Out of the bubble......... One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.-- Henry Miller

Hiked up to the pass of Satu La at 3173m in the rain, thunder and lightening right above our heads- steep, slippery and narrow especially near the peak. I went ahead and found myself scared alone, when the clouds moved in on me with the thundering at almost the same time as the lightening. It just poured and poured, hard enough that the trail turned into a waterfall..........I was singing loud, telling myself that this is my big adventure now in the Merry Month of Margit - turning 50 years old...........the trip of my life and I will survive it! Luckily on the very top was a little house with a nice guy, a fire, tea and some goodies..........We invited ourselves in (but were welcomed), enjoyed the company, dried up a little - the sweet milk tea is a life saver and the little sweet bread could almost pass for a donut (but better - not just considering the circumstances - I think....). First it looked like it will never stop raining and thundering and we faced the fact that we needed to get back into it - we still had some ways to go - but it stopped soon after we started slipping and sliding back down on the other side of the Mt. We started descending into a beautiful scene of meadow, Mts(of course), rhododendron forests, mossy trees - green, green, green, warm, steaming and luscious. We were able to see our destination - a village called "Bung"- from far away - of course it looked much closer than it actually was. We skipped lunch again since we thought we are almost there anyways. It was a mistake as it always was when we skipped lunch. The trail went on and on and on......and we walked ourselves into a pissy mood once again. Unusually the town was sprawled all over the hill side and the only lodge was way at the bottom of town. We had to pay an entrance fee for the park again. With empty stomaches, quiet and cranky again we reached the closed lodge. I was done - suggestions were made to go back up and check out the houses that could - maybe - take us in. Gita suggested to camp out or push on to the next villsage......I got the strong feeling to just stay put and hope for the best - at this point I wasn't going anywhere any time soon, that was all I knew at the time. Exhausted, we made fun of our situation and soon a nice older lady showed up and led us into the house to some nice rooms: Saved once again. She promised us Dhal Bhat.............(rice, lentils and some vegetable like potatoes...) Man, that was a long hard day AGAIN and the guide book promises the next two days to be long and hard. The Dhal Bhat was ready so late - Gita had gone to bed already and had to be woken up. We got second servings and ate ourselves silly. I forgot to mention our out- house experience: If we were lucky, there actually was a house. In this case there was a nice little stone house with a wooden floor with a hole in the middle (in lots of cases there is no water to rinse and toilette paper I haven't seen in 3 weeks.....)A creaky door which alarmed the pig down below. The pig would come running as soon as somebody was at the door - waiting underneath the hole, snorting and waiting.....ready for a golden shower or a good meal. When I think about it, it is a good way to recycle - everybody wins. At this point I haven't gone #2 in 4 days and this was my day to let go of some. The presence of the pig wasn't helping. I tried to sneak in - to no avail. I relaxed and fed the pig that morning. Somebody else had fed the pig earlier and it was wearing some of the evidence............. This was definitely one of the most entertaining experiences during the trip.