guide or porter brings much more money to Nepal, so they try hard to encourage this. Tonight, I set out looking for an Indian restaurant. They are surprisingly rare in Kathmandu. Most restaurants have menus that try to cater to foreign tastes. It is not unusual to find a single restaurant which serves American, Nepalese, Indian, Italian, Chinese, and Mexican food, or at least attempts to. The interpretations can be unusual. While I searched for a restaurant, I stopped in some outdoor equipment shops to look at the down jackets, since I was thinking of buying or renting one. The outdoor shops are typically very small, and contain a limited selection of items, many of which are used. Most items are locally produced copies of American brand-name items, down to the labels. Most packs are `Lowe' and most down jackets are `North Face.' Really good equipment is rare, but there is plenty that is adequate. One store had a blue used `North Face' jacket I liked for 3500 rupees, or about $70. I did not buy it, however, and was not carrying that many rupees. In fact, I was getting short on rupees, since the trekking agency had had my passport since I arrived, and I could not legally change money beyond the $50 I changed at the airport. It is easy to change money on the black market at a rate a few percent higher than the official rate. However, the difference is not great, and to change rupees back to dollars when leaving Nepal requires an official receipt showing that the money was changed legally. Up to 15% of one's legally-changed rupees can be converted back to dollars when leaving, and I wanted to be sure I had enough receipts. Also, in principle, I do not think it is good to support criminals by changing money on the black market. I ended up settling for a Nepalese restaurant, the Nepalese Kitchen, which has a pleasant courtyard where you can eat outdoors. It is a fairly long walk downtown from my hotel. I had a full-course traditional meal with nine-bean soup, a chicken curry, a vegetable curry, dal bhatt (rice with lentils), spicy pickles, and a yogurt-based dessert, all for about $3. It was my best meal yet. As usual, the service was really slow. Nepalese waiters don't expect tips, except in the fanciest restaurants, so they have little incentive for fast service. I returned to the hotel rather late, and went to bed. October 28 ---------- It was the last day before my trek, and I had a busy schedule. The morning was cold and this hotel had no heat. They did have extra blankets for the bed, but that did not make getting up any easier. I took a shower this morning. It made half the bathroom wet since there was no shower curtain. However, the solar-heated water was very hot and the shower felt good. I went to the Helena Restaurant and got scrambled eggs and toast, and met two Californians. One had an incredible amount of photographic equipment. The photo shops in Kathmandu seem to be the only stores in town that are completely up to western standards, and mostly are indistinguishable from their western counterparts, except for the Nepalese post cards and posters they sell. All sorts of equipment and film are available, including slide film. The film prices are comparable to U.S. prices, or slightly better. Also, from what I have seen, they do a nice job with developing, generally with modern computerized machines. I had a 10 AM meeting with the trekking agent, where I planned to cancel my guide. However, the agent has already come up with an alternative, and said others were available as well. He was not going to give up on $700 easily. This guide was from the Kathmandu valley, so he may not know the area as well as the Solu guide, but he spoke English very well and seemed easy to talk to. The agent said he doesn't read, however, and that you can't really expect a guide who can read, because the literacy rate in Nepal is not very high. The guide and I discussed my plans and his experience. He would not look at my hand-drawn map, since he could not read the writing. He had led several treks in the region, and had just returned from guiding someone across Thorung La pass on the Annapurna Circuit, which is as difficult as anything I have in mind. I decided that this guide would be acceptable. My guide's name was Lal Man Tamang. The last name identifies his ethnic group. I was told he goes by the name `Lale'. The agent strongly recommended getting a down jacket before I left, because it would be very cold at night. After getting traveler's checks from the hotel safety deposit to pay the balance of my fee (Hotel Garuda is almost just across the street from this agency), I went to a money changer to get rupees for my personal expenses, which would include any cold drinks or bottled water I bought. After having a salami sandwich for lunch at Tit Bit, I went shopping for a down jacket. I could not find the store where I saw the one I liked yesterday. It may have been closed, since it was Friday and many stores do not open of Friday, and offices close early. Saturday is the holy day here. I found another store which had a similar `North Face' jacket which was good enough that it was at least conceivable that it could have been real, although I am sure it is a copy. (Some copies are extremely poor.) The jacket still had plenty of loft, which is easily lost in Nepalese dry cleaning, but the red color was somewhat faded and pinkish in places. I bought it for 3000 rupees, or $60. It took some effort to find a stuff sack for it in the store, but I already had my own, so I accepted a rather old, ragged one. By the time I finished shopping, it was mid-afternoon, and I still wanted to see Bhaktapur before dark, so I went down to the Thamel taxi stand (at a truly chaotic intersection) and asked for a ride. One driver offered to take me there, wait an hour, and bring me back for 800 Rs ($16). I offered 600 Rs, following the guide book's suggestion, and he accepted. The ride took about 40 minutes each way through heavy traffic. They drive on the left here, which is a bit disorienting and adds to the excitement of a cab ride. Actually, they drive in whatever lane happens to be most open at the time, even if it means dodging oncoming traffic. The air pollution was so bad today I could hardly breathe, and the air hurt my throat. Bhaktapur has a large Durbar Square full of beautiful temples. Many are of medieval origin. When I arrived, many people offered their services as guides, but I declined. I had my guide book and did not need to hire someone. There were more tourists in the main square than locals. Away from that area, there were signs of a strong Marxist presence: hammer and sickle patterns were everywhere. All around town, women were working on piles of grain, sifting it. The tourist areas are full of craft salesmen. The local specialties are masks and puppets. Bhaktapur is known for its woodworking. Traffic is barred from the temple area, at which they collect a 50 Rs donation for upkeep. The light traffic in most areas in this town make walking much more pleasant than in Kathmandu. I was not too sure how safe it was to walk around in obviously Marxist areas, so I didn't spend too much time outside the main square. However, I realized later that there was no anti-western feeling among the Nepalese Communists (at least the ones I encountered), and that they were generally perfectly reasonable people, as nice as anyone here. The hour passed quickly, and I took a lot of pictures before returning to my waiting driver for the ride back to Kathmandu. In my room, the lights went out at 6 PM briefly, until a generator was started. Tonight was another scheduled power outage. During the power outage, I went out for dinner. Unable to find the Tibetan restaurant Utse in the darkness, I decided to go to the Third Eye again, for a good last meal before the trek. The crowd was smaller, with no waiting, possibly due to the darkness outside. The candle-lit restaurant was very atmospheric. I ordered a San Miguel beer, which is Philipine but brewed in Nepal. It comes in an enormous 20 ounce bottle. Other beers available here are Tuborg, a Danish beer brewed in Nepal, and the domestic beer Iceberg. Afterward, I went home, and got a slice of chocolate cake for dessert and a bottle of water from Tit Bit upon entering the hotel. Then I went upstairs to finish my trek packing, and to sleep. Tonight was quieter than last night. I set the alarm for an early start at 5 AM to get ready to catch the plane to Lukla. October 29 ---------- I got up at 5 AM and had a good hot shower, which would be my last for some time to come. I packed everything and checked my suitcase at the front desk. They warned me not to lose the receipt. ("That is your suitcase!") The person from the trekking agency who took care of my plane ticket met me in front of the hotel at 7 AM, and escorted me to a waiting cab a short distance away, in front of the agency. My guide was waiting, along with the head of the agency, who wished me a good trek. The guide brought only a small day pack, and wore tennis shoes. I was somewhat concerned about whether he was adequately prepared for the weather we would encounter, but suspected that he knew what he was doing, since he just returned from Thorung La pass, a notoriously cold and snowy place. He said he would be all right. The taxi arrived at the domestic air terminal, a dingy old building next to a dirt parking lot, with a construction area in front. Since Lal is Nepalese, he had to show his ticket to enter. We weighed our bags together, and his was so light that there was never any danger of exceeding the weight limit. They have no X-ray, and security consisted of feeling my pack by hand, without opening it, and going through a booth where a guard examined the contents of my pockets and searched for weapons. We had a long wait for the flight, because Lukla was cloudy, and the planes will not fly when it is cloudy. ("The clouds have rocks in them", they say.) I talked to a man from Lukla who has a business in Kathmandu, and wants to go to college in the U.S. Then I practiced reading Nepali phrases from the back of my guide book to my guide, Lal, and he understood them. The airport security guard watched and was very amused by this. I had a cinnamon roll and some tea at the snack bar, and then talked to the man who wanted to know about American colleges for a while. He was also interested in what American cities were like. When talking, he sat very close, so that we were touching. This is very common among the Nepalese, who often sit very close to one another when talking, or walk holding hands or with their arms around one another. The plane finally came, and I was relieved, since I was worried that they would cancel flights for the day if the clouds didn't lift. The Twin Otter STOL plane held only about twenty people. The flight took 35 minutes, with views of the mountains above the clouds, and hazy views of the green, terraced hills and valleys below. Finally, we flew straight toward a ridge, and landed uphill on a steep, rocky airstrip. The airstrip is at the edge of a cliff, an the landing would be rather scary if you could see what was happening. We retrieved our bags and started walking through Lukla, a fairly large town at 9350 feet elevation, with many lodges. To my guide's dismay, I insisted on carrying my own pack for a while, to help get in shape for the higher elevations. We didn't go far through town, to the other side of the airstrip, before we came to our lunch stop, the Panorama Hotel. Lal left our return plane tickets with the manager. I had a fried oriental noodle dish, and Lal had dal bhatt (rice with lentils), which was one of the most expensive dishes here. He said this is what he always has, but I could have anything I liked. He went out to shop for a hat on the main street, and my meal came. It was decent. I filled my water bottle at the kitchen sink. Lal returned as I did this, and was worried, but I told him I had iodine to purify the water. Lal's meal was enormous, and he ate it without utensils, using his right hand to scoop up the rice and soupy lentils. The trail followed the Dudh Kosi river, high above its lush, green valley. Most traffic on the trail is porters and trekkers. The porters usually wear flip flops or are barefoot. There were also a lot of yaks, or yak-cattle cross breeds, carrying loads. The river below had a lot of white water. Lal kept asking me to trade packs, clearly uncomfortable that my pack was bigger than his, so I finally did. He may need to carry it at higher elevations, so it would be good for him to get used to it now. My pack probably weighed 20 kg, and his probably weighed at most half that. He seemed somewhat uncomfortable with my pack, which was too big to fit him well even after I adjusted the shoulder pads, and heavier than I thought he was comfortable carrying. Lal often sang while walking, and generally stayed in front of me. Today's walking was fairly easy, since it was mostly level, and we were walking less than 3 hours. We passed a number of mani stones, inscribed with Buddhist prayers in Tibetan script, as well as prayer flags and a big prayer wheel. We stopped in Phakding, at 8700 feet, and had tea in the kitchen of a lodge. Then we went to a different lodge to get rooms. We had private rooms next to each other, on the second floor. They didn't have any double rooms at that time. The rooms were narrow wooden stalls, which were just wide enough for a hard bed. The door could be padlocked, and it was good that I brought combination locks for this purpose. After a rest, we went back to the lodge where we had tea earlier, and had dinner upstairs in their dining room. Lal recommended onion soup, which I had with a potato, egg, and vegetable dish. I could smell the same fragrant odor I smelled when passing the street cooks in Kathmandu. I asked Lal what it was, and he told me it was the odor of the wood burning in the stove. He could not tell me the name of the wood in English. Lal spent most of his time downstairs in the kitchen, and delivered my food to me. An American couple from the state of Washington was at the next table. The husband just had his 66th birthday party in Namche Bazaar. They had had some respiratory problems while walking from breathing dust on the trail, especially when yak trains passed. They said it was too bad it was cloudy today, since I could not see the mountains above the valley. At 7 PM, I was ready for bed. For some reason, I had developed a preference for sleeping from around 6 PM to 3 AM since being in Nepal. October 30 ---------- I got up at 6 AM, after being awake for a while. It was clear now, and the sun was rising. Outside, the surrounding mountains were now visible and the sun was hitting the peaks. We went down the crooked stairs for breakfast, and I had an egg-pancake (a pancake containing an egg). A Swiss family with a four and six year old child were having breakfast as well. They said the children were doing quite well on the trek so far, but it was just their second day. Today, I carried my own pack, but put most of clothes in my compression sack for Lal to carry. He was surprised that such a small sack could be so heavy. It fit easily inside his pack. We had a gentle uphill climb along the river, which was a beautiful light blue color with plenty of whitewater. We crossed a number of times on rickety swinging bridges, and shorter wooden bridges. The bridges usually had holes in them. There were a lot of yaks on the trail, and it was often difficult to cross a bridge before a yak train came along, often carrying trekking supplies for one of the large, organized groups. You could always tell the French and Germans on the trail, because they look like they are skiing: they all walk with two ski poles. We soon entered the Sagarmatha National Park, where I had my trekking permit and national park entrance pass checked. (Sagarmatha is the local name for Mt. Everest.) The office had a small visitor's center with exhibits about the park and the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), which was set up to keep the area clean and conserve the trees. Then we went down a steep hill to the river, which we crossed on a long and especially rickety bridge, which swayed a bit too much for comfort. We stopped for lunch in Monjo, and I had a deliciously potent bowl of garlic soup. I tried to order Tibetan bread, but Lal said it would take too long, so I got a pack of biscuits instead. Lal said garlic is a good medicine for high altitudes, and locals eat a lot of garlic soup. Shortly after Monjo, we crossed a big bridge, and soon later, and much higher one, the highest swinging bridge yet. Then we began the steep climb to Namche Bazaar. It didn't take long before I started getting cramps and felt sick. I found a place off the trail, behind some pine trees, and had my first case of diarrhea, but it was not too serious. The climb was difficult, especially with cramps, and I stopped to rest often. Lal offered to hire a porter to carry my pack, since I wasn't feeling well, but I just took an Immodium and went on. I bought a liter of bottled water at a store on the way up, since I wanted to have an adequate supply of reliable water. After the grueling climb, we arrived at Namche Bazaar, a large, U-shaped town perched on the edge of a deep gorge, at 11300 feet. The town has a large number of gift shops and inns. The first two inns we tried were full, so we climbed up the hill to a relatively fancy inn overlooking the town. Its dining room was surrounded by windows on three sides, giving a panoramic view. A glass case held a television and VCR. Through the windows, I could see that many of the inns in town had satellite dishes, which is not something I had expected to see here. I had a tea, and then went downstairs to our double room, which was tiny but had an electric light bulb. I could lock the door with my combination lock. I rested until dinner time, but it was noisy because men were digging up rocks just outside the hotel and shaping them for construction work. Feeling somewhat better now, I ordered fried vegetable momos, a Tibetan dish somewhat like ravioli without the sauce, and a fried apple pie. Lal offered to take me to his hometown, in the hills near the Kathmandu valley, after the trek, and said we could go rafting on the Sunkosi. He would hire a local company for this, which I was not sure would be completely safe, but they cost less than companies based in Kathmandu. Lal suggested that we should keep in touch after I returned home, and told me that he would like to have his own trekking agency, but will have to learn to read English first. In fact, he could read a little, but had trouble recognizing lower-case letters, and could not read long words. In the meantime, he would appreciate any customers I could send him. I told him I would give a slide show using the pictures I was taking with my small camera, and maybe some people would be interested in coming. I also told him I could put a report on the computer, where it could be read by many people. When we went to bed, Lal wished me "good night and sweet dreams" as he would most nights. October 31 ---------- Today was a `rest day' in Namche Bazaar. I was planning to have a rest day every other day while ascending, to aid acclimatization. Lal brought me a water basin for washing and some tea when I awoke. I asked him where the toilet was, and he told me it wasn't very nice. He was right. The room with the squat toilets was smelly and filthy. For breakfast, I had two chapatis (Indian flat-breads) and an omelet. I tried to teach Lal to open my combination lock, which was difficult since he had never seen one before. I was unsuccessful, for now. This morning, I went exploring on my own. I started out on the trail to Tengboche which we would take tomorrow, and followed it to a view of the Dudh Kosi valley we had come up. The high bridge was now visible far below. Around the corner was a view of Lhotse, an 8000 meter peak near Mt. Everest, and Ama Dablam, which has an oddly shaped, pointy peak, and is probably the most recognizable mountain in the region. Lhotse's head was in the clouds, which also obscured Mt. Everest, whose tip should have been visible from here, above Lhotse's ridge. I turned back, and stopped at the Sherpa Cultural Center, which was mostly just a nice hotel with a stupa in the courtyard. Then I climbed the hill beside a military base, which had a basketball court, to the Sagarmatha National Park Visitor's Center, and saw some nice exhibits on the mountains and Sherpas. The Sherpas migrated to this area from Tibet a couple of hundred years ago, and their culture and language still reflects their Tibetan Buddhist background. I could see people climbing a very steep hill above Namche Bazaar, and followed them, since it looked like the views from there would be great. The hill led past some prayer flags to the small town of Shangboche, high above Namche Bazaar, where there is an airstrip and government yak farm. There, I passed some porters who were carrying large cuts of meat, apparently yak legs, on their backs. Sherpas will not kill any animal, but meat from animals that die in an accident may be eaten, or meat may be brought from outside the region for tourists. By now, I was beginning to wish I had brought some water. I passed a tea-house, but did not stop. I knew the Everest View Hotel should be not much farther, and I wanted to stop there. I was correct, and soon I came upon the hotel, a popular stop for people on day hikes out of Namche Bazaar. Many such people were here this morning, sitting on the terrace behind the dining room, where there would been an Everest view if it were not for the clouds. This hotel is unique in the area. It is a luxury hotel, at least by local standards, built by the Japanese. There is a volleyball court in front of the hotel, and two outhouses, which have running water and porcelain squat toilets. A room reportedly costs around $100 a day. The restaurant is also rather expensive, and the waiters are formally dressed. I sat on the terrace, and ordered a small pot of hot chocolate and bread pudding with apricot sauce. The hot chocolate was good, since I was cold and thirsty. It was served in a thermos, with tea cups having the hotel's name on them. The bread pudding was somewhat unusual, and appeared to have been fried, with a trickle of apricot sauce on top. The hotel is at 12,700 feet, 1400 feet above Namche Bazaar. The towns of Phortse and Tengboche were visible across the valley, where we would be walking tomorrow. I returned via a more western path through Shangboche, going through the heart of the town at the other end of the airstrip, and down a less steep trail through an area which was apparently very sacred, high above Namche Bazaar. There were numerous prayer flags, chorten (similar to stupas), and mani stones, and a large number of yaks. Big boulders, house-sized, were everywhere, and the homes of Sherpas were scattered among them. By now it was becoming very cloudy and visibility was limited. Further down the hill, as I entered the town, I came upon a long wall made of numerous small mani stones, and just beyond it, a large Buddhist temple with prayer wheels along the front, and an enormous prayer wheel inside, which a couple of German children where happily spinning until their parents went in and stopped them. I went inside with the Germans and a monk to view the gompa, which contained a Buddha statue and numerous religious objects. The monk allowed me to take a picture of the gompa, and I left a few rupees in the donation box. I continued down into town and looked around the shops a while. Assorted crafts and clothing were being sold by Tibetan women along the street. The merchants would bargain a little, but not very much. I liked the stone carvings from Tibet. I bought a couple of carved stone elephants, which had baby elephants inside. One was for myself, and another to use as a gift from Namche Bazaar. I was planning to wait until the way down to buy things here, but Lal could carry the elephants. I also bought three postcards, since there is a post office in town. However, I never found anyone working in the post office, so I was unable to mail them. As I shopped, someone came up behind me and gave me a big squeeze around the waist. It was Lal, who told me he had expected me at lunch, and would meet me at the lodge soon for an early dinner, since I had not eaten. Actually, I had had a snack at Everest View, and a Snickers Bar and Coke while shopping, so I was not too hungry yet. I looked around town a little more, and bought a comb, since I had left mine in Kathmandu. Then I went down into the center of town to see the stupa. Next to it, along a stream, water-driven prayer wheel buildings were being constructed from stone. I returned to my room and rested until dinner time. Meanwhile, someone latched my door from the outside, and I had to shout to get someone to open it. Upstairs in the dining room, I met an Irish trekker, who was staying in the next room, and turned out to be the person who mistakenly latched my door. He said he had been having a lot of trouble with the altitude. He was an enormous man with a loud voice and a strong accent, who used obscenities in every sentence. His guide knows my guide, and I had met his guide twice before: once on the climb to Namche Bazaar when he walked with Lal, and once on my way back from Everest View Hotel, when he said "Namaste" (a Nepali greeting conveying respect for one's soul) to me while headed the other way. The Irish man said he had been discussing politics with his guide, who I believe is a Sherpa, and learned that practically everyone in the hills is a Communist. This was also clear from the ubiquitous campaign posters for Communist candidates in the November election. Many guest houses displayed the large red posters, with sun or plow pictures, prominently on their doors. My guide mentioned that tourism was sharply down this season, and he believed that fear of political instability may have kept people away. I told him I had become somewhat nervous, myself, in July when I read about the `Nepal Bandhs', or general strikes, being staged by the Communists to protest attempts by the Prime Minister to exclude them from the November elections. As the sun set, yak dung was brought in to burn in the dining room stove. There is a shortage of wood here, and yak dung could be seen drying on walls all over town, to be burned in cooking and heating stoves. Lal helped keep the stove burning. I had curried vegetables with dal bhatt and Ra Ra noodle soup for dinner. This was a very large meal, and Lal had told me I probably wouldn't need the soup, but I was making up for skipping lunch. The Irish man's guide told us that he had recently been on an Everest expedition, which was trying to set a speed record by climbing from the base camp to the summit in 18 hours. He said he only made it to within 400 meters of the summit, because of bad weather and frostbite, but that four people made it to the top. There is some controversy over whether any actually made it within 18 hours. We went to bed at 7:30 and as usual, I slept about half the night before waking. November 1 ---------- We got up at 6 AM and prepared to hit the trail. The weather was ominous - cold, cloudy, and drizzling rain. We expected no mountain views today. For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs with Tibetan bread, a puffy fried flat bread, similar to Indian fry-bread in the American south-west. By now, Lal had figured out how to open my lock, but he still could not do it consistently and sometimes asked for help. We started walking at 7:30, and stopped first at the police check-post to have my permit checked. It was not open yet, but Lal was able to round up the policeman quickly to open it for us. I would not have recognized him, since he was not in uniform. Police here usually wear blue sweater-like uniforms, and soldiers wear similar green uniforms. Both are usually unarmed, but police sometimes carry a short stick. We followed the trail out of Namche Bazaar that I had started down yesterday. On the way, we saw a couple of small antelope-like animals down the hill, which were musk deer. The path followed the side of the steep hill on a gentle uphill grade, until we began a steep descent through a forest, where the trees had a kind of Spanish moss, to the Imja Khola river. We passed the Irish man, who had started long before us but was walking slowly. He had met some Irish women in Namche Bazaar, and was walking with them today. After crossing on a swinging bridge over a waterfall, we stopped for lunch in the small village of Phunki Thanghka, at 10650 feet, before starting the long climb up the ridge to Tengboche. A stream channel ran through the village, and along it were numerous small buildings containing water-powered prayer wheels. The Irish group caught up with us at the lunch stop, while I had Ra Ra soup with coconut biscuits. His guide gave Lal and me `Speed Everest' stickers from his expedition to put on our packs. He also put one on the tea house where we had lunch. Mine would not stick, probably because I had sprayed my pack with water repellent before leaving home, so I put it on the cover of my notebook instead. After lunch we continued up the ridge together with the Irish group. As we climbed, numerous yaks were coming down, carrying gear for a large French expedition. Some were purebred yaks, but most domestic yaks have been crossbred with oxen or cattle. There were so many yaks and porters coming down that we could not climb very fast. The trail became gentler toward the top of the ridge, and we left the Irish group behind. It was foggy, and before coming to the top, we entered a cloud. Soon the light drizzle changed to snow. As we entered Tengboche, at 12887 feet, it was snowing hard, with little visibility. We passed through a small arch-like building with an elaborately painted ceiling, decorated with Buddhist icons, to enter the town. Ahead we saw the famous monastery, which is the largest in the region and has a popular festival, Mani Rimdu, later in November featuring masked dances. The monastery had burned down a few years ago, but was rebuilt using millions of dollars donated from around the world. We tried a couple of lodges, which were full or unsatisfactory for some reason, before deciding to stay at the Trekker's Lodge, operated by the National Park. The private rooms were full, but there was space in the dormitory, which occupies the central large room in the building, where there were a dining room table and stove. This lodge was somewhat unusual, architecturally, because it has a concrete floor, and a large room-wide picture window above the dining room table. It was built by New Zealanders. Two monks were at the table, dining on momos. They said this lodge has the best food in town. The lodge owner seemed to be uncomfortable