Day 4 - February 2, 2010 - A Mini Excursion

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Nothing like waking up and hopping right into a cold bucket shower, I have a fear it won't be the last one of this trip. It was another slow morning, I talked with Khem's son and had toast and masala tea. We planned on going on a scouting mission around 2. Khem hired a car to bring us where we needed to go, he had a few places that he wanted to explore; he may want to bring clients to in the future.

 We stopped twice during the 4 hour drive, once to look at an amazing suspension bridge over the river and the second to look at a derelict house and over look a valley. We were scouting for a place to put an abseil (rappel). The roads snaking down the side of the steep hills were truly an amazing sight and the stepped terraces filled to the brim with cauliflower, yellow topped mustard greens, and cabbage stretched out for miles and miles. Khem said that the corn would be planted soon.

 We pulled off to the side of the road for a little break just as the sun was setting. A tray of coffee cups was placed in front of us and I entered into a taste experience that will be hard to duplicate. Extra smooth fresh Nepalese coffee with milk that was probably still warm from when they acquired it. I'd never tasted milk like that, it adds so much to the drink. It is eating all the flavors of a full meal in a single cup.

We stopped at the Dalima Resort right on the edge of the highway. It was composed of elaborate multi-level stone structures with "economy" and "standard" rooms 500-1000 Nepalese rupees (7-14 USD) which turned out to be a great value. We checked into a room with two single beds and a full bathroom with natural gas, on-demand hot water heater. We sat for a few minutes on the porch, taking in the last few minutes of day light and then went down to meet the owner.

Khem worked his usual magic, explaining his business goals and sharing his vision with anyone that would listen. The lights flickered off and on as we sat in the lobby and chatted, electricity in Nepal is extremely undependable, this was a common occurrence and the conversation continued uninterrupted. The language switched between Nepali and English, although it was probably 80%/20% . It was nice when it changed over to English and I was able to update my mind to where the conversation had flowed to. It will be nice when Elana arrives and I can have a native English speaker to converse with.

The conversation wrapped up and we went up to the outdoor dining area, the last little bit of light has just ran out as I write this. We are out of here at 8 tomorrow morning. The Nepalese set dinner or "Thali" that I had was exquisite!

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