This damn dog kept me awake all night! AHHHHHHH!!!! Why doesn't anyone do anything about this dog? I have to chase it away every 2 hours during the night. We have also just heard that Communist Maoist rebels will be putting on an indefinete strike throughout Nepal. No buses, no transportation. There is talk of bombings and such but we dismiss them. Ahh, this damn dog is back again. No electricity, no heat - I'M FREEZING MY ASS OFF!!!!!!!!!! Today I met a young ...

Shangri-La? Am I here? The urge for the modern world is strong. I've now been away from it all for 2 weeks. 14 days without internet, 14 days without cars, 14 days without anything to eat but rice, lentils and potatoes, 14 days without a flushing toilet, 14 days without any kind of physical comfort. It's hard. I am trying to notice the simplicity of just being outside, the simplicity of simple discussions. It's the same food over and over and over again. All of ...

Today is the 3rd day on our Beni to Dhorpatan trek and the further we go, the more we go back in time. Donkey caravans trot through the mountains, bells clanging, the herder is playing a flute to keep the animals moving, it's a magical sound. There is definitely move simplicity as we trek further along this route. There are more smiles per capita in Nepal than home I have noticed. These people average $200 of income per year. Tonight we stay at the Roka Hotel in...

Right now I am sitting 12,600 feet up at Annapurna Base Camp in the middle of the Himilayas. I've spent maybe only 40% of money today, that I would have sitting on the couch and watching TV at home. It's unbelievably cold up here though! I was not prepared for the bitter cold and I have spent most of the day drinking tea in the dining hall. $1.40 to sleep at a guesthouse with the greatest view in the world. Have I stumbled upon some sort of mysterious code that m...

I'm reading through Peter Matthisen's "The Snow Leopard" on my second visit to Nepal. It's a book I looked for for 5 months. I even bought one copy and lost in on the trip. Peter dicusses many elements during his 1973 trek in the Himilayas including Zen Buddhism, tranquility and detaching himself from his painful emotions. I have written a lot about dreams coming true during this trip, because it has given me such a vivid experience of that taking plac...