accepting payment from them. The stove in the middle of the room kept it very comfortable. Lal made sure it stayed warm. A young lady from Washington state was staying at the lodge for three weeks, studying with the monks to learn about the preparations for the Mani Rimdu festival. She said tomorrow was the beginning of a 19 day preparation period leading up to the festival, and that there would be a ceremony beginning at 8 AM. A young German lady we encountered in Phakding was staying here as well. The lodge manager had a radio, and an election song played on it, followed by old-time rock and roll. Everyone was sitting around the table near the stove, as it snowed outside. My guide's friend arrived also, but the Irish people were staying elsewhere. He put up a `Speed Everest' sticker in the lodge. The snow eventually stopped and the clouds lightened a bit, and I went out to see the monastery. A number of other tourists were there as well. It was open and we could go inside. After climbing the front stairs, the first doors led to a courtyard. Across it was a second set of stairs, leading to the gompa, the central ceremonial room of the monastery. Before entering, it was required to remove one's shoes. This was not requested at the smaller gompa in Namche Bazaar or at the Monkey Temple's gompa, where there was a wooden walkway above the floor for tourists. This gompa was much larger and more elaborate than the one in Namche Bazaar. The Buddha statue in front was very large, and you had to be close to it to see the whole thing. Since the monastery recently burned down, everything was very new, and the paint was very bright. The center of the room had rows of pads where the monks would sit during ceremonies, and in back was a pair of large drums, hung vertically. When I returned to the lodge, Lal ordered us plates of highly-spiced yak meat and a pot of chhang, the home-brewed rice beer available at many lodges. I would have never ordered these things for myself. I was suspicious of the meat after seeing the butcher shops in Kathmandu, and seeing how it was carried on the dusty trails on the backs of porters. This lodge had a large leg of yak hanging in the kitchen, from which this meat had come. Lal said it was fresh, having come from the Saturday market in Namche Bazaar, two days ago. The small spicy meat cubes were in fact well-cooked and delicious. The spicy meat was supposed to encourage the drinking of chhang, which is also something I would not have tried if Lal hadn't ordered it, since it is reportedly made with unpurified water in general. I drank only one glass. It must be an acquired taste, and I had no desire for another glass of the warm, milky, mildly alcoholic liquid. Lal drank the rest of the pot. A group of mountain climbers arrived at the lodge, where the leader's girl friend was already staying. They were attempting a first ascent of a new route up Ama Dablam, but they were delayed by the bad weather, which was far worse on the mountain than here. They made one unsuccessful attempt, in which they discovered the route was more difficult than anticipated, and were worried that unless the weather cleared soon, they would not have time for another attempt. Nepali regulations require fall climbs to be completed by November 15. Climbing permits are valid only for a specific season. The leader was a full-time professional climber who writes for climbing magazines, and is the author of several books. He had lost several finger-tips to frostbite climbing Mt. Everest. The climbers ordered "umpteen pots of chhang" throughout the afternoon and evening. The lodge manager here had provided food and other support for the expedition. For dinner, I had yak-cheese momos and Sherpa stew, a soupy mixture of potatoes and vegetables. One lady was having a birthday, and the lodge kitchen made a cake, which everyone shared. Everyone went to bed around 8 PM, and then the lodge staff had dinner. After they finished, everything became surprisingly quiet, for a dormitory. A lot of stars were out tonight, suggesting that tomorrow's weather would be better. November 2 ---------- When I got up at 6 AM, the clouds had broken up enough to give views of the surrounding mountains. It was clear that this situation would not last long, so I hurried to take a lot of pictures. Tengboche is said to be one of the most beautiful spots on earth, and now it was possible to see why. The view of Ama Dablam behind the monastery was especially impressive. The tip of Everest could also be seen above Lhotse's ridge. I returned to the lodge and had Tibetan bread with jam and a cheese omelet. A young American lady was having serious altitude problems. She went to bed with a headache and nausea, and it got worse through the night. They planned to descend to Pangboche today, and then see if they could continue. Pangboche is ahead on the trail, but at a lower elevation, since it is in the valley. The mountain climbers had decided to return to their base camp today for a final attempt. The leader's girl friend would wait for them at the lodge. After breakfast, I climbed to the chorten high above Tengboche. Then I came down and visited the Sherpa museum behind the monastery. The signs inside were in English as well as Nepali, and the museum was as much to teach the locals about their history as to inform the tourists. Upstairs in the monastery, a monk stood inside a window blowing a seashell horn to announce the beginning of a ceremony. The ceremony was open to visitors, and I sat inside and watched. There was a lot of chanting, and the monks would occasionally ring bells, beat the big drums, and blow noisy horns, two of which were several feet long. The monks began by drinking some kind of liquid. A large pile of food had been assembled in the corner, and was the object of some ceremonies. Young monks attended to candles around the walls. They were only children, and were barefoot, but there were small straw pads on the floor that they could push around under their feet to keep them warm. The floor was very cold even through my wool socks. The monks ranged from very young to very old, and wore red robes. The one who stood in front and presided over the food ceremonies had a large yellow hat. At one point a very young monk tried to get out, but could not open the large door. I tried to help, but it was stuck. Eventually someone opened it from the outside. I stayed until I became cold and hungry, sitting on the floor, and then returned to the lodge for lunch. I ordered a yak cheese and vegetable pizza, which was delicious. There wasn't much to do after lunch. I thought about taking a shower, since the lodge advertized hot showers, but it was too cold to undress in the drafty outdoor shower stall behind the lodge, overlooking the valley. Another snow storm was moving in, and soon we were in a cloud. For dinner, I ordered mixed fried noodles, with yak meat and vegetables, and a bowl of garlic soup, with milk tea. Another person ordered a pizza he couldn't eat, and I got most of it, as well as the climber's girl friend's extra French fries. I would go to bed very full tonight. Outside, just before bedtime, I saw that the sky had again cleared, and a lot of stars were out. The lights of Everest View Lodge were visible down the valley. I slept well tonight. November 3 ---------- I got up with the sun at 6 AM, before anyone else. Outside, it was cold and frosty, but the sky was now perfectly clear for the first time. I climbed to the chorten with colorful prayer flags overlooking Tengboche, and watched the sun come up, illuminating the surrounding peaks. This certainly was a very beautiful spot. Everest was now clearly visible across Lhotse's ridge, along with Ama Dablam and the nearby Thamserku Peak. I had the same breakfast as yesterday, Tibetan bread and an omelet, and then we started down the trail for Dingboche. First we went downhill steeply, past the Debuche nunnery. Then, we crossed the river and gently climbed along the valley, with a beautiful view of Ama Dablam ahead, and Tengboche on the ridge behind. We passed through lower Pangboche, the newer part of that town, which had a lot of walled potato fields (now harvested) and traditional Sherpa houses, plus many new inns. We stopped shortly beyond Pangboche for a snack of coconut biscuits and tea at a tea house which was built in the traditional style, with the dining and kitchen areas together, a stone stove with no chimney, and a thatched roof. The entire route today was lined with mani stones, chortens, and mani walls. Beyond Pangboche, the country grows more desolate, with very few trees and a lot of rocks. The day was sunny, but becoming windy and colder. We crossed a wooden bridge just after the junction where the trail leaves for Pheriche, over a beautiful blue river. Then we had a reasonably gentle climb to Dingboche, a rather desolate town similar to Pangboche without the trees, with impressive mountain views. Dingboche has a large stupa near the entrance, and a smaller one up the hill. The mountains had clouds around them, but the sky was mostly clear. Ahead up the valley was Island Peak, a `trekking peak' about 20,000 feet high, popular among climbers with limited experience. The first lodge we tried was full. We stopped at a lodge at the far end of town that they recommended, but it was pretty bad. No one else was there, and the beds in the cold dormitory were lumpy with broken boards. We had ordered lunch, but Lal canceled it, and we left to find someplace better. We found dormitory space in a nice lodge, the Sonam Friendship Lodge, where his friend was staying. It was cool inside, about 45 degrees, but was very nice. There was a picture of the Dali Lama, and a string of prayer flags along the high ceiling, together with a Canadian and a New Mexican flag above the two private rooms. The lodge does not have a complete floor: under the bunks is the ground. I had Ra Ra soup for lunch, as did Lal. He only eats two things: Ra Ra soup and dal bhatt. In the afternoon, the Nepalese guides and porters played cards outside in the courtyard. It was cold, and it is good to drink a lot at high elevations (now 14250 feet), so I ordered a large pot of hot chocolate, and shared some of it with a German man. I would have ordered a small pot, since the large one cost more than 200 Rs, but no pot that size was available since so many people had ordered pots of tea or chocolate. A lady named Julie, who was about 60, was staying at the inn. She was traveling alone, except for a porter who I hadn't seen. She was from San Fransisco, where she is a health care worker planning to retire next year, but was born in Belgium. The sunset tonight was beautiful, the first good sunset of the trip. Usually it was too cloudy to see one. A reddish light reflected from the high snowy peaks, which were now relatively cloudless. Down the valley to the west, the sky was subtly orange. I took a few pictures, but was a little too slow setting up the camera to catch the reddest colors. Then I went in to order dinner: cheese and potato momos with garlic soup. This inn had green-chile hot sauce on the table, which was a nice addition to the momos. Usually they just had watery Nepalese ketchup. This inn is lighted by solar electricity collected during the day, which lasts until about 9 PM on a clear day. We sat around the stove, which was burning yak dung, until about 8:30, then went to bed. An hour or so later, a group of women came by shining lights in the windows of the lodge, and singing a strange, repetitive song. At the time I didn't know what was going on, having been awakened by them, and I thought they sounded like children singing. In the morning, the guides explained that this was the beginning of the Hindu `festival of lights,' which honors the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi. The festival lasts three days, and the first night, women go around with lights and sing. The festival is celebrated mostly by gambling, since it is supposed to be a lucky time. Many of the guides and porters had been doing that all night. The women who visited our lodge were said to be singing "We travel from Pheriche. The festival is beginning. It has been a year..." November 4 ---------- I got up early, as usual, just after sunrise. The sky was clear, and sunlight reflected off the surrounding peaks. It was very cold, and the water flowing down the street outside from the spring pipe had partly frozen. For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs and chapatis. The eggs came with a surprise: grated yak cheese on top. I filled my water bottle at the spring pipe, then filtered it and added iodine. This was the first time I used my filter, since I usually obtained boiled water from the inn, for a fee. Julie said she had traveled extensively in the third world, and does not use iodine, just a Katadyn filter. She said she believes the Swiss theory that viruses are generally attached to larger host particles, which are removed by a 2 micron or better filter. This theory is rather controversial, and is not generally believed in the U.S. Lal told me there was a good view from a 16900 foot hill overlooking Dingboche. I had been thinking of walking up the Imja Khola valley to Chhukung, which was supposed to have nice views from between the Lhotse and Ama Dablam, but Lal said the view from the hill was better, and if I wanted to climb the hill, he would go with me. I decided to climb the hill. The climb was practically straight up. We passed a number of yaks and a small monastery. For a while, I didn't think I would make it. We rested a lot, but the top didn't seem to be getting any closer. The view at the top was worth the effort. We could see the Ama Dablam base camp, next to a blue lake at the base of the mountain, but high above the valley we climbed from. We could also see a lake near the Cho La pass, which can be crossed to reach Gokyo. The trail we would be following tomorrow to Lobuche was also visible, although Lobuche itself was behind a ridge. Lal climbed out on a pinnacle on top of the hill, but I didn't follow, because there was a steep cliff on three sides of it, and it looked dangerous. We descended by a gentler route, which was still very steep, and entered town via the trail we would be taking tomorrow. I had chicken noodle soup and glucose/malt biscuits for lunch, and went down to see the stupa while the sun was still in a good position for photographs. There was supposed to be a talk on altitude sickness at the Himalayan Lodge at 3 PM, but the doctor from the Pheriche clinic who was going to give it was busy and couldn't come. I washed my hair in the spring outside in the street, which was really cold. This was the closest I got to a shower on the trek yet. A big group with yaks moved into our courtyard. Julie asked me and two other Americans, including the young lady who had been having altitude problems in Tengboche, to play a game of Whisk, an English card game similar to 500 which has a trump suit. The other two Americans were taking a year to return home from a job teaching English in Japan, and had just spent two months in China. They had saved a lot of money while teaching, because they were working in a rural area, but were paid as much as if they had been teaching in Tokyo. They would not try to make it to Kala Pattar, due to a lack of time and the lady's altitude problems. This was as high as they will stay. They would walk up the valley to Chhukung tomorrow. Julie said she never walked with her porter, but sent him ahead so she could walk alone. She told him to wait for her at bridges and hills. Her first trek was in 1984 in the Annapurna region, when she said there were far fewer inns than now, and they usually just served dal bhatt. Now you can get a wide variety of food, including pizza, apple pie, pop corn, and French fries. She began this trip with a trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary, where I thought I would like to go after this trek if there was time. She said the trail condition is not as good there, but the elevation is lower. She also said it is much better to stay at the Annapurna Base Camp than the Machhapuchhare Base Camp in the Sanctuary, because you get more of a feeling of being in the middle of the mountains. One of the lodges there, which is run by a young woman with a western-style appearance, has apple pie with chocolate sauce, which Julie said is worth trying. She didn't remember the name of the lodge. We had dinner during the card game, which lasted a long time. I had fried noodles with vegetables and cheese, and garlic soup. The noodles came with a surprise fried egg, which had a soft yolk, so I didn't eat it. Lal probably had them add the egg, since he was in the kitchen. It became cloudy at sunset, but cleared up beautifully after dark. The Swiss family with the four and six year old children, who I had last encountered in Phakding, were staying here tonight. The children sang a lot, but were well-behaved and quiet at bed time. They had been traveling for four months. November 5 ---------- For the first time, I slept practically all night, waking up at 7 AM. For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs and chapatis again. Julie had French toast, which looked good. She remarked how happy she was to have her Thermarest sleeping pad. I have one too, but mine is thinner. They are very comfortable. She also has the chair kit (which I also have, but left home), that converts it into an inflatable seat. The Germans at the table commented that outdoor equipment is much more expensive in Europe than America. Julie said she sometimes sends things to friends in England. She said she has more outdoor equipment than anything else. She really liked my compression stuff-sacks and wanted to look for some when she got home. She has an older model, but it is not as nice. She especially liked my radial compression sack in which I kept my down jacket, which is designed to attach to the outside of a pack. Before we left for the day, a rescue helicopter arrived at another lodge. Someone must have been having serious trouble there. The beginning of the trail to Lobuje was wide and flat, crossing yak pastures along the valley. Eventually, we descended to an icy river and crossed a bridge. On the other side, we stopped in Dugla for tea. The route to Cho La Pass begins above Dugla. Lal inquired about its condition, in case we decided to take it to get to Gokyo. The condition was said to be good, so we could go that way. It would be faster than going around, as I had originally planned, and would probably have very nice views, but would be cold and somewhat snowy. There are two new lodges on the other side of the pass, which would take about five hours to reach from Dugla. After having tea, we began a grueling climb up a very steep hill. People were walking like zombies. We could not go very fast. On top, were many stone stacks, plus some mani stones and an excellent view back down the valley. The remainder of the trail was gently up-hill along the Lobuche Khola river in a barren valley, to Lobuche, at 16175 feet. Yaks grazed in the stony fields. Lobuche is a very small town with just four inns. Three were already full, but the fourth had some space on the top bunk. We stopped there, and I had noodle soup with sugar biscuits and mint tea for lunch. Lobuche had reportedly had sanitation problems recently, and numerous cases of food poisoning, so I was a bit nervous about eating there. I put iodine in my tea. The problem may be that the outhouses are uphill from the water supply, and contaminate it. Lal was worried that his pants were not warm enough for here and Gorak Shep, our highest stop. In fact, he didn't want to stay at Gorak Shep, but use Lobuche as a base for climbing Kala Pattar. Sleeping at Lobuche is sometimes recommended to avoid altitude problems, since Gorak Shep is 17000 feet high and most people have trouble sleeping there. However, I wanted to stay closer to Kala Pattar, so I could climb it at the best possible time, in case clouds came for part of the day. The inns at Gorak Shep are reportedly nicer, as well. Also, I had been thinking of making a side trip to the Everest Base Camp, although Lal said this wasn't worth the trouble, since there was no view from the base camp. I lent Lal my pair of Columbia nylon pants to wear over his other pants, but was afraid this wouldn't help much, since they are thin. Also, he is smaller than me. I didn't have any extra thermal pants. I climbed the hill overlooking Lobuche, which I mistakenly thought would begin our route to Gorak Shep, since I saw people climbing the steep trail that way. Toward the top of the hill, there was no obvious trail through the rocks, but there were a lot of small rock stacks. On top, I found good views of Lobuche and of the massive face of Lhotse, which dominates the valley. In the other direction, a glacier was visible, and more ridges of rocks I assumed we would be crossing tomorrow. As the sun got low, some clouds moved in and it became cold. I got out my pile pants, and for the first time, put on my down jacket. This was the most primitive lodge yet, with dirt floors and no dining room table. We sat on platforms around the edge of the dining room, with a stove in the middle. There was a kerosene lantern, so it was rather bright inside. Most people, including myself, ordered dal bhatt, which was rather crunchy here. I was careful not to break a tooth. Dal bhatt is generally an all-you-can-eat meal, and they came around with seconds, but one serving was plenty for me. Someone ordered it with boiled potatoes, and got a plate of about a dozen small boiled potatoes first. He was full before he even finished the potatoes. Boiled potatoes are a staple food of the Sherpas. They are served in their skins, and must be peeled. Hot sauce or ketchup may be added. Dal bhatt, the most popular meal in the rest of Nepal, is expensive in the Khumbu region, because rice does not grow this high. At night, this lodge was very noisy. Campers outside were talking all night. Not much can be expected of the high-altitude lodges here, which are few, primitive, and expensive. The stars were beautiful tonight, and I saw meteors. There was no moon. November 6 ---------- Today, we had a relatively short two-hour walk up to Gorak Shep, our highest stop at about 17,000 feet. Lal didn't want to stay there, because it is cold and expensive, but Kala Pattar was my main destination, so I wanted to stay close to it, and Lal would do whatever I asked. I was relieved to discover that we did not have to climb the rocks above Lobuje, as I had thought. Instead, we continued gently up the valley, following the shallow, icy river. We had to rock-hop across it twice, and eventually came to a steep hill, the most difficult of the day. Then the trail climbed to the top of a rocky ridge high above the Khumbu Glacier, and continued up and down over rocky ridges until it reached Gorak Shep, at 17000 feet. All the little climbs were tiring at this elevation, and I let Lal go ahead of me to find a lodge. We stopped at the first of three lodges in Gorak Shep. There were tables and lounge chairs (mostly in disrepair) outside on the patio, and many people were sitting around. The tip of Mt. Everest was visible over the ridge above the roof of the lodge. I had an early lunch of watery tomato soup and biscuits, then we rested a couple of hours. I wanted to climb Kala Pattar, the 18,450 foot hill next to Gorak Shep, in the afternoon so that the sun would hit Mt. Everest from a good angle for photographs, and there would be enough clouds to make the sky interesting. Lal had a plate of yak meat with the other Nepalese while waiting. I took a Diamox, a diuretic which aids acclimatization, after lunch to see what effect it would have. It is said that Diamox helps the body use oxygen more efficiently by acidifying the blood. I had not tried any altitude medication earlier, because I was not having any real troubles, and once you start taking it, you must continue until you descend to the same elevation. This was our highest point, so I could safely try one to see if it would make the climb any easier. I cleaned my glasses and camera lens, and told Lal I was ready at 2 PM. He then bought some biscuits and Cadbury bars for snacks, and told me he would like to have some sunglasses, because it was very bright. He did not like the reddish tint of the ski goggles I lent him this morning. I bought him a pair of mirrored sunglasses with red frames he liked in the lodge store for 500 Rs. I put on my warmest clothes, including a down jacket, pile jacket, pile pants, nylon wind pants, and two layers of thermal underwear: a capilene undershirt and a full set of wool-polypropalene underwear. I carried a fresh bottle of hot, boiled water in a pouch under my down jacket. I also brought my heavy Columbia gloves and a fleece balaclava to keep my face warm. Lal liked my gloves, which he thought looked like motorcycle gloves. Unfortunately, I could not take pictures while wearing them. I lent Lal my wool gloves, which were better than his, and my nylon jacket. We crossed a flat, sandy dry lake-bed next to the town, which was little more than three lodges, and started the climb. It went easier than I had expected. I don't know if this was because of the Diamox I took, or because I was not carrying a pack. Up to the first plateau, I needed no rest stops, and we kept a surprisingly fast pace on the very steep trail. Most of the people I had watched climbing from the hotel earlier were moving like zombies here. Because of our relatively late start, we were practically alone now. There were only a few other people coming down. At the plateau, we got our first good view of Mt. Everest. Lal joked that we should try climbing it in twelve hours and set a record. When we started climbing the final rocky top of Kala Pattar, I slowed down a bit, and took some rests. Lal started running, but he didn't run long before needing a rest himself. He sat down on a rock, and I gave him some of my water. After that, we were within sight of the top. Lal kept a steadier pace, and reached the top after climbing for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I took an extra fifteen minutes, which was still a good time. I had wanted to do well on this climb, since we were considering crossing Cho La pass, and Lal was afraid he would be cold if I walked too slowly, so he would be watching how I did today. However, the difficulty of this climb was already giving me strong second thoughts about whether I wanted to try to cross the pass, since I would have to carry my pack at a comparable elevation to this hill. On top of the hill, it was 30 degrees with a strong wind. Lal was not as well-dressed as I was, but he said he was warm enough. He gave me a piece of his Cadbury bar, which was frozen solid. We took a lot of pictures. The mountain views were spectacular in all directions. Mt. Everest was clearly visible, but my favorite view was back down the valley we had just come up, which was lined with a multitude of mountains. Pumori was the closest mountain, just above us, in the direction opposite Gorak Shep. A glacier and lake were visible over the steep other side of Kala Pattar, and between Everest and Pumori, we could see a pass to Tibet and Changtse, a mountain across the border. I didn't go all the way to the highest point, because of the steep drop-offs and strong gusty wind, but I went close, and Lal and I took turns taking pictures of each other on the peak. The walk down was much faster, but very steep, and it was easy to slip on the sandy trail. One lady was coming up, alone, as we were going down. She would be the last person on the hill. Already, it was becoming very cloudy, and the views would be limited. She planned to come back in the morning, as well. I originally had similar plans, but now I no longer thought I wanted to repeat that exhausting and painful climb. A partial climb to see how Everest looks in the morning might be nice. It is not necessary to climb all the way. I also decided that I would probably skip the walk to the base camp, since it was a six hour round trip, and there is no view since it is in the valley. There was no expedition there now, so there would be nothing to see. Otherwise, the glacier is the main attraction. A short walk along it might be nice. When we returned to the lodge, we had tea, and I ate the biscuits and Cadbury bar Lal bought me earlier. It was too cold to spend time eating at the summit. Lal brought us two plates of yak meat, which were not as highly spiced as in Tengboche, but all sorts of hot sauces were available on the table, including Tabasco. Lal suggested getting some beer or chhang to go with it, but I thought this was a bad idea at this altitude, and anyway, it would not mix with the Diamox I had taken. I ordered a hot chocolate instead. As we ate the yak meat, Lal told me he had a headache, and asked for a Diamox, which I gave him. He then curled up in a corner by the stove in his sleeping bag (a thin summer bag). For dinner, I ordered dal bhatt with vegetable curry, which was pretty good here, but Lal said he wasn't hungry. This was a bad sign, since it is a symptom of altitude sickness. At sunset, the clouds broke up just enough for a glimpse of Nuptse and Everest illuminated by a reddish light. After dinner, a lady staying at the lodge told me I should keep an eye on my guide, because he didn't look well. A short while later, Lal went outside and threw up. One lady in the lodge was a nurse. She gave him a coordination test, which he passed. If he hadn't, we would have had to try to get him down to Lobuche or further immediately, in the dark. She had him take another Diamox and drink a lot of water, but he couldn't keep it down. I mentioned that I had a stronger medicine, dexamethazone, but we weren't sure he should take it so soon after taking Diamox, and anyway, he didn't trust anything but Diamox. The lodge manager told me that the Nepalese were suspicious of drugs, and while Diamox had become accepted by some because of promotion by the clinic in Pheriche, they usually preferred their own remedies, such as garlic. We kept him awake until bed time, when the light was left on while I watched him for a couple of hours, to make sure he was breathing well and did not get worse. After about 10:30, I was too cold and tired to continue, and the solar electricity was running out. The lodge owner lit a candle, and I brought my sleeping bag into the dining room to lie next to him, where the Nepalese slept around the stove. Some extra blankets and a sleeping bag were donated to keep Lal warm as the fire died in the stove. I slept very close to him and tried to watch him as much as I could, although I was too tired from climbing Kala Pattar to stay awake much, and I unintentionally had my best sleep yet on this trek. November 7 ---------- In the morning, Lal was feeling