We visited the Muktinath temple complex after breakfast. Muktinath is an ancient pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Buddhists. It is built around a set of springs that are the source of one of the two rivers that form the Kali Gandaki when they meet in the valley below. The waters have now been harnessed into a series of 108 spouts with the head of a sacred cow. Another temple has a fire burning right above the water and its stone floor, bringing together the three most basic elements. Our porter Kichiri is very devout and he managed to put his head under all 108 spouts in the freezing water. He gave us each a ribbon that he had soaked in the holy water.

The new jeep road has dramatically changed the next part of the trek from Muktinath to Jomsom and on down the Kali Gandaki valley. Purists still walk alongside the rumbling jeeps, but it didn’t look like fun in all the dust, and Marcia needed to save her knees from another 900 meters (3000 feet) of descent today and another 1600 meters (5000 feet) tomorrow. So our plan was to take jeeps for the next two days.

The jeep wouldn’t leave until it had 12 riders, so we really packed ourselves in. Sonam arranged for Marcia and me to sit in the front with the driver, which protected us somewhat, but we still had to endure a chatterbox American who was spent the whole trip telling some Israeli fellow travelers about her horoscope and her favorite vampire movies.

Jomsom seemed very different from the previous time, when we were arriving exhausted from a different century. This time we too were relatively clean and accustomed to the guesthouse experience, right down to knowing the menu of approximations of Western food (don’t order lasagna!). We could also walk and climb stairs without great pain.

As in Manang and Chame, I got on the internet and sent a few emails and made interim blog postings. But with high prices, slow connections and poor equipment in these mountain cybercafés, I decided to wait until Pokhara for any further updates after today.