Annoying Birds

I am currently in Pokarah, Nepal the trekking capital of the Himalayas. I am setting off on a 16 day hike through the the infamous Annapurna Mountain Range. The hike will take me up to 5400meters of elevation and over 300 kilometers of trail. I will be surrounded by mountains topping 8,000 meters of altitude and hiking along icy cold rivers.

Party Bus!!

It was a interesting journey getting to Pokarah from Chitwan National Park. At first my friends and I thought that the amazingly colorful Nepalese bus was going to be all for ourselves. Yeah right, the bus drivers would not let one seat go empty if money can be made. We spent hours picking up people to fill the bus. On one occasion the bus-boy, a 50 year old man trying to collect people for the bus, dropped 100 NPR ($1.18) out the window. We had to stop the bus so that we could send a search party after the 100 rupee note. I am not sure if it was ever found, but we wasted 30 mins as bus riders searched for the missing money.

The views of the valley from the bus were amazing. Toward the end of the trip the stick shift began to have problems, but with a couple of yanks the bus driver was able to get it working again.

What I thought was going to be an empty front seat to
myself.

When I arrived in Pokarah, my first priority was to get my laptop charger, which broke in Chitwan, fixed. It took about 30mins and 200 NPR ($2.35) to fix it at this small street shop. I was suprised it was so cheap since in America it would probably have costed more to fix than buy a new one. It was funny to see the people trying to fix old box TV's and VHS players. Since Nepalese work for so little its much cheaper to fix things than buy a new one, which is much better for the environment.

I am setting off on my trek with a new friend named Sigita from Lithuania and a guide/porter. The guide/porter costs us $10/day, which is a decent price for off season.

At the moment there is a general strike in Nepal. The strike was called by Brahman Chhetri Samah community  is in response to the writers of the new Nepalese constitution ignoring their demands. Due to the strike almost all the shops are closed, which makes it hard to get gear and snacks for our trip. 

Friends from Chitwan

At the moment we are almost all ready to start off on our trip. We are relaxing on the balcony of our hostel enjoying the sun and the annoying birds. There are so many different types of birds around out hostel. Their singing creates a cacophonous noise that wakes us up at sunrise. One bird especially has a annoying cry which starts off low and slow then increases in pitch and frequency. It almost sounds like a nagging kid.

The last couple of days it has been raining cats and dogs, but today seems like its going to be a nice clear day. Sigit and I are thinking about taking a boat ride around the lake in Pokarah.