better. He was weak, but hungry. He told me I reminded him last night of how his father used to watch over him when he was sick. It had been very cold in the lodge that night, and it was 25 when I awoke at 6 AM. My water bottle had frozen. The cook did not get up until 7 AM. In the mean time, I went outside and watched the sunrise illuminate the peaks. Everest was to the east, and did not receive morning light here, but Pumoni was brightly lit above Kala Pattar, which remained in shadows. Lal ordered garlic soup for breakfast, to help with his altitude problems, and I ordered Tibetan bread with an omelet. Lal felt better after eating his soup. My breakfast took a long time to come. After eating, I climbed Kala Pattar to the first plateau for a morning view of Everest. There were many large, fat, brown and white pheasants on the hill. They were one of three species of pheasants that live in the Khumbu region, and the first that I've seen. They make an odd noise and don't scare easily, but slowly walk away when approached. As I expected, there was no sun on Everest yet, but the view back down the valley, past Gorak Shep, was very beautiful in the morning sun. When I came down, I packed, and we started down for Dingboche at 9 AM. Lal was still weak, and I was feeling slightly light-headed myself. At Lobuche, we stopped for an early lunch at 10:30. We both had noodle soup with a special herb which is supposed to be an altitude medicine (one I did not recognize, but which was tasty). We also drank hot lemon, which is lemon juice in hot water. Lal said he felt much better after eating the soup. I also felt less light-headed. We continued mostly downhill, to the big hill we had climbed above Dugla. The top of that hill is an extremely beautiful spot, and I took many more pictures. There were many mani stones overlooking a panorama of mountains including Ama Dablam. At the bottom of the steep hill, we stopped for tea in Dugla, then crossed the relatively level yak fields, high above the valley floor, on the way to Dingboche. There was a very strong wind in our face. Pheriche was visible in the valley below. I had suggested that Lal should go there instead of Dingboche, since they have a clinic, but he didn't want to go there. He said Pheriche was too cold and windy. Across the ridge in Dingboche, it was colder, and there was little wind. We stayed in the Sonam Friendship lodge, as before, which is quite nice. I got a bunk next to the stove, and rested after today's five hour walk. Lal ordered us both a plate of fried potatoes with eggs, which made a good and filling second lunch. Snow came late in the afternoon, leaving a white dusting on the ground. For dinner, I had fried potato/cheese momos and a small pot of hot chocolate. November 8 ---------- We slept late today, getting up just before 8 AM. For breakfast, I had cinnamon French toast, because it had looked good when Julie had it here earlier. However, the toast turned out to not have much egg or cinnamon. The snow started to melt when the sun hit the valley, and I went outside to wash with a basin of warm water Lal brought me. While I was shaving, a Nepali came up to me and said "yak danger." When I looked around, there was a yak right behind me. I moved to a safer place and continued shaving. The lodge courtyard was full of yaks carrying gear for a large camping group. We began the walk toward Phortse at 9 AM by retracing the route we originally took from Pangboche, which is now mostly downhill and much easier. Instead of going back through lower Pangboche, we climbed the hill and went through the old part of town, upper Pangboche, which is more traditional and less visited. It has beautiful views across the valley to Mt. Kangtega and Tengboche. The oldest monastery in the Khumbu region was also here. Unfortunately it was closed, so we couldn't see the gompa, which is said to contain yeti relics. Instead, we had lunch at the lodge next door. We got enormous servings of noodle soup. Just when I thought I couldn't eat any more, the hostess came and refilled our bowls. I took some pictures out the window. The next part of the trail followed the gorge we came up from Tengboche, but on the opposite side of the river, and much higher up. The views were spectacular, but the trail was not easy, constantly going up and down along the steep wall of the gorge. There were a number of steep and treacherous staircases in the rock. Both my guide and I had colds, and our noses ran a lot. The Nepalese don't need handkerchiefs, since they have a way of blowing their nose onto the ground. Finally, we crossed the last ridge, and could see Phortse below, perched on the edge of a deep valley. This was a relief, because by now I was very tired. Some women were working in the fields. Phortse still gets relatively few tourists. We stayed at the Namaste Lodge, which was empty when we arrived, but got a few more people later. We arrived at 2:45 PM, exhausted from the long walk. We got a private room for the first time since Namche Bazaar. It was a primitive, cell-like room, with a dirt and stone floor just large enough for our packs, and a bunk with two thin mattresses, one with a Micky Mouse cover. The external walls were mud, and the walls between the rooms was wood. A blue plastic tarp covered the ceiling, and a blue floral sheet was draped on the walls around the bed. A window let in direct afternoon sunlight, temporarily warming the room. Lal brought me a tea, and I put on my warm clothes and unpacked. Then I went up to the unusually large dining room, which doubles as a pantry. One long wall was covered with windows, giving a view down the valley toward Everest View Hotel. There was a prayer wheel next to the door, and bell rang when anyone spun it. On the opposite wall, across the long room, was a little shrine. There was no stove. Every once in a while a woman brought embers from the kitchen and placed them in the pot. Everyone huddled around it attempting to get warm, but it did little to drive the chill from the vast room. Clouds moved in, as usual, in the late afternoon, and it started to snow. I drank a lot of tea to keep warm. A group of Swiss campers came in to drink beer. We ordered dinner early. They were out of dal, so I couldn't order dal bhatt, like I wanted. Instead, Lal and I had curried potatoes with rice and a very potent chile sauce. It was good, but I found it difficult to eat such a large plate of food, especially after the hostess refilled my curry bowl. As darkness fell, the Swiss beer-drinkers returned to their camp up the hill. The children living in the lodge curled up in some blankets in the corner and went to bed. A very old lady went to bed in the opposite corner. She chanted something for a long time in a deep frog-like voice. We went to bed early tonight, since the chill in the lodge was not helping my cold, which I thought had now progressed to a sinus infection and possibly bronchitis. I decided to start treating it with an antibiotic, Cephalexin. My sleeping bag was warm and comfortable, and I slept very well for over twelve hours tonight. The only time I got up, around 3 AM, I found that the stars were out, and there was a crescent moon lighting the valley. November 9 ---------- I felt much better in the morning, but Lal's cold was worse. Perhaps I gave him mine. We decided to take it easy climbing to Gokyo, and would make two stops along the way. It is possible to walk all the way in one day, but the altitude change is great, and some people have died doing this. For breakfast, I had a cinnamon pancake with an onion omelet and hot chocolate. We started the two and a half hour walk to Dole around 9 AM. The children at the lodge waved good-bye to us, and we descended a steep trail into the valley below. Spanish moss hung from the trees along the way. We crossed the river, and then steeply climbed the other side of the gorge. Lal's imitation `Lowe' backpack was starting to lose a shoulder strap, but it would hold for the day until we had a chance to fix it. For the rest of the day we would be climbing, but fortunately the walk was short, and we could rest often. We passed a couple of big waterfalls, and had spectacular views back down the valley to Phortse, Mt. Thamserku and Mt. Kangtega. We arrived at the small village of Dole just before noon, and found a nice, spacious private room in a new lodge. Our room had two sunny windows, wood paneling, and colorful posters. The dining room had a stove and lots of windows. I had Ra Ra noodle soup and hot lemon for lunch. Then I helped Lal fix his backpack, using my sewing kit. We discussed our plans for after this trek. He said he would take me to the Annapurna Sanctuary on a 10 day trek for $25 a day. The company would charge $30 a day, but he didn't want them to be involved, since they would take a cut. He also didn't want them to find out about this arrangement, since they would not want to hire him again if they knew he was taking their customers. We would have a day in Kathmandu between treks to get trekking permits and plane or bus tickets, and to do some sightseeing. By late afternoon, clouds had moved in, and the lodge was packed. I met a man and woman from Alaska. They commented that they weren't used to seeing so many people while hiking, since Alaska is mostly unpopulated. A man from Washington state was also staying here, with his girl friend. He was wearing exactly the same Extrasport pile jacket as I was. Since Extrasport makes boating gear, this brand is not often seen on the trail, but I had bought much of my equipment at a store called River Sports in Knoxville, which sells both whitewater and camping gear. Some people on their way down from Gokyo said that there had been some problem with food poisoning at the highest lodge there, the Gokyo Resort, and a lot of people became sick. The Nepalis gathered close to the stove to play cards. A lot of yaks roamed outside. One rolled around on its back in the dust and then shook. I met a man from New Zealand who had a degree in physics, but was now working in economics. He was slowly traveling across land to England, where he expected to find a job in banking. We discussed physics, especially grand unified theories and superstring theory, as well as traveling. He had not been to the United States yet. I also met a British woman who was born in America. For dinner, I had dal bhatt with curried vegetables. The New Zealander ordered a yak steak with toast and made a yakburger. Then he ordered another one, with beer. When I went to bed, the sky was clear and starry. By now, Lal had no more problems opening my combination lock. November 10 ----------- When I got up today, I didn't feel quite right. I was slightly weak and queasy. For breakfast, I had oat porridge and tea. Shortly after, I discovered that I had diarrhea. I told Lal that we were staying another day here, because something had made me sick, and I did not feel well enough to go on. I suspected the dal bhatt I had last night, although the lodge appeared to be very clean and Lal was in the kitchen watching them cook. I went back to bed. I was glad I had a nice private room today. For lunch, Lal brought chicken soup and dry toast to me in bed, as I requested. Lunch didn't stay down long, so I decided to avoid food for the rest of the day, and mixed a bottle of Gatorade in boiled water. I had brought the Gatorade for rehydration in case I had diarrhea and lost a lot of water. For the rest of the day, I stayed in bed. I told Lal not to bring me dinner, and he lit a candle for me when it got dark. He also brought boiled water so I could make more Gatorade. All day, I dreamed that Nepal was a seething mass of ant-like people carrying food and water bottles, and I was floating in them. Later that night, I started feeling better, and dreamed about eating ice cream at Thomas Sweet's Ice Cream Parlor in Princeton. I slept rather well after that. November 11 ----------- In the morning I felt much better, but somewhat weak. I was cautious about what I ate. For breakfast, I had tomato soup. I was still hungry, so I ordered a chapati with jam, deciding it was worth risking solid food to rebuild my strength. A large yak was guarding the outhouse this morning, making access risky. I shaved and took some pictures, then packed. The yak went upstairs and blocked the way from the downstairs sleeping quarters to the dining room. Lal whacked it on the horns with a pan, but it wouldn't budge until it wanted to. We had a short two hour walk to Machhermo today. It was all uphill, sometimes steeply. We started out with a big climb. I didn't have much energy today, so we rested often, and I drank a lot of Gatorade. We stopped once for tea along the way. By the time we stopped, I was really tired. The inn had only a dormitory. The kitchen and dining room were together in one smoky room. Smoke from the cooking fire vents through a small hole in the roof. I met a lady from Singapore. Lal tried for a long time to get her to tell him her age, but she would not. He was very persistent, because he wanted to know whether she was older or younger than him. It matters in Nepali, because older women are addressed differently from younger women. She admitted that she was older than him, so she was addressed as didi, or `older sister'. In fact, from talking to her, I was able to deduce that she was in her early 40's, although she looked much younger. She had been traveling a lot since the 1970's. On this trek, she lost her traveling companion to an illness, and was continuing to Gokyo with their guide. Her name was Ling Soo. Lal told her he had a friend from Singapore, and showed her a picture of a man from Singapore from his wallet, and asked if she knew him. She did not. Lal carries pictures of the people he has guided, who he calls friends, in his wallet, and shows them to people when he meets someone else from one of the same places. It was 38 degrees in the lodge. I ordered Ra Ra noodle soup and a Coke. The Coke was expensive: 90 Rs, or about $1.80. A large group was camping outside. Some of them were tossing a Frisbee. Nepalese children were playing with a soccer ball, and the guides, including Lal, sat inside drinking chhang and gambling. Around 3 PM, it began to snow. I put on all my warm clothes, including the down jacket, and was comfortable. A Nepalese woman carrying items to the Saturday market in Namche Bazaar stopped by the lodge. She had two small children. One of them got a small green orange. He spoke some English already, although he was probably too young for school. Some campers came inside and ordered cinnamon rolls with hot chocolate. I watched the hostess make them, rolling out the dough, spreading sugar and cinnamon on them, and rolling them up. I was sitting by the earthen cooking stove with the Ling Soo. I asked the hostess if I could take a picture of her, and she agreed. I moved away from the stove when it was time to fry the rolls. If I had not been sick yesterday, I would have been tempted to have one. They smelled delicious. It turned out that she made an extra one. She cut it into three pieces, and shared it with Ling Soo and me. It really was delicious. As it became dark, a kerosene lantern was lit. Most people ordered rice with vegetable curry for dinner, but I had lost my appetite for this since I believed it made me sick yesterday. I ordered steamed vegetable momos with tomato soup and hot chocolate. Everything was prepared freshly as we watched. The hostess washed often, and cleaned the vegetables. The curry with rice was prepared first. When she finished, she began working on my momos, rolling out little circles of dough and filling them with vegetables and soy sauce. The momos were spicier than I had come to expect, since the vegetable inside was a kind of strong green onion. The soy sauce also made them very salty. This was unusual since Nepalese food is almost always under-salted and bland. Eight of these momos was almost more than I could eat, especially since my stomach was still recovering. I could only finish half of the watery tomato soup. Real tomato soup cannot be found here. The hot chocolate was delicious, however, and helped everything go down. A middle-aged Brazilian woman, who had been alone in the dormitory all afternoon, came out after everyone else had eaten and had some soup. She spoke very little English. She had been left behind by a Brazilian organized tour headed for Gokyo because she was sick. That is a problem with organized tours. They have a schedule to keep, and if you get sick you are out of luck. Many of the people who have the most serious cases of altitude sickness are in organized tours, because they feel pressured to go on even if they are not ready. Tonight, the moon reflected brilliantly of the light dusting of snow outside, and the surrounding mountains were brightly illuminated. It was extremely beautiful, and after visiting the outhouse, I stayed outside a while admiring the surroundings, not bothered by the cold. I went inside to get my camera and mini-tripod, and tried taking a few pictures by moonlight. I tried a one minute and three minute exposure, guessing that these would work based on previous experience taking moonlight pictures once in Cades Cove in the Smokies. The dormitory was quiet tonight, with only five people staying there, and I slept well. November 12 ----------- This morning, Lal brought me tea and a basin of warm water, and I attempted to wash my hair for the first time in about a week. I still had not quite gotten my appetite back, and could eat only half of the scrambled eggs and chapatis I ordered for breakfast. I had, however, gotten my strength back, and had no problem climbing the steep hill out of Machhermo. We passed a couple of groups, and arrived at Fangka in a half hour. Fangka has a new lodge, and we stopped there for tea. Then we passed the same people we passed earlier again, climbing gently up the valley. Soon we came to a steep climb up a wide cascade coming from the first Gokyo lake. The trail crossed between relatively dry places, climbing up boulders to the top of the cascade. The small lake at the top was shallow and mucky. We passed Julie, the older lady I met in Dingboche, on her way down from Gokyo. She said the food poisoning problem at Gokyo Resort had been solved, and that it was worth staying there, because it was the nicest lodge. Julie was alone, and I did not notice her porter, but must have passed him also at some point. The second Gokyo lake is large, and has a beautiful turquoise color. I stopped often to photograph it, and Lal became cold waiting for me, so I let him go on ahead. He could get us a place in a lodge. The third lake was even more beautiful. I passed a prayer flag on its shore, and then noticed Gokyo ahead beside the lake. It is a fairly large town, the largest so far in this valley, which surprised me due to the high altitude. There were many inns. Lal greeted me as I passed the first walls coming into town. He had found room in the dormitory at Gokyo Resort, which is the fanciest place we have stayed yet on the trek. Gokyo Resort is very new, with solar electric lights, and a menu featuring a wide variety of western selections, including spaghetti and large pastries stuffed with tuna and vegetables. The main attraction is a warm sun room, with windows covering three walls and the ceiling, where almost everyone was sitting. I went there and drank a tea Lal ordered. I didn't care much for the tea here, so from then on, I ordered it with lemon. The sun room had some plastic lawn chairs with backs, which were a welcome change from the usual benches. I sat in one that Lal brought me, and stayed there most of the afternoon. The manager of the Gokyo Resort had an unusual appearance for a Nepali, especially in the Khumbu region. He had a full beard and glasses, and wore a Washington Redskins cap. His general appearance was rather western. He brought out some of the tuna pastries I saw on the menu, which were very popular. They were very big, and if I were sure of my stomach, I would have tried one. Some people complained that the large beans in them were undercooked, and picked them out. Someone else had the spaghetti, which came with almost no sauce, but apparently just a dab of ketchup. Tomato products are rare here. I ordered noodle soup for lunch, and then sat in the sun a while drinking lemon tea. When it started to get cloudy, I went outside to the lodge store to buy snacks for tomorrow's climb of Gokyo Ri, which we would have to do very early to avoid the clouds which already obscured the views when we arrived this morning, before noon. The store had a wide selection of items, including Lindt bars for 200 Rs, or $4. I bought a couple of Cadbury bars, some `Temple' biscuits with nectar cream filling, and a few postcards, although they could not be mailed here. As the sun set, everyone moved into the warm lodge, which became crowded. I ordered dal bhatt for dinner, which some Nepalis told me was excellent here. It would be too much to eat, but should be healthy, I thought. The man and woman from Alaska, who I met in Dole, sat at my table. They were playing cribbage. They had come up from Tumlingtar, a route which sees few tourists, and is still rather rough. They said it was interesting, but once was enough. There were few inns, and it was sometimes necessary to stay in homes. The sanitation was very poor, even in the inns, and there were often bedbugs and other insects in the bedding. The recommended staying an extra day in Gokyo and walking past the fifth lake to a tower with good views. It was a three hour walk. I would have to think about it, because if I didn't stay an extra day, I might be able to catch an early flight out of Lukla, and have more time in the Annapurnas. The Alaskans were both teachers, and used to teach Indians on a remote island in northern Alaska. Two other Americans were staying here as well, and were also teachers. The man was originally from Alabama, but now lived with his wife in California. They had been trekking in Pakistan before coming to Nepal, and said conditions there were much more difficult. They got sick frequently from bad food, and it was very hot. The wife was often harassed by Pakistani men, who would sometimes follow her when she had diarrhea to watch her go to the bathroom. The dal bhatt did turn out to be very good here, although it had some of the same undercooked beans that were in the tuna pastry. There were some home-made potato chips on top. At least I think that is what they were. The color was slightly pink, but they looked and tasted like warm, fresh potato chips. November 13 ----------- Most people got up early here to climb Gokyo Ri, the 17,990 foot hill above Gokyo, before clouds obscured the view of Mt. Everest to the east. I got up at 5:45 AM to prepare for the climb, and shared a pack of the `Temple' biscuits I bought yesterday with Lal. These were cream-filled cookies with a picture of a temple and a nectar (flowery) flavor. We had tea as well, but the kitchen was not yet serving breakfast. By the time we left the lodge at 6:15, there was already quite a parade up the steep hill. The Singapore lady, Ling Soo Kim, started climbing, but quickly turned back because she did not feel well. As we climbed, the rough, barren glacial landscape just over the low ridge behind Gokyo became visible. Soon, the tip of Mt. Everest became visible, further east. This climb was difficult, but seemed easier than Kala Pattar. We reached the top in two hours, a fairly good time. It was not as cold as Kala Pattar. I wore the same clothes, but ended up removing some. Everest is further away here, so more of it was visible over Nuptse's ridge. The entire view was spectacular, with lots of mountains, and the bright blue Gokyo lakes far below. It was very clear and sunny, and the hill top was crowded. There was just a little bit of ice on top. We stayed a couple of hours and took a lot of pictures. I had the impression that the view here was even more beautiful than from Kala Pattar, especially because of the Gokyo lakes. I shared a Cadbury bar with Lal, and then we headed down. He wanted to go fast, so I let him run down while I enjoyed the views and took more pictures. Once, I stopped and sat for a while to look at Gokyo and the lake. I took my black Columbia gloves off to take some pictures, and forgot to put them back on. By the time I remembered them, I was too far down the hill to climb back up and look for them. Since we would never again be climbing to such a high altitude, I thought my wool gloves should be adequate from now on, and I decided to leave the heavy gloves behind. Back at the lodge, I had corn soup, which I had not seen on a menu before here, and more Temple cookies and tea. When I told Lal I lost the gloves, he felt guilty for having left me behind, since he always checked to make sure I didn't forget anything. He offered to go back up and look for them, but I said no, because he would never find them. I was sitting away from the trail at the time. We packed and started down the valley at noon. It was now becoming very cloudy. The downhill walk was easy. Soon, snow flurries started. We arrived in Fangka in ninety minutes, and stopped for tea. An American couple on their way to Gokyo was there. The woman was from Georgia, and mentioned that she had seen few people from the south here. Soon, we arrived in Machhermo. We had planned to continue to Dole, but it was still snowing, and Lal was getting cold, so we stopped here at the same lodge as earlier. A group of women and children on their way back up from the Saturday market in Namche Bazaar stopped at the inn, and stayed a while, talking to the hostess and her sister. Ling Soo from Singapore was here as well. The lodge was near freezing inside. After the visiting women left, we gathered around the fire to keep warm. After dark, the kerosene lantern contributed some warmth. We all ordered rice with curried vegetables, which today were potatoes with a little cabbage. Before dinner, Lal and I ate a couple of the green oranges. Lal said oranges are grown near Kathmandu. He told me he would invite me to his home for dinner Saturday, before we started our Annapurna trek. I had trouble finishing one plate of food, but Lal ate vast quantities. We had some home-made pickles and hot sauce with the curry, which was otherwise bland. At bed time, the dormitory was very cold, and Lal asked to borrow my down jacket so he could put it over himself to keep warm. His sleeping bag was thin, and this lodge could not provide many blankets. The sky was overcast all night, but became clear by daybreak. November 14 ----------- When I awoke, Lal brought me tea and a basin of hot water. For breakfast, I had a pancake with jam and an onion omelet with hot chocolate. We started the long walk toward Namche Bazaar at 8:15. We soon passed Ling Soo and her guide, who started earlier. Her guide didn't have a typical Nepalese look. He was rather large, and had a big beard and a leather motorcycle hat. He carried two packs, one on top of the other, with a shoulder strap around his head. The day was sunny and cool. We stopped at Dole for a long break while Lal had breakfast. He couldn't get what he wanted in Machhermo. I had a chocolate bar from Gokyo with a lot of tea. The walking became more difficult as we approached Phortse Thanghka, further down the valley and across the river from Phortse. Going down the steep hills was hard on the knees. There were also a few climbs. We stopped for a leisurely lunch in Phortse Thanghka. Ling Soo caught up with us, and stopped for lunch at the same tea house. She was still not feeling completely well, and ordered a big plate of boiled potatoes. There were too many for her, so she shared them with her guide. I asked her why her guide was carrying a camera, but she wasn't. She told me it belonged to her sick companion. A radio in the kitchen played western pop music, and a young boy wearing bottomless pants danced to it in the doorway. After lunch, we had a very long, steep climb to a pass at the top of the ridge. Although it was very long, it did not seem too difficult to me now, and we did not have to stop for rests. We passed a number of groups, and had to stop only to let yaks pass. At the top of the ridge, we stopped for tea. I took a picture of a stupa at the pass. Then we had a gentle, flat trail following the valley, near its top. On the way out of Namche Bazaar, we originally followed a much lower trail through this valley. Eventually, the trail split, and most people followed the lower fork, which led directly to Namche Bazaar. However, I had told Lal I wanted to go the hard way, over the hill and through Khumjung, since it looked like a more interesting route, and we had not been there before. He wasn't very happy about this idea, but agreed, of course, since that is his job. We waved to Ling Soo on the trail below for the last time, and followed the high route toward Khumjung. We soon came to the largest and steepest stone staircase I had seen yet, and carefully descended it. At the bottom, we looked up, and Lal pointed out a mountain goat, which was different from the American kind, near the top of the stairs. Shortly we came to Khumjung, a very large town, possibly bigger than Namche Bazaar. It is said to have a school, and a gompa with yeti relics (actually a hairy goat skull, reportedly), but we didn't stop here long, because it was getting late and cold, and snow was coming. We climbed the steep hill above Khumjung to the Everest View Hotel. By now I was getting tired, and had to rest several times during the climb. The hotel was now in a cloud, and had no view at all. We went in a back door, walked through a maintenance corridor, and exited through the front door. Since snow was coming, we didn't stay long. The clouds blowing up over the mountain were very cold. We crossed the government yak farm on top of the hill above Shangboche, descended past the airstrip, and started the steep descent into Namche Bazaar. I had climbed this steep, dusty trail the first time I was in Namche Bazaar, so I knew the way down, which was good because there was now no visibility, and Namche Bazaar could not be seen below. I sent Lal ahead because he was following too closely. The trail was very hard on the knees and thighs. The dust made it slippery, and I fell once. A few porters were coming up the trail, and some sounds came up from the town below, but it was not visible until I reached the bottom of the hill. I did not see Lal there and I didn't know where he was going, so I shouted a few times for him and he came back. We went down to the center of town and found a nice lodge with a private room and electricity. I could hardly move at this point, and crashed on the bed. Lal brought me a tea and I rested for an hour, until it was time to go up to the dining room and order dinner. Lal's thighs were sore also tonight. He didn't like going