This evening we are at Bagarchap and for the first time it is cold. Last night was a sweater night for eating outside, tonight was a sweater night for eating inside, and I was shivering. But I still have two more layers I can put on. I've sweated in my down bag every night so far, not tonight, I hope.

Today's hike was the hardest yet. It wasn't too bad in terms of hours that we spent walking, but we did gain 2900 feet. Now we're at 7100 feet, which explains the cold. Another factor is that we are surrounded by high ridges, which keeps the sun out much of the day.We'll see how it is tomorrow.

This Bagarchap place is a very nice town. It, as the book says, is the first truly Tibetan town that we have been in. It is significantly cleaner here than in other villages (at least many of them). Most of the hotels have outhouses, nicely perched over the river, which makes going to the bathroom much less of an adventure. Although in an emergency the run from here in the freezing cold, down a steep flight of stairs, to the outhouse could be pretty exciting.

Water

Brad and I had our first full-body bathing experience today in the icy waters of the Marsyangdi Kohla, the river that we have been following for the entire trip so far and that will be with us for the next four days.

The morning's climb peaked just before Tal, a beautiful valley that was once the bed of a lake. Just past that point the river wound past a huge boulder that diverted enough water to create a significant inlet, with sandy edges (silty, really). We bathed and washed clothes in this calm part of the river. Unfortunately it wasn't as warm as one would guess from its milky blue color.

This river that we have been following is quite large, somewhat larger than the American River, I think. Because of the large change in altitude it is quite rapid, in parts, certainly not raftable or kayak-able except by those crazies who will take a kayak down anything. Other parts are fairly calm, perfect for rafting,disregarding the iciness of the water. I think the average water flow is a lot greater than that of the American. And this is the dry part of the year!

This river and the smaller ones that feed into it are the main stream of Nepali life (no pun intended). This is a very wet country, with melted snow water running down from its ample mountain ranges. Most villages have water continuously running, through long pieces of black plastic piping. Some of the water is diverted into the fields for the rice and vegetables upon which the country subsists. There have been very few stretches of trail on which we have had a shortage of water, and even then generally because we forgot to fill one of the water bottles.

The only regret is that the water is contaminated, like that of our high Sierra, so that one cannot be entirely spontaneous about drinking out of it, or brushing one's teeth, or even washing one's face.

Since we must drink 3-4 quarts of water a day to keep from evaporating away to nothing, water is an important part of our lives as well.

I'm tired, but I'll jot down a few notes about this village. Stone buildings, much like brick, much whitewashed, small river running through middle.

Some very old artifacts. A wall of prayer wheels, about 30 small 1 foot wheels in a row, with one larger one at the end. Each has a small fresco-like painting behind it.

Another building, nearby, contains a huge 10 ft. prayer wheel. Instructions are: spin wheel once while saying "Om mane padme hum." Beautiful painting of all gods inside.

Also a shrine that has some rocks with extremely old Tibetan lettering on them.