Post from the mountains

So, this a post I wrote two weeks ago to stay sane in the Himalayas....I'm copying it from my notebook:

(01/04/09)
Ok, Wednesday evening. I'm in a two-man dome tent that my cook put up, although it may has well have been erected by a holy cow. With BSE. I hope I don't get blown off the mountain (it was erected on an exposed mound), although all this talk of erections, exposed mounds and being blown off is encroaching on my spirituality, man. In a good way.

This is my way of maintaining sanity*, as I'm not exactly fluent in Hindi, and my cook and pony boy barely speak a word of the Queens'.

Faruq is a superb cook, though....just had a great chicken ruby, and now I'm going to get an early night as trekking tomorrow will be long and hard (encroach, encroach).

I met the gypsy children from the village today, and they are the sweetest kids; they run up and say Hello and all want their pictures taken. Also, there's an amazing 3000 year old temple in the middle of the village! Paths right through it; no fences, no warnings, nothing!

Anyway, I feel like Captain Cooke....scrawling in my manuscript by candlelight in a tent in the wilderness. If only I had a "sweet Maude" to miss....then perhaps she could come up the mountain and get blown off with me...