On the way to the Himalaya's.

Last night, we were treated to an amazing dinner by the trekking company I am using for Bhutan. 5 of us ate at a restaurant called Usval. It was traditional Nepalese food, song and dance. Really fun. 
This morning, bright an early, we left by van for Pohkara. Getting out of Kathmandu was a challenge, the streets are very crowded in the morning, with cars and scooters and trucks and buses and people. And we were in a van. We finally got out of the city and started down the mountain. And down, and down, and down, (times a million). It was all switchbacks, and for the first several kilometers, we saw a lot of broken down, or vehicles with accidents or running out of gas. Not exactly reassuring. The road was usually big enough for 2 vehicles, and I remained grateful that we were on the mountain side of the road, not the cliff side. I just kept looking at the scenery, some amazing landscaping allowing the farmers to farm the entire mountain. The mountains was cleared, and then hand stepped for planting. I made an attempt at photos, but the road was so bad that the bumps make it hard to see. Plus, we were still near Kathmandu, and the air is really bad.
As we got further down the mountain, more traditional Nepalese villages appeared. The clothing was more traditional, the homes more traditional, and we saw more and more of what the Nepalese countryside really looked like. The colors are amazing. The reddest reds I have ever seen.
And then suddenly, (actually about 4 hours later), the clouds turned to mountains and we were at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains. They are so high up and so majestic that it took me a minute to realize that they were not clouds!
Now we are in Pohkara, a lovely town that surrounds a lake. We will be here for 2 days and then up to Dhampus for the convention. The air is clean, the guest house has great internet, and when the power is on, all is well.