Kathmandu, Nepal

quickie update...retreated from the Indian mountains and headed to Nepal. Had to go through Delhi first and I am beginning to loooooathe that city. Flies during the day, mosquitoes at night and it was already a blistering 105F, can't imagine how hot it will be in the middle of the summer. Overnight train towards the border- I never sleep well on the train, it is just like being in a dorm with no privacy and lots of old man snores and grunts and such. Private taxi to Sonauli, India which is the Nepal border town. Border formalities at this crossing are super lax and quite unorganized. There is just a big arch and a dusty narrow road with a long line of traffic and locals and tourists milling around...exchanged some money, filled out the India exit form at a table under a tarp, walked past a couple of armed military dudes who weren't paying much attention to anything, filled out the Nepal visa and that was about it. It was crowded and hot and a little chaotic, but made it to Nepal and caught a bus to Kathmandu, about 8 hours overnight. Crazy little cramped bus. Kathmandu is like India, but a little less rough around the edges. The smog is amazing though- there are no emissions regulations here, so even though the city is not even close to the size of Bombay or Delhi, the haze is so much worse and I can feel it in my lungs. I read that by the time most of the fuel makes it to the cars it is almost 50% kerosene. yuck. Kathmandu is in a valley, so if you are thinking that I am surrounded by amazing Himalaya peaks, I am not. There are some hills in the area, but they are hardly visible through the smog. Thamel is the tourist district and it is just shops, shops, shops...lots of trekking shops and tour companies, bookstores cramped with more books on mountains and peaks and Everest and K2 than I have ever seen, a million guesthouses, a million handicrafts shops selling yak hair purses, bars, restaurants, street children begging for money, bike rickshaws hogging the narrow streets, and foreigners from every corner of the planet. And I found a sandwich shop. A for real sandwich with ham and yak cheese and vegetables and mayo and MUSTARD on a fresh hoagie roll. and I have happily visited the shop almost everyday since I got here. Went to an amazing outdoor festival in the woods just a couple hours outside of the city and I will never forget the road that we took to get there- one lane, loose, bumpy gravel, a bus that rocked back and forth like a rowboat in a hurricane- I thought we would go over the edge so many times. I mean, seriously- how are two vehicles supposed to pass each other on ONE lane with a sheer drop off into oblivion on one side????? lived to tell the story though. Anyway, Kathmandu is hot and busy and smoggy and a bit of a concrete jungle, so off to Pokhara, about 6 hours by bus to the west and the starting point for all treks in the Annapurna range. No trekking this time around, but I will be back for that soon. Sadly, time is running out...will be back in Denver on May 16th. I am still having an amazing time, I couldn't have asked for a better trip- have been healthy the whole time except for some lower back pain that I am attributing to the hard matresses, crazy bus rides, etc. I gotta get off of the Internet before I lose this entry. Kathmandu has a power problem and the power is cut deliberately for 2 blocks of 6 hours every single day. They even have a weekly schedule posted around that lists the times when the cuts will happen. Thankfully the guesthouse provides candles...