Hello Nepal!

Heather and I were slightly skeptical of the flight out of Bhutan after Chencho told us that the Paro airport is one of the most dangerous in the world (to his credit--it did try to reassure us by saying that the landing is more dangerous than the takeoff). It was a bit of a bumpy takeoff, but no real problems and we were lucky enough to get seats on the right side of the plane so that we had a sweet view of Everest as we flew over the top :) ...FYI: If you ever want to travel to Bhutan, I would be happy to put you in contact with Chencho. He is an amazing guide and it is actually much easier and cheaper to travel Bhutan if you go directly through a guide.

I have to admit, my first thought upon arriving in Nepal was "Oh crap! We're back in the craziness". After 5 peace-filled days in Bhutan, it was a bit of an adjustment being bombarded by taxi drivers the moment we walked out of the Kathmandu airport. Luckily, we were able to find our sherpa, Dorgee, fairly quickly and he led us briskly through the crowd, into a tiny car with 2 other people (for a total of 5). We soon reached the terminal for our connecting flight to Pokhara and boarded the small 2x2 seater plane. Actually, I should back up, we had to take a shuttle bus out to the plane, and just as it was pulling out a little guy carrying both mine and Heather's bags jumped on. It was nice to know that our bags were going to make the flight--but the process was a bit worrisome.

Upon reaching Pokhara and heading out to the parking lot, we walked strait up to a nice roomy SUV... and then we kept on walking... out of the lot and down the street for 2 or 3 blocks. We then had lunch at Dorgees auntie's place before piling into another TINY car--again with 5 people--to Naya pul (the trail head for our trek on the Annapurna Circuit). Do to some flight delays this morning, we checked directly into our "lodge" (which might actually be less luxurious then camping...) rather than trekking for in for and 1.5 hours as originally planned--which means we will have a big day tomorrow!

I have to say, though I was very skeptical of Nepal at first (and frankly would have rather gone strait home from Bhutan), I think I am going to like it here. The terrain is gorgeous and it's got everything an outdoorsy person could want for--from river rafting, to trekking, to skydiving :) Plus you can get sweet gear for super cheep (bonus!).