Tuesday, March 25, 2008

"Washington my home, wherever I may roam..."

(And in your head, you should be hearing the Sicko version of the song.)

I'm home.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Nepal continues to Teh Awesome

As predicted, my posts are tardy.

Trekking Recap

I spent a couple more days in KTM planning my trek. I met another American who advised me that for a first trek in Nepal, Annapurna Circuit is the way to go. I hopped a bus to Pokhara, found a female guide, got my permits, and off we went. The trek took 13 days from Besisahar (a few hours' bus ride from POK) to Nayapul (another couple hours on a bus). The circuit has an AMZAING amount of variety. I'll spare you the day-by-day (you can read descriptions online), but I had a great time and returned filthy (some showers are hot on the trail, the bathrooms are too cold to shower, though), tired (some days I hike 30+ km), bruised (I got hit with a bucket helping at a fire in Manang), sick (some form of upper respiratory infection from which I am still recovering despite antibiotics), scratched (no idea how these happened), chapped (wind and sub-freezing AM temperatures), sore (looong stairway down the last day) and as happy as I have ever been.

It's probably time to return to work

I've been spending the remainder of my time playing super-tourist in KTM. I am a lousy tourist, though, and hope to meet with a Nepali Mifos Specialist today to talk about microfinance challenges in Nepal. However, I've seen a number of Hindu temples and Buddhist stupas, all of which have been interesting. Friday is Holi (which I may celebrate by playing, um, golf). I've been eating a little too well--ALL food in Nepal is great. Every last bit. Added bonus: I've been provided with a guest room (and washer!) at a friend's house, so I get to live outside the tourist ghetto, have unlimited hot showers, and play with a dog. The things I enjoy most are walking around the city (I tend to taxi out to a site and then walk home) and talking with Nepali people. They have a very intense political history, as well as important elections coming up in April. Despite all the tensions (and before my trek, fuel shortages) I was relatively unaffected as a tourist.