27 December 2007

Pokharahhhhhhhhhh...

Did I happen to mention, amidst all the vitriol I poured on Thamel, that Nepal is a jaw-droppingly stunning/beautiful/utsukushii country with incredibly polite/charming/only-sometimes-a-bit-too-unctuous people? The bumpy bus ride down (only 900 meters!) to Pokhara reminded me. And it's so warm here (sorry, my cold-climate dwelling readers)! Well, I decided to pass up the chance to see the International Elephant Race in Royal Chitwan National Park--maybe not Royal anymore since the monarchy was dissolved on Monday? I might say it sounded like animal cruelty (not to mention, potentially, much more boring than it sounds), but the real reason I skipped was to get here, Nepal's second "city", and a convenient jumping-off point for my next epic trek: 20 days on the Annapurna Circuit, one of the most beautiful treks ("hikes" in American) in the world. You can Google "Annapurna" for more hard info, but the route basically circumnavigates (walking around stuff again!) a bunch of lovely, 8000+ meters peaks, with names like Annapurna I, Annapurna II, III, etc. There is one tricky part, a 5700 meter pass currently under snow, so I may reluctantly hire a guide, because I still, even after all this time, do not want to slip over a cliff edge and die. The views from the city itself are supposed to be stunning, as well, especially from the Japanese-built World Peace Pagoda, but I just got here and haven't seen any of this yet, so I will have to report on that later. It looks like they are gearing up here for 5 days of New Year's celebrations, too, so between that and the trek, I may not make it onto the Internet again to report anything.. for weeks! But bear with me, gentle readers, I will be back again, by hook or by crook, I will.

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