After breakfast in the hotel, we met Gelleck and went to the Potala. We began at the village at the bottom of the Potala that had traditionally been where lawyers, criminals, soldiers, and other professionals had lived and worked. If I remember right, it was also the former red light district. Then we began the long climb up the stairs to the Potala proper. The Potala is a very impressive building, sitting about 80 meters above the surrounding city. The central part is red while the outer buildings are whitewashed. Again, we toured the various temples inside the Potala, and Gelleck [View Full Entry]

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Our first full day in Lhasa, we met with Tenzin, the manager at Windhorse tours, the company that Tibetan Connections had worked with to arrange our trip. Tenzin met us and Gelleck out on the street. There was still some confusion about the length of our stay, and our permit had been set up for only 9 days when we had actually requested that we wanted to stay for 10. There was continuing confusion throughout the trip about our itinerary as Windhorse seemed to be operating on our original itinerary that had us only staying at Nam Tso lake for one [View Full Entry]

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We left for Lhasa on June 12 after having spent a week in Chengdu. Of course, complications occurred. The trip from Chengdu to Xining went off without a hitch, though we were an hour late arriving in Xining. The hard sleepers were not too bad. Six people shared the hard sleeper compartment. I was on the top bunk. There was barely room to sit up, so I spent most of my time down on the bottom bunk with the Chinese that were on the train. Ido, Kris and I spent some time in the dining car playing Chinese Chess. Fun game, [View Full Entry]

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After returning to Kathmandu on June 2, I hurriedly arranged my Chinese visa. On Wednesday, Tika arranged for another company to get my visa in a day. Amazingly, they were able to get me a 60 day visa in a day. Pretty cool. Good thing, because my flight out was the next day. I went to the Kathmandu airport around 9 am on June 4. The airport seemed rather chaotic, but I actually got through security and checked in pretty quickly. The flight to Lhasa was uneventful with some good views of the Himalaya on the way. After arriving in Lhasa, [View Full Entry]

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May 30-June 1 After returning to Kathmandu, I tried to sort out my visa for China. I realized that I had scheduled my flight so that I had 32 days in China instead of 30 and I wasn't sure if I could get a visa for that time period. So instead of trying to get the visa myself, I decided to get Himalyan Glacier trekking to help as they had assured me that they could get my visa in one day. After talking to them, we agreed that I would come early the next morning and they would go to the [View Full Entry]

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A lot has happened since I finished the Annapurna Ciruit trek. After the trek, I went straight to Pokhara where I checked into the Bedrock hotel. Bernard was also staying in the Bedrock and Matt was in the Yeti Hotel next door. We each retired to our rooms to rest and clean up, agreeing to meet for dinner later. I had had my mind set on getting a massage when I arrived in Pokhara. Kapil introduced me to a barber/Ayurvedic massage practitioner whom Kapil assured me "had very strong hands." The combination of barber/professional masseur sounds a little strange to westerners, [View Full Entry]

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Kapil had organized a shared ride from Naya Pul at the end of the trek to Pokhara for Bernard, Matt, myself, and our guides, so we made an early start to meet the van at the appointed time. The trek to Naya Pull took about 2.5 hours and was mostly downhill. My kneecaps were pretty sore and my legs pretty tired at this point. Yesterday's hike down the steep stairs had taken its toll. But with some help from Vitamin I, I was able to get through. As we hiked, we passed through small towns and by farms. We descended down [View Full Entry]

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Sadly, the weather did not clear in the morning, and so there was no sunrise climb of Poon Hill. I had caught a glipmse of Annapurna South the evening before during a brief clearing, so I had some idea of what I was missing. I had really wanted to see Annapurna I since it was the first 8,000 meter peak that was summited, as well as Machhapuchhare because of its holy, unclimbed status and "fish tail" shape, but I had seen so many views of gorgeous peaks when we were in Manang and Muktinath that I was not too disappointed. It [View Full Entry]

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We left Tatopani a bit earlier because of the long hike ahead to Ghorepani. The name "Ghorepani" derives from ghore meaning "horse" and pani meaning "water". Historically, Ghorepani was an important place along the road to the mountains for watering your horses and donkeys. The hike to Ghorepani involved about 6 to 7 hours of climbing. Tatopani was at an elevation of 1190 meters and Ghorepani at 2750 meters, a gain of 1060 meters (3475 feet). The weather was partly sunny and very humid. After 45 minutes of climbing, we caught up with Ville, Anna, and Eusman and their guides and [View Full Entry]

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We left Kalopani and began to the trek to Tatopani. Tato means "hot" and pani means "water", and Tatopani is so named because of the hotsprings that are found there. The hike began with a bit of a descent. Soon we were coming alongside the Kali Gandaki River. Kali is the feminine form of "black" is appropriate because the Kali Gandaki is dark brown with sediment. At one point, the river cut a deep slot canyon into the metamorphic rocks in the river bed. This gorge is billed as being the deepest gorge in the world because on one side is [View Full Entry]

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