We are back in Kathmandu after spending a week in Dan Raj and Roby's home village. It was awesome to visit a non-touristy area. Tomorrow we head back to Bangkok (happy halloween!) and we will have much cheaper internet access so I will post more tomorrow evening.

Well...
We've made it! At just under 200km walked -- umpteen thousands of meters ascended and descended we have reached the end of our trek. It was amazing -- from the awesome highs to the Annapurna Himalaya to the friendly kids always asking for pens or chocolate to the one snowball each "fight" we had descending from Thorong Pass. It was a life journey.

We arrived in Pokhara early this afternoon after a short taxi ride from the road we dropped in on. It is both nice to be back in some sort of civilization -- and at the same time quite sad to know that the trek is over.

The plan is to spend a couple of days here in Pokhara and then head back to Kathmandu. I think at that point we are going to go visit the village that Dahny and Rahvy's family are from. We'll go see what a non-tourist type village life is like. That should be quite interesting. Then back to Bangkok on the 31st -- leaving for Chang Mai on the 1st. Never a dull moment thats for sure!

Because of a new road replacing a trail on our way down today we made a slight detour (read "got lost"). But it turned out great. It was just before school started and the local kids were all on their way to school. We started with 3 young boys following us and shyly saying Namaste and asking us where we were from (Canada), what our names were (Brent and Tree), how old we were (old), etc. Every few hundred feet or so another couple kids would join us and ask the same questions. We ended up with about 15 or 20 kids following us down the hill until we got to their school. It was one of those experiences that are just amazing and you are left thinking, "If we didn't make that detour we would never had met these kids -- and they all probably were going to be talking about it for the coming week -- that not many "tourists" come down from the circuit in that direction."

I was adding it up and I think between our two cameras (not including the film camera which we have several rolls to develop) we have close to 3gb of images. That just seems like tons and tons to me -- but 20 days later I have only those few pictures to share the wonder of the trip. Tons of stories -- but just a few pictures to put images together with words.

Annapurna Base Camp was canceled -- for many reasons. We both were having some pretty bad problems coming downhill (our knees were killing), the weather looked like it was going to be poor (and sure enough -- this morning it rained -- the day we would have arrived at base camp), and I was just getting over some sort of stomache virus that limited our travel a couple of days to just a few hours each day. Plus our "tax receipt" from the Maoists said that we were only supposed to be gone until the 16th. So we would have had to pay them more $$ if we ran into them again (which we did a couple of days ago). So we decided to cancel that part of the trip and instead have the option to go hang out in Dahny's village and meet the rest of his family and see what Nepali village life is really like.

Well, this is long enough for now -- we'll get pictures uploaded but probably not until we get back in Bangkok. For now I must bow my head and say Namaste.

Just a quick update letting everyone know we are still alive and having a great time. We've made it over the big pass -- 5545m and are taking it slow on our way down. We pushed ourselves mentally and physically going over the Thoron Pass -- not an easy experience. It was a long day -- 700m up and 2000 down. The downhill killed my knees but they are slowly recovering (two days later).

In a couple days we are in a town with Hot Springs!! And then we decide if we are up for going to the Annpurna Base Camp or if we should just call it a trip. The Annapurna Base Camp is supposed to be a harder trek -- even though the elevation is lower. We'll see how it goes!!

We've tried new things -- new foods (Yak and Buffalo meats) and gone exploring in these amazing villages we've passed through. They have been wild. Amazing how good a "pizza" (flavored with katsup) can taste after hiking a hard 7 or 8 hours.

Yesterday we passed through Jomson -- the largest town we've visited yet. It even had a PAVED runway!! And three checkposts -- military, police, and ACAP. Quite the crowd. Yesterday was also an experience in how aeordynamic you can make yourself while traveling down a valley that is acting like a wind tunnel. The wind would gust probably at 40mph -- with occasionally higher gusts -- and a constant "breeze" of about 20mph. I was happy to have the trekking poles to help push me forward. For a flat day, I felt just as worked as I had the previous day when we had gone over the pass.

Anywase, gotta run -- this is costing a pretty rupy or fifty. Hope everyone is doing great back in the states!