Trekking, got my chips cashed in

Take me home

Country road

To a place

I belong

I’ve heard John Denver’s Country Road a couple of times here in Pokhara, including a techno remix, and it’s kind of found a way to play on repeat in my head.  We’re finally getting ready to start our trek tomorrow morning after a lazy few days here in town.  Pokhara is a sleepy village, in the valley of the Annapurna mountains and running alongside a river.  It reminds me of a ski village.  Everyone here is either finishing up a trek or going to start one soon, with most in the former category.  It’s pretty easy to meet people here which is cool and topics of conversation generally revolve around:

• Obama
• where you came from before you were in Pokhara
• where you are going after Pokhara
• which trek you did
• how long you are traveling for
• what we’ve learned about life and ourselves in our travels
• what we’re going to do the rest of the day, which for me means what I will hopefully accomplish in the next day or two. 

There’s no urge to move quickly here and I find I’m in this constant battle with myself to want to be productive and get stuff done but also wanting to just chill out.  So far the latter has been winning and I’m happy about that.  And I’m amazed I’ve still managed to buy all the gear I need (including a sweet yellow North Face jacket), to go to the trekking office and get the pass to enter the Annapurna region (it’s 2000 Rupees, about $25)…and I thought I had more to write about but those are my primary accomplishments these past few days.  I did manage to find a hookah bar which we went to last night which does nothing whatsoever to help me with my trek but I’m not one to turn down a hookah opportunity.

We’re getting a somewhat late start in the trekking season but I’m looking forward to walking in some snow and with less crowds.  We’ve got a climb up to 17.700 feet about a week in and that’s where it’s supposed to be freezing.  Actually that’s all anyone has told us about the trek is how cold it gets.  No one has talked about what there is to see or anything.  Interesting.  I’ll try and relate more than weather stories, although all stories will probably come after I’m done trekking as internet is sporadically available during the trek and is not cheap when it is.

We’ll be doing what is known as the ‘teahouse trek’ where you spend your nights in teahouses where you get a bed and a hot meal, and if you’re lucky some hot water.  It’s the most popular route in Nepal which makes it a good beginner trek with all the provisions being readily available and the big thing is you don’t have to carry a tent, just a sleeping bag.  Some people take guides and porters (sherpas) with them but we’re just going on our own.  It just feels like the ‘right way’ to do it.

The trek will be around 2-3 weeks, depending on how slow/fast I go and whether I decide to take some detours, like going to a lake that is a day or two off the main trail.  I’m really looking forward to it and feel much more prepared than I was before doing the Camino this summer.  I’ve got my small backpack pared down to the absolute minimum, got my meds and blister remedies ready to go and my water purifyier ready to purify some Nepalese water.  And my Emergen-C packets to make sure everything runs smoothly. 

One downer is my friend Anton from Barcelona is not going to be joining me on the trek, as we had originally planned to do.  He just found out he may need to return to Spain much sooner than he anticipated so he’s in a holding pattern for now.  It’s a bummer but now I’m really glad we got to meet up in Delhi back in early October (that feels like it was 6 months ago).

And I’m out of here.  I’ve got to wake up early tomorrow to catch a 6:30 a.m. bus to a place called Behishahar from where we’ll start out trek.  Jim is checking his email next to me, Cesar is calling Mexico and after this we’ll head back and watch Touching the Void, an inspiring movie about a hardcore mountain climber to inspire us on our trek.

A little break for some pop culture trivia

Time for some pop culture trivia.  I splurged and got a room with a tv here in Pokhara, Nepal just so we could watch the election results Thursday morning, and it was sooo worth it to watch CNN declare Obama the winner and see McCain’s and Obama’s speeches live.  Well worth it.  And throughout the day and even today people all over town were congratulating us and telling us how happy they were that we made the right choice.  It is kind of strange to have people knowing so much about our elections when I can’t say I really know much about the elections of any other country. 

