I made it to Manang!

Apparently there is internet on the trek, but only in a few places. It is quite expenses, so I will keep this short and give the daily blow by blow of my trek once I get to Pokhra or Kathmandu. Long story short, Heather decided that the trek was not for her, so she went to Pokhra for a few days and wil son head to Lombini in the south. She is having a nice time. I am traveling with a very nice Swiss woman named Laurence and am having a fabulous time. We are at about the half way point from the beginning to Jomson and are taking an acclimatization day in Manang. Tomorrow we will start our ascent to Thorong La, the mountain pass at around 17,000 feet. We still have three more stops before we get there, and it is colder colder every night as we gain elevation. It is quite pleasant during the day when the sun is above the mountains. I will be in touch soon and all is well.

Monkey Temple Today, Trekking Tomorrow

We saw lots of monkeys today! We took a taxi to the Monkey Temple and walked up to the stupa at the top of the hill. This monkey here was stealing rice offerings from within the base of the stupa.

The internet connection here is really slow, so it takes areally long tim to post a lot of pictures. Once I get home, I'll add a link to Picasa site.

We were able to organize our trek today. Our bus leaves Kathmandu at 8:45AM. Once we arrive in Basisahar, we will have two hours of walking before we get to a place t stay for the night. My guess it electricity will not be available, but pop in from time to time to see if we encounter some. We will be in Jomson in 12 days, and hopefully in Pohkra in 13. There should be electricity in both of those places.

Sunrise in Kathmandu

The Kathmandu Valley after sunrise.

Jet lag is impacting our sleep, but at least in the direction of getting us up early to start the day. We were up befor 5:00AM this morning so thought we would check out the sunrise from the rooftop patio of our guest house. The sun was blocked by buildings, but the colors were pretty. Hopefully, we will be able t catch a sunset before the end of our trip. One in the mountains would be spectacular.

Guest House Photos

Our room - what you can't see is that we splurged for a private bathroom.

Walkway through the garden to the Kathmandu Peace Guest House.

We made it!

Our trip was pretty uneventful, although we did learn that when you buy the cheapest flights available, you get what you pay for. Saying Aeroflot is a no frills airline would be an understatement, and one unexpected 'perk' was the fresh smell of BO from our fellow passengers. In the end though, I slept almost the entire trip, so I think I'm glad I have the money left over to do things here in Nepal.

We've gotten settled in our guest house in Kathmandu and finally gotten some dinner in us (somehow we manage to go 12 hours without a meal). We haven't taken that many photos yet, but I do have a couple of our guest house, so I'll go ahead and post those.

We're going to check into buses to Basisihar tomorrow so that we can get our trek started. I really can't wait to get out into the mountains! I think we are going to try to go to the Monkey Temple as well, so hopefully there will be more interestig thing to see tomorrow.

Erin and Heather - we may not look like serious adventure travelers, but look out Nepal because here we come!

It's finally here!

I have been wanting to go back to Nepal since I spent 3 days in Kathmandu way back in April, 2004, and I am finally heading back - yay!  I even managed to find an awesome traveling companion - my friend Heather.  I'm hoping to post a photo of us before I leave town, but if it doesn't happen, I imagine there will be plenty of pics to share once we arrive in Nepal.

I'm hoping to post as frequently as possible while I am there but lack of electricity and internet in some of the places we are going will likely leave a few time periods where you don't hear much from us.

So what's the plan?

Depart New York City at 8:30PM Friday, October 17.  We have a connection in Moscow, so I'm crossing my fingers for some good duty free shopping opportunities to scope out for the return trip.  Please let us find good chocolate!  (I think it is a safe bet to say we will definitely find some good vodka).  From Moscow we head to Delhi and then on to Kathmandu - total travelling time of over 28 hours - yikes!

As of right now, the flights are about the only things we have in order.  With 28 hours stuck on a plane and in airports, I think we've got plenty of time to start figuring out what we want to do.  We will definitely be trekking on the Annapurna circuit, but the details surrounding making that happen can't really even begin until we arrive in Nepal.  Other things on the possible to do list include rafting, canyoneering, and chilling out at an ashram, so stay tuned for the details as they develop.