downhill, and sometimes had trouble with his knees. The dining room stove was very warm, and several people huddled around it in comfortable chairs with backs. I sat there a long time drying out (I was still sweaty from the walk) and getting warm. Tibetan music played on a tape in the kitchen. A Japanese trekker who had walked from Jiri was staying here. He spent most of his time reading, and didn't say much. Namche Bazaar was his final destination. He did not want to go very high. We suggested that he should at least go to Tengboche for a day. I had mixed fried rice for dinner. It was bland, and I could not eat it all. I had a cinnamon roll for dessert. They had been made today, and were a little dry, but tasty. We went to bed early and had a good sleep in the comfortable room. I took a naproxen to stop my muscles from hurting, which helped me sleep soundly. November 15 ----------- I slept fairly late. Lal was up first, and brought me tea and a wash basin. For breakfast, I had an apple pancake and and omelet. The pancake was fluffy and topped with thinly sliced apples. It was the most realistic pancake I had seen here yet. Usually they look more like a chapati. I put some honey on the pancake, since the apples were not sweetened. On the way out of town, I stopped to take pictures of the stupa, because it was now clear, and I could have mountains in the background. Then we quickly walked down the steep hill into the valley. It seemed much smaller than when we came up it. The only delay was when we got stuck behind a slow yak train. The yak in the back got whacked. Passing yaks is tricky, because you must wait for a wide place to get a safe distance from the horns. Yaks are usually rather docile, but you never know when one will get angry. They give little warning, and can do serious damage if they want to. We crossed the high bridge at the bottom of the hill and followed the river to Monjo, where we crossed the really shaky bridge. We passed some very large Japanese groups going the other way. Then we climbed the steep hill to the national park entrance. I was tired, and walked slowly. There was a delay at the entrance while we waited for my permit to be checked. Lal took care of this while I rested inside the office. From here down, there were tea houses every few minutes. The landscape was greener, with many flowers and gardens. It was overcast, and soon became cold. We stopped for some tea, and continued on to Phakding, where we stayed the first night, for a leisurely lunch of Ra Ra soup and tea. We had to decide whether to stay here, or continue on to Lukla and try to get an early flight back to Kathmandu. Lal said we had until 5 PM to change our ticket, so I decided to continue to Lukla. The walk from Phakding to Lukla was mostly uphill. No wonder the first day had seemed so easy. Now, with legs tired from several days of long walks, often steeply downhill, the hills were painful. I slowed down and rested a lot, while Lal went on ahead. He stopped at a tea shop where the trails to Jiri and Lukla split, and waited for me there. Then we had tea, and continued toward Lukla. On the way, we passed a group of obviously drunk Nepalese men and women, who waved and shouted "Namaste!" It was election day, and a lot of people were on the trail, traveling to vote. There were political symbols on many rocks, mostly Communist, and many swastikas. I was not sure at the time what the swastikas meant. They are popular in Nepal, and often appear on Tibetan rugs and cooking pots. There is a Swastika brand of soybean oil, which is the type of cooking used in Nepal. Some of the towns we passed through had many signs of Buddhism, with mani stones everywhere, and a large prayer wheel. I also heard some drumming coming from upstairs in one of the tea houses. Lal told me it was coming from Buddhist lamas. When the trail became steeper, Lal went ahead of me again to get to Lukla in time to change our ticket. Occasional helicopters were visible ahead, so it was clear that Lukla was close. I took my time on the hills, since my legs were very tired of walking by now, and sat occasionally to rest. A couple of Germans who had just arrived in Lukla told me I was the first person they saw carrying a full pack, like they were. Since they seemed to admire this, I didn't tell them that I had a guide carrying half my stuff, and that he was probably in Lukla by now. I continued on up the final hill into Lukla, the largest town since Namche Bazaar. I went through town to the Panorama Hotel, where we had left our return tickets upon arrival. I met Lal there, and he told me that because of today's elections, we were already too late. The Royal Nepal Airline office closed early, and they did not even have a full schedule of flights today. We could still try to get on a plane tomorrow, but it would be difficult because of the heavy post-election traffic. We had a nice private room, where I rested a while before going upstairs to order dinner. I really didn't want to get up, but there was a stove upstairs, and the room was comfortable. A number of people I had met along the trail were there, including the couple from Washington state I had met in Dole, and an apparently gay couple from San Francisco. Through the windows, I could see that one of the other lodges up the hill had strings of flashing Christmas lights around its windows. I was told this lodge had fresh home-grown tomatoes, and I was really hungry for tomatoes, since they were so rare in the region. I ordered a tomato-cheese pizza, which was covered with thick slices of fresh tomato, and had a dab of tangy pizza sauce on top. Apart from the soggy crust, it was delicious. Many people were curious about the `potato-cheese balls' on the specials board. Finally, the men from San Francisco ordered some. They were a kind of deep-fried potato croquette, and looked very good. The pizza was small and I was still hungry for tomatoes, so I ordered a bowl of tomato egg drop soup which, as I had been informed, was loaded with chunks of fresh tomato. A German group finishing its trek ordered a chocolate cake to celebrate. They couldn't eat it all, and passed it around to everyone. It was a little dry, but chocolaty, and had a tasty icing. One of the Nepalis on the inn staff worked here during trekking season, and on a large farm in Durango, Colorado in the summer. He told us about the large machines they use there. After dinner, he got out a `Sherpa guitar' with an elaborate dragon head shape at the top of the neck, and played Sherpa music. He was joined by a man with a skin drum and another with a harmonica. Soon, some of the German group's porters were coaxed into dancing, and eventually, many others joined the Sherpa dances, including Lal. A few trekkers also tried the simple dance, which didn't really have any steps to learn. This went on fairly late, until around 8:30. I was sleepy and went to bed then, but others stayed up a while longer. I found that this inn had a deluxe outhouse, with a porcelain flush toilet and running water. It was still a squat toilet, however, since that kind is traditional here. November 16 ----------- I slept all night, until after 7 AM, when Lal brought me tea and told me to pack, since we had to be ready to leave when the planes started coming, in case any seats were available. Lal had been up for a while, and already had breakfast. He had spent all of our money, and had to borrow 1000 Rs ($20), which he said the agency would pay back in Kathmandu. We went to the Himalayan Lodge just above the airport to have my breakfast, and to wait. I had a pancake with jam, an onion omelet, a Mars bar, and hot chocolate. I had been hungry for a candy bar for some time. Lal played with a white kitten while I ate. When the first planes arrived from Kathmandu, around 8:30, we went down to the airport to try to catch a flight. I could have had one if I had been alone, but Lal needed a seat too, so we waited. We weighed our bags while waiting, and found that we had been carrying the same weight, 15 kg each. I had suspected they were close. Lal's pack was much smaller than mine, but he was carrying my compression stuff-sack, which he called the `heavy bag' since is weighed a lot for its size. Three planes left together, and then we waited for them to return. We waited all morning. The airport is a small concrete building with some baggage scales and two booths, labeled `ladies' and `gents' for the security check. The two airlines serving Lukla, Royal Nepal Airline and Nepal Airways, have desks inside, and the helicopter service has a room outside. You can easily get to the departure area without going through security, just by going out the back door, and I had been in and out all morning. There was a snack shop in the departure area between the airport building and the airstrip down the hill. Two guards, both unarmed, wondered around the airport. While waiting, I stepped on the baggage scale and found that I weighed 73 kg, or about 160 pounds, so that I had lost about ten pounds while trekking. I had lost another ten pounds since the beginning of July while preparing for this trek. Lal weighed only 60 kg. Up the hill, I saw two men carrying a body wrapped in white cloths on a stick. A larger group followed them. Around 1 PM, an announcement came by radio saying that there would be no more flights from Kathmandu today. By now, it was very cloudy. We gathered our bags and went back to the Himalayan Lodge to get a room. We got a large double room upstairs, overlooking the airport. This was one of the largest and best lodges in Lukla, and was the fanciest one we stayed in on the entire trek. The rooms and even the outhouse had electric light. The outhouse had running water and a flush squat toilet as well. There was also a hot shower in front of the lodge, but it was still too cold for me to want to use it. The dining room was very warm. A dog and kitten lived at the lodge. The dog stayed outside, but the kitten liked to curl up by the stove. A Japanese group finishing a trek was having a huge feast, including a meat dish, for lunch. I ordered fried noodles with vegetables and egg, which was very good. At 2 PM, Lal asked for the radio to be turned on for the news, which was read first in Nepali, then in English. The election results for most of the precincts were in, and the Communists had taken control of parliament by a small margin. Lal showed me a picture of the prime minister visiting this lodge, and told me this meant he was on his way out. Kathmandu voted largely Communist, which was surprising, since Kathmandu is relatively wealthy. It is the rural hills, outside of tourist areas, where people are truly poor, and often do not see 100 Rs ($2) in an entire year. Lal seemed pleased with the election results, and said that Nepal probably needed a change. He thought the Communists won because people were unhappy with the former government, and they were the most organized opposition party. No one seemed quite sure what the change would be. I thought about going out for a walk, but it was starting to rain, so I sat in the lodge and looked through the magazines lying around: mostly old Newsweeks and Asian hotel trade publications. Two meteorologists returning from collecting data at a weather station in Dingboche came into the lodge. One was a student who said he was interested in studying physics. I told him I was a physicist, and worked for the University of Tennessee. He told me he thought he found something I lost in Dingboche, and showed me a Nikon lens cover. He had seen my Nikon camera, which I carried constantly, and assumed the lens cap was mine, although it wasn't. A French Canadian named Gerard, who works for a software company (Neural Data) in Palo Alto, California, arrived in the dining room and sat near me. He guessed correctly that I was a physicist, without being told. He said I looked like a physicist, and that he had originally majored in physics before finding a job in computer science. We talked for a long time, mostly about physics, computers, and cameras. He had a Nikon camera with an enormous lens, and was very interested in photographic equipment, especially high-quality lenses. He was probably slightly younger than me. For dinner, I had a plate of yak meat fried with tomato and onion, which I had seen the Japanese group eating for lunch. I also had French fries, called potato chips here, with a San Miguel beer. This made a tasty dinner, although I had to wait a while for my fries because they had been mistakenly delivered to a German at another table. I asked for two glasses and shared the beer with Lal. A 20 ounce bottle is quite large, and I didn't want to drink that much myself. However, when we finished the bottle, Lal ordered another, and I ended up drinking a lot of beer anyway. The beers were 120 Rs each, but this was supposed to be our last night, and we could celebrate a little. Lal was out of money, but I still had plenty, since I had spent very little on the trek. The manager was supposed to have put our names on a list for a flight tomorrow. Lal told me he would be very happy if I could bring back a camping group of about seven or eight people. He said that for $25 a person, he could organize a fully catered tour, with cooks and porters. My trek would be free. Outside, the full moon reflected brightly off the snowy mountains surrounding the valley. The clouds had lifted after sunset, as usual. After Lal went to bed, I went outside and attempted to take a few pictures, with exposures between one and three minutes. Then I went to bed as well. This was a comfortable room, and I slept all night. November 17 ----------- I got up at 7 AM and packed to be ready when the planes started coming. That could be any time after 8:30, depending on when the fog lifted in Kathmandu. The lodge manager was holding my ticket, and my name was on the standby list. He said I should get a seat today. I had an omelet with tomatoes and cheese with chapatis, and then walked down to the airport to wait. Flights were delayed by fog, and the first planes arrived around 9:30. These were Nepal Airways planes, and I had to wait for a Royal Nepal plane, which did not come until around 10 AM. Just as it was preparing to take off, the lodge manager came up and told me to grab my bag, jump over the baggage counter, and run to the plane, because they had a vacant seat. Lal said he would meet me later at the hotel, and I ran to the plane, without having my bag weighed, getting a boarding pass, or going through security. Just as I reached the plane's stairs, I was told I would not be able to board after all, so I had to stand by the wall behind the plane while it took off, turning away from the dust blown by the propellers. Then I returned to the terminal and climbed back over the baggage counter (the back door was locked today) to wait for another plane. After a while, we weighed and checked our baggage and received boarding passes for the next Royal Nepal flight. We went out through the security booth this time, but no guard was around to check anything. Lal looked around for one, but none was in the building, so we just walked through. Outside, a man from California told me he had met some other people from Tennessee here, and he introduced be to a retired couple from Maryville, which is near Knoxville, briefly before they boarded their Nepal Airways flight. It was quite a coincidence to find people here from so close to home. Lal and I visited the food shack in the departure area and had meat momos with home-made hot sauce and tea. The momos were delicious, and cost only 20 Rs for a plateful. Our flight finally boarded around noon. There were actually two empty seats, which is rare on the small planes. I sat on the right again, so I would have a view toward the mountains on the way back. The pilot was a woman. The plane took off quickly, gaining speed on the short down-hill runway which drops off steeply into the valley at the end. The plane never flew above the tops of the valley, and it was cloudy, so views were restricted and I saw few mountains. We flew over Jiri, which is the starting point for people walking into the Khumbu region, since it is at the end of the road from Kathmandu. It is quite a large town. Terraced farms became more plentiful in the hills as we approached Kathmandu. As we landed, Bodhnath was clearly visible. It was warm and pleasant when we left the plane. The meteorologists were on our flight, and the young one who was interested in physics asked me about studying in an American university. I gave him my address while we waited for them to unload the baggage. We claimed our bags from a cart and exited around the side of the domestic terminal, past a guard with a large rifle. Lal found us a taxi for 100 Rs. When we arrived at Hotel Garuda, I got a room and my checked suitcase was brought up. We had to wait a while for the maids to finish cleaning the room. Lal knew one of the maids, a young lady, and they talked a while. It was already 1:30, and Lal said it was too late to get a trekking permit for our Annapurna trek today, since the immigration office closes early on Friday. I suggested getting it in Pokhara instead, since they have an immigration office as well. Otherwise, we would be delayed starting our trek, since the immigration office is closed all day Saturday. We attempted to go to the trekking agency to tell them we were back, but the owner was at lunch, so Lal and I agreed to meet again at 5 PM, and I went to lunch. I chose Helen's Restaurant, where I had once had breakfast, because they had an eggplant lasagna special today that looked delicious. It was extremely good, served sizzling hot on a cast iron skillet with garlic bread. I also had two Pepsis, which were now only 15 Rs each. After lunch, I returned to my hotel room for a long-awaited hot shower, my first in nineteen days. This is probably the longest I have ever gone without a bath. Afterward, I started doing my laundry in the sink. As I unpacked, I noticed that one of my carved elephants had broken. I had all the pieces, and tried repairing it with super-glue, but couldn't figure out how all the tiny pieces went together. I wrapped it up in case I would want to work on it some more later. At 5:00, Lal returned to my room, and I went with him to the trekking agency to tell them we were back. Lal reminded me that it was important to tell them that everything went well, not to mention his altitude problem, and definitely not to tell them about our plans for the Annapurna trek. He had been an excellent guide, and I told the head of the agency that. The agency returned the 1000 Rs that Lal had borrowed to pay for our last day in Lukla. We returned to my hotel room to complete the arrangements for our Lukla trek. We agreed to a $25 a day fee, which would include all my expenses. He said for $30 a day I could have a porter as well, and carry nothing but my camera, but I didn't want to have a porter along. I said the load would be smaller anyway, since I would not be bringing some things I found I didn't need on the last trip. He suggested that I should change some money on the black market, and offered to do it for me, but I said I would prefer to do it legally. The difference is only a few percent, and I wanted to have receipts for when I changed my money back. He didn't understand this, and thought I already had enough receipts. We went to a different agency, Happy Adventures Trekking, to buy a plane ticket to Pokhara. It is run by a friend of Lal, and is between the Thamel taxi stand and Kantipath. We got a flight on Necon Airline, which Lal said was the best, because they have good service and serve snacks and drinks on their flights. My ticket cost $120, and his was $78. (In Nepal, plane ticket prices are always quoted in US dollars, and Rupees are not accepted from foreigners, who always pay a higher price than Nepalis.) We would leave tomorrow, November 19 and return November 30. That should give us just enough time for the Annapurna Sanctuary trek, which goes into the heart of the mountains. While I waited for my ticket, the agent said he was amazed by the election results, and couldn't figure out why so many relatively wealthy people would vote for the Communists. He thought people were hoping the Communists would be good for developing Nepal's infrastructure, which needs a lot of work, and hasn't gotten enough attention from the previous government, the socialist Nepalese Congress Party. He said the government was always calling holidays, while garbage piled up in the streets, and people were getting tired of this. He thought that little would change under the Communists, at least for the better, and that India might respond by closing their open border with Nepal, restricting Nepal's main trade route. He didn't think the Communists would stay in power for long. They had a victory parade today which temporarily closed some streets. After buying the ticket, Lal told me he would see me tomorrow at the hotel at 5 PM, and take me to dinner at his home. For dinner, I thought about going to the Everest Steak House, but decided instead on the Nepalese Kitchen across the street from it. I had their special meat dinner before, and wanted to try the vegetarian special. I could always get steak at home. The meal started with a fermented bamboo shoot soup, followed by black lentils with rice, and a vegetable curry and bean curry. There were also papadam and a hot relish, and rice pudding for dessert. Nepalese tea, with sugar and milk, was included. It was a very tasty and filling meal. While I was eating in the courtyard in front of the restaurant, Gerard, who I had met in Lukla, joined me. He was staying at an inn next door and had seen me sitting below. He gave me a Newsweek magazine describing the U.S. election results. The news was surprising: the Republicans had obtained a majority in both the House and the Senate. This was shocking, since the Democrats had controlled Congress for many years. I was very pleased, since I had planned to vote Republican, but did not get around to it. The first day of early voting in Tennessee was the day before I left home, and I was too busy then to vote. I tried to find results from Tennessee in the magazine, but there were none. Gerard was a liberal, so he wasn't quite as ecstatic as me, but he is Canadian so it didn't really matter. Gerard also had a 1988 copy of a National Geographic which features Mt. Everest and Nepal, which he bought in a nearby bookstore. We talked for a long time. Then I went home, got a piece of chocolate cake at Tit Bit by the hotel desk, and went up to finish my laundry. It would be nice to have a real bed tonight, even a hard Nepalese one. November 18 ----------- I woke up early with a stomach ache, followed by a bad case of diarrhea, which lasted for a long time. The Nepalese Kitchen apparently got me this time. Around 8 AM I got a knock on the door. It was a man from the reception desk telling me that I had a phone call. I hurried down, and found that it was Lal. He told me that today was not Saturday after all, but Friday, and that I should go back to Happy Adventure Trekking, where we bought the plane tickets, to have them get me a trekking permit, unless I wanted to stand in line myself at the immigration office and save the agent's service charge. I didn't tell Lal I wasn't feeling well. Since I was not well, I didn't go immediately, but got cleaned up and took down the laundry I had hung on a rope across the bathroom last night. Then I took an Immodium and prepared to go out, since I hadn't had diarrhea in over an hour. However, Lal came to my door before I was ready to go. I told him I had been sick, and had not been to the trekking agency yet. He offered to get the permit for me, which would cost $43, including the Annapurna Conservation Area fee. The price goes up after the fourth week of trekking. I gave him my passport and some travelers checks, including a somewhat frayed one I had been carrying in a pouch during the last trek. He said he might have trouble with that one, but took it anyway. He said he would meet me here at 5 PM with my permit, and take me to dinner at his home. He said I should be prepared to pay him for the trek at that time, and hoped that I was feeling better by then. I was hungry now, and went to the German Bakery for a croissant, cinnamon roll, and coffee. Then I returned to my room to write postcards (the ones I bought in Gokyo) to my parents, brother, and the Canoe and Hiking Club. I also sent one to my doctor, who had requested one, telling him how the trek went. I mailed them at Pilgrim's Bookstore, where I also bought a couple maps. Afterward, I got an auto-rickshaw to take me to Patan, across the river south of Kathmandu, for 100 Rs. Patan's Durbar Square has a very large concentration of temples. As I arrived at Durbar Square there, a big Communist victory parade was approaching. I stopped to watch. Men on motorcycles carried Soviet flags and flags with sun and swastika logos. The swastika is apparently a kind of good luck symbol here, so using it with a party symbol means it is good to vote for that party. Trucks with loudspeakers came by, and many people had brightly painted faces, and seemed very joyful. When the parade passed, I looked around the temple area. I was hungry, so I climbed to the top of one of the rooftop cafes overlooking the square for lunch. Gerard had told me the rooftop cafes here have nice views. I ordered the vegetable korma masala special, with Coke. The Indian lunch was spicy and well-prepared. The cafe had only a few tables on the narrow roof, and soon a group of local men joined me. One was very interested in my camera, and asked what kind of lenses and filters I used. He said his brother was a professional photographer, who owned the Das Photo chain of camera stores in Kathmandu, including the one near the Hotel Garuda where I was staying. He asked if I had seen the posters there, and told me his brother took the popular `Top of the World' poster from Kala Pattar, which is available in many shops, as well as a large number of post cards. After lunch, I walked around a bit, and came upon a man who apparently was a snake charmer, surrounded by a large group of school children. He had a cobra in a basket, which he occasionally picked up and walked around with, and a number of mysterious objects spread out across the ground. A partner kept the circle in front of him clear. The man shouted a lot in Nepali. His partner sometimes grabbed the snake also, and used it to enlarge the circle when spectators came too close. I looked around the old palace, which was being restored. A golden door in one of its courtyards appeared to have intestines draped across it. I took a picture and sat down to change film. Then I walked around the square some more, and photographed a colorful holy man with a trident sitting next to a Garuda statue in front of the palace. I was careful he wasn't looking at me, since I thought he might ask for money. Then I noticed that my leather camera case was missing. Remembering that I had removed it to change film, I went back to the intestinal door in the palace, where I found my case. I climbed to a rooftop cafe on the other end of the square, only for the view, and got my best pictures of the entire square. Then I walked down some side streets, finding temples here and there, and large Communist banners. After several hours in Patan, I got an auto-rickshaw to take me back to Kathmandu's Durbar Square for 80 Rs. On the way back, we ran into a bigger Communist victory parade in Kathmandu, and were delayed a long time while it passed. I stopped at the house of Kumari, the living goddess, briefly, but she was not there. People were selling photos of her in front of the doorway. I saw a monkey climbing on the temples, and walked back to the hotel in time to meet Lal for dinner. In my room, he gave me my trekking permit, and I started to write out $300 in traveler's checks to pay for the trek. He gave me back the frayed traveler's check from this morning, and said he could not use it, but I could use it at a bank. As I was filling out the traveler's checks, the lights went out for a scheduled power outage, and the generator did not come on immediately, so we decided to finish this back at his home. His cousin was waiting outside in an auto-rickshaw, and as the sun set, he took us on a wild ride to the Bodhnath area, far across town, where Lal lives. Bodhnath was featured in the film The Little Buddha, which I saw this summer. We stopped to pick up a cake at a small store, and then left the main streets and drove out across a dark field toward a small cluster of concrete buildings. His apartment building was constructed like many in Nepal. It was probably not very old, but looked hastily constructed and barely finished. In front of it, reinforcing bars protruded from the tops of concrete pillars, as they do in buildings all over town. Lal had a corner room on the first floor. There was at least one floor above. His room was a plain, unpainted concrete cubical with large windows with thin green curtains on two walls and a high ceiling. The concrete floor was bare except for a small straw mat, where his wife sat. His three children, aged two through eight, were also present, as was his cousin. Later, Lal's brother-in-law would arrive as well. Only Lal and I wore shoes in the room. The others left their sandals outside the door. The room was furnished with two single beds, separated by a narrow table with a Disney towel over it. Lal and I sat on opposite beds to eat at the table, while the others sat on the floor. The room was lit with a single dim, bare bulb above the door, and was unheated. There were low shelves along the wall by the door with cooking equipment, including a small kerosene stove and water bottles. There was no running water. Clothes hung on hooks along the wall over the bed, and there was a poster of Shiva over one and a Nepali calendar over the other, plus several smaller pictures of Hindu gods. A cabinet between the beds contained a stereo, and Lal put on tapes: first Nepali pop, and then an American folk singer. Lal brought out two plates of food which had been warming on the stove. Each contained a large mound of noodles, cheese, chicken and vegetables, served over a pancake. He gave one plate to me, and divided the other between everyone else. I had way too much food, considering that my stomach still didn't feel very well, but the casserole-type dish was tasty, and I ate more than half. Lal also had several bottles of San Miguel Beer, and made sure my glass stayed full. There was also a plate of warm, greasy overcooked potato chips, probably freshly made. He apologized that they had not come out as well as he hoped. I ate only a few. After I had had enough, Lal brought out the cake, whose icing read `Happy Day Cake'. It was very dry and sweet, with a cream icing that had the odd taste typical of