Trekking!

After climbing back up the mountain to retrieve my camera I was stokin' on life!

Today was a national strike and everything was closed... fancy that :D Tomorrow things look like they will be opening up so I'm off to go trekking. I've got to catch a 9 hour bus ride that covers 120 KM... I'm used to buses that move as fast as I can jog so it's ok.
The itinerary it stands is to hop on a bus tomorrow at 6 AM bus it out to a place called Dunche almost directly north of Kathmandu on the edge of Langtang national park. I'll do the popular "Langtang Trek," then the idea is to connect via a 14,000 foot pass to another area known as the Helambu and walk back to Kathmandu. This should take me about 14 days give or take a few. I'll be out of contact entirely until I get back. This kind of trekking is known as "tea house" trekking. There are lodges and tea houses along the more popular sections. I have a tarp with me and we'll see how realistic it is for me to camp as much as possible. Wood can't be used for fires in these areas because they are heavily traveled and I'm not going to bother with a stove so I'll be eating out while wandering around mountains. It's quite a new concept to me, I'm used to just going out and fending for myself. I'm excited to do what "70% of all tourists who come to Nepal want to do." Haha.
Some highlights of volunteering on the farm were spending time with Ramu's older brother's son, who is two and a half and at the age when he's curious about everything. One night, when we had electricity, and all the geckos we're eating insects that flew around the light I was lifting him up so he could try and grab them. It was a repeated, "Lizard" and then me hoisting him up as high as I could so he could try and grab one. He came very close.
Another moment that is making me smile is learning and singing Kirtan (Devotional songs) with "Ama" (Ramu's mother, and another one of my many adopted mothers :) We were working out in the field side by side and she was slowly teaching me the songs of Lord Krishna (One of the manifestations of Vishnu and known for his flute playing, his naughty nature as a child, stealing milk and cream from the milkmaids) We sang together as the sun was setting and it gave me energy after a long day's work in the sun. it was so much fun to sing as the parrots flew back to their roosts in large flocks and the sun turned red, setting over India.
While I was sick I had a couple brief moments of literary inspiration, here's a poem that I wrote.

I long to find the end of the earth
Take the leap into the unknown.

Falling with giddy glee
and a smile on my face
I will plummet into stormy clouds.

Amongst these ethereal giants
I will have tea with my fears
Dance with my joys
Hug my sorrows,
and paint them all with my dreams.

When I am hungry I will eat chubby cumulus clouds
and suck the cirrus clouds dry.

I will learn to speak with the wind,
Learning ancient secrets
from the her eons of wandering,
whispered into my eager ears.

I will make friends with the sun and moon
Share with them my heart
and chase them in circles around the globe.

When the cloud has tired of it's burden,
and spits me upon the earth
as a human hailstone.
I'll look up and smile because it was all worthwhile.

It's quite crude but the sentiment is there. I remember the inspiration of this. Everyday almost clouds would roll in and we'd get thunder, lightning and sometimes full on tropical storms. I've never seen a hailstone so big. They were seriously the diameter of quarters. They came with 40-50 mile an hour winds which knocked down trees and ripped off the neighbors roof. Quarter sized hailstones coming almost horizontal is quite scary, take it from me.

New pictures are up on flicker, sadly it's taking forever to load so only about 150 new ones are up and they're quite old. I'll be sure to keep my camera handy wandering about in the mountains.

Namaste