Nepal: More Random

Ok-maybe I've been a bit harsh.. I know why there are so many westerners camped out here.. It's freaking cheap. My hotel is about US$ 4 a night, and it is entirely possible to eat for as little as US$ 5 a day. And it's beautiful. So the chance to sit, sleep, eat, and read and meditate, do yoga, walk around is pretty alluring. Could you imagine if Aspen, or Vail, or Breck were this cheap.. the same crown would flock there. What I'm not that travel crowd.. I want to be somewhere with authentic culture, not a cheap tourist trap... Thankfully, a Nepali friend is going to take me off the tourist track for this afternoon, and tomorrow. Really interesting guy who grew up in a village 100 miles away but moved away from home and has lived here for many years. We're going to hit up the main part of Pokara, see a Tibetan refugee centre, and some other local stuff not in the Lonely Planet guide...
 
Power Cuts: The power is off from 6-9 am and 6-9 pm. So I'm in an internet cafe this am which is power by generator. I ate dinner last night by a fire, and breakfast this am in the cold. Having gotten up at 6am for the past week +, I woke up at my normal trail time and headed out to watch the city wake up. It's peaceful walking down a street where the shops are open, there are no lights except for the natural light...
 
Supporting the Locals... It is really tempting to BUY BUY BUY. stuff is sooo cheap. The main tourist season is in Oct and Nov, and you can feel the slowness in the shops, and the eagerness of the shopowners to sell. I'm on a bit of a mission today to find a better way to support the local economy than to buy buy buy..
 
 
This was my schedule for 8 days.
6:00 wake up
6:30 get the courage to get out of my warm sleeping bag
7:00 Breakfast/page
8:00 On the trail
2-4 pm: arrive at lodge, shower (ideally), wash clothes
6pm eat
6-9 Chat with other trekkers in the lodge
9pm get into sleeping bag, read or listen to ipod
9:15 asleep.
 
Anyway.. This will be the last blog post for a bit.
 


BPB