Nepalese milk. I washed it down with some beer. I could only eat a small slice before I started to get a stomach ache. When I finished it, Lal cut me a bigger slice, and got out his photos. While looking for them, he came upon a torn thangka, a kind of Tibetan Buddhist painting, which he gave to me. He told me a friend of his painted it, and that it was not very good, and was torn, but that he wanted me to have it. He promised to send me a better one someday. Lal is very proud of his photos, and he has a large stack which people gave him from all the previous trips he guided. I promised to send him some as well. He went through the photos, showing me many of his friends from various treks. As I continued to eat the cake, I started to feel sick, and Lal showed me to the bathroom upstairs. It had a cistern of water in a front room, and a squat toilet in back. I wished I had thought to bring toilet paper. I felt like I needed to go home, so I told Lal this when I went back downstairs. I had to finish signing the traveler's checks so Lal could change them before the trek, and did so quickly. He was sorry I had to leave so quickly, and asked me to take a group picture before I went. As usual, I had both my cameras with me. Then Lal's cousin drove us quickly, and somewhat recklessly, back to my hotel room. I didn't sleep very well tonight. November 19 ----------- I got up at 6 AM to prepare to meet Lal at 8:00 to go to the airport. I was feeling better now, and took a shower before completing by packing. I had eliminated everything I considered unnecessary after the first trek, so my pack was smaller and lighter this time. However, the suitcase I left behind was now hard to close. I broke one of the fasteners inside trying. I checked out and checked my bag. I was somewhat nervous leaving it this time, now that it contained all the photographs from my first trek. I paid the bill with the frayed traveler's check Lal had been reluctant to accept yesterday. We took a taxi to the airport and arrived very early, before the check-in counter for Necon Airline was open. Lal's backpack was smaller and lighter this time as well. He said the Annapurnas were warmer, so he didn't need as much warm clothes, and didn't bring a sleeping bag. I had a tea while waiting. Finally we checked in, checked our bags, and went through security, where a guard inspected my pockets and asked if I smoke. The flight boarded on time, and was only partly full. The plane was a small turbo-prop, but was much larger and more comfortable than the tiny Twin Otter we took to Lukla. The flight took about 35 minutes. On the way, they served a soft drink, a biscuit stuffed with spicy potatoes and peas, and a slice of fruit bread. I was sitting on the right side of the plane in a window seat, where the views of the Himalayas were best. We passed over the village where Lal grew up, and he showed it to me. Pokhara is a relatively large, sprawling city next to a lake. We landed at the airport, which was dusty and had a small collection of buildings, which we did not enter. Then we started walking along a street with many cows and water buffalos. It was warmer here than in Kathmandu, and sunny. We flagged down a taxi driving by, and rode into town along the lake. The lake area looked like a resort, with many restaurants, tropical fruit drink shops, souvenir shops, and travel agencies along the street. People rowed boats out on the lake. The town had a tropical look, with many banana trees. We stopped in a shop and left our return tickets with some of Lal's friends. It was too warm to drink tea, and Lal bought us soft drinks, which were reasonably priced here. Then he went to find a cab, while I waited. For 600 Rs, we could share a cab with two other people for the 50 km ride to the trailhead. I agreed to this, thus avoiding a long, uncomfortable, bus ride. I shared the cab with a Canadian lady and her guide. She was living in Japan, where she was a teacher. She had been rafting for five days, and now wanted to do a short trek to Poon Hill, which has a good view of the Annapurnas. The driver blew his horn constantly and drove fast. The road was paved, but narrow, and there was a lot of construction. We passed many houses painted with Communist symbols, the sun, tree, and plow, which represented the three Communist parties which joined to form the Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist-Leninists). These symbols are often accompanied by swastikas. This area was green and agricultural. There were many large hut-shaped haystacks in the fields, and many cows and sheep. We climbed switchbacks up a hill and stopped at a police check-post at the top, where I had my permit checked. Pokhara's lake was visible through the haze. We continued down switchbacks to New Bridge, where we started walking. As we left the cab, children tried to sell be oranges. They grow in trees here, and were fragrant. Lal and I traded packs. I carried his light one, and he carried mine. The Canadian woman was impressed with my high-tech walking stick. We went down the hill from the road and followed a river to Birethanti. At 3280 feet elevation, it is just slightly higher than Pokhara. We stopped for lunch in Birethanti, and changed to shorts, because it was very warm. For me, this was just a matter of unzipping my pants legs, since my Supplex nylon pants were convertible. This was the first time I removed the legs in Nepal. I had a vegetable-noodle soup, which was much richer than in the Khumbu region. Lal had dal bhatt, which he said is also much better and cheaper here. Lal showed me a map, and told me there would be enough time to go to Poon Hill as well as the Annapurna Base Camp. This was possible because we came so far on the road, which has been open this far only a couple of years. My guide books are not up-to-date on this, so I had thought we would spend at least a day getting this far. It was warm, and flowers were blooming. Marigolds were especially plentiful. They are used in religious ceremonies. Large poinsettia trees were also common. Orange trees, banana trees (some blooming with large red flowers), and bamboo gave the area a tropical feeling, and the buildings were brightly colored. Most had white tops, rust bottoms, and colorful trim, often blue, orange, red, or a combination. Most buildings had thatched roofs, and ears of corn were stacked on balconies. We walked gently uphill for a couple of hours to Hille. A number of horse trains passed us. These substitute for the yak trains of the Khumbu region. They are said to have been introduced here by Tibetans, and the lead horse always wears bright colors and has a large feathery plume on its head. They move faster than yaks, and you must get out of their way. All the streams, waterfalls, tropical plants, flowers, and green fields gave this area a lush feeling, which was a welcome change from the cold, desolate Khumbu region. Walking here, at the lower elevation in the warm air, was easy and pleasant. We expected cold weather only for a couple of days, in the Annapurna Sanctuary, which is comparable in elevation to Tengboche. We passed numerous tea shops and many terraced farms. Women tossed wheat in baskets. There were a lot of dogs here, mostly big black ones that looked a little like German shepherds. They were mostly quiet and mellow, but some would fight with each other. One followed us for a long time. We stopped at the See You Lodge in Hille. Other lodges here included the Solar Power Shower Lodge and the New Open Lodge. Like many lodges here, ours had a thatched-roof outdoor patio with many flowers. Inside, there were private rooms upstairs. We stayed in one. The windows had shutters, but no glass. This appeared to be a converted private home. By the time I went downstairs for dinner, it was getting dark and chilly. I decided to eat inside. A baby slept in a cradle next to the table, and there was a small Hindu shrine on one wall, next to the stairs. I had mixed fried noodles and onion soup, as did Lal. He bought us a beer, which would not have been included in the budget for the last trip, but since the agency is not paying, he has more freedom. It was getting cold, and there was no stove and only candles for light, so we went to bed at 7 PM just after dinner. We were the only people staying in this lodge tonight. Lal had to borrow my flashlight to go out, because his batteries died. He probably would not find batteries to fit it on this trek, since it took C cells. The room was comfortable, and I slept well. November 20 ----------- I got up at 7 AM. Today was a long, uphill walk to Ghorepani, at about 9800 feet, which is the site of Poon Hill. For breakfast, I ordered a tomato omelet with chapatis. We walked up and down hills following the river for half an hour. Then we came to the steep hill Lal warned me about, and which I had read about in the guide book. I was not looking forward to this. It was a staircase (reportedly with 3767 stairs) that seemed to go on endlessly, passing by many homes and tea houses as it climbed. Part way up, we got our first view of Annapurna South. Higher up, we entered a wooded area, and were followed by a couple of large dogs. We passed some pink blooming trees and large bamboo plants, and stopped for a Coke. The trail then started to level off, and we came to the town of Ulleri, which had good views of Annapurna South. We continued, and came to a sign saying "This is Banthanti. We have everything good for you...", but actually Banthanti was another ten minutes ahead, with a sign saying "This is REALLY Banthanti. We always have the best views..." We stopped for lunch at a tea house with a view of Machhapuchhare, which Lal generally calls by the English translation of its name, `Fish Tail'. The top looks like a fish tail standing on end. This mountain is sacred, and climbing it is not permitted. It is not one of the highest mountains in the Annapurnas, but its shape is very distinctive. I ordered vegetable noodle soup, which was exactly the same as yesterday. Before it arrived, Lal brought me an orange and apple. Afterward, I had a pack of coconut biscuits and an orange Fanta soda. Beyond Banthanti, we entered a jungle with thick vegetation and mossy trees. It was cool and dark, and Lal put on his jacket before leaving town. We followed a stream up a narrow valley with more stairs to climb. On a steep hill, we passed a group of porters, mostly women, carrying enormous pipes. They sighed loudly with each step. Lal said they carried a "big heavy". Another dog followed us a long way through the jungle. We emerged from the jungle at Nangathanti, where we stopped for tea. A British man who appeared to be about 60 sat there, talking to the locals. Lal told me he spoke excellent Nepali. We continued on easily to Ghorepani. We did not stop at the first cluster of inns in town, but continued up the hill to the pass at the top (called Deurali, which simply means `pass'), where there was a cluster of inns, and a police check-post where I signed their book. A large map hung across the street at the hill top, showing all of the trails in the region, and the view from Poon Hill. A small sign below warned not to walk alone in the dark forest north of Ghorepani, because there have been some robberies there. That is the trail that leads to Jomsom and on around the Annapurna Circuit (which is usually done in the opposite direction, counterclockwise, to make the Thorung La pass easier). We were going a different way, toward the Annapurna Sanctuary in the heart of the mountains. We checked into a private room at the Snow View Hotel, one of the largest. There was a warm stove in the dining room. I ordered a tomato-onion-cheese pizza with apple pie. I had seen an Israeli woman eating these, and they looked good. Lal brought me someone else's pizza by mistake, a super-veggie. The hostess whacked him. My apple pie was served with custard on top, which I had not requested, but Lal asked them to add. This pie was the first apple pie I had here which was not fried, but was actually baked, and looked like an apple pie ought to look. I liked the pie here. I had a discussion with an independent guide from Lukla. He solicits clients in the immigration office in Kathmandu, as do many independent guides. He said I paid too much by going to an agency, but I pointed out that I felt safer that way, and was willing to pay extra for safety. After eating, I started to fall asleep by the warm stove, so I went to bed early at 7 PM. Many stars and a full moon were out tonight. After I was in bed a while, I heard singing and dancing. I couldn't tell if they were coming from downstairs or outside, and didn't feel like leaving my sleeping bag to see at this point. November 21 ----------- Lal knocked at my door at 5:40 AM so we could climb Poon Hill for sunrise. He had been sleeping downstairs in the dining room. Many people were getting up at this time for the best views before the clouds came. The climb seemed very easy after the 18,000 foot hills in the Khumbu region, and we reached the top by 6:20, in half the time the guide book said. Poon Hill is only 9450 feet high, which is about the elevation of Lukla, where I began the last trek. Most of the way up, there were good views of the Annapurnas and Dhalaghiri. The sky was orange where the sun would later appear. We passed many people on the way up, even though I stopped three times to set up my min-tripod to take pictures in the changing light. On top, we found a panorama of mountains. A lot of people came to see the sunrise. There is an observation platform on top of Poon Hill, with picnic tables around the edge of the hilltop. Hot drinks were being sold from thermos bottles, and Lal brought me a hot chocolate while I sat at a frosty picnic table setting up my mini-tripod to photograph Dhalaghiri. The sun slowly illuminated more and more peaks, and I took numerous pictures. Annapurna South was especially impressive in the warm side-light from the rising sun. It was very cold on top, and shortly after the sun had fully risen, we headed down. I had a tomato omelet and a pancake with jam for breakfast. Today's trail started up a hill in the opposite direction (east) from Poon Hill. This hill was just a little smaller than Poon Hill and had a similar view. The German I met in the New Delhi airport said he preferred the view here, but I would rate Poon Hill's view slightly higher. By the time we got to the top, clouds were already forming, but there were still good views in all directions. Lal pointed out the way to Jomsom, a popular trekking route I was once considering, which is part of the Annapurna Circuit, and can be done one-way in about a week. We followed a forested ridge for a while, with views to both sides. Young bamboo grew beneath the trees, and Machhapuchhare was visible to our left, but otherwise it reminded me of walking on the Appalachian Trail in the Smokies. There were small patches of snow and ice on the ground. Then we descended a steep, muddy slope to a tea house and stopped for tea. We continued down a narrow, muddy gorge which was heavily forested. The trail followed a stream, and sometimes went right down it. There were patches of snow and ice as well as mud, and we had to be careful to keep from slipping. Eventually, the gorge widened, and we came to another town called Banthanti. We stopped for lunch. My fried vegetable noodles were saturated with soybean oil. They were the worst I've had yet. Chickens tried to climb on the table while we were eating. Lal grabbed them and gave an armful of chickens to the hostess, who carried them away across the river. A porter carrying chairs stopped for lunch at the next table. He was an older man with no shoes. After lunch, the trail entered an open area with a view down a bigger valley back to Ulleri, a town we passed through yesterday afternoon. We stopped briefly at a tea shop overlooking the valley so Lal could hear the 1:00 news on the radio. I turned out that the Nepalese Congress Party, who previously controlled parliament, got 80 seats, and the Nepal Communist Party (U.M.L.) got 86 seats, so it was close. We descended steeply to a stream, then climbed through dense forest to Tadapani, where we would spend the night. Lal thought the final climb would take 45 minutes, but it only took 20. We were moving fast today. Tadapani is known for its great views, but while the town was sunny this afternoon, clouds had settled over the mountains, and we could not see them. We did have a nice view down the valley, into the distance. The lodges here were nice, and we got a private room in one. It was decorated with educational posters of children having diarrhea, but was otherwise very pleasant. I walked around town a while. One of the lodges up on the hill had an observation tower. Another had a brightly painted sign showing all the trails in the area, and the distances between towns. Such signs turned out to be common in this region. Lal found me, and pointed out the trail down in the valley where we would be walking tomorrow. He pointed out a white house where the trail went around a distant corner into a larger valley, and said we would be stopping in Chhomrong a short distance beyond that. I could see a large waterfall in the distance. As the sun went over the hill, it got cold. Lal wanted to share a beer, so he bought one and we drank it. Lal practiced reading tourist posters on the wall, and I helped him. There was no stove here, because we were in the Annapurna Conservation Region, and lodges are not allowed to burn wood. Ghorepani was a temporary exception, because kerosene was not yet available there, although this would change soon. There was a kerosene heater under the table. It was lit just before sunset, but was not very warm. As the sun set, I could see the clouds lift from the mountains through the windows which surrounded the dining room, giving it a panoramic view. I went outside with my cameras as the mountains briefly turned a beautiful reddish color. Annapurna South was high above the town, and Machhapuchhare was visible across the valley. It was getting colder after dark, and Lal ordered a bottle of rum for us to drink with tea. For dinner, I had garlic-cheese soup and fried noodles with vegetable, egg, and cheese. The lodges in the Annapurna Conservation Region form committees to set standard menus and prices, but there is some variation in quality, and most lodges have a page of specialties in the menu. The cooking here was very good. A sixty year old porter sat across the large square table. He was wearing a traditional knee-length skirt made of a white cloth. There was also an Australian family, with a five year old and two year old girl. The younger girl was carried most of the way in a basket on the back of a porter. It turned out that the Australians were staying in the room next to ours. The girls were noisy, and cried a lot before reluctantly going to sleep. The rooms were separated only by a thin wall of wooden boards. November 22 ----------- I woke up at sunrise to more crying next door. The younger girl was sick and throwing up. It was sunny and warm outside, and the mountain view was perfectly clear. For breakfast, I had a tomato-cheese omelet with cornbread. The cornbread turned out to be wonderful. I had never seen anything like it, except possibly a Mexican sopapilla. It was a fat pillow full of air, with the outer crust fried crispy. I broke it in half and spread jam inside. It was delicious. The Australians didn't trust the food here, because their daughter was sick and the kitchen was, in their opinion, filthy. I suppose there was some truth to that, but this lodge was a lot cleaner than many I had stayed at, especially in the Khumbu region. They ate only vegemite and crackers, which they had brought from Australia. We followed a recently-constructed trail down a steep hill through the jungle below Tadapani. This trail made getting from Poon Hill to the Annapurna Base Camp much easier than it had once been. It is used mostly by tourists. Lal said that in the summer, the trail is lined with leeches waiting for people to come by. He told me he once got 120 leeches on one leg and 90 on the other, and lost a lot of blood. The trail emerged onto terraced fields on the side of a deep valley, which we would have to cross. Machhapuchhare was visible in the distance. We followed the terraces steeply down to the river at the bottom, stopping along the way for tea and coconut biscuits. A large black dog with a deep red scar on its back waited hopefully under my legs as I ate the cookies. It was becoming very warm, and I unzipped my pants legs. We crossed an unusually sturdy bridge and climbed steeply up the opposite side of the valley, then followed the valley to where it joins the larger Modi Khola valley which leads up to the Annapurna Sanctuary. On the way, we stopped for lunch, and I had noodle soup with a Mars bar and Coke. This tea house had a dog, two cats, and numerous chickens, which all gathered around the table when we sat down to eat. Lal held a kitten, which purred loudly. After lunch, we passed the white house we had seen from Tadapani. It has a kind of Ferris wheel in front, partially unassembled, which is operated by hand and holds four people. Lal said it is used during festivals. Looking back, I could see the hill where Tadapani is, but the town was hard to see because the sun was behind it. A short distance up the Modi Khola valley, we reached Chhomrong. It was a large town, and we stopped at the first inn near the top of the hill where we entered town. The rest of town was far below, stretching down into the valley of a small tributary to the Modi Khola. Cows and chickens roamed around in front of the inn. The lodge was surrounded by marigolds and several marijuana plants. Some vendors had souvenirs spread out in the courtyard, where most guests sat at picnic tables overlooking the valley. Lal saw another guide from the Himalayan Waves Trekking Agency, and became nervous. He told me not to tell him anything about our trek. We got a private room on the second floor, which was actually out on the porch, with a window into the dormitory and a glassless, shuttered window with a view of Chhomrong. It was the only private room with a view, but was rather drafty because the boards making up the outer walls did not fit tightly. The lodge was unheated, but warmer than outside, so I went into the dining room as the sun set. Lal ordered a bottle of rum, which we drank with tea. He told me he would like to travel outside Nepal, but it is hard to get a visa that would allow him to work. He asked me how much it cost to live in the United States, and what kind of jobs he might do if he ever got a visa, although he didn't expect to get one because it was very hard. He thought he might be able to get a visa for Qatar, which is much easier, and he could find a driving job there. He said he has a driving license, which is not easy to get in Nepal, and tries to find driving jobs when he cannot guide treks. I discussed holidays with Lal, and told him Thanksgiving was coming Thursday. I told him that we used the poinsettias which grow in this area to decorate at Christmas time. He said that Christmas is celebrated in Nepal, but it is not a major holiday since there are few Christians. He asked what my religion was, and I told him I was a Christian. He was not surprised. Some Australians and New Zealanders joined us at our table, and played 500 with some unusual rules. I was hungry tonight, and ordered dal bhatt for dinner, which is always the largest meal. The menu also had `apple filters' and `banana filters', which turned out to be a fairly common spelling of `fritter' in this area. A lady from New Zealand ordered some banana fritters and shared them. They were tasty, but a bit greasy. Lal stayed busy helping out in the kitchen and delivering the orders. He knew the people at this lodge well. Some of the people staying there mistook him for a waiter. At night, Lal slept inside in the dormitory. Some of the porters slept outside my room on the upstairs porch. November 23 ----------- I awoke with a stomach ache and mild diarrhea. For breakfast I had only a tea, hot chocolate, and an Immodium. I vowed this would be the last time I ate dal bhatt, which had now made me sick three times. We had a four hour walk to Bamboo planned for today, and I decided to go on, but slowly. I mixed a container of Gatorade to drink along the way. As we left the lodge, some porters were playing with a goat outside. Although goat meat is eaten here, the lodge people said this goat would never be killed, because it is a pet. Chhomrong was spread out all down the hill to the river at the bottom of the valley. We passed a small hydro-electric generator on the way down. We also met a man we had originally met in Lobuje on the Everest trek, who was now going the opposite way. It was warm, and I wore short sleeves. Across the river, we had to climb all the way up the other side of the valley. I stopped for an orange Fanta, and then, after two hours of walking, mostly up steep hills, we stopped for lunch at Sinawa, the last town before Bamboo. I was very tired by then, and feeling weak from not having breakfast. I ordered tomato soup with malt-glucose biscuits. The tomato soup was yellow, and looked like the broth the noodle soup is usually made with. It contained small bits of fried tomato and onion, with more onion than tomato. This was the most unusual interpretation of tomato soup I had seen yet, and I was not sure it would help my stomach. I ate half the biscuits and saved the rest for later. We followed the valley through a forest, climbing gently uphill to Bamboo. We stopped at an Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) checkpost and showed my permit to the army guard. A strong wind was blowing down the valley with a light rain, and it looked like a storm could be coming. A small crowd gathered inside the small information booth in the checkpost to get out of the weather. Most of the trekkers here were unprepared for rain, which is supposed to be very rare here in November. However, the guard said it was not so unusual this high in the valley to get an afternoon rain. We sat a few minutes, and I decided we would stop at Bamboo, instead of continuing an extra two hours to the next town, since it was raining and I didn't feel completely well. We walked through a bamboo forest until we reached the town of Bamboo. The bamboo grew very high here. We stopped at the last lodge in town, and put our packs in a private room, which was stone with bamboo mats on the floor, ceiling, and walls. I had tea in the dining room, where a large American group has found shelter from the rain, which had become harder. Lal and some other Nepalese took turns on the porch playing a game involving shooting disks across a powdered board to knock other disks into holes in the corners. A large group of porters outside covered their loads with plastic sheets. Around 2:30, the sun started to come out. Lal told me he didn't really want to stay here. He said the innkeeper was not a good person. He asked how I felt about going to Dovan, about another two hours walk. I agreed, although this meant we would be walking rather late, and I did not feel well. We set out into the dense, dark bamboo forest, which was now penetrated by a few rays of sunlight. As we left Bamboo, we passed a sign placed by the ACAP which told us the next town was Dovan, that it had three lodges, and we would reach it in an hour. Every town in the region had one of these signs. The muddy trail had become very slimy since the rain. In clearings, I could see that just a little higher in the valley, the rain had been snow instead. During this walk, I felt somewhat better than I had the rest of the day. We actually made it to Dovan in one hour, and checked into the first lodge there. It was a good choice. They had a really hot kerosene heater in a pit under the table. For dinner, I tried to order the furthest thing from dal bhatt I could find. I chose a pizza with coke. The pizza was the largest and most realistic yet. The crust was burnt, but crispy, and it had plenty of tomato. The host played Nepali tapes on a portable stereo, and changed them constantly. Two German men who barely spoke English were staying here, with porters who also barely spoke English. We sat around the warm heater for a while, and I went to bed while the Nepalis listened to the 8:00 news on the radio. By now, I felt fine. November 24 ----------- Today was Thanksgiving. Obviously, there would be no turkey today, but with some luck, I might find some pie. For breakfast, I had an onion omelet and Tibetan bread with jam. We started walking at 8:45. The ground was frosty, and there was snow on the bamboo. We stopped for tea at the Himalayan Hotel. The ground became icier as we climbed. We passed through a sacred forest. A sign said a god lived within a fifteen minute walk, and that littering, spitting, toilet use, and such were prohibited. There was a big mossy cascade across the valley at one point, near a small temple. A sign warned that the cascade was beautiful but dangerous, and urged caution. Eventually, the sun reached us, but the trail stayed icy. Lal and I built some small snowmen along the trail. I put bamboo arms on some of them. Lal put an arm coming out of the top of the head of one. We soon climbed onto an open area above the forest. Some icy parts of the trail were very difficult, especially a stream crossing, but Lal helped me. The ice slowed us down, but we still made good time, almost cutting in half the walking times shown on the ACAP signs. We arrived at Deurali at 11 AM and stopped for lunch. Originally we thought we would stop here for the night, but we arrived earlier than expected, and would continue after lunch. Some mountain goats could be seen high up next to a water fall, and many people watched them, although it took me a while to find them. They were just specks, and had to move to be seen. Above Deurali, we passed through the narrow entranceway into the Annapurna Sanctuary. Machhapuchhare was clearly visible just above us across the valley. It looked very close now, and I would not have recognized it if I did not know which mountain it was. We passed a huge snow pile with a tunnel through it, probably left from an avalanche. This area has a high risk for avalanches at certain times, which are dangerous because the mountains the snow falls off are not visible from here. At such times it is necessary to ask whether it is safe to proceed. Some trekkers were once buried in an avalanche here. This area was now rocky and barren, without trees, like most of the Khumbu region. We arrived at Machhapuchhare Base Camp much faster than we expected, around 1:30 PM. It is not clear to me why Machhapuchhare would have a base camp, since climbing the sacred peak is forbidden. We stopped at the first tea-house for tea. It was cold and windy