I have thirty minutes left on my internet session. I write to you from Pokhara, Nepal, a little lakeside town next the annapurnas, reaching higher than 8000 metres. It isn't always clear out, but when it is, I can hardly contain my exctitment when I catch a glimpse of the towering himalaya so close.
I have been in Nepal a little over a week and haven't found much time for internet since I am overwhelmed with how much there is to do here. I am in love with this place. The night of my arrival, I met a few other ragged travelers who invited me to watch the sunrise from the biggest buddhist stupa in nepal. We listened to the morning puhja (chanting and gong-gonging) and had breakfast on a roof. I was immediately strewn into the travel vibe in stylish fashion. I met up with my friend Tony the next day. We will be traveling together all 3 months here. We made more friends, ate lots of delicious nepali food, organized trekking permits and embraced the crazy that is kathmandu. But we left after 2 days for Pokhara, a more peaceful and beautiful place to spend our time. We have been here a week and have been staying at a beautiful hostel with a deck overlooking the lake. Only about 3 dollars a night. Every morning we order tea and museli and study nepali. We have been taking nepali lessons at the Cosmic Brontosaurus Language School with a fabulous Nepali teacher and an outdoor straw classroom. We've been going 3 hours every morning but today was our last day. We will go to have dal baht (the nepali rice and lentil staple) with our teacher and his family. We spend our days rowing in the lake, hiking to incredible viewpoints, visiting mountian museums, and frequenting the local restaurants. We have made many nepali friends since we can speak a little nepali and make our rounds of "namastes" every day. I will really miss Pokhara, but we will be back in a month for our 3-week annapurna hike. From here we are visiting Chitwan National Park, where we will ride elephants and then back to Kathmandu to meet up with my friend Daven for a week of trekking.
I am already scheming to return to nepal. Such incredible trekking! Such beautiful people! There is also a farm where I could wwoof that takes a month to walk to. So cool. After our trek we will be an a farm for 2 weeks then annapurna and everest base camp!
