PRIME: How long were you actually in Nepal? Where did you stay? Skar: My trip lasted for three weeks. Nepal is a poor country with 28 million citizens. About 2 million of them live in the capital of Kathmandu where I resided. It was a very busy, congested, dusty city full of pollution from motorbikes and cars, which were constantly honking their horns. People drive on the left side of the street in Nepal (a custom left over from British rule in India) and you had to be very cautious when crossing the multilane busy streets (with no traffic lights!) The energy in this city was high and every street had open air shops and bazaars offering cloth, spices, meat, clothes, tea, beautiful handiwork and anything you needed for sale. Interestingly, the shopkeepers in Nepal have a two tier pay system