| Annapurna Village | Great village feeling on the green and sunny side of the mountain. Tall frosty windy pass from Bage to Annapurna with no people or teahouses for 3-4 hours. Very extreme rocky hilly knolls - very beautiful. I sat at the top of the pass and practiced my flute (one of the few times I have done this) and taught myself to play "o, susanna." The way down from the pass to Annapurna was wide, thickly tree-lined, grassy and heavenly. I had one or two teas for ten cents then went to the hotel farther on. | | The hotel was run by a kindly lady who sold me a platter full of great mandarins for 12 cents. Her name was Dang Kumari Rai and her hospitality was top-notch. The atmosphere inside her place was festive and before long some obviously drunk men pulled me into the other room to watch them dance to Hindi film music while I ate my mandarins. They were awful dancers but what gusto! I ordered Dal Bhat - Dang Kumari's hot pickle and vegitable curry were superior (the pickle or Achar was very hot). Good bitter kale sag too. The Dancer men are both NGO workers finishing up a project in the area this Sunday. They have been working in this area over the last few months to put chimmneys in rural homes, create water-powered grain mills. This is organized through The Center for Rural Technology whose parent organization is German Technical Corporation. The mad dancer Madhu Kumar's next project will be in western Nepal working for the American forestry concern "Care Nepal."
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