Part 2 of the "Anna'poo'na race circuit trek"

Having left off writing about the travels through the windy canyon and somewhat touching on the great people you meet along the way I will resume telling the story at the part I like to think of as the "stair steppers dreamland". If you are in serious need of a workout I know the perfect place for you to go. If you were to do the trek in a clockwise fashion and you like to punish yourself for being a bad person then start your trek in Bherathani, go to Ghorepani, and end in Tatopani. In Ghorepani, there is a little side trek to a place called Poon hill that is merely a warm up for going down literally several thousand steps in either direction. The problem, as you may have deduced is that you must climb up several thousand steps to even begin the little climb to Poon hill. From Tatopani it is a decent climb that has most people hitting the hay early and wishing that they had a personal masseuse to help them forget the day. From Bherathani it is something else entirely. Everyone we passed going in that direction was either resting or breathing very hard and cursing in their own language. I made sure to give them reassurances that there were only about 1000 steps left and then it got a little easier for a little bit and then a few more steps after that. They didn't seem very happy about my motivational speeches so I just started lying and saying "you're almost there!" I think the latter is actually a little bit more evil but I wasn't really sorry about it as I chuckled inside. The stairs themselves should be considered one of the wonders of the world. Some of the rocks they use are huge and it is hard to imagine how they were put into position, especially in such professional way. The guys from Context Design and Build would probably comment that the risers were of various elevations ranging from 4 in. to 17 in. and that an inspector would likely fail the builders without even blinking. I give them a passing grade though considering the difficulty level must have been somewhere in the millions on a 1 to 10 scale. From one point you can see a town directly beneath you and it almost looks like you could jump off the stairs and land in one of the cafes that tempt you from such a long distance, but the smart way is right in front of you in a descending zig zag that dissappears from sight and you know it keeps going for a long time after you can't see it anymore. I was very happy we were going down on this side. Oh yes, I must tell you that both of the hikes are in the jungle and it is a little bit hot and humid. We survived the descent and did a marathon hike to catch a taxi to the promised land that is Pokhara. Ahhhh, Pokhara! Every hike should have a town like it waiting at the end of it. Beautiful climate, nice lake, restaurants, shopping (for the ladies of course) and bars and live music. Even though the town itself kind of shuts down around eleven, they will let you stay in the back and drink and laugh away. Most everyone we met on the trek was there at some point and we all had a great time laughing about everything that happened along the way. The only problem though is when you leave the bar the lights in the town are shut off and if you don't have a torch, or "headlamp", then the walk can be a little disconcerting, to say the least. I don't think I was ever so happy to have a stray mangy mutt following me along a dark road. Then you get to the hotel and you have to do a little gate climbing, some creakier than others, and hope you aren't caught at the top by the guy you just woke up from all the noise. Usually he isn't very happy if you do wake him up, but you just smile say "sorry" and "thanks" and run for your bed. I have to say that I became very good at gate climbing in all phases of sobriety and consider myself somewhat of a master, if there is such a thing. I only woke up the guy once or twice that I can remember and that was because they had the front door locked. After a few days relaxing in Pohkara we went on a three day rafting adventure down the Khali Ghandaki river. It was a hands on experience in the way that they made us do a lot of work setting up and breaking down camp, cutting vegetables, and other little tasks like getting water from the source 100 yards away. Overall it was a great time and the work was actually fun and the river was spectacular. We had great food and good rapids and fun people. They filmed us doing the big rapids and setting up camp and other little things and gave us a DVD as well, which was nice. Tried kayaking as well and found out it isn't as easy as it looks to go straight down the river. I also tried the eskimo roll a couple times and failed after swallowing a bit of water. It was funny watching some of the less experienced people try kayaking as we left them behind while they kept trying to go straight and failed miserably. We went back to Pokhara afterwards and stayed for a night and caught a plane to Kathmandu where we stayed for a couple of nights in the town of Bhaktapur and met up with Yuagen and Dharma by complete accident, who so graciously led us around the town. Yuagen invited us into his home to experience one of the festival nights and the blessing of the brother by the sister. It was great and Holly blessed me, as much as she didn't want to. We then went to Kathmandu and spent a couple days there before we bid farewell to our mother. Again I have to say thanks for everything Mom, and that I love you and will miss you in a couple more weeks! A bit of a joke there Mom. Anyway, Holly and I flew out the next day, myself having flown into outerspace the night before with a string of "European ciggarettes" and beer. We made it to Delhi in one piece and with all of our stuff and I will leave it at that. Until next time, Namaste!