here, and we got out our warm clothes. This tea house overlooked the narrow valley we had just climbed. The other inns were further beyond. We were now in the Annapurna Sanctuary, but it was too cloudy to see any mountains above. We continued to the Annapurna Base Camp, a gentle uphill climb across broad snowy fields, following a frozen stream. The "two hour" walk between base camps actually took us only 1:10, and we arrived at 3:05 PM in a heavy fog. Annapurna South was briefly visible, hovering among the clouds above the base camp, but it disappeared quickly. We had climbed almost 5000 feet today, to about 12,800 feet, but I was not tired. We checked into a private double room in the first lodge on the left as we came into town. Lal told me his feet were wet, and asked if he could wear my tennis shoes for the rest of the day. I gave them to him. In the dining room, some Germans were sharing an enormous marijuana or hashish joint, which resembled a big white cigar. Lal was unhappy with this, and complained. He thought it would be bad for my lungs, because I had been coughing a lot today. One of them took the joint outside to smoke. There was no pie on the menu here, which was disappointing since I was hoping to have some for Thanksgiving. The menu was reminiscent of those in the Khumbu region, simple and expensive. I thought of going out looking for pie in the other lodges, since Julie had told me in Dingboche that one of them has good apple pie with chocolate sauce, but I decided it was too cold to go out. The clouds lifted as the sun set, giving a magnificent view. The lodge owner came into the dining room and told everyone to get their cameras and go outside. We were surrounded by mountains, and Machhapuchhare was illuminated by a reddish glow. Annapurna I and Annapurna South loomed just above us. I took several pictures with the help of my mini-tripod. It was truly frigid outside, so I went to our room to get my down jacket and pile pants. Lal had been carrying these just for today. He didn't bring any especially warm clothes for himself. Outside, one of the porters was wearing shorts and sandals. He must have been freezing. I returned to the dining room table, and was very comfortable. The stove under the table provided a little warmth. For dinner, I ordered fried noodles with egg and cheese, which were very good, but left me a little hungry. I shared a swiss roasty, a potato smashed up and fried with egg and cheese, with some other trekkers. I talked to a nice Malaysian lady for a while, who looked very young, but was actually older than me. Some of the women in the lodge thought one of the Germans looked like a rock star, possibly Sting or Bono. He was the one who took the joint outside earlier, and had long blonde hair. Lal went to bed very early, before me. He was probably cold. The Germans were happy when he left, and promptly lit another enormous joint and passed it around the table. I went to bed soon afterward. The stars were very beautiful tonight. Lal asked me to cover him with my down jacket, because the blanket was not warm enough, and wished me sweet dreams. November 25 ----------- I got up at 6:20 to see the mountains in the early morning light. Lal was still sleeping, so when I put on my down jacket, I covered him with my sleeping bag, which made him very happy. I then climbed the small hill above the base camp for the view. The hill was just a gentle slope on this side, but the opposite side was a steep cliff dropping hundreds of feet to a large glacier which stretched across the valley toward Annapurna I, whose massive face was just beginning to be illuminated by the first golden rays of sunlight from behind Machhapuchhare. Annapurna South also saw some early light. I watched the rising sun illuminate more and more of the mountains for over an hour. Several other people were watching the sunrise here as well. It was very cold, and I was glad I brought my down jacket. A large, friendly brown dog followed me around for a while, and sat close to me when I sat on a rock. I scratched its head until someone from one of the lodges came up and called it. Around 8:00, I returned to the lodge for breakfast. Lal was up by now. I ordered muesli with milk and hot chocolate, which was an expensive breakfast, but Lal paid for it, saying it was not the company paying, so it was OK. Then I told Lal I was going to go pack, but instead went back up the hill for views, because the valley was now fully illuminated. Lal found me there, and we took some pictures, including one of us together, before packing. The brown dog was back, and I took its picture too. We headed across the Sanctuary to Machhapuchhare base camp, where we stopped again for tea at the same tea house as before. Walking through the Sanctuary, the views were spectacular. We were surrounded by nearby mountains, and the moon was setting over Annapurna South. We descended down the narrow valley to Deurali, where we again stopped for lunch. The trail was steeper than I remembered, and jarring to the knees. The inn had goat meat today, and Lal had some with his dal bhatt. I had the same soup as yesterday. An American woman, around fifty, was at the table. She told me she was born in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and knew where my nearby hometown of Houston was. We talked for a while while Lal had his dal bhatt, then continued down the valley. Yesterday's snow and mud had dried up, making the walking easy. The small snowmen we built along the trail had all melted. The trail was still muddy in the sacred forest, because streams run down it. We stopped for tea in Dovan, and arrived at Bamboo at 3:50 PM. We had some trouble finding a room, and Lal asked if I would go on, but I told him the next stop was too far for us to be starting for it this late. We would not arrive until almost sunset. We tried more lodges, and found one with space. In fact, only one other room was occupied. For a while, it was comfortable to sit outside, although it was cloudy. Lal played the same game where chips are hit into holes in a board that he played last time we stopped in Bamboo. Some local children played with a soccer ball in the street between the lodges. As the sun set, it became cold and a kerosene heater was lit under the dining room table. The heater was very effective, and Lal kept it burning hot, pumping it up whenever the flame got low. Some Israelis from the lodge across the street came in to play cards. Apparently, it was warmer here, and someone told them the pizza was good. They tried to order some, but were told they must eat at their lodge. They had their guide bring food over to them, and continued playing cards. Lal told me he doesn't like Israelis, because they are fussy and aggressive, and always change their mind about what they want. He said he worked for some before, but would not want to again. One of my guide books says Israelis are no longer welcome at some lodges because of the rude behavior of some. I had macaroni with vegetables and cheese and garlic soup for dinner. The Nepalis in the lodge started a card game. They threw their plays down aggressively. I went to bed, while the noisy card games went on into the night next door. I was too sleepy to be bothered by them. Eventually Lal came in to check on me. This was easy, since the door didn't latch from the inside. He then went to bed in the next room, although there was an empty bed in mine. November 26 ----------- After a very good night's sleep, Lal brought me tea at 7:30 AM, and I got up and washed. For breakfast, I had a double onion omelet with Tibetan bread. For a change, Lal had an omelet and Tibetan bread as well. His usual breakfast was noodle soup. The sun didn't get this far into the valley until about 10:00, when we were well on our way. As we passed through the jungle, we heard monkeys, but did not see them. We passed a man cutting bamboo with a large curved knife. I showed my permit at the checkpost, so they could record that I had left the mountain area. I had tea and an orange in Sinawa. We saw flies, domestic animals, and Nepalese women for the first time since we came through here on the way up. Sinawa is the first permanent village on the way down.The higher villages are just collections of lodges open only during trekking season. The ACAP regulates where these lodges may be built, and has moved some so that there would be lodges only in approved locations. We then crossed the gorge back to Chhomrong on the other side. Chhomrong is spread out along a long stairway all the way up the side of the valley. Climbing it was tiring, and Lal was faster than I was. At the top of the hill, we stopped at the same lodge that made me sick last time, because Lal has friends there. I hoped for better luck this time. I ordered a spring roll, which was a large turnover filled with vegetables and spicy potatoes and fried. It took a while to make, but we were not in a hurry, since we didn't have much farther to walk today, and Lal wanted to spend some time with his friends. The goat was still here. It ate some salt out of a container on one of the picnic tables, and was chased away. Vendors again had souvenirs spread out on blankets on the patio, and the long-haired German from Annapurna Base Camp was buying some. One vendor tried to sell me a Tibetan wood block for stamping prayer flags, which he claimed was very old, but I was not interested. Lal talked to his friends in the kitchen for a long time. They were listening to a soap opera on the radio. Occasionally he sent out a lemon tea for me. At 2:00, we decided to go on. The rest of the walk was downhill, about an hour to Hot Spring, which was visible far below from the hill just outside Chhomrong. As we left Chhomrong, we saw some monkeys, black-faced lemurs, in the trees below the trail. They had white heads and black faces, and the trees were full of them. I took some pictures, but they may have been too far away to photograph well. The descent to Hot Spring begins from the white house on the corner where we entered the Modi Khola valley coming from Tadapani. It was very steep, but short. I was glad we were going down. People coming up looked exhausted. We arrived before 3:00. There were many new lodges since Lal was last here two years ago. This town is barely mentioned in my guide books, but has recently become popular. We stayed at the original lodge, at the far end of town, which is the only one Lal had seen before. We decided we had time to wash some clothes today at the hot spring, a fifteen minute walk down the hill by the Modi Khola river. I changed to my Columbia water shorts, which I brought for bathing. The hot spring had been recently developed, and had a changing building and two small concrete pools into which the 105 degree water was piped. Water also flowed from two small pipes outside the pools, where soap was permitted. Soap was not allowed in the pools. Construction of the present facilities was completed just one year earlier in November, 1993, but the spring has been partially developed since 1990. Lal did both his and my laundry at one pipe, while I showered and washed my hair at the other pipe. Then I sat in the pool for about 45 minutes while he completed the laundry. Initially, the pools were roughly segregated into men and women, with the men in the warmer and cleaner pool on the right. Most bathers wore only underwear. A masseur offered his services, and was popular among the women. The masseur also sat by the pools and made sure nobody brought soap into them. Cold drinks, including beer, were available from a vendor. Around 4:00, a group of boys from the village arrived, and the segregation changed, with most of the tourists going to the pool on the left. I stayed on the right, and Lal eventually finished the laundry, and showered and came into the pool as well. We stayed until dusk at 5:15, and then headed back up the steep hill for dinner. Lights were visible as we arrived in town. Our lodge and several others had generators. Our inn was decorated with brightly colored lights, and the outside dining area was brightly lit with flourescent lights. Origami birds and garlands made of candy wrappers hung above the tables among the lights. We changed into dry clothes, and Lal ordered a beer for each of us. I mentioned that Thanksgiving had come, and I had missed the turkey and pumpkin pie. He told me that pumpkin pie might be possible, and talked to the lodge owner, but found that it would take too long to make one tonight. I was not sure I would want to see what they think a pumpkin pie is anyway. I did order pumpkin soup, however. A Belgian lady sitting next to us said that it was good, and although it was a bit weird, I liked it. I also had fried noodles with egg and vegetables. Lal said he would buy us a pizza with tuna and cheese to share if I bought beer to go with it. I agreed, and we had a pizza with two more beers. The pizza had a large amount of tuna, cheese, and garlic, but the only tomato was a few dabs of ketchup. The 650 ml beers sold in Nepal are quite large, and I went to bed shortly after 8:00 feeling somewhat tipsy. I would be up several times during the night after all the drinking. November 27 ----------- A crowing rooster and a mooing cow outside our window woke me up before dawn, but I went back to sleep until 8:00. Lal was in no hurry to get up. He had a headache, probably from drinking three beers last night. (He had one in the kitchen while I was changing for dinner.) We had a leisurely day planned, with only a two and a half hour walk this afternoon to Landrung, visible down the valley across the Modi Khola on the hillside. For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs and cornbread, which was a bit heavy and oily this time. We spent the morning at the hot spring, which was less crowded than yesterday afternoon. The masseur was here again. He offered a shoulder massage for 150 Rs and a leg massage for 100 Rs on the rocks next to the river. He gave me a free hand massage as a sample, but I told him I was not interested. Some women said his massage was wonderful. He was nicely dressed, with a wool sweater and neatly styled hair. He shared an orange with me and some others. He had a large bag of them. He has a friend who works for Lufthansa, and he travels frequently on discount tickets. He would work at the spring four more days, and then planned to go to New Zealand in December. Later, he planned to return to his village for a wedding. After soaking in the warm spring for a while, a German got out and tried taking a dip in the cold Modi Khola river below. Soon a few others tried it. One swam out too far, and was caught in the main current and almost washed downstream over the rocks. Lal took a dip in the river, and I tried it also. It was really icy, so I didn't go in for long. The sun hit the spring at 10:30. After 11:00, we returned to the lodge for lunch. I had Wai Wai noodle soup, which is similar to Ra Ra soup, but spicier, with red pepper. I saw Lal eat it for breakfast and thought it looked good. I also had a piece of Tibetan bread. A young Israeli man with a large pack and sore back tried to get the lodge owner to let his son be his porter to the Annapurna Base Camp, but he refused, saying he needed his son to cook. He said his son could take him as far as Chhomrong at the top of the hill. The Israeli liked the man's son, and wanted him to be his porter, so he persisted, but the man said it was impossible. Finally, the father, a retired Gurkha, offered to do it himself for $1000. He was clearly getting tired of arguing about it, and Lal told the Israeli he should drop the question. After lunch, we took down our partially dry laundry from the clotheslines which were hung all around the lodge, and followed the trail downhill out of town. Lal washed his shoes yesterday, and they were still wet, so he walked in flip-flops today, as most porters do. Then we crossed a small river, and later the Modi Khola, which was wider here and had a long and rickety bridge. Then we climbed back up the other side, passed some waterfalls and a landslide area, and reached Landrung in about two and a half hours. We started to see banana and orange trees again. Landrung was surrounded by terraces of green vegetables with yellow flowers, which Lal said were used to make pickles. He did not know the English name. Landrung was high above the river, and we could see back to Hot Spring. It was now very cloudy. I had to steady my camera agains fence posts to take pictures of the mustard fields and valley. We got a room in a lodge decorated with many Communist symbols. Lal said they would sell us a chicken for 500 Rs, or $10, which he said was a very high tourist price. They would kill it and cook it however I wanted. I said I did not want the chicken, although we had not had any meat, except tuna, on this entire trek, and I was getting hungry for some. Lal said he would cook me a "chicken steak" when we got back to Kathmandu. By steak, he meant simply a large piece of meat, not the little pieces usually seen here. We hung our laundry on a line outside to finish drying. As I rested in our room with the door open, a bunch of baby chickens walked in, and then out again. The chicks and a couple of adult chickens lived under the stairs in the dining room, behind some Coke crates. I saw them all go there around sunset as I sat there waiting for dinner time. There were more chickens outside. Two Belgian women who I had met at Hot Spring arrived, and they bought the chicken which was for sale. One was caught outside and brought behind the lodge. It came back a while later headless and featherless, with its giblets in a bowl. It would be served roasted, except for the parts which would be used in a soup. When it was served, it appeared to have been a rather small chicken. Meanwhile, I had a bowl of onion-egg soup and fried rice with vegetable, cheese, and egg. Lal also brought me an unsolicited rum tea. Even the glasses here had Communist (Sun party) symbols printed on them. He discussed his plans to try to go to Qatar to get a driving job and make more money than he can make here. He wants to use the money to buy an auto-rickshaw, so he can have permanent work in Kathmandu. Guiding treks is too seasonal to support his family all year. He does part-time driving work in the winter, when he can find such a job. His wife works in a carpet factory. Before I went to bed, the people at the lodge brought in a radio so I could listen to the 8:00 news in English. It turned out that no party got a majority in parliament, since the right-wing party took 20 seats, while the Nepalese Congress party got 80 and the Communists got 88. A coalition would be needed to choose a prime minister under the 1990 constitution, but the Communists wanted to choose their own. The king insisted on a decision in two days, since he must open the parliament session promptly, as required by the constitution. November 28 ----------- It rained during the night, and in the morning it was very cloudy, which was unusual. Lal expected a big snowfall at the base camp, and was glad we were headed down. Someone moved our drying laundry onto the porch before the rains last night. For breakfast, I had a double onion omelet and two light, puffy, delicious cornbreads, which were similar to the first one I tried at Tadapani. Lal's shoes were still wet, and we had a long walk today, so he asked to borrow my tennis shoes. I expected them to be too big, but they fit him reasonably well. As we left Landrung, we climbed mostly uphill until noon. Along the way, Lal was constantly running into friends, and we stopped a few times for tea or soft drinks while he visited. We bought five oranges from a woman carrying a large basket of them for 2 Rs each. The final climb before lunch was a steep stairway to Deurali (meaning `pass': there are Deuralis everywhere), where we left the Modi Khola valley and got a cloudy view of the Pokhara valley and lake. We stopped for lunch in Pothana on top of the ridge. I had noodle soup with Tibetan bread. Lal had dal bhatt, as usual, and ate it with his fingers. The lodge had a beautiful view of the Pokhara valley. Many dark clouds hovered over the valley. Dhampus could be seen ahead, lower down around the curved ridge we would be following. We could either stop in Dhampus, and have a short walk to the road the next day, or go all the way to the road and take a taxi to Pokhara today. Staying in Dhampus would be much cheaper. If I wanted to go to Pokhara, I would have to pay the Kathmandu-like prices, which were outside of Lal's budget. In fact, Lal had no budget at this point, because he had spent all our money. I gave him 500 Rs before he paid for lunch. I decided I had enough money, and I wanted to spend some time in Pokhara, so we decided to go all the way. I stopped at the last police check-post in Dhampus as dark, menacing clouds gathered. We encountered the two Belgian women, who had stopped at the last lodge in the large town. Then we had a very steep descent to the road below. We could see the switchbacks of the road we had taken up to the trailhead across the valley. We would be ending the trek much closer to Pokhara than we began. Light rain made the steep trail slippery, and I fell once, but not badly. In a half hour we were down to the road. I was glad we had not started the trek this way, since this hill would have been a killer the other way, especially on the first day of a trek. Two taxis were waiting in the parking lot at the bottom of the hill, but they wanted more than the 200 Rs Lal was willing to pay, so we sat in the lodge there and had a Coke. Eventually a driver accepted our 200 Rs, and we rode back to Pokhara. It was a wild ride, as usual. At one point, we almost hit a woman running across the road, and she dropped her basket in front of the taxi. We passed on blind hills and curves, blowing the horn constantly so people would hear us coming. On the way into town, we passed some elaborate buildings at a Tibetan camp outside Pokhara. Lal said they sold souvenirs there, and I could visit it tomorrow if I wanted. After the small villages of the trek, Pokhara seemed like a big city, which it was for the region. In the cloudy light, it looked rather run-down and not so tropical as when we arrived. Lal got us a room at the Mountain Villa Hotel for $15 per night, a $3 discount because he is a regular customer, and had told me it would not cost more than $15. It was a nice new brick hotel with a beautiful garden. The room was nicely decorated, and had an attached bath. There was a bowl of fruit between the beds. This hotel was slightly nicer, but also more expensive, than the Hotel Garuda where I stayed in Kathmandu. The hotel was in the lake district where most tourists stay, but the lake was a five minute walk down the street. It could be seen from my room on the second floor. Lal asked me if he could stay in the room with me, or if he needed to find a place to stay with friends. There were two beds, and I told him that of course he could stay here. Lal went downstairs, and I showered. The shower again had no curtain, as at the Hotel Garuda, and the whole bathroom got wet. I left my shower shoes outside the bathroom door in case I wanted to enter again later. Lal had dinner with friends while I went down to the lakefront to find a restaurant. I had left my guide book which describes the hotels and restaurants at Hotel Garuda and brought only a trekking guide, so I had to choose one on my own. After looking at several, I chose the Boomerang Restaurant, which was near the lake, was clean and attractive, and had a varied menu. I sat at the table next to the fireplace, which was comfortably warm, and ordered a ginger-garlic steak. It arrived on a sizzling platter with perfectly-cooked fries and vegetables, and was covered with a delicious ginger-garlic sauce. It was a great meal to end a trek. I had a Nepalese Iceberg Beer with it, which I believe is the best beer sold there. The deserts weren't interesting, so I got an apple streudel at the Garlic Garden Bakery to bring back to the hotel. Then I bought some souvenirs: a Nepali folk music tape, two patches, some postcards, and an embroidered Annapurna Base Camp T-shirt. I met Lal on the street while shopping, and gave him the key to the room so he could go to bed. At 8:30, I returned and ate my apple streudel, and then went to bed as well. It felt great to have a comfortable hotel room tonight. November 29 ----------- Lal got up at 7 AM, before me. He showered, and then went out an brought me a small pot of tea, which I had with a banana and orange from the fruit bowl. Lal wanted to buy some new clothes this morning, and asked for 500 Rs, which I gave him. We agreed to meet at the shop where we left our plane tickets to go boating on the lake at 11 AM. He didn't want to go boating too late, because he was afraid it would get windy and the boat might tip. He said he couldn't swim very well, and once he was on the lake when it was windy and had to cross big waves. It was still too cloudy to see the mountains, but Pokhara was sunny and warm. I put on my new T-shirt and shorts, and had breakfast pastries at a German Bakery. I put the removable pants legs in the pockets in case I would want them later, perhaps to visit a temple. I had brought only heavy wool socks, so I went out in my shower thongs this morning, until I could find something lighter. Lal told me later that he also had breakfast at a German Bakery, but a different one. They are everywhere in Pokhara. I then bought some clean cotton socks, which were rather expensive at 300 Rs. I walked through the lake district and past an army post, and then rented a ten-speed `mountain bike', for 50 Rs ($1) all day, and rode around town a while. (Any bicycle with a gear shift is called a mountain bike.) It was not hard to get used to riding on the left, and traffic was not too bad. I ran into Lal during a brief stop at our hotel room. He had also rented a bicycle, but had not found any good place to buy new clothes. He went out to get a shave and a haircut, and look some more for clothes, and was late for out meeting to go boating. When he saw my T-shirt, he told me that he could get me a Mt. Everest T-shirt when we returned to Kathmandu. While I was waiting, I was approached by two Tibetan women who took a large selection of souvenirs out of a small pack and spread them on blankets on the ground. I told them I didn't need any souvenirs, but I had nowhere to go, and they insisted on showing them to me, and gave me a piece of cardboard to sit on. They showed me jewelery, yak-bone boxes, prayer flag printing stamps, Tibetan calendars, knives, prayer wheels, and all the other usual Tibetan items until Lal returned. Lal was interested in the rings, but did not buy one. I ended up buying a mandela from one, which had Tibetan inscriptions and can be worn on a necklace. I gave her 400 Rs, which Lal said was too much, but was less than the 500 Rs she wanted. The other wanted me to buy something from her too, saying she was from a different family, but I said that was enough, and we left. By now, it was lunch time, so I decided we should eat first, although Lal would have preferred to go boating first in case it got windy later. He had not bought any clothes, but had a new haircut. I selected the Hungry Eye Restaurant, which had a large menu, and I had considered last night. I treated Lal to a pizza, and I had lasagna. Lal told me he had been here before, and that his brother worked as a chef in this restaurant for a while before returning to Kathmandu. I asked Lal what kind of Nepali music he liked, since I was thinking about buying some more tapes. He told me that he would give me a tape, and I did not have to buy one. Walking through town afterward, we spotted the Belgian women eating on the roof of the Snowland Restaurant. They saw us, and we waved. We went down to a dock and rented a boat. It was a long, narrow wooden boat with heavy oars. It was rowed like a canoe, except that the person in the front seat sits backward. I found rowing backward made me feel awkward and unstable, like I was going to fall out of the boat, so I mostly rowed foreward. Since the seating arrangement and boat were symmetric, we could try both ways without changing seats. I wanted to be especially careful not to tip the boat because I had both of my cameras with me. We carefully passed them back and forth to take pictures of each other. Rowing was slow until we got the hang of it, and we went in all different directions for a while. Eventually we made it to a temple on an island in the lake. Visiting this temple was important to Lal, although I never really understood its significance. He only told me that it was a temple in honor of Lake Phewa. Many boats stopped at the small island, and souvenirs were sold on blankets in front of it. An old woman with cataracts came up to me asking for money. Lal removed his shoes and entered the temple to worship. When he came out, he asked me to take his picture in front of it. Like most temples here, this one was very small, with barely enough room for two or three people inside the small room, which could be seen easily through the door. There was a priest or attendant inside, and Lal emerged with a red spot on his forehead. He then had one of the professional photographers who were working on the island take his picture. This is probably why he wanted the new clothes and haircut. As it was, he was wearing the best clothes he had with him for the occasion. He asked me if I wanted to go in the temple, but I declined, not knowing how the attendant would react, or what to do there. We then rowed to another bank of the river, across from both Pokhara and the temple, and stopped at the Typical Restaurant for Tuborg beers before rowing back. There was a monkey tied to a table on the unfinished upper floor of the concrete restaurant. Then we rowed back to Pokhara. We were now better at steering, and this didn't take long. At one point, Lal said, "I think if there were no mountains, no one would come to Nepal." That is probably true, but the mountains are not the main reason I would return. We had spent most of the afternoon on the lake. Lal had thought it would be enough to rent the boat for an hour, but I had guessed correctly that we would need it for a half day. They tried to charge us for three hours, but I pointed out that the price on the sign for a half day was less, and they accepted this. My money was starting to get low, so I changed two traveler's checks at the bank, and rode my bicycle around town some more before returning it at 5:00. Then I rested at the hotel before going to dinner. Candles were brought up because a power outage was scheduled tonight at 6:30. I went down to the office and settled my bill, so I would not have to think about saving money to do this tomorrow, and found Lal there. I invited Lal to come to dinner with me, and