Namaste from Nepal

     Namaste.  Anyone who has taken a yoga class has inevitably heard and said this.  "I acknowledge the divine light in you" is essentially the translation.  Namaste is the standard greeting in Nepal.  What a beautiful way to say hello.
     A long day of travel yesterday brought us to Kathmandu.  We have both carried a visit to the Himalayas in our respective bucket lists, and thus it was with a great deal of excitement and a foot in the surreal that we stepped of the plane into Nepal.
     We were greeted at the airport by two gentlemen from the trekking outfitter that we hired a porter through to accompany us on our trek of the Annapurna Circuit.  With big smiles and a placard that read, "Bibro", they welcomed us and drove us to our hotel in Thamel, the backpacker's area of Kathmandu.
     The Nepalese that we've met have been very warm and gracious.  This is a good thing because in a few instances my efforts to make conversation have not crossed the language barrier intact.
     As we were driving through the traffic filled, chaotic streets from the airport, I was curious as to our location.  As so many airports are situated miles from the cities that bear their names, I wondered if this too was the case in Kathmandu.  "Are we in Kathmandu?" I asked.  As Jo describes it, the look on the gentleman's face seemed to say, "Uh, have you truly no idea where you just flew into?"  Kindly, he responded simply with "Yes, Kathmandu."
    At dinner last night, as I admired the bottle of Nepal Ice beer that I was drinking, I decided to attempt small talk with the waiter.  "Is this made in Nepal?"  His incredulous look, as well as Johanna's attempt to silence me, should have let me know to drop this line of questioning.  It didn't.  My continued attempts to clarify my query were finally met with, "Yes, Nepal is the name of my country."  Ok, so I think I may be single handedly changing the stereotype of the "ugly American" to the "clueless American."  The guy that doesn't quite know where in the world he is.
     Anyway, did I mention that we are SO excited to be here.  Today we will gather supplies and pack up for our trek, which we will begin tomorrow.  We will take a bus to the town Besisahar, from where we will begin walking.  We will travel anywhere from about 5 to 12 miles each day as we work our way around the beautiful Annapurna Sanctuary.  We will reach our peak elevation about half way through as we cross the Thorung La pass at over 17,000 feet!  We will stay in teahouses along the way and soak up the culture of many small villages that can only be reached on foot.  If all goes according to plan, we should finish up in a little over three weeks in the town of Pokhara, where we will rest a few days before returning to Kathmandu.
     We plan to take a blogging hiatus over these next few weeks due to limited internet access along the way.  We'll do our best to post updates, anecdotes and lots of pics when we get back to the city.  In the meantime, take good care of yourselves.  Sending love to all.

Namaste,
Chris and Jo