This email list seems to reflect the state of my
journal; I'm always playing catchup.  Than is much
more organized than I am.  This is another long one so
I appologize and hope I don't bore you with too many
details.

Okay, so we flew from Varanasi, India on April 4th to
Kathmandu, Nepal.  I can't say we saw many mountains
on that flight since the sky was clouded over.  Never
fear though, we have seen mountains a plenty since!

Kathmandu
---------------------------------------

Arriving in Kathmandu was really a breath of fresh air
literally and figuratively (although, Kathmandu does
not have the cleanest air in Nepal).  The city sprawls
out in a valley and unless visiting a Buddhist stupa
or the palaces, most tourists confine themselves to
the Thamel area of town.  

This part of town bursts at the seams with every kind
of tourist related shop/hotel/restuarant you can
imagine!  It is about a 5 block area of wall to wall
tourist places.  You can find any type of food (and we
did!) in this place, buy any curio, hiking gear, you
name it.  The place is nuts, but for us it was nice to
have all of these conveniences around before we set
out.  So we hung out for a few days ran errands, I
found good hiking boots for $35 NEW, ate TexMex and
steak, played pool and drank a few beers with our
friend Tim (English fellow we met and travelled to
Varanasi with).  It was so nice to have decent Fajitas
and steak!  Actually ate steak two nights in a row.

And we decided to bite the bullet, trash our flight to
Shanghai, and spend the $320 to take an 8 day overland
trip to Tibet after Nepal.  

We visited the ever photographed stupa on the hill
overlooking Kathmandu but otherwise didn't get around
to sightseeing much else in the city (like the palace
complex!); Well, you can't see everything.

Pokara
-------------------------------------

After a few days we took a 7 hour bus ride to Pokara
on the east side of Nepal where the Anapurna hiking
circuit jumpoff point is.  The Anapurna mountain range
has two 8,000+ meter high peaks (Pretty close to
Everest size) and quite a few other spectacular peaks.
 The bus ride was pretty tame all in all.  I think
African bus rides must have prepared us though.  We
did encounter a landslide cover most of the road and
being cleared by bulldozers on one of the many very
steep hillsides along the way.  We also encountered a
3 hour wait on the side of the road along with about
50 other buses and trucks while the police blocked the
road to sort out the aftermath of a child struck by a
bus (he was not killed).

Pokara is a smaller town along a lake and with an
actual view of the Anapurna mountains (Kathmandu
doesn't have nearly the mountain view).  We did see
the mountains great the first day, but afterwards the
haze obscured the view nearly completely.  Please note
that during this time of the year the haze is quite an
issue, the are good days and bad but mostly the views
are less than ideal unless you get high near basecamp.

The city is smaller than Kathmandu but nearly has as
much tourist shops etc... down it's main street.

We bought our hiking permits and relaxed the first day
and a half before we left to hike.  Since our trip to
Tibet was set for Saturday April 14th, we decided to
limit our hike to a 4 day trek roundtrip to return to
Pokara on Thursday and bus to Kathmandu Friday.


Hiking in the Anapurna Range of the Himalayas!
-----------------------------------------------------

The first day of hiking was quite the interesting day.
 We awoke early to ride the bus to the trail but only
got about 10 minutes into the ride before the bus got
a flat tire!  So we bailed on the bus and took a taxi
the 1.5 hours to the trail head.  About 2 minutes
before we arrived I (Chris) realized I had forgotten
my HIKING PERMIT!  So I told Than and Tim to take off
on the trail without me and I would return by taxi to
retrieve the permit and get a later start and hope to
catchup within 1 or 2 days.  So they went off and I
returned back and spent 3 hours round trip retrieving
this damn permit.  To add insult to injury, the taxi
had a part of the suspension FALL OFF about 20 minutes
from the trailhead so we had to make the final
approach going 5 miles an hour!  

I made it to the trail head just after noon and hoped
to make the town I thought Than and Tim would crash by
5:30-6pm.  The trail is well travelled with local run
drink stands and restuarants about every hour along
the way and simple guesthouses at the small villages
along the trail.

The trail followed a riverbed and then climbed above
along the mountain wall with nice views of the valley
below.  At one stop along the way I sat at a shack to
have a drink and snack and listened to some village
kids in the schoolhouse chanting their numbers in
Nepalese.  They all repeated together in a singsong
manner and I stopped long enough to enjoy the
experience of that with the views.

