The night was horrible. To begin, our room smelled of kerosene fumes, probably from a lantern they had been using during the evening blackout.

Then we started to hear noises of animals running on the ceiling of our room. I had actually seen a large mouse run up there during the afternoon, and now it was clear they had a whole family. Then we heard rustling within our room, though we could never see anything when we turned lights on. We finally decided to move to the room next door since it was clear the mice were nesting directly above us.

I got quickly to sleep in the new room, but did not stay so for long. A mouse landed right on my head trying to jump across the room. Marcia had also felt one run across her sleeping bag. Realizing the mice were using the beds as a highway next to the walls, we moved the beds away from the wall and had no more problems, though I did later hear a thump of a mouse hitting the floor where the bed used to be.

In the morning there were still solid clouds and only an occasional glimpse of the high peaks. So we packed and quickly went down to the trailhead.

There were no taxis waiting at the road, so we spent an hour watching a slice of life. Finally a minivan stopped and Sonam convinced the driver to take us to town. An hour later, we were in a very nice hotel in Pokhara’s trendy Lakeside area, and our trip was over. We paid and said goodbye to Sonam and Kichiri, sending a bag back to Kathmandu with them.

We spent our first afternoon in Pokhara eating, making arrangements for Chitwan through a good travel agent, and taking Marcia to the hospital to have a doctor look at a small bite she had suffered playing with a puppy the previous day. Rabies is common in Nepal and not something to mess around with. The Nepali woman doctor felt that since it was a tame puppy and only a small scratch, our pre-exposure immunizations should be sufficient protection. She was willing to give a shot but recommended against it. Marcia weighed the dangers of disease versus a shot in a dirty hospital and decided to take her chances that the puppy was healthy.

More good food in the evening, some messages at the internet café, then off to bed amidst the thumping of the nearby bands. Rather a change from the mountains!

We spent our only full day in Pokhara exploring the town and its large lake. The local touts rent rowboats, so we took one out for an hour. Mountains were visible but it was quite hazy and clouds appeared before we got to the other side of the lake. So we visited the temple on the small island and managed to get our unwieldy boat back to shore.

In the afternoon we walked around the old town, more real than the tourist ghetto by the lake. There were many jewelry shops all packed with people. Although Nepalis may be poor, they all have to have “gold” jewelry. We passed a butcher shop where a goat was patiently eating next to a butcher cutting up a former friend. Goats have very small heads and not much inside them.

Marcia went back to the hotel for a massage while I visited the new International Mountain Museum, a huge construction probably funded by foreign sources. It was quite interesting, with exhibits devoted to local cultures, geology, and the first ascents of the world’s fourteen mountains over 8000 meters, eight of which are in Nepal. Early climbers used down jackets thinner than mine.

More good food, email messages, and then off to bed.

First thing in the morning, we left Pokhara in the relative luxury of the Green Line bus. Paying extra for this is a good idea, as the local buses are more colorful than comfortable.

We had arranged to spend three nights at the Riverside Hotel in Suaraha, the tourist town just outside the park. All of the lodges inside the park were closed for the moment, and Suaraha was much cheaper.

All the hotels in Suaraha offer a similar program including hikes, jeep rides, elephant rides, and other attractions. Although it’s all rather touristy, it was a great place to warm up and see a little wildlife. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of our hotel’s naturalist, who was very knowledgeable and committed to the preservation of the endangered wildlife.

One morning we took an elephant ride into the buffer zone jungle. Animals are used to elephants and not afraid of people riding on top of them. Using this rather archaic mode of transportation, we were able to see peacocks, kingfishers, three types of deer, and one rhinoceros.

After a few days of this, we had our flight back to Kathmandu on the afternoon of December 8. We were a little worried, because the Maoists had announced a nationwide strike for the 9th and all the roads were clogged with truckers trying to get to town. But the plane flight was uneventful and our taxi driver managed to thread through the traffic. We enjoyed dinner at the best indian restaurant in town.

We had three final days in Kathmandu to enjoy the city and pack.

Although rather polluted and noisy, Kathmandu is a fascinating place where people, markets, and temples co-exist in close proximity. Although Marcia and I have been there numerous times, we were ususally too busy arranging treks to look around. So there were several temples we hadn’t visited, including Pashupathinath, the national temple where everyone who’s anyone gets creamated.

We were also able to revisit Patan, the third of the three cities and the one with the best preserved central Durbar square. Patan also now has an excellent museum created by an Austrian team that displays the city’s rich heritage of Hindu and Buddhist art.

