Back in the States

Heather and I safely returned to the States last night.  In the end, we both had entirely different experiences and made several new friends along the way.  Since I wasn't really able to post much about my trek and subsequent travels along the way, I thought I would give a day by day account now.

Overall, this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I was so sad to see it come to an end.  I will definitely be returning to Nepal in the future to do more trekking.  I think the Everest trek will be next on my list for when I do return.  While everyday brought new experiences and surroundings, there were a few recurring themes throughout the trip that I thought would be fun to share:

1) Do you have the key?  Laurence and I (and then Heather and I) constantly asked each other this question.  It became comic with the number of times Laurence and I asked each other, particularly since the one asking was the one who usually had the key in her pocket.

2) Room 102 - Of the 17 nights of the trek, I think Laurence and I spent between one third and one half of our nights in room 102.  We even had a span of 3-4 nights in a row with this room number.  We were hoping to spend our final night together in room 102, but alas, the lodge we stayed in didn't have one.

4) Getting a room at a lodge.  On several occasions, Laurence and I learned that while we had successfully attained a room for the night, others, who had arrived in the village ahead of us, were not so lucky.  They ended up having to sleep in buildings not traditionally used as sleeping rooms.  Frequently, the porters slept in the dining room and on occassion had to sleep in a tent.

5) I met some amazing people who I now consider my friends along the way.  Laurence made for a fantastic trekking partner, and my experience would not have been the same without her.  We had such a great time together, and I am looking forward to visiting her in Switzerland.  My Canadian friends - Rick, John, Terry, Martin, and Brian - again, the trek wouldn't have been the same without them and am so glad that I got to know them all so well.  Vancouver is on my list of places to visit and now I will have friends to visit there as well.

6) Interesting misspellings - Every sign or menu we encountered along the way was able to bring a smile to our faces because of some sort of misspelling.  I don't have many photos of them, but I think Swirland (for Switzerland) is one of my favorites.  They got USA right :-)  That said, even Nepali spellings of Nepali villages were not always consistent.  I've decided to use my trekking map as my guide for the remainder of the Nepal portion of this blog.  I can't be sure that those are the correct spellings, but if the Nepalis aren't either, then I figure no harm done.