Goats and electricity...

Namaste!

Thank goodness I've finally found the time and electricity to add to my beloved blog. Thank you to my beloved wiiiiife for updating the situation...for 4 days prior to my Himalayan trek, Kathmandu was without power...and then during the trek, there were obviously no internet cafe's (often combined with a lack of power as well)...so no blog entries for a while - I was going into withdrawal!

About the trek...just finished it last night, which was day 6. Went with the family sherpa (Tashi , who is the sweetest little Buddha ever) and a guy from Vermont who now lives in Bangkok. For those of you who knew Eric Burns in college, this guy is his long lost twin - super tall, kinda fun to be around, kinda jockey and pretty self-absorbed. But we got all got along great despite some minor conflicts.

I wasn't sure what to expect of the trekking - I figured we would just walk for half the day and chill with some locals at night, eating interesting Nepali food with villagers. But in Nepal its best to expect the unexpected...when I thought "walk" in reality it was "climb and descend at 60 degrees with a 30kg backpack", "half the day" was actually "8-10 hours", and "interesting food" meant the Nepali rendition of eggs benedict, boiled potatos and mound upon mound of white rice...this reality check was a definite positive except for the food (the climbing was rewarding but grueling). They figure because its a lot of westerners trekking, the lodges will make westerner food, but man...I've lost a ton of weight burning 3000 calories a day and not eating much :(

In the grueling, back-breaking and thigh busting labor you find yourself in the company of all the beautiful things this earth has to offer - mountain peaks, waterfalls, dense tropical forest, fields of flowers, and roaming animals of all types including white monkeys and mountain goats...it truely was like middle earth and I'm most satisfied for naming my blog as such. The peak height of our trek was at 12,000 feet on top of Poon Hill (yes, that actually is its name).

It was a wonderful experience but my body could not take any more...so I suggested we head back to our city of arrival, Pokhara, a day early and spend a night before flying back to Kathmandu. The sherpa and Vermontian agreed, and we quickly descended yesterday back here. Today, the super outdoors-ey Vermont guy insisted on hiking to a nearby lake for like, 7 hours...I refused and decided stayed here in Pokhara. And thats where I am at the moment, happy as an enlightened Buddha with my internet and nepali tea in hand, awaiting my afternoon Thai deep tissue massage (which is $8/hour!)

All this description is useles, I know, without any photos...but I have no USB cable and will have to wait until I return to the US to upload them. I was able to snag a hysterical video of a heard of goats and can't wait to share it with you all...but it will have to wait.

I will write more tomorrow, in Kathmandu. I have one more week at the hospital, then off to Delhi to visit the Taj Mahal. After speaking with some local Hindus here about the lack of things to do in Delhi, other than get swindled, harassed and not se the sun due to pollution, I've decided to cut my stay there from 5 to 2 days, allowing just enough time to see the Taj, and more time to be with wife, family and friends back home.

From N.E.P.A.L. (as they say here, "Never Enough Peace And Love").

It has been 14 days since I've been in Nepal and haven't had the runs,
Mete