Suss it out

"Heeeelloo, Namaste (bow, put hands together in prayer sign in front of chest) how are you doing today? where are you from? You want to do trekking? rafting? Oh from USA, I love USA, I have friends in California, you want hashish too? "
that's the typical rap I get walking down the street. Kinda gets old, but is fine, they're all very friendly. Have yet to meet a negative nepali. They have so little compared to the rest of world, esp the westerners, but are so happy.

We've spent the past two days organizing our Everest base camp trek, which we leave for tomorrow morning at 6:30am, flying into the village Lukla at 2800meters from there it should be a 14 day walk to base camp and back. Packs are nice and light, will be staying in 'tea houses' and eating/getting food along the way. Altitude is an issue and will be looking out for signs of sickness for sure, while going as slow as we can. I think we're ready and will be guiding ourselves, from all of our trusted sources this seems the way to go, have maps, guidebooks, GPS, etc... Tim and I have a lot of experience and Matt is great as well. If the going gets too tough or we just get a little lazy, we can hire a guide while we're going. Have registered with our respective embassies, got permits, flights in/out, last minute gear... Matt, is in fact taking a full size Criket bat and a tennis ball, only what we need to survive. Tim has the biggest camera you've ever seen and an even bigger waterproof/crushproof/dustproof/tornado proof case I've ever seen. I have the essentials, which includes enough diarrhea pills to make a line from here to basecamp.
We've organized and put a deposit down on a trip to Tibet leaving Oct. 18th. We'll be driving out of Nepal towards Tibet and then through Tibet, see Everest from the North Side basecamp, and then onto Lhasa (watch seven years in tibet for scenery) Should be a wild ride. Flying back to Kathmandu from Lhasa. So things seems to be progressing nicely, haven't had a whole lot of time to hangout, but hopefully the trek will provide plenty of time for reading and relaxation (after the hiking of course). Glad to hear from everyone, I really appreciate you all following along. To know you're all here with me, in spirit if not in person, keeps me smiling too.

I hope to get some photos online after the trek... I'll be out of contact for the next two weeks or so, but will update if I can sooner.

rocking the full beard too. SAF