On Nepal 1

Kathmandu is wild: you fly in over picturesque paddies and fields and smack into half-completed slums and shantytowns and the dirtiest, grungiest, grimiest, greediest, most blatantly depraved crowd of touts and taxis I've ever seen.  Never been so happy to leave a place.

Pokhara is lakeside in the alpenglow from Annapurna.  Little bit different vibe.  Still Asian, still in Nepal so there are rolling blackouts and nothing's priced and there are touts everywhere, but they aren't as desperate and pushy, and the people are either generally good natured and friendly or damn good at pretending for the tourists.  And there are the mountains.

Leaving the tropics has been a great shock to the body, which is behaving much, much more happily even just overnight.  The cold wasn't even that unpleasant--especially after dropping $4 for a new "North Fase" fleece. 

I'm equipped with ACAP and TIMS permits, a down jacket and water bottle and fanny pack, plus the gear I brought, and tomorrow I fly to Jomsom.  It's about a 4-6 day trip out, and I'm shooting for two weeks with a detour to Annapurna Base Camp.  Should be pretty fantastic.