we went to the Snowland Restaurant, which had a large selection of Indian dishes. I had already decided yesterday that I wanted some Indian food tonight. Lal had been here before, and to the Boomerang Restaurant as well, he said. We sat on the roof to eat, where we had seen the Belgian women earlier. I ordered chicken tikka masala with rice and a naan, and Lal ordered the same. As we waited for the food, the lights went out, but there were candles on the table. A kerosene lamp was brought up for more light. From the roof, we could see that many places had lit kerosene lamps and candles. A few places, including bookstores and a supermarket, had generators. Dinner was delicious, but as usual in Nepal, lacked salt. It is almost never added during cooking. After Dinner, Lal went to pick up the photo he had taken at the temple and to visit friends. He told me to be careful going home in the dark. I had brought my flashlight, but found I didn't need it. I stopped in a supermarket and a couple of bookstores on the way home. It was very dark out, and few other stores had adequate light, so I just returned to the hotel and lit the candles. Power returned just before I went to bed. Lal came in rather late after visiting friends. November 30 ----------- We awakened to a very cloudy, foggy morning. Lal was worried about whether flights would come today. He had gotten stuck here once, and had to take a bus back because of bad weather. If this happened today, I would have to get a cash advance on my Visa card at the Nepal Grindley Bank and take a bus directly to Chitwan National Park. Chitwan is actually closer to Pokhara than to Kathmandu, but all my money was in the safe at Hotel Garuda. I stayed in bed a while, and Lal brought me a pot of tea, which I had with an apple from the fruit basket. Then I got up and showered, and took my first doxycycline pill, which I had brought for malaria prevention during my visit to Chitwan. I would take these twice a day until a month after leaving there. I had breakfast at the Oasis Restaurant and German Bakery where I ate yesterday morning. This time, I ordered the big Swiss Breakfast, which came with scrambled eggs, a cheese potato roasty, salami, fresh toast, and coffee. I ordered a chocolate croissant for dessert. The owner told me Nepal had a new government today. The communists had chosen a prime minister. My breakfast took some time, and Lal came looking for me. He had eaten at another German Bakery earlier, and I told him I was coming here. There was still plenty of time to pack, but he was worried I would be late. He said he was pleased with the choice of prime minister, because he was a very nice man. We packed and took a taxi to the airport. On the way, we passed the two Belgian ladies on bicycles and waved to them, but they didn't see us inside the cab. We checked in at the airport, went through security, and waited in the crowded terminal building until our plane came. It was on time. There was not much of a view on this flight because of all the clouds. I was on the left, so I would have a view of the Himalayas, but they were only occasionally visible above the clouds. However, the service was good, and we got the same potato-pea biscuit and fruit bread snack box as before. Back at the hotel, I got a room on the third floor just above the last one, and across the hall from my first room here. I retrieved all of my property from the safe, and my suitcase was brought to me. Kathmandu was cool and cloudy today. Lal would help me arrange my trip to Chitwan. We went back to Happy Adventure Trekking, to see Lal's friend who got us our plane tickets to Pokhara. His friend is a Brahmen, the highest Hindu caste, and Lal greeted him with the formal "Namaskaar". I booked a three night Chitwan package tour for $95. The agent said he was giving me a $5 discount because Lal was a friend. He told me that two night trips are more common, and that such a trip would give me a free day in Kathmandu so I could do some shopping or rest before going home. I told him I would like to have a free day at Chitwan, and I had had enough time in Kathmandu already. The package deal included all food and lodging at the Hotel Wildlife Camp in Sauraha, a tourist bus there and back, my park entrance fee, and two days of scheduled activities, including an elephant ride, canoe ride, and jungle walk. The second full day was unscheduled, and cost only $10. The hotel was listed in my guide books, and sounded like one of the nicer mid-priced ones. It is possible to spend several hundred dollars a night at some of the more expensive hotels inside the park, such as the Tiger Tops Lodge. My hotel would be in a village just outside the park. I told Lal that I needed to confirm my flights home, and asked him how to do it. He told me he would do it for me tomorrow, if I gave him the plane tickets and a paper listing the flights, since he had trouble reading the tickets. I gave him the tickets, and he told me he would meet me at the hotel at 6:30 tomorrow morning to take me to the bus to Chitwan. Then he went home to his family. He told me he missed them, and had dreamed about them on the trek. After Lal left, I filled out a couple of last postcards to my parents and brother, which I had brought from Pokhara. Then I mailed them at Pilgrim's bookstore, where I also shopped for tapes. They have a Walkman and allow shoppers to sample them. I listened to several, but did not buy any because I was running out of money. One was a popular Nepali tape I had heard in the lodge in Dovan. I changed a final $150 at the Nepal Grindley Bank, which I expected to last until I went home. I bought a duffle bag for $7 at an outdoors shop because I would need more space to store my trekking gear while I went to Chitwan. My suitcase was already over-stuffed without all of that, and I didn't want to carry it to Chitwan. Then I shopped for T-shirts, and bought two for myself and one for my brother. One of mine said `Nepal' in fancy letters and the other had a Kathmandu/Everest design, with Buddha eyes. I got my brother a size 46, because he is pretty big, with Buddha eyes and Tibetan lettering reading `Om mani padme hum', a common Buddhist prayer meaning essentially `hallelujah'. I had some trouble finding smaller sizes for my mother, except for the common `yakyakyak' shirts showing a string of yaks, which were especially popular in children's sizes. Some designers who apparently didn't get the pun also made `yetiyetiyeti' shirts. The T-shirts were sold in many shops, where men sat at sewing machines embroidering them. They would take orders if you asked for something special. At 6:00, I headed for Durbar Marg, because I wanted to eat at the Ghar-e-Kabab restaurant at the Hotel de l'Annapurna, which my guide book said is Kathmandu's best Indian restaurant, and it appeared to be the best restaurant of any kind in all of Nepal. The Sunkosi, a Nepali/Tibetan restaurant, would be its main competition, probably. Both are very expensive, with entrees priced as high as $8. (Nepali menu prices are generally la carte, so a full meal could cost much more.) When I arrived at the restaurant, I had trouble finding it, and asked in the hotel coffee shop. The Indian restaurant was upstairs, but would not open until 7 PM, which is quite late by Nepal standards. Durbar Marg is a wide, fancy street with many expensive hotels leading up to the Royal Palace at the end. The palace is barely visible behind a fence. There were a lot of shops along the street, so I looked around a while while waiting. Most looked very expensive, although I didn't ask about the prices. Eventually, I found one in the little indoor mall next to the Hotel de l'Annapurna where many items had prices on them, which was unusual. They were also reasonable, compared to similar things I had seen. Many were Tibetan items sold throughout the trekking regions. The shop also took credit cards, as did most of the shops on Durbar Marg. The owner showed me around the small store, explaining various items. I told him I was not interested in jewelery or anything expensive. I bought six Hindu and Buddhist items for $40, or 2000 Rs. One was a carved elephant to replace the one I broke, and use as a gift. I would probably keep the others: a Garuda statue, a Shakti statue, a prayer wheel, a singing bell, and a small yak-bone jewel box. The owner told me he would accept my credit card. When I returned to the restaurant, it was open. Inside, it was rather formal and had a generic western appearance, with a lot of brass. Tandoori chefs worked inside a glass-enclosed kitchen next to the entrance. I began my meal with a tomato-coconut soup and pepper papadam. For the main course, I ordered mutton in a tomato-yogurt masala with tomato naans and rice. I finished with milk balls in a sweet syrup, my favorite Indian dessert, and a small pot of tea. It all came to about $12, which is outrageously expensive by Nepali standards, and would buy three or four good meals at most restaurants in Kathmandu. However, the meal was excellent and filling, and easily worth the money. I walked back to the hotel at 8:30, which is rather late in Nepal. The streets were quiet and dark on the long walk. When I left the restaurant, I was followed by a persistent rickshaw driver, until I ducked into an imitation Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop. I did not buy ice cream because it is not always safe, and I was full. Back in Thamel, most shops were closed. I went to my room and packed for Chitwan. December 1 ---------- I was awakened by my alarm clock at 5:30 AM, which gave me time to shower before meeting Lal at 6:30. The morning was very foggy, with visibility less than 100 yards. I checked my suitcase and duffle bag and paid my bill, and Lal picked me up in his cousin's auto-rickshaw at 6:30. I did not have time for breakfast. Lal drove me to a tourist bus waiting on Kantipath. I gave my backpack, which was only half full now, to a man on top of the bus, and said good-bye to Lal. Lal said he would meet me here when the bus returned, around 2:30 PM on December 4. I thought we would probably be later, but he said he would wait. I reminded him not to forget to confirm the tickets, and mentioned that I had seen a Delta Airlines office on Durbar Marg, in case he needed one. The bus had assigned seats, and mine is the second seat back on the left, beside the window. This placed me just behind the `copilot' seats, so I had a good view through the front window. Unfortunately, there was a wheel hump under my feet. A young Japanese man who apparently spoke no English sat behind me. The copilot tried unsuccessfully to talk to him. A man from the trekking agency came onto the bus and handed me an envelope containing my receipt for Hotel Wildlife Camp, which I would give to them upon arrival. A tarp was placed over the luggage on the roof. While we waited, a monkey ran down the street. Several groups of army men also ran down the street. They exercise in the morning. As we left town, we passed a lot of them running on the streets. We could see very little through the fog. After leaving Kathmandu, we passed a memorial for a former king, and shortly after that were delayed in traffic for a long time in the first town we came to. While we waited there, the fog began to lift. Most of the traffic outside Kathmandu was trucks and buses. The road was rough and jarring for the first hour or so. We stopped on top of a hill to allow people to get out and pee, and some young boys came on the bus selling snacks and drinks. I bought a pack of cardamom cream cookies, because I had not eaten breakfast and was hungry. We descended the hill on switchbacks, and passed through a toll gate. After that, the road became smooth, and actually had a dashed line in the middle, though most drivers paid little attention to it. Nepali trucks all seem to be the same model, and none look very new. However, they are all brightly painted and elaborately decorated with Hindu images, garlands, and tassels. The front is usually painted bright orange, and there is usually a lighted box above the cab with an image of a goddess. The cabs are often packed with people, and some people ride on the roofs. The back, which is usually painted blue, always says "Horn Please" in large colorful letters, so that people will honk before passing, and the driver can give a hand signal for whether it is safe. This is important, because Nepali drivers will pass anywhere, on blind hills and curves, and into oncoming traffic. They honk their horns constantly. We passed one tourist bus that had driven half-way over a cliff, and a truck that drove off a bridge, so it is apparent that accidents sometimes happen. The ride was mostly downhill, following a river through a gorge. We stopped again to allow people to get out and pee beside the road, and I took advantage of this, but only a few women did, since there was not really any privacy. At 10:30, about half-way, we stopped at a `fast-food' restaurant in Bandipur for a half hour for a quick meal. They had an extensive menu. I had a bowl of vegetable noodle soup. Women sold fruit outside. By the time I figured out the large, ripe oranges cost 20 Rs per kilogram, a good price, the bus was ready to leave. The fog was now gone, but it was cloudy. We left the gorge and entered the flat land of the Terai region. There were many blooming fields, like I saw at Landrung in the Annapurnas, and many banana and papaya trees. Two monkeys crossed the road in front of the bus. The houses were made of a brown adobe, and had thatched roofs and small windows. We passed through two large cities, Narayanghat and Bharatpur, where almost all the signs were in Nepali. The regional airport is in Bharatpur. The bus stopped at Tadi Bazaar. Outside, hotel representatives awaited our arrival and solicited customers. Four of us had reservations for Hotel Wildlife Camp, and showed our receipts to a man from the hotel. One of the others was the Japanese man next to me, and the others were a retired French couple. We went to a Jeep, and were told not to enter too soon, since we had to push it to start it and then jump in. The hotel manager rode on the hood of the Jeep, and several other people hitched a ride on the back. We followed a dirt road through bright yellow fields and crossed a wide, shallow river before arriving in Sauraha. The lodge was an attractive collection of buildings in a garden-like setting. Half were brick with thatched roofs, and the others were older adobe buildings. Each held two rooms, and the brick ones had private baths. I would stay in one of those. We began with lunch, egg-drop soup with chop suey, in a round brick dining room surrounded by windows, having a high thatched roof. Then we were shown to our rooms. Inside, they were basic concrete structures with a window on two opposite walls, whitewashed walls, a light bulb on one wall, and bare floors. There were two beds, a table and stool, and a few shelves. The beds looked reasonably clean, so I would not need the sleeping bag I brought. The bathroom had a real western-style toilet, but as usual, the shower had no curtain. The wall separating it from the opposite room's bathroom only went part way to the high ceiling, which was thatched. There was a gap between the outside walls and the roof. We were free until 4:00, so I took a look around Sauraha. The town has a main corner with several roof-top restaurants. Their names were borrowed from well-known tourist restaurants in Kathmandu. There were numerous hotel-camps throughout town. Many stores had kerosene refrigerators, and advertized "freezing cold drinks". Tourist offices advertized a wide variety of jungle activities and tried to solicit passing customers. Numerous ox-carts passed down the street. Walking to the far end of town, I discovered the Rapti River. Most of the Chitwan National Park was across this river. I followed the river across a sandy area and went around the nice Tiger Camp Lodge. Just beyond it, I came upon the national park entrance sign. Ahead, there was a visitor's center with exhibits on the park and its wildlife, as well as the local people, the Tharu. At 4:00, we had a guided tour of Sauraha, including a visit to the original Tharu village in town. The Tharu were the only people who would live here until malaria was eradicated in the 1950's. They are naturally resistant to malaria, which still occurs occasionally in the Terai. Because of the malaria, the Terai was one of the last areas of Nepal to have contact with the outside world, and the people are still very traditional. Most are farmers. At one time they were nomadic, but have settled in villages in recent years, with the encouragement of the government. They resented the creation of the Chitwan National Park, since it interfered with their freedom to use the land as they had in the past, and there was a series of violent confrontations with the army units guarding the park as late as the 1980's, until a compromise was reached, allowing them to harvest grass in the park each year in January. Now many make a living from tourism, although most are still farmers. After I took a picture of the Tharu village, the guide, who was Tharu himself, told me they did not like photographs being taken here. Next, we visited the Chitwan visitor's center, which I had discovered earlier. Inside, it tells how the park was originally the king's private hunting preserve. Visiting dignitaries would be invited on hunting safaris, and would kill many tigers and other game. Because the king used it for hunting, the original habitat was maintained in the park, and it was never farmed like the surrounding regions. Therefore, when the park was created, the wildlife quickly recovered. Since I had already seen the exhibits here, I went out and sat on a bench with the guide, who was a very quiet man with a soft voice. He told me that on my free day, I may be able to get a jeep ride into the park. Most jeeps cannot get there yet because the river is still too high, but one has been able to get in. He said the grass may still be too high to see wildlife from a jeep, however, and he didn't know if there would be a jeep ride because they need at least seven people to make it profitable, because of the high entry fee for jeeps. We walked to the river, where the sun was now red as it set into the thick haze. Then we went to see where they keep the government elephants, which are used for elephant rides inside the park. A large number of elephants were chained to posts there on short chains, with their front legs and back legs separately chained together. One appeared rather angry, and stomped a lot. We walked back to the lodge at dusk, and at 6:00, a buffet of traditional Nepali foods was served, including dal bhatt, chicken curry, vegetable curry, fried breaded vegetables, hotly spiced pickles, and papadam. I was suspicious of the dal bhatt, but the lodge looked clean, so I tried some of the lentils. I was also suspicious of the hot pickles, since I did not know how they were prepared, and hot pickles had always accompanied the meals that made me sick. I ate a few anyway. The food was tasty, and I took a second plate. Then we went outside and sat around a campfire before going to bed. I had put on some insect repellant, because I did not want to risk being bitten by a mosquito which could have malaria, even though I hadn't seen any. In the distance I heard drumming, which I thought might have been the Tharu stick dances some lodges advertize. Our lodge sometimes has them during peak season, but now there are too few visitors. The lodge had a generator which provided electricity until 10 PM. In my room tonight, I thought I heard a mosquito, but I never saw it, and was not bitten. December 2 ---------- There was a knock on the door at 6:20 AM announcing breakfast at 6:30. It was very foggy, and not yet bright enough to see inside without a flashlight. The generator was not running now. For breakfast, we had a banana, fried eggs, toast, and fried potatoes with onion. The eggs had a soft yolk, which I cut out. At 7:00, we left for a canoe ride and jungle walk. We boarded a long, narrow dugout canoe with removable seats. Our guide helped paddle in the front, while the four of us who arrived on the bus yesterday sat in the middle. It was very foggy at the beginning, but it was best to start early to increase our chances of seeing wildlife. The Rapti River was wide, shallow, and fast-moving. We got stuck on the sandy bottom a few times. The only wildlife we saw in the hour-long canoe ride were some large water birds. We also saw domestic elephants carrying loads of hay across the river. The canoe stopped a few miles downstream, on the opposite side of the river. There, we began our jungle walk. As we started, the guide explained that we must be very quiet and follow him closely. If a rhino attacked, we would have to run and climb a tree. We saw fresh rhino tracks as we left the boat. The jungle walk is probably the most dangerous activity in Chitwan, because of the possibility of being attacked by a rhino. Tigers also live here, but there are less than fifty in the park, and the chances of seeing one is small. Our guide saw two last week on a canoe ride with a French group, but that was only the second time he had seen any. Sloth bears are considered the most dangerous animal here, because they are ferocious, and their attacks to the head are often fatal. They are not very common either. Crocodiles are often seen on the river, but we didn't see any. There are also four species of poisonous snakes, including two kinds of cobras. They are rarely seen. The jungle walk often did not follow any obvious trail, and we had to duck under branches and push through elephant grass, which grows twenty feet high. The forests here looked similar to forests at home, but the high grass surrounding them was unlike any I had seen before. We saw one monkey in a tree. The guide climbed trees to search for rhinos, and looked for tracks. We never found one, and neither did any of the other groups we ran into in the jungle. We followed a jeep road back to the river, across from the park entrance in Sauraha. We saw a green parakeet on the way. At the river, we had to remove our shoes and wade out to where a dugout canoe ferry would come to take us back across. My convertible pants were useful here. The guide was impressed by them. Many people were waiting to cross, and there were several crossings before it was our turn. This dugout canoe was longer than the one we took downstream, and had no seats on the wet bottom. We squatted on the ride over, which was fortunately short. Kneeling would have been more comfortable, but I thought of that too late, and did not want to shift my position in the narrow boat. We returned to the hotel at 11:00 and had lunch at noon. It was a fried breaded vegetable cutlet, served with french fries, mixed vegetables, cabbage soup, and an orange. After lunch, there was some free time, which I used to shower, and to go back to the Tharu village to take some more pictures now that the guide was not with me to complain. I went to the ticket office at the national park to ask about how to get an elephant ride inside the park, in case I wanted to do that tomorrow. They said there was a "queue system", and I would have to go to the Hotel Association building next to the Rhino Lodge in town at 6 AM to put my name on a list, and then wait in a line at the park for a ticket, which would cost 650 Rs. We had an elephant ride scheduled today at 3:30, but it would be outside the park, in the buffer zone, and my guide book said there is a better chance of seeing wildlife inside the park. My lodge had its own elephants, and private elephants are excluded from the park, which has its own. I returned to the hotel. Around 3:00, two elephants arrived and stood beside a loading platform. While waiting to board, I asked our guide about how to get the government elephant rides, but he told me that all the government wants is your money, that their rides only last an hour, and people often don't see any wildlife, so they get a lot of complaints. He told me that I would definitely see rhinos on the hotel's elephant ride, and if I didn't, I could have a free ride tomorrow. He said our ride would last at least two hours, and they would make sure we found a rhino. The government elephants are competition for the hotel, so it was clear to me that if I wanted to get one of their rides, I would have to arrange it myself. Seven people boarded the two elephants. I got on the second elephant, together with the Japanese man and a young man from London who had just arrived today. To board, the elephant backs up to the platform, and you step onto its back. There is a wooden platform on a pillow on the elephant's back. One person sits at each corner, with their legs around a railing post. The driver sits on the elephant's shoulders, in front of the platform, with his bare feet in stirrups. He steers by nudging the elephant behind the ears with his toes, or by whacking it on the head with a hatchet. We started out following a road along the river, downstream. We passed through several Tharu villages, which could now be photographed safely, although it is difficult to compose a picture or hold the camera still on a moving elephant. The motion is jarring, and I expected to end up with a lot of bruises from this ride. The villages were full of brown thatched-roof huts, and surrounded by blooming golden fields, which were quite beautiful. There were some large plants with purple flowers, and large poinsettia trees. Children, often wearing little or no clothes even when fairly old, waved and shouted "bye-bye" to us. A few said "hello-bye-bye" or "bye-bye-hello". Bicycle tires are popular toys here, rolled with sticks. The Tharu have many cattle, their most prized possession, plus some goats, chickens, and lots of dogs, which are everywhere. Some of the dogs were not very friendly, and even chased after the elephants. After passing through the last village, we crossed a river into the buffer zone outside the park. A man was in a tree looking for rhinos. One has been seen nearby, and we tried to find it. The elephants split up to try to catch it between them. Rhinos are much smaller than elephants, and will not attack one. In the forest, the elephant walked right through the trees. The driver used his hatchet to push limbs aside, or cut them if necessary. The elephant was always pulling up plants to eat as it walked. Soon we saw the rhino, which was very close when we came upon it in the forest. We got a good look until the elephant made a loud noise, causing the rhino to flee. Later, we saw a peacock, a mongoose, and some pheasants. The driver pulled some small orange fruits from a tree and shared them with us. I don't know what they were, but they are popular among the locals. As the sun set, we headed back. At the river, we stopped to allow some cattle to cross. While waiting, we exchanged cameras with the people on the other elephant to take pictures of each other. It was dark enough by now to require a flash. We reached the lodge at 5:45, after dark. I was quite sore from bouncing on the elephant, and the ride ended none too soon. I learned that the people on the other elephant had never seen the rhino. We had dinner at 6:00: a spring roll with vegetable curry sauce and onion soup. I talked to the guide about my plans for my free day. He told me that they had not been able to find enough people for the jeep ride, and that the grass was really too high for this anyway, until it was harvested in January. He recommended either a full day jungle walk, or bird-watching in the morning followed by an afternoon canoe ride and jungle walk, which could go deeper into the jungle than we went today. He recommended the latter choice, since on a full day walk, you really have little chance of seeing wildlife except at the beginning and end. Wildlife is rarely seen in mid-day. I decided on the canoe ride and jungle walk, since I wanted to leave the morning free, in case I decided to get a government elephant ride. I still wasn't sure I would do this, since I had already seen a rhino. After dinner, I went out and walked around Sauraha to see if anything was going on at night. Some hotels advertise Tharu stick dances, although ours did not have them this late in the season. I had heard some drumming last night while sitting at the campfire, but heard no such activity tonight, so I walked downtown to the main corner to see if anything was going on there. One store there had a large selection of pies, and I got a piece of crumb-top apple pie for dessert. The roof-top restaurants around this corner were all having happy hour. I went to the Hungry Eye Restaurant for a Tuborg Beer, which came with french fries. These were welcome, since tonight's dinner had not been very filling. I talked to the waiter for a while, who was not busy since the only other customer had just left. He joined me at my table. He was a young Tharu man who learned English in school, and likes to practice when he gets a chance. We talked for a while about America and Nepal, until his boss came upstairs. His boss recommended a plate of papadam, which I thought sounded good, so I ordered some, and then finished my beer and went back to the hotel to sleep. December 3 ---------- This morning, I was already up when the wake-up knock came at 6:05. I had decided during the night that I wanted another elephant ride, and I needed to buy a ticket. I went to the Hotel Association building, as I was instructed yesterday. Nothing there suggests that this is a place to sign up for elephant rides. In fact, nobody was there at 6:20, but a man outside asked if I was looking for an elephant ride, and he told me to go directly to the park headquarters. At the park entrance, some Nepalis were waiting under a shelter. They told me this is the elephant queue, and I should wait here for the ticket office to open. It was supposed to open at 6:00, but recently it has been dark at this hour, so they have been opening late. More Nepalis gradually arrived to buy tickets for guests at their hotels. I was the only tourist here. They were curious how I found out about the elephant queue. I explained that my hotel had their own elephants, and didn't like their guests to use the government elephants. They told me that this was bad for the government, and that the lodges were only interested in people's money and didn't give as good a ride, and that I was less likely to see wildlife outside the park. I was told that I should have signed up at the Hotel Association yesterday, but that it would probably be all right, because it was not peak season. I was also told that I would need my park entrance permit to buy a ticket. An entrance permit costs 650 Rs and is valid for two days. I didn't have mine, since the guide carried the permits yesterday on our jungle walk. A man wrote