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November 24-28, 1998

"These were the easiest 5 days of trekking we experienced..."

These were the easiest 5 days of trekking we experienced. After sleeping until about 9:30, we would walk about 20-100 meters on a completely level street. We ate on the terraces of restaurants overlooking the lake. We enjoyed our first Lassi (fresh fruit and yogurt shake), and casually strolled through the streets of Pokahara, looking through the many shops at musical instruments, clothes, jewelry and fresh fruit stands. We would arrive back at the Hotel Horizon around noon where we would sit on the balcony, bask in the sun, and get lost in our books. When the sun would become too hot sometimes we would move into our room for more reading and light snoozing. At sunset we moved ourselves up about 12 meters to the rooftop to play guitar, read, drink tea, enjoy the pleasantries and chat.

in the evening we would go to Romero's for italian food and happy hour, sometimes we would watch a movie. We saw Austin Powers, The Big Lebowski, and 12 Monkeys. Movie watching however, was dependent on something that, in the country of Nepal, is more irregular then Josh's bowel movements - electricity! We missed seeing The Truman Show, and Jackie Brown. The black outs that occur in Katmandu every Sunday for two hours did not quite prepare us for the daily 2-6 hour random blackouts that occurred in Pokaraha. On nights that the power was out, we would play cards by candlelight on the balcony of our hotel until about midnight, then we would read until we drifted off to sleep.

November 26

"…an enormous "western style" Thanksgiving feast."

One of our favorite breakfast spots in Pokahara, was "Mike's Restaurant." Mike, a Minnesota Native who went to school at Carlton College in Northfield Minnesota, owns a "Mike's Restaurant" in Pokahara, Naxal, and Katmandu. On the day before Thanksgiving we noticed that Mike was hosting an enormous "western style" Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc., etc., served buffet style. Mike Waldman tried and tried to convince Josh, Aaron, and Jeff that it was imperative that we splurge and celebrate Thanksgiving. Jeff found it quite hard to believe that in a country where turkey meat is not found on any menu, that we wouldn't just be eating turkey flavored yak. Mike's desperate pleas could not convince the boys to spend the 750 rupees (12 dollars US) on one meal of questionable meat, when we could just as easily eat two delicious pizzas at Romero's at 50 rupees a piece.