Left, left, Left ryait, left

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And we're back to writing by candlelight with no electricty, phones or cars. In fact the only form of transportation besides your own two feet are someone else's feet and a donkey. What do I mean by someone else's feet? I mean someone else literally carrying you in a chair that's attached to their head - which I saw today. Today was my first day ever trekking - we walked 30km (15 miles) through the mountains over rocks mostly with the last 3 kilometers being straight (and I mean that literally) uphill. I'm fairly exhausted now but I managed to carry my own bag the whole time. I'd spent time yesterday buying the proper socks and shoes as well as setting up a guide - don't worry I'm not here by myself. He was a bit expensive but he seems to be a good man with wife and kid back in Pokhara. on the way today besides showing me which way to go he explained a lot of things to me and even taught me some Nepali. We had to pay the Maoists 100 rupees per day I'll be trekking so 500 rupees total (about 6 dollars). We saw a ton of goats today all being herded alon the path - so close to me one actually brushed it's horn against my leg. I could easily reach out and touch them but they did their best to go around me - seems they don't like being so close to humans. Many were painted with different colors so the owners could tell who they belonged to. Apparently they were all headed for Pokhara where they would be sold and then killed as an offering to Durga for the big festival of Dosain.

We also ran into a Brahmin funeral complete with music which was interesting to see. THen we had lunch - thali for him and noodles for me.

These last three kilometers were a bit scary as apparently there had been a landslide that killed four families and 22 were missing - apparently it happened at night killing people in their guest houses. THat was a bit frightening. We met a little boy on the way whose family had had to move to Ullipidi (at the top of the hill) due to the landslide and who had lost two family members in it. His name was Durga and now he had to climb two hours down to school every day and two hours back up. He could climb three times faster than myself. He was really good. We fed him some biscuits as he said he was very hungry and walked to the top with him. His dream was to become a travel guide and marry a foreigner. He was 13. I remember a very strange noise I heard today as I'm now hearing another one from the plywood aroudn me - like ticking clocks so you can imagine how annoying it is to me. The noise from earlier was that of a car trying to be started but never starting for a very long time. Apparently there are forest insects that make that noise.

Now I'm in a guest house - one of two total customers (the other being my guide) listening to the family downstairs and the occasional person outside - primarily dogs. My clothes are hanging outside on a line trying to dry as I washed them by hand just this evening. This room is made of plywood carried up on some donkey from Pokhara. It's fortunate I had my padlock as it's the only thing that kept my door locked when I left. There are locks from the inside. I had hot water and spaghetti for dinner. My bag has my first bottle of tablet purified water in it if I need water as I bought a bottle of tablets yesterday. I spent all day sweating and most likely will tomorrow as well but I'm going to have a shower - or modified version of one in the morning. Now I'm to go to bed even though it probably isn't 9 o'clock as I have to get up at 6:25am and walk all day tomorrow. I'll blow out my candle and if I need light my flashlight is nearby. It's nice this family has children for me to hear playing in the dark.

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