Jomsom

Today we arrived in Jomsom. This town is pretty big compared to the rest. The streets are wide. There are jeeps that go down to Ghasa or continue on up to Muktinath. We're going to take one down to Ghasa in the morning. Our hike time is up. We still have two more months before California starts, and we're going to continue our travels in the United States.

It's cold up here, but the views are nice. There's an airport in town too. Some people take planes back to Kathmandu from here, but we have to return some of the gear we rented back in Pokhara.

Truckhe

This place is great. The guest house we are staying at is very welcoming. The people are great and every question you have is answered with 'No problem, no problem' I ask where the bathroom is and they say the inside one is broken, so we have to use the one in the courtyard, 'no problem no problem' Yeah, no problem for you, but what about me if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Although that never seems to be an issue since I haven't been drinking very much water. A quarter to a half litre a day seems to be the most I'm taking in. I doubt that that is very heathty.

Finally the trail is flat. None of this up and down nonsense for the past few days. It's nice that way. It's more like strolling then trekking. But strolling doesn't sound very intense or extreme so no one will tell you that they went to Nepal to do some strolling.

Even way up here you can get all the stuff you need. All the products are the same as in America. Colage, Snickers, Duracel. It's the same every where in the world now. It's slightly annoying. Diversity leads to evolution and change. If everything is the same, then it leads to stagnation.

Kalopani

Today we hiked up to the town called Kalopani. If you don't know where that is, it's right past Lete. In Lete we had to check in with the ACAP office. These are the people who keep track of all the hikers who pass through the area. It seems so pointless, but I suppose if someone falls off a cliff, the people can figure out what town the person was last seen in. That way they can dig through the ravines in certain areas as compared to the entire circuit.

It's getting cold up here, and the peaks are covered in snow. It seems it's been rainting in the late afternoons where we are and snowing up in the mountains. The air is fresh and clean so it's been nice. Fortunately the rains always seem to come after we're done hiking for the day.

I think this hike has been the most expensive part of my whole trip. The lodging is cheap, but the food is expensive up here. I guess if someone carries your food miles and miles from the closest real town, the price is going to be jacked up a bit. If you are a Nepalese and have a guest house up this way, I imagine you're rich as hell compared to your poor ass farmer neighbors. At least that's the way it appears. There's a big seperation of wealth up here. The western dollar doesn't veer off the trail very much, so a couple hundred yards can be the difference between wealth and poverty.

Crazy dream last night. I dreamt I had a hole in my stomach and these ants were crawling in and out of it. Ewwww. That's one reality that I don't care to be reminded of.

On to Ghasa

Today was another uphill walk. I'm curious where all the level hiking trails in Nepal are. I seem to be missing them. The trail today was along a road where a land slide happened awhile ago. There was a big road crew trying to fix the problem. It makes me wonder how long these roads and trails will be around. These mountains are young and moving quite a lot, so change is a constant factor. I was suprised to see a big bulldozer way out here.

Half way up the trail we stopped at some waterfall and asked some lady about the next place to sleep. She said there was a town right up the road. I was feeling sick and exhausted so I wasn't sure if I wanted to hike that much further, but she made it sound like it was only a 20 minute walk.

A couple hours later we finally arrive in the town of Ghasa. The stupid lady was the target of my annoyance and angst the entire walk. Ghasa is a nice little town. Again, we stay at the first guest house we reach. The people are very cool. The food was good and I slept for hours.

The next morning we were debating on whether we should continue to hike or take a rest day. Eventually we decided that a rest day is what is needed. Fortunately for us, we made that call. It started raining hard around noon. So we passed the day away being dry and hanging out.

It was my birthday today and it's a good place to spend it. I received an excellent Thai massage. Nothing is better then hiking and then getting a massage. I felt like a king and slept like champ.

Ghorepani to Tatopani

This hike was annoying. It was probably one of the most beautiful parts of the trail, but it was all down hill. It started out through this beautiful forest with flowering trees, then went down past villages and terraced fields. The trail passed through a little knotch in the hill side then dropped quickly all the way down to a suspension bridge across the river.

We left early in the morning after a couple paintings and started on our way. The mornings up here are cold. I suppose this is the mountains and all so it's to be expected. I'm looking through my journal right now and trying to write about this hike from the notes I took, but most of my journal is filled with my crazy dreams.

My sleeps have been filled with the most vivid dreams. I'm dreaming more here, then I have in years. It's nice having two lives. My daily life and then an entirely different existence at night. A week later, everything that happened in your sleep or in reality is just a memory anyway so they both just as real. I've been dreaming about old friends. These random people I knew in high school and middle school keep popping up in my dreams to chat it up.

Once we finally reached Tatopani we found a place to stay and went to the roof to paint. I started talking to this sadu guy dressed in the typical guru attire. He seemed cool enough at first. We were talking about the Bhagavada-Gita. That's this really old Indian book. It's a good one that'd I'd recommend to anyone.

He was a yoga teacher and I told him Ashlee was one too, so when she came up they started chatting it up. Eventually I got the impression that he was only trying to find someone who would help him get to America. Ash said she would try and he said, 'good, you won't be happy until you do.'

I thought that was a rude statement to make. Especially after we just got finished talking about how powerful words are and how what you say is just as important as what you do. Then he's gotta go and basically try to put a curse of total unhappiness on Ashlee. What a fraud and a clown. I'm glad I didn't do a portrait of him when he asked me to.

Apparently there are some hot springs in this town, but I was too exhausted to even go sit in a hot tub.

Ghorepani

Up and up and up and up and then some more ups. Today was a pain in the calf. The views are nice, but I'm starting to get a little sick, so my throat is annoying. The town of Ghorepani is located at the top of this hill. It's the junction between a couple of trails so as far as villages in the middle of nowhere goes, this one is pretty big. We ended up staying at the Hungry Eye Guest House. It was recommended by the kids at Laxmi's because their father is the cook here. He did a good job. The Daal Bhat was excellent.

We pretty much eat that everywhere we go. It consists of rice, daal and some mixed veggies. It's good food and it's the only plate where they bring out seconds. When you're hiking all day that's a big plus. The room we stayed in was great. Windows on three sides and great views of the town and of the surrounding mountains.

There is a place called Poon Hill that everyone goes to see when the sunrises. Ash and I passed on this. I was painting in my room before the sun was up and I didn't feel like hiking up a big hill anyway. An hour or so after sunrise, we saw this massive migration of people hiking down there. It was amazing how many people actually went up to see the view. There had to be a couple hundred up there at least. I'm not too pressed about not going up there. I was able to do three paintings sitting on my warm bed and looking out the windows.

Ulleri and Beyond

Ulleri is a little village clinging to the side of this steep hill. It's pretty beautiful. There are nice stone walkways through the town, little shanty guest houses and good views of the surrounding countryside.

We ended up staying at the first guest house we came to. I think all the guest places are the same for the most part. The rooms are the same in every place, the only difference is the management. The prices were fixed in this town so all the places had the same prices. Although, all you have to do is offer less and the owner says, 'well ok, but just don't tell anyone else.'

The same situation happened in the town of Pokhara. If you want to rent any gear for your trip, tent, coats, sleeping bag, etc, you can go to any shop and they say the prices are fixed, but everyone gives deals and then tells you to keep it on the downlow.