SILENCE.....

Wow, so Nepal = Silence...so nice...not too much to report here right now as I spent the last part of Holi in Varanasi heading to the train station and then waiting and waiting and waiting and well, you get the idea. The train finally left around 1:30am. It was an overnight train so we arrived about 8:30am and then had to catch a bus to the boarder. Basically my next 13 hours were spent on buses or between buses winding their was up through the mountains (an occasionally almost falling off). There was a good group of people on the bus so four of us banded together and decided to fight the hordes at the end as one group to get a better hotel rate. While this meant all four of us plus driver plus one other guy - never figured out really what he was there for - and four huge backpacks all squishing into a tiny little ford fiesta type car, it meant much less hassle for Rachel and I as we let the two boys take over and handle the negotiations. Hell, they don't really want to negotiate with women anyway so that helps too.

Unfortunatley the cold bus ride with no blanket and only my thin fleece was the last straw on my body and the past three days I have been sick and spending vast parts of my day in the hotel room. The bonus, though, is that Nepal is CLEAN and QUIET! The beds in the hotel and soft and big, not like the hard ones in India AND we have our own bathroom WITH hot water. I ask you, what more could a girl ask?

On top of it all, and despite being half locked up, I have still managed to find a few people that also wanted to head out on a 10 day trek through the Himalayas. So tomorrow, despite a few stomach rumbles still going on, we are escaping to the peace and quiet of the Himalayas. I cannot wait. Will have much more to tell when I get back. For now, happy to be in the mountains and away from all the rubbish and people in India.