Anyway, I’m getting off topic here.  So on this phat 10″ tv with a cable that you have to jiggle to get a clear picture with no static, we watched The Perfect Storm last night.  I had forgotten how it ends and assumed that most of the men on the boat survived.  Jeff reminded me that they all actually died, which seemed a bit odd to me that two big name lead actors, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, would both die in the same movie.  But it’s based on a true story so you can’t really change that. 

Then we started wondering which actors/actresses have died the most times in movies.  You’d think it would be a token bad guy actor, role player, and maybe it is but we couldn’t think of any.   So in our  hour long musing on this while the men on the boat were being thrashed all around and thrown into an inevitable ending (they should have read the book), we managed to come up with these actors of which my favorite actor Mr. Pacino leads the way (way to go Al!). 

If you know of any other actors with multiple deaths, let’s say at least 4, let me know and I’ll add it here.

Al Pacino (6 times)

• Heat
• Godfather III
• Carlito’s Way
• Scarface
• Angels in America
• Insomnia

Leonardo DiCaprio (4 times)

• Titanic
• Romeo and Juliet
• Departed
• Blood Diamond

Hilary Swank (only 2 times but I wanted to get an actress entry)

• Million Dollar Baby
• Boys Don’t Cry

Welcome to 1129 A.D.

Oh hot damn

This is my jam

We’re gonna party

Until the a.m.

Greetings from Nepal. The United Nations delegation took an overnight bus from Rishikesh to the border town, Banbasa, last night. Right now there’s myself, Cesar, Jim from Sweden and Jeff from the U.S. So America has two votes out of the four which is just how we would want it. Jeff and I had been talking about trekking in Nepal since the first day we met at Tushita. And Jim and Cesar decided last second to join in the trip and were probably regretting it at 2 a.m. last night during the bus ride. It was impossible to position yourself comfortably to sleep and on top of that we were sitting in the back of the bus so every bump we hit, even when the bus driver slowed down to drive over it, launched us close to the overhead baggage rack. I was laughing the whole time but I think I was alone in that. It’s just the way things work in India. And it’s hard to complain when you’re paying $3.50 for the bus ride.

We filled out our exit paperwork (bye bye India!), got our entry Visa into Nepal and now we’re waiting around this one horse town for our afternoon bus to Pokhara, another grueling 15 hour bus ride. Everyone in this transit town here rides bikes and it’s rare to see a car. It’s a welcome peaceful change from the noise and clammer of India. Nepal is quite a bit poorer than India and so cars seem to be a luxury. And I am now living in the 12th century. The Maoist rebel group overthrew the Nepalese government this year and one of the things they did was to ‘correct’ the calendar by setting it back to 1129. The ironic thing is that before the change the calendar year was 2065. How confusing to live here! Imagine a campaign being run with the promise to send us back in time, like to 1776.  If it was 1976 then I’d definitely have to vote for them because that was the year God gave the world it’s greatest gift.

One great thing about this border town, at least for Jeff, is that he can finally buy whiskey. Rishikesh is a holy city and so there was no alcohol, meat or eggs. But in Nepal, it’s not only widely available, it’s super cheap. A pint of local whiskey costs 50 Cent (go Shorty). So we’ve now got a few bottles stocked up for the bus ride.  And a deck of cards and a new Swedish card game Jim taught us called Shit Head.  It’s a great game but the name bears no resemblance to the game.

So we’ve almost killed all 5 hours of wait time and it’s time to head back to the bus station.  We spent our time at a restaurant eating lunch, playing cards and telling ‘yo mama’ jokes.  This is what happens when you have a 19 year old in your group.  Jeff is taking a gap year before starting college at George Washington next fall.  I think it’s such a great idea for people to do this and I hear it’s becoming more popular.  I never even the heard the term ‘gap year’ until this year.  And yes Jeff is the one who was craving the alcohol.  It’s a legal age here.

And about the song lyric at the start, it’s a song still in my head from the bus ride. 

Y’all don’t understand

Make me throw my hands in the ayer, aye, ayer, ayer, aye ayer