Phewa Tal

Today I woke up early to see the Himalayas. The visibility is best in the morning up until about 9am, so I was up at 7 walking to a good spot. As you can see, I found one. The snow capped peaks tower over the much closer hills, and it's crazy to think I'll be trekking through all of those mountains. The tallest looking one in the pictures is actually the shortest ("only" 7,000 meters - nearly 23,000 feet), but it's closer to town. The rest are closer to 8,000 meters.

Obviously the views were great and getting up early was well worth it. I grabbed 7 bananas for breakfast (Nepali bananas are really small) along with a nice fresh squeezed orange juice. It was a very nice breakfast for just over a dollar.

In the afternoon Dan and I headed to the lake (Phewa Tal) for some canoeing and swimming. It was a lot of fun, it was warm and the water was the perfect cool temperature to be refreshing but not at all cold.

We decided to trek together without booking a tour, and we'll be leaving Monday if everything goes to plan. The guide book recommends never trekking alone so I'm glad to have someone to go with.

I found the rafting company the Israeli guy recommended but I'll wait until I get back from the trek to do that.

This place is a fantastic spot after all the hustle and bustle of India. Everything moves more slowly, it actually feels like I'm not far from home with all the Western things available. There's everything from hand sanitizer (yes!) to steaks all along the tourist strip.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow, but I plan to get some last minute trekking stuff like maps, thick hiking socks (to prevent the leeches from getting to my feet. Seriously), and a permit to go into the area. I may go to a bat cave (not THE bat cave, but still), but I'm not sure yet.