Jumla to Pokhara

Tuesday, October 26.
It's so nice to be back in Pokhara. It's all too surreal though. The trek seems like such a far away and other experience now, but we were in it just a couple of days ago.
After a night in two Jumla guest houses so our tents could be cleaned out, only one flight could get out through the storm clouds crowding the sky, so after a morning of waiting around at the airport and playing lots of card games under the watchful eyes of police and army officials (cards are technically illegal in Nepal, but as long as you're not gambling, they tend not to care), we had a lunch of chow chow, and then seven us plus Mike, Steph, our research assistants, and three of the trekking staffers, saw the others off at around 4 and then headed back to the closer of the two guest houses--Newari Lodging and Fooding (I think I've actually starting replacing "eating" with "fooding" in my conversation...oh dear). We had a delicious dinner of--guess what--more chow chow and got to know the chef a little. He is from Kathmandu, learned to cook in India where he lived for several years, and then was hired at the guest house in Jumla by a family friend.
The next morning, it was off to two Hindu temples across the street, where each of us got double tikkas from their respective gurus, and then back to the airport to hurry and and wait some more. Talk about not taking things for granted and letting it be: In rural Nepal, you buy a plane ticket and you think that means you'll be getting to your destination when and how you want to. But no. If someone doesn't feel like getting up on time, you wait. If a storm comes in or they decide that someone else should get to fly before you when your flight is delayed for 24 hours or so, there simply isn't anything you can do about it. And in any case, it's pretty much impossible to know when you'll actually get to where you want to go. And thus, number who knows what: you'd best be flexible.
So it was that we waited for two other flights to go out on Saturday, had our third helpings of chow chow, and made it to Nepalgunj in time for showers and dinners. We had decided to fit the whole 14 hour bus ride into one day in order to arrive in Pokhara at a decent hour, so we had a nice relaxing nice in the posh hotel with western toilets, good water pressure (not that the heat wasn't shotty), delicious garlic naan in the funny, out of place dining hall where one of the waiters just couldn't stand to let a song play all the way through, an ice cream dessert, and HBO and Nat. Geo. on the TV.
It was great to see the rest of the group, but it was always nice being with a smaller bunch for a while. Such a different dynamic, and more coherence, I think. The first flight had flown straight into the storm, and what should have been 30 minutes turned into 50, thanks to intense turbulence throughout. We had it good on the flight front. It had snowed on the peaks surrounding the Jumla bazaar the night before we left, so we flew over snow-capped ridges and basked in the goodness.

Yesterday, Monday, we had a free day before we started work on our reports this morning. A few of us dropped laundry off and did a little gift shopping before getting delicious coffees and freshly baked goods at the Perky Bean, and then went across the street to the Olive Cafe for a light lunch and free wi-fi. It was so great just sitting there and reflecting.