More Hiking

Yesterday was zero elevation gain. Today we dropped down from Chandrakot to river about a thousand feet and then we started our long hike upwards. After some breakfast and checking in at the police post, we start walking up along a trail that runs beside a river. We end up chatting with this nice guy who was once in the Nepalese Army. We're walking together for quite some time and he's sharing some good knowledge. He seems to know every single person on the trail. He's always stopping and chatting. He keeps telling us not to push it too hard on the first day. He's saying we should only go to the town just past Hille. Later on we find out that his brother owns a guest house there, so his motivation wasn't really out of concern for us. His interest lay in his brothers wallet.


We stopped at the town of Hille at the Laxmi Guest House. It started to sprinkle so we took shelter on this porch and just decided to stay there. The place was run by three kids - a girl 14, a girl 11, and a boy around 9. They were super cool and very responsible. They cooked up some good food and just talked and painted.

There's no one else but us at the guest house so it's nice and peaceful. The guest houses out here remind me of a cross between a grandmothers house and a dorm room. They are very quaint and relaxing. There's even electricity, so the hot shower felt great.

On the way up we were passed by a big group of people with flags all promoting some political group. They were for the communist party. I wonder if the war on terrorism is going to end like the cold war. The Cold War just faded away. It never ended in some supreme battle between the Democracies and the Communists. It just got surpassed by more interesting wars. Communism is as strong as ever. I suppose that's the influence of China though. A billion people is quite the majority when they are your next door neighbors. Either way, trying to enjoy the peaceful woods when hiking behind people shouting political propaganda is a little annoying.


The next morning we had some good food for breakfast and then hung out with the kids before we started our up hill walk to the next town called Ulleri.