C., S., and I joined for this trip at different time and place. We thought a good idea to keep a journal only for Nepal although, C. and S. will update their own travelogues which cover far more trips and countries. Yet, it´s funny to see our names appear in each other stories every now and then.

Here I made a very short selection. The pics have been adapted by Andrees de Ruiter:
www.nepal-dia.de

During different space missions, the astronauts of NASA took many pictures. Kindly the Johnson Space center has loaded more than 40000 on their server where you can see them for free. Unfortunately, previous link to the NASA Johnson Space Center Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory is outdated so you will have to find it by yourselves.

Here is another great website quoted by Andrees where you can find your favourite mountain:
www.peakware.com

Sonam and Phurba...I miss them dearly.

Not sure about the spelling of Nepali names but even the Nepalis don´t know themselves as they have their own script of Sanskrit origins.

My first friends in Nepal were S.Maharjan and R.

We stayed near Beni at RiverSide Hotel which is managed by Thakali folks. Thakali is a Nepali tribe well-known for being business-oriented people, they own hotels, shops and so on whereas Sherpas are good in trekking and mountaneering, Magars, Gurkhas and Gurungs are mostly soldiers, outstanding for its bravery in the British and Indian armies.

Day 3 of our trek. We take it easy -hangover from last nite, good gracious!- and start lazily our day. Moreover, this is going to be our first day of snow and as we learned from villagers and trekkers on our way, there have been quite a few accidents: we ran into folks with a broken arm or leg, in the latter case, someone else was carrying the guy on the back in what looked like a bamboo basket.

Just finished our trekking route planning for the following six full-days:

If possible, don't fly with Royal Nepal Airlines, domestic flight was one hour delayed and almost cann't get to Pokhara as the airport closes by 5pm.

Arrived to Kath in the afternoon and made my first two Nepali friends: one of them has even invited me to a Hindu wedding! Learned my first Nepali words... Too bad, I have to be in Pokhara in the evening...

Three days to go and here you are the status of my preparations:

Just want to thank my boss - he is the BIG guy in our company - for endorsing my leave...I even feel guilty, our time is precious, agendas tight and biz above all. Hey, don´t worry: will take care and back in a week!