The last part of the first day ends by climbing over
3,000 steep steps (600 meters) to the town of Uleri! 
Not a nice way to end the day, but Than and Tim, and
then later myself, clambered up the steps and fell
into a chair at the hotel.  It didn't take long for me
to locate Than and Tim.  I made great time by making
it there by 4:30.

When I got there Than was not feeling well though and
so he went to bed immediately and I brought him dinner
alittle later.  Seems one of us was finally assaulted
by the food.  We later determined it was Giardia or
some other amoebic parasite.  Than had a terrible
night sleep with the chills and having to get up and
down from bed.  Not fun when you consider it was
getting cool at around 2,000 meters.

In the morning we assessed the situation and Than felt
he should not go further but didn't feel so bad that
he thought I should stay behind.  He would stay
another night and see how he felt to decided to turn
back or move on.  Tim and I went on from there.

The second day we started walking through the
Rhododendron forests where many of the trees were
filled with beautiful pink and red flowers and the
smell of Jasmine flowers was all over.  We passed a
few small waterfalls and streams and finally reached
our nights destination, Ghorapani at around 2,800
meters.  From Ghorapani you could really see the snow
capped Anapurna range pearing out of the haze.  We
were anxious to see them from the Poon Hill viewpoint
in the morning. 

I thought it was funny that they had a pool table at
one of the guesthouses!  I would have liked to seen
the poor guy that carried that up!  That reminds me to
tell you that the porters all carried huge, I mean
huge, loads up the mountain on the back supported by a
strap slung over their forehead head so all the weight
was put on their NECK!  All wearing flipflops and
climbing much faster than all us lumber lightweighted
fools wearing our slick hiking gear.

That evening we met Bettina and Friederike, two German
girls heading the same way.  It is suggested that
hikers go in groups beyond Ghorapani towards Ghandruk
and back to Pokora since people have been jumped and
robbed along the way.  We never met or heard of anyone
specific being assaulted but to be careful and follow
the warning they were looking for some other heading
their way.

In the morning we awoke at 5am and climbed 600 meters
to Poon Hill (3,200 meters) where about 150 of us made
quite a circus viewing the mountains from this vantage
point.  It was pretty hazy but we still could see the
range and were very impressed.  Just not as clear as
the postcard views we had been seeing in the stores.

Afterward we climbed down, ate breakfast, and climbed
on towards Gandruk going up and down covering what
must have been another 800 or more meters of vertical
climb that day!  We saw more Rhododendrons, got great
views of all the mountains, climbed down a rivine
following a stream before climbing a steep canyon to
reach our supposed nightly destination of Tadapani.

We were all completely exhausted from the morning and
day of hiking and it was about 2pm by the time we
arrived.  Bettina was set on going on the 3 hours to
Ghandruk though and so convinced us to push on after
lunch.  Luckily it was mostly flat or down hill.  Tim
was heading on the other direction from Tadapani so he
stayed back and we sayed goodbye and parted ways after
travelling together for about 2 weeks.

We made it to Ghandruk in alittle more than two hours
and were pleased to have gone that extra distance.
Along the way we saw a few families of monkeys
climbing through the trees as an extra surprise.  

The village of Ghandruk was larger and more like a
traditional Nepalese village high in the mountains
with gorgeous views of the huge peaks.  Bettina,
Friederike, and I sat unable to move and had a few
beers thanking god we were headed downhill the next
day!

So the next day we headed back toward the trail head
along the side of a very wide and very deep valled
passing traditional farming houses along the way and
the funny porters hauling boxes of live chickens on
their backs up the mountain.  The last part was flat
and along the river which was a welcomed thing.  And
we all rejoiced to have completed this amazing trek. 
Not sure how some people endure such a thing for weeks
or even a month straight!  

We got back to town and finally that evening I caught
up with Than and found him feeling pretty good having
rested, climbed back from Uleri, and made it back to
Pokara without much problem.  So we all ate and drank
well that night.  Even met a New Yorker, Mark, who has
been travelling for 3 years straight!  

Next morning we headed back to Kathmandu.  We did
happen to see a bus upside down at the bottom of a
steep hill.  It looked recent and was empty so
hopefully only a driver was in it at the time.

Another good meal in Kathmandu, rest, and in the
morning we headed out with a group of about 19 to
Tibet.  And I'll let Than give you those details.

-Chris and Than