Our final stop was to Bodhinath, the great stupa that marks the center of the Tibetand and Sherpa communities. We had lunch with Sonam and his family, gave him our excess books and laundry detergent, and then made a final clockwise circuit with the crowd constantly flowing around the stupa. We’ll be back.

===== End of detailed Annapurna/Chitwan/Kathmandu postings =====

We had a nice few days warming up in the jungle. Rode an elephant, saw a rhino, several peacocks, lots of deer and a few mosquitos.

We flew back to Kathmandu the day before yesterday and have been catching up with a few friends and a few bits of sightseeing that we haven’t done on previous visits. And we’re starting the job of packing for our flight back to the states.

Assuming all goes well, we leave Kathmandu on Saturday afternoon, spend the night in Singapore, and then fly through Hong Kong to San Francisco, arriving Sunday morning local time.

I promise to make more complete postings from our trek and subsequent travels within a week of returning to the Bay Area. Stay tuned!

We made it back from our second trek today, and we are now warming up and eating Indian food in Pokhara, the travel base for the mountains of central Nepal.

We both had a wonderful time and managed to stay healthy. In the time since our last posting, we hiked up to the Annapurna Base Camp, from which we had a wonderful view of the 360-degree amphitheatre of mountains. The weather was perfect while we were up there, though it’s now become unseasonably cloudy.

We have now made arrangements to leave on December 5 to visit Chitwan National Park, which is in the jungle parts of the Nepali flatlands. We will spend three days there doing the tourist thing, and then fly back to Kathmandu on December 8. After three final days there, we will fly back on December 12 through Singapore and Hong Kong to San Francisco, arriving the morning of the 13th.

I’m afraid that because of technical problems, I won’t be able to post any pictures or detailed information from our trek until a day or two after we get back to the US. Any postings from now through then will only be to keep you up to date on our progress.

For those of you following our progress, here’s another interim posting.

We made it over the high pass yesterday and spent the night in Muktinath, a pilgrimage town holy to both Hindu and Buddhist religions. To save time and wear and tear on Marcia’s knees, we took a jeep the rest of the way down to Jomsom, the regional center where we ended the Dolpo trip. This time it’s less of a culture shock because the Annapurna trek is far more developed and more frequented by travelers, mostly European.

This time Jomsom is the midpoint of the trek, not the end. We will continue by jeep down the Kali Gandaki valley to Tatopani, where we will again leave the road and head up into the mountains. If weather permits, we will go up into the Annapurna Sanctuary in the last days of the trek, and then we will descend to Pokhara, arriving on December 4 or 5.

From here on, it is unlikely we will have internet access, so my next posting will be at the end of the trek when we arrive in Pokhara. Pictures and full details will probably need to wait until we return to the US on December 13.

Here is another quick interim post to keep you up to date on our progress.

We arrived in Manang yesterday afternoon and have been enjoying a rest day with improving weather. Manang is the largest town in the east-west valley just north of Annapurna, and now that we’re getting at least some sunshine, we’re getting some nice mountain views.

We’re both in good health, though I had a spot of diarrhea this morning. Cipro seems to have taken care of that, so it’s all under control.

We leave tomorrow for the 5400-meter pass that we have to cross to get to Jomsom. We had some concerns about the snow that fell earlier in the week, but it seems people are getting across now that the weather is improving. We’ll make our next posting when we get to Jomsom in about four or five days.

We have just finished the fourth day of our trek around Annapurna and we’re staying in a town with internet access. They advertise broadband, though that’s a bit of an overstatement for this service, which I think comes by satellite.

So far, the trip is going fine although the weather has been cloudy and even rainy, which is unusual for November. The clouds seem to be lifting now, and we are hoping to have good weather in the high country and over the pass when we really need it.

Marcia and I are in good health and enjoying ourselves. Staying in guesthouses is so much easier than camping, and the hiking has so far been reasonable. After Dolpo, this is really an easy trip!

Full descriptions and photos will have to wait until December when we return to civilization. Return to Pokhara is still expected around December 5.

Now that we have recovered from our trip and posted the blog entries, we are leaving tomorrow for our second big trek.

This one is to the much more traveled and civilized Annapurna region, where there are lodges and teahouses everywhere and many fellow travelers. There is no need to bring tents, food or a large staff to carry everything. There are many services including medical clinics if we need them. We will be led by Sonam, our excellent cook from the previous trip. He has experience as a guide and knows the area well.

We will be mostly off internet and cell phone coverage for the whole 24 day period until we return to Pokhara around December 5. There is a chance I might get to post a message before then but no promises. We will save up any detailed postings until we return in December.

So long for now!