Kathmandu

So the last couple of weeks have been interesting for sure. The summit
of "the worlds largest pass". It's not the highest, most trecherous,
or any of that, just the largest. Whatever that means. I saw three of
the over 8000m mountains. I ate too much apple pie. I lost my shampoo
and didn't wash my hair for weeks. I fought a yeti, battled food
poisoning twice and saw enough prayer wheels to make my head spin.
We climbed this hill called Poon in the early morning to watch the sun
rise over the Annapurna range. The locals were up partying with drums
and chanting the night before until midnight. Shortly after 2:00am the
rooster crowed and awoke some eager tourists ( I was convinced they
were elephants and could have sworn I heard trumpetting as they
crashed along the corridor to the squat toilet). Just as the noise
quieted down, our faithful Sherpa Tak knocked on our doors and
informed us that it was time to go. And this point I noticed a dull
pain in my stomach but thought it was most likely intense rage bottled
up inside rather than a bacterial invasion. We marched on Poon by the
light of our head lamps. Myself, still irked by the unexpected lack of
sleep invented a song to commemorate the pilgrammage to the top. It
was difficult to sing whist running past hundreds of elderly tourists
of all nationalities but I sang with vigor. The vigor was cut near the
top when I experienced a pain in my side. By the time I reached the
bald top of Poon (now covered in a toupee of tourists) I was in need
of a toilet, and quick. Luckily the outhouse faced east and the door
had a crack in it wide enough to offer the full benefit of the
sunrise. I managed to finish up before the blood red sun showed her
face over the Annapurna mastif and celebrated by yelling "Hey look
everyone! It's the sun! It's the sun! Yeeeeaaahooo!" I then threw the
water from my water bottle around like freshly uncorked champangne. By
the time we reached the bottom of Poon, I was quite ill. I cancelled
my breakfast order and settled for a vomit session instead. I felt
much better, brushed the bile from my teeth and started my hike down
the mountain. We saw a mongoose dash from the tree by the trail and it
was about then I fell sick again. We stopped at the next tea house and
I collapsed on the bed and slept for five hours. Feeling a little
better with the assistance of Tak I moved to a lower camp that
evening. I felt better the next morning.
We are now in the big city of Kathmandu. Fun fun.

Ronando