bob - hola amigos
it's your favorite nepali checking in from the world capital of fake north face gear, pokhara
(i always say pokhara 3 times in a row, really fast like the bus helper does)
every bus has a standing attendant (usually teenage) who hangs out the open door and announces the destination to any potential customers on the road side.
from the india border to kathmandu our man literally hung out the door by his right arm nonstop for 7 hours just because he enjoyed the wind in his face. surprisingly he didn't have as disporportioned fore arm muscles as i do.
kathmandu was definately a better experience than delhi was and we ended up staying for 5 nights. 3 of which we lived like kings splurging on a 20$/night deluxe room!
there were some cool sights, mostly temples that we saw. my favorite was the temple of the monkeys because of the sweet view of the valley and the little monkeys monkeying around in the trees.
next we bussed down to chitwan national park to take in the nepal lowland wildlife which is more abundant then i had pictured (the lowlands and the wildlife).
we rode our first elephant ever and it was a good place to be pearched as we sat within metres of rhinos, wild bores, and large deer.
i cooled off later in the river where they were washing the elephants and then found out the next day that in-fact the local crocodiles do roam in that neck of the waters.
we saw them the next day as we canoed down the river in carved out tree canoes to start our all day walk.
anais and i and our two guides roamed through some jurasic grasslands in search of large mammals which eluded us that day. except for when we heard one very, very close and ran away.
but the flora was very interesting and we saw some monkeys and got close and personal with leaches all day long. i much prefer the to leaches to fleas and tics though.
now we're in pokhara pokhara pokhara for our second night.
it's a beautiful city right on a lake, with himalayan views.
but it's quite touristy and the main strip is covered in trekking gear stores since this is the main post for planning and departing for the annapurna zone .
we've decided on a week, or so, trek that includes only the first 2 days of the classic 17-day annapurna circuit. if you want to see on google maps or somethin we're starting by going to poon hill. and then crossin over to the route that goes up to the annapurna base camp. and then back to pokhara would be about 5-6 days. but if we're feeling it, we'll giver' up to to the base camp which is at about 4000 metres and would make it more like a 10 day'er.
tomorrow we'll buy some final things for our trip and then we're leaving the next day.
i'm guessing there aren't very good internet connections in our trekking hills so i'll holla at y'all when im back in pokhara. and don't worry about us as we're hiking. the main treks around here are about as isolated as the grous grind.
ciao for now