Shane and Heather left yesterday morning and I felt sad. I occupied myself by editing my photos, made great progress on putting the Thorung Panoramic shots together when bang! the power went out in the whole city and stayed off for 6 hours.

I made the big move and transferred my hotel from busy Thamel to quieter Freak Street where I pay almost three times as much but have a super nice room, a clean bath and a balcony in a totally quiet setting where only the birds chirp and no street kids are outside playing football with a glass bottle at 2 AM. The hotel restaurant also has good creps for 65 cents each.

Ran into the insane English guy Matthew we met in Jomsom who is into everything and wanted me and him to try scaling an icey rock face (free climbing) near Muktinath.

I wisely turned him down again when I saw him. Said the German lady he was with in Jomsom was 40 years old (and he turns out to be only 30 himself) but quoth he "many a fine tune is played on an old fiddle."

Today I woke up serenely and went to the roof for streching followed up by a large bit of Tantric meditation. I am letting myself try more of the Tantric lesson but this the the first time I've done it since Jomsom. I do not know if it is lack of practice or just being in the more high-tension environment of Kathmandu but I just could not focus this morning and I was even getting irritated at the voice of a crow repeatedly cawing outside my window. I finally overcame this by imagining the crow as one of the multitude of living beings I was visualizing.

I examined the logistics of India travel by flipping through the leading guides in the upstairs of Pilgrims Bookstore and saw a lot about India that has me excited. I am really getting charged up for the transition. Looks like the travel is pretty slow going. Wather considerations seem to indicate I should shoot down low in Rajasthan first (perhaps even down to Hyderabad in the South and then work my way North to hit Rishikesh, Dharamsala, Manali & then Leh in Ladakh. Both Rishikesh and Dharamsala offer much that looks interesting re: personal growth.

I posted on the two most popular message boards my gear for sale, visited with the guys from my old hotel (they as usual got the chance to rib Hari in front of me) and ran into Bille "I've got a sandwich in my room" Valesk who turns out is only 18 and from British Columbia, Canada. She is travelling solo and has a good head on her shoulders. She leaves for Pokhara tomorrow to do the full Annapurna Circuit.


ANOTHER DAY ON FREAK STREET

What a strange day this was. It seemed to start with a deep imbalance that was not dispelled by my fleeting efforts to right things.

I awoke this morning and first thing I went over to the rooms of Jospehine and Eailin in Hotel Eden and we went to breakfast. My attraction to Josephine (purely sexual) was mounting and I did not know what to do about all this. What made it especially confusing was that she was not giving me any feedback to indicate this was mutual. It wasn't or it was – I still don't know. I actually resolved to have it straight out in the open and tell her I was interested tonight when the three of us met the Eden employee Dennis to go to a Nepali movie "Afno Manche" (with a funny co-star named 'Dilip' somethingorother).

I told the Freak Street sandwich man what I had in mind and he tried to put some magic into my sandwich to help me. He also spoke of a charming American in town and then she walked in and was charming as hell (but not so sexy).

In the theater it dawned on me that this Swedish girl was as spectacularly immature as her 20 years would indicate. Drag. Also at dinner after asking me about my thoughts on religion etc and hearing the response she said "you are a deep talker" and meant that the same way another person might say "you are a bore." Ugh.

The wonderful costar in the movie made me think of the great Freak Street sandwich man. On the way back from the film I stopped in to have him make my third sandwich of the day (after saying goodnight to the girls with finality) and touching on the subject of the costar 'Dilip' got an unexpected reaction from the sandwich man – he said hurredly - "I don't like that guy Dilip, I think he looks like gay" with a grimace and an instant rearing of suprisingly hot emotion.

Good sandwich though.