my name and nationality on his hand to give to the ticket office, and told me to hurry back to the hotel and get my permit. I ran back, slowing only to pass the large pack of dogs which had assembled by the river, some of which looked angry. Breakfast was now being served, but I told them I didn't have time for it today, and went behind the dining room to search for my guide. I found him and retrieved my ticket, which had the name "Mr. Scott" on it. Nepalis don't seem very interested in last names, possibly since theirs are all the same. When I returned to the park headquarters, the ticket office had already opened and the queue was gone. The man had given my name to the office, and they said there would be no problem since I already had an entrance pass. I showed it and paid 650 Rs, and got a ticket for the morning elephant ride at 8:00. It was now 7:15, so I went to the closest restaurant, the Annapurna II at the Tiger Camp Lodge, which was just outside the park entrance, overlooking the river. The Japanese man and French couple from my hotel passed with their guide on their way to the bird walk as I sat there. I had the special breakfast, which included scrambled eggs, toast, and fried potato with onion, and then went to the elephant boarding platform to wait. A park army guard came by and told me that the elephants probably wouldn't come until 8:30, and I should wait. No one else was here yet. The guard was very friendly, and we talked for a while. Shortly, the other people arrived, and the elephants came. There were five big ones and a smaller one, which would have only a single passenger. The big elephants each had a platform like the ones we rode yesterday, and carried four people. I went with three Japanese engineers who were working in Nepal for six months. The government elephant platforms had pillows to sit on, and were more comfortable than yesterday's. In the past, the government elephants didn't have platforms, and my guide books were out of date on this, so I had expected that we would have to ride directly on the back, as in the pictures shown in the visitor's center. We crossed the river into a large grassland. There we saw some deer and spotted deer. The elephants split into two groups, with ours leading the one on the left. Eventually, we trapped a rhino in the middle and closed in on it. The elephants held it as long as they could, until it escaped between two of them. Since our elephant was the first that came upon it, we had an excellent close-up view. We saw some more deer in the grass, and then entered a forest, through which we would return to the river. There, we saw more deer, including a third, dwarf species, two wild boars, and a peacock. We also came across an elephant carrying the two Belgian ladies I met at Hot Spring. We waved to each other. After leaving the forest, we crossed the river again, and returned to the loading platform around 10 AM. I gave my small camera to a Nepali at the boarding station and asked him to take pictures of me. He took two. I stopped on the way back to the hotel and bought a tiger T-shirt and a map, then rented a bicycle for 10 Rs an hour until lunch. I rode it through some Tharu villages in the surrounding countryside, mostly following the road taken by the elephants yesterday. Whenever I stopped, children would come up and ask for one rupee. This is the first place I had encountered much begging, but it was still only the children. I turned back when I came to a river which had to be crossed to continue. It was shallow enough to walk across, and many people did. Some women bathed in the river near the road. They removed only their tops while bathing. Only children bathed naked. There were very few vehicles, just a couple of jeeps and a few bicycles. Most people were walking. Many of them carried farming tools, especially large curved knives. I saw no other westerners here. Some people said "bye-bye" when they saw me. I would learn today that the brilliant yellow flowers surrounding the villages were mustard. I took pictures of the beautiful fields and villages whenever I could stop away from children. Ox carts and cattle in the road were the biggest obstacle. I returned to the hotel for lunch at noon: chow mein with vegetable soup and banana custard. The Japanese man who never spoke had left, but the retired French couple was still here. They had visited the Elephant Breeding Center this morning to see the baby elephants, after going on the bird walk. I told them I had taken another elephant ride, inside the park. The French couple was also nearing the end of their trip to Nepal. They had already been here over a month, and had done the Annapurna Circuit trek, followed by a trip into the Sanctuary, and another trek in the Everest region where they visited both Kala Pattar and Gokyo, crossing the Cho La pass in between. They had done much more walking than I had. After lunch, the young English man from the elephant ride yesterday and I would go on a canoe ride and jungle walk with a new guide, who I now met. This would be a special long trip, and we would pay the boatman extra for it. The English man did not yet have a park entrance permit, and we had to wait until the office opened at 2 PM to get him one. The canoe ride started out down the Rapti River as yesterday, and we saw a lot of birds, including kingfishers, ducks, a kind of eagle, and egrets. Then, the other tourists in the canoe got out where we stopped yesterday, and we continued further down the river to a part of the park seen by few tourists. Here, we encountered several crocodiles: two marsh muggers and a gharial. The marsh muggers are dangerous, and can even attack boats that go too close. Gharials are an endangered species that eat only fish, but could bite if provoked. Our guide once grabbed one by the tail without harm. We were lucky to see one, since they are very rare. We did not approach too closely, since the guide said that if we scared it, it would not come back here again, and he wanted to be able to show it to other people. As we left the canoe, we saw fresh tracks, and the guide asked if we could guess what they were. They looked almost like human footprints, combined with prints someone would make while walking on his knuckles. The guide said they were fresh sloth bear prints. We followed them to try to find one. Our guide carried a large stick to fight the bear if it attacked. We were instructed to stand behind him, and not to run, if this happened. We also picked up sticks for extra protection. The English man was instructed to put on his sweater, since he was wearing a white T-shirt, and white makes sloth bears angry. The guide said they are not used to seeing white in the wilderness, except on the belly of another sloth bear ready to attack. Soon we saw rhino and baby rhino tracks and followed them to the edge of a grassland. There, we could hear rhinos in the grass, and see motion in the grass, but could not see the rhinos. We were instructed to be very quiet when rhinos were near, and to stand still, since they have poor eyesight, and to be safe, will attack anything that moves or makes a noise. If one approaches, we were to climb a tree. The guide climbed a tree to take a look, but said it was too dangerous to try to get closer to this one, since it could have a baby. We quietly moved on. Soon we heard a loud noise behind a nearby clump of brush, and our guide raised his stick, prepared for a sloth bear. It was only a peacock taking off, with great noise. The guide said he had to fight a sloth bear once while guiding some Germans. A short distance beyond, we heard two rhinos at close range. The guide actually saw the leg of one a few feet away in the grass, and we ran fast in the opposite direction to a tree, which we quickly climbed. We stayed in the tree for several minutes, very quiet, while the guide surveyed the surroundings and listened. We did not see any rhinos, but could see where they were moving through the twenty foot high grass. The guide could hear a rhino sleeping near the tree, so we had to climb down very quietly to leave the area without waking it, or attracting the attention of the other rhinos which were still nearby. We left the grass and entered the forest. A rhino was heard approaching on the same trail in the opposite direction, so we made a detour and climbed a tree until it passed. We never saw it, but we saw its tracks. We also saw numerous deer and brown rhesus monkeys, the kind seen at temples in Kathmandu. We also saw a black-faced lemur, another kind of monkey that we had seen near Chhomrong in the Annapurnas. Several trees had claw marks from sloth bears. They climb to get honey from bee hives in the trees. We watched and listened as at least two rhinos moved through the grass near the edge of the forest. We returned to the river along the jeep road we followed back yesterday, but today the walk was longer. We saw more deer and some wild chickens, which our guide says are very tough and not good to eat. We had to climb a tree again when our guide heard a rhino making a noise they make when scared. We saw only motion in the trees. As the sun set at 5:15, we were the last people walking in the jungle. The guide said tigers would be waking and moving about now, but seeing one is rare. He said that if one is confronted, you should back off slowly, and not run. We reached the river at dusk, removed our shoes, and waded out to get the canoe ferry. The guide liked my convertible pants. He said to squat in the seatless canoe like on a Nepali toilet, but I kneeled this time, and was more comfortable. Our guide suggested to walk back without shoes instead of waiting there to dry our feet, and we did this along the sandy river bank, until we came to the gravelly road. We got back to the hotel at 6:00, just in time for dinner. People were already seated in the dining room. We had the same Nepali buffet as the night we arrived. Meals alternate in two day cycles here, since that is as long as most people stay. The guide said we climbed trees very well. He did not like to take women on the more adventurous jungle walks, like we just did, because they must be pushed up trees. He said he would sometimes be pushing women up trees while a rhino was charging, and had some close calls. When I mentioned my government elephant ride this morning, he told me I had been lucky to see rhinos, since those rides leave too late for the best wildlife viewing. The guide said he would take the English man and me to the Elephant Breeding Center in the morning before we left, if we paid for his bicycle rental. After dinner, the hotel manager entertained us with card tricks and some sleight of hand. He is one of the few chubby Nepalis I've seen. Then I went downtown and ate a slice of papaya pie, and returned to go to bed. Our guide sleeps in his village. He said he didn't like the bright flourescent lights in the hotel courtyard, which stay on every night until 10 PM. December 4 ---------- We had eggs, toast, and potatoes again for breakfast. After dinner, the English man and I bicycled to the Elephant Breeding Center with the guide we had yesterday. We went through his village, and a few others, following the same road as I did on my bicycle ride yesterday. Today it was very foggy, and there were few people on the road this early. The guide said a rhino had been in the village last night. He pointed out the towers in the fields where men sometimes must keep watch for wildlife which would damage crops. Children liked to run behind the bicycles and push. A young girl jumped on the back of the English man's bicycle for a ride. About 3 km out of town, we came to the river where I turned back yesterday. An large elephant, with long tusks, crossed the river carrying hay. The guide said that this was the biggest elephant at Chitwan. He recently went mad and broke his heavy chain, and had to be chased and tranquilized. He was then chained for two weeks with each leg to a tree, and not fed. Now he has shrunk, and was weaker. He was beaten a lot during retraining. Today, we had to cross the knee-deep river to get to the Elephant Breeding Center. We removed our shoes and pushed the bicycles across. The guide admired my convertible pants again, and said that such inventiveness is what makes America a great country. The water was not cold, and the bottom had smooth round rocks. The other bank was muddy, and it was hard to put our shoes on cleanly, so the guide suggested leaving them off until we crossed back over. We rode the last kilometer barefoot, and arrived at the Elephant Breeding Center. There, we saw some baby elephants, including a six-week-old with its mother. It yanked at her chain with its trunk. We were told not to approach the babies, because they had long chains, and were already big enough to be dangerous. We should especially stay away from the one with its mother. Behind the Breeding Center, in the distance near the woods, was the large elephant that had gone mad. We kept our distance from it. In front of the center, men were rolling grain and molasses into balls wrapped in leaves to make elephant food. We did not get too close to any elephants being ridden, since these were not yet fully trained, and they may charge. It takes two men to safely chain an elephant: one on its shoulders and one on the ground. The man on top can hit it with a hatchet if it tries to trample the man chaining it. After seeing the Breeding Center, we rode back to the river. Our guide chased some cows around a field on his bicycle. We crossed, put on our shoes, and rode back through the villages, stopping outside the guide's house briefly. Some children asked us many questions in Nepali while we waited for him to return. The guide pointed out a large poinsettia tree to us, and asked what it was called in English. I told him, and wrote the name on the back of a park entrance ticket for him. Back at the hotel, I had time to shower before leaving by Jeep at 10:00 for Tadi Bazaar. The English man was going to Pokhara, while the French couple and I would return to Kathmandu on the 11:00 tourist bus. Waiting to leave, I bought a half kilogram of oranges for 10 Rs, or 2 Rs per orange. I also bought a pack of Bourbon brand chocolate cream cookies and a Coke. An electronic music box somewhere played `Santa Clause is Coming to Town'. The young lady next to me on the bus was from New York. She just received a masters degree in ecology, and was working for six months at the Chitwan Environmental Research Center before starting her Ph. D. work. The bus was the same one we rode down on, and it stopped at the same place for lunch, and I had Chow Mein. The lady from New York did not eat, perhaps because she didn't trust the roadside food. The bus made a lot of stops on the way back, and arrived in Kathmandu at 5:30 at a different bus stop in a part of town I did not recognize, although the monkey temple was visible on a hill nearby. I looked for Lal, wondering if he knew we would be stopping here, but he was not around. Several of us took a blue mini-bus waiting nearby back to Thamel for 20 Rs each. The lady from New York said this was a high price, but we went. A small child hung on the back. He smiled at me, and I gave him a cookie. The mini-bus stopped just outside the Hotel Garuda. Lal expected me back around 3:00 at the Kantipath bus stop, and has called the hotel. After checking into my room, which was now on the fourth floor, directly above the last one and getting my luggage back, I hurried to Kantipath to see if he was still waiting there. On the way, he passed me on the unlighted street in front of the Royal Palace. I didn't see him in the darkness, but he saw me. I told him that we arrived at a different stop much later than he expected, and wondered why someone hadn't told him the correct information. He returned my plane ticket, which had been confirmed and stamped by the Indian Airline office. I had confirmations for the continuing flights as well. I was sorry he had to wait so long, and invited him to dinner, but he wanted to go home because his wife was expecting him. They do not have a phone. Lal invited me to his home for a final lunch before I left tomorrow afternoon. I said I would go over around 9 AM to see Bodhnath first, and he said he would meet me there. I had a little time to do some shopping, and bought a T-shirt for my father, in a slightly larger size than mine, which said `Kathmandu' and had a picture of mountains and the Nepal flag. I also ordered a shirt for myself at the same shop, which had a large picture of a mountain that reminded me of Annapurna South, and said `Annapurna Base Camp'. I could pick the shirt up tomorrow around noon. I bought this one because I hadn't been thinking about how much weight I had lost when I bought my first Annapurna shirt, and I was afraid it might not fit after I get home. The scale at Hotel Garuda showed that I was now down to 155 pounds, the least I have weighed in ten years or more. I even found a store with a good selection of pretty T-shirts in small sizes. I bought one for my mother, guessing that she was one size smaller than the man in the store, who took a size 36. I decided to go again to the Ghar-e-Kabab restaurant at the Hotel de l'Annapurna for my last dinner, since I had a wonderful meal there before. This time, I began with an appetizer consisting of lentil puffs and crispy rounds in three chutneys: tamarind, cilantro, and spiced yogurt, which was heavenly. For my main dish, I ordered barbecued chicken legs in a butter tomato masala, with Kashmiri pullau (rice containing dried fruits and nuts) and a garlic naan. I finished with milk balls in syrup and ginger tea. It was one of the best meals I have ever eaten in my life, and certainly the best Indian meal. It cost 605 Rs, or $12.10. For entertainment tonight, there was a vocalist accompanied by harmonium and tablas, singing Nepalese music. I recognized one of the songs, Resham Firiri, which is a favorite here. On the way back to the hotel at 9:30 PM, I was passed by police running after a man. One threw a baton at him, but missed. The police here ordinarily carry no guns. I stopped at Pilgrim's Bookstore for a few tapes and a couple of posters, and arrived at the hotel just before they closed the security gate at 10:00. December 5 ---------- Lal called me at 8:00 AM, while I was showering. I dressed quickly and went down to the desk to answer it. He told me that it was too early to meet him at 9:00, because it didn't take long to see Bodhnath, and I should meet him instead at 11:00 for lunch. I went to the German Bakery where I liked the breakfast pastries, and got a croissant, a cinnamon roll and coffee, as I usually did when I was in Kathmandu. I also bought two packs of yak cheese, one for myself and one for a gift. I wanted to see both Pashupatinath, which is Nepal's most important Hindu temple, and Bodhnath, which is Nepal's largest Buddhist stupa, this morning, but I was slow getting started, and did not get a taxi until around 10:00. I first took an auto-rickshaw to Pashupatinath. A young boy there asked where I was from and offered to show me around. I tried to refuse, as I generally did, but he said he did not want any money. He was on a break from school, and just wanted to practice English. He said it would be useful to have a guide because only Hindus are allowed inside the temple, and I would not know what I was looking at otherwise. This was not quite true because I had my guide book, but since he was not asking for money, I let him come along even though this would probably make me late for meeting Lal. I had just planned to take a quick look here. The boy took me to the river next to the temple and showed me a body being burned on a platform. There are platforms all along the river for this purpose, and a hospice nearby where people go to wait to die. The temple itself was enormous, but I could not enter. We got a good view of it from the hill across the river. On that hill, there were many monkeys, which are sacred animals. There were also some beggars, mostly crippled. A string of small white stupas stretched up the hill along the stairs. I was told these were `siblings' of the main temple. Two holy men with painted faces sat in front of a small temple and one played a flute. The boy said there are many kinds of holy men. He said some carry things with their penis. Others smoke hashish and try to get tourists to pay for photos. I sat on a bench overlooking the temple and talked briefly with the boy while changing film. I then offered him 5 Rs for his services, which he said again was unnecessary, but accepted. I continued to the top of the hill and could see Bodhnath in the distance. I wondered around the Gorakhnath temples on the hill and took pictures of some monkeys. It was already almost 11:00, so I hurried back down the hill and got an auto-rickshaw to take me to Bodhnath. The driver asked for only 40 Rs, which seemed very reasonable. It turned out that he only took me to the other side of the hill, where he insisted that Bodhnath was just up the stairs. I knew better, but he got a woman on the street to tell me that this was Bodhnath as well, so I got out. No other cab was around, so I would have to walk. I could see Bodhnath, which has a high spire above a large white dome, in the distance. My guide told me it was about a thirty minute walk from Pashupatinath, so I would be at least a half hour late to meet Lal, assuming I did not get lost. I crossed a small foot bridge over a stream, and continued on narrow paths between houses toward Bodhnath. I could not always see it, but tried to continue in the same direction, although I was sometimes blocked by walls, and I took some detours around garbage piles and dogs. I passed through a large residential area where there were no other tourists, and occasionally tried to get people to point in the direction of Bodhnath so I was sure I didn't get off track, and to let people know why I was walking past their houses, since I was sure it was unusual. There was usually no path of the type which would be recognized as `public' in America. I just went over walls and through courtyards, right in front of the houses, following the best path I could find. Eventually, I found a real road and followed it to Bodhnath, where Lal was waiting. I was 45 minutes late. We walked to his room down the hill from the main entrance to the Bodhnath complex. His apartment building looked somewhat nicer in the daylight, and the front was being freshly painted. Lal's brother was waiting for us. I tried to say something to him, but Lal told me he did not understand English. His brother was once a professional chef at the fancy Sherpa Hotel on Durbar Marg and the Hungry Eye Restaurant in Pokhara, and he prepared me an elaborate lunch. I had a large, spicy roasted chicken leg with French fries, hot spicy pickles, and an elaborate salad beautifully arranged on a large plate. The salad had carved tomato flowers and radish cut into sun-like scallop shapes, plus thin carrot medallions, onion, and lettuce, all neatly arranged in concentric circles. Ordinarily I would not eat a salad here, because uncooked vegetables are generally not safe, but now I had no choice. Lal and his brother had small bowls of bony spiced chicken chunks, which is much more typical in Nepal than the large `chicken steak' they served me. Lal's wife came in and sat on the mat on the floor. I offered to share my salad with Lal and his brother before I started eating. It is impolite in Nepal to offer someone food from a plate you have eaten from. Lal took as small share. He poured us a beer. It was warm today, and the windows were open. Outside were cows and dogs. Two pigs rooted through garbage around the building. Lal gave me a small thangka his friend made. He said he had wanted to give me a bigger one, but there was not time. A big one would take at least two weeks. He said he would like to send me one. A tape of `Funkytown' which was apparently a local recording, not the American version, played on his tape deck. When I mentioned the tape, he remembered that he had promised to give me a tape of Nepalese music. He asked whether I would prefer popular of folk music, and I said folk music. He then gave his brother some money to run out and buy me a tape. It looked like one I had bought at Pilgrim's Bookstore. I was not sure since all the writing was in Nepali, but it had the same picture. If it were the same, my brother could have it. I already had two other identical folk music tapes which I had bought from the sarangi salesman in Kathmandu and at a music store in Pokhara, so my brother might get two tapes. We listened to the tape while Lal got out his pictures to show me again, since I had been sick the last time. He showed me the trekking pictures, including some older ones from when he was a cooking porter, and carried a large basket with a head strap. He also had pictures from his home. He showed me some post cards and letters that he had received from people who he had guided in the past. After lunch, we took group pictures in Lal's room, and then walked up to Bodhnath for a quick tour. Lal's brother came also. We walked around the stupa clockwise, in the correct direction. It was surrounded by shops, and I recognized this area from the movie The Little Buddha, including the Stupa View Cafe on the upstairs porch of one building. We looked at a large prayer wheel near the stairs up the stupa, and then climbed up, and walked around the dome, which was surrounded by small prayer wheels. We could see mountains in the distance, and a large monastery on a far-away hill. There were numerous monasteries near the stupa, and many monks wearing red robes, but the closest monastery was closed and we could not visit it. We took some pictures at Bodhnath, and then climbed down and completed our circle. At 1:45, it was time to find a cab, and we drove back to Hotel Garuda to get my bags. The staff shook my hand as I left. I picked up the T-shirt I had ordered around the corner, and then we drove to the airport. On the way, Lal gave me a necklace of flowers for good luck on the way home. We took a final picture and said good-bye at the airport. Local people are not allowed inside without a ticket. Lal said he hoped I would come back with a large organized tour. He could make a lot of money from one of those. I checked in, and my bags were weighed. The man at the desk told the baggage handler that my bags were 20 kg overweight, and there would be a charge. The baggage handler led me upstairs to the roof and gave me an immigration form to fill out. He then told me that there would be a $100 charge for my excess baggage. I did not believe him, and asked for proof. He said that this would not be true if I were flying to Thailand, but Indian Airlines had tight baggage limits. I demanded to see an airline representative, and told him I would not give him $100. He said that for $50, he could say that I only had 10 kg. I still wanted some proof, and he said that he would take $20, and I would have no excess baggage. By now I was sure he was lying, but offered him $10 in case there was some grain of truth in what he said. He accepted it, and led me to the departure area, where I passed my film through security by hand. While waiting for the plane, I spent my last 500 Rs, or about $10 on snacks, beer, and a box of Nepalese tea at the snack bar. I spent my last rupee buying some pastries to take with me on the plane, and left Nepal with about $140 in American cash and traveler's checks. At departure time, I went out to the runway to identify my baggage before it was loaded on the plane, and boarded, carrying my mostly-empty backpack as a carry-on bag. The plane took off on time at 4:20 PM, and I began my long trip home. We arrived at the Delhi Airport in 90 minutes. This time I knew where to sit to wait for my bags to be brought to me. When I received them, I was led to a seat upstairs, and told to stay there until a Delta representative came for me. Several hours later, a man arrived and took my bags to check them. I rested in the chair for a long time. A fat Russian woman sat in the seat next to me, but I didn't move, even when she started smoking. While I waited, I ate an orange and a pastry from my pack, and drank some Gatorade I had made in Kathmandu. December 6 ---------- When the time came, I went through the Delhi airport security, passing my film through. They are very thorough, and searched me with two metal detectors and by hand. This time, they looked at my passport. After nine hours in the airport, my Delta flight to Frankfurt boarded. Once again, the flight was half empty. They served dinner early in the flight, and I was hungry since I had only snacks since lunch. I ordered the Indian selection, which was tasty. I slept a lot on the flight, but stayed awake through the movie, which was Forrest Gump. I was sad on the flight about leaving Nepal. The flight to Frankfurt took eleven hours, arriving in the morning. We had breakfast on the plane, and I again chose the Indian selection. I had a five hour wait in the new Frankfurt airport terminal, which has comfortable lounge chairs. The flight to Cincinatti took nine hours. I slept most of the way, but watched the movie, which was a rather forgettable romantic comedy about competing newspaper reporters, starring Nick Nolte. In Cincinatti, I had a two hour wait and went through customs. On the customs form, I checked yes on the agricultural question, since I had food (the yak cheese), plants (the flower necklace), and I had been on numerous farms. The man at the desk only asked me what food I had. I told him I had bought some cheese, and he let me through without further inspection. I noticed when I got home that the flowers were rather buggy, so he may not have liked those. I had a pizza in the airport, since I was hungry for a real American-style pizza after all those Nepalese attempts. I also saw television for the first time in weeks. Bill Bugg, our physics department chairman, boarded the plane to Knoxville, and I said hello. After a one hour flight, I was back in Knoxville. I took a cab and arrived home at 9 PM. I called my parents, and my mother was very happy to hear from me. She told me that my brother had been engaged in Italy while I was gone. I found all my mail in a large mailbox at the apartment complex. Among the mail was an envelope from Delta Airlines containing the tickets to Lukla I left on one of the flights. The tickets were fully refundable, and I would be able to return them to the travel agent and get my money back. I fell asleep shortly after this on the sofa, and awoke confused, thinking I was still in Nepal and wondering how all my stuff got there. I looked forward to developing my forty rolls of film. I had had a wonderful time in Nepal, and while it was great to be home, I was sorry I had to leave so soon. Copyright 1994, Scott A. Yost. All rights reserved.