Started the day at our hotel in Kagbeni with a bowl of Tsampa porridge, which has become my favorite breakfast. After an interminable wait for a couple of pieces of Tibetan bread with peanut butter (mmm!) we finally hit the road, or should I say riverbed?

Today's hike followed the riverbed southwest, away from Tibet and into the winds that rush uphill from the warm lowlands to the chill of the mountains. It was a very monotonous walk since we walked in the dry riverbed itself for the entire way. It is a very wide riverbed, several hundred yards across, and generally bone dry and littered with rounded river stones, with high canyon walls on either side.

About noon we reached Jomosom which is a fairly hideous town that is undergoing a lot of construction. Half the town is on one side of the riverbed, which is much narrower here, and half is on the other side, making it quite inconvenient for tourists.

The highlights of Jomosom are that it has an airport and a post office (opposite sides of the river). We wrote and sent some letters and then rushed on to avoid the winds which arise in early afternoon.We were unsuccessful. The winds arose, blowing straight into our faces as we marched down the valley towards the little town of Marpha.

A couple of hours later we reached it, a clean yet non-descript town. As promised, this side of the pass has much better hotels than the other, and we passed several, finally settling on Baba's, which had padded seats in the dining room, electricity, and chandeliers.The food is quite good.

At the entrance to town, Brad and I had haggled with some merchants and bought a few bracelets. I also bought an "Om mani padme hum" ring. The two bracelets and ring came to about four dollars. After settling in our hotel and eating lunch, we went exploring. We finally found what was advertised as the arts center in the Tibetan refugee camp across the valley from Marpha.

They were closed down, but two women unrolled their selection of jewelry. Brad bought three pieces for about $20. I wished that they had more of similar quality, but they didn't. We are starting to get a feeling for bargaining and for the prices that they will finally settle on.

We had a good dinner (pizza, which was more like a tostada, and apple pie) and sat around the dining room playing chess. As usual, I stayed up late writing. But no more.

Final note: Two Australian women from Phedi are here, Canadian couple from Muktinath, and Argentinian fellow from Muktinath. Also, New Zealander from Muktinath.