Thoughts and nonsense...

*I haven't paid more than $3 for a bed to sleep in for the entire hike
*most guesthouses make their money on food, so you are expected to eat at least two meals wherever you stay. Some places even will 'fine' you if you don't
*all of the menus are the same (with a few regional exceptions) and prices are set per village by the parks department. This is to prevent competition.
*day 3 of the hike was a 9 hour walk thorough fields of marijuana. Some of the plants were over 8 feet tall.
*me: what's a snickers roll?
Chef: it is like a spring roll, but snickers
Me: yeah, I'll definitely have to have one of those
*blue sheep are neither blue, nor sheep. They are small deer like things.
*I've gotten used to Iodine flavored water
*the micro climates here are incredible. Small changes in geography lead to huge changes in vegetation and way of life for the people
*walked for 4 days near a group of men carrying corrugated tin on their heads and backs. They were going an average of 20 km per day with about 165 lbs of tin. Suddenly my 45 lb pack doesn't seem too bad.
*one guesthouse owner played acoustic gnr for us while we ate.
*average number of hikers in August over the last 3 years: 550. In October: 5500. The clouds can be annoying when I want to see the mountains, but it is nice having quiet trails and not having to fight for a bed to sleep in.
*I've spent the last week hiking with a guy from France who just finished studying and working in Oz.
*he and I ate lunch at one spot with the smallest cook I've ever seen. I say this person was at least 18, Nick disagrees. Either way, the person was not taller than my waist.
*that same cook also played Justin Bieber's "baby" on repeat for an hour while we ate
*the trail has been fairly good for most of the hike. One iffy part had a sign warning of landslides, and then a sign saying "thanks" at the end. I guess as "thanks for not falling so we didn't have to come rescue you"
*my current plan is to finish out the trek in the next 5-6 days, spend a day or two in a lakeside village getting massages and spa treatments, then go back to Kathmandu and try to get on a sight seeing flight to see everest, then go to Malaysia for a few days before Indonesia.
*the below pic is out my hotel room window looking toward upper Mustang. The only way a person can go there is to buy a $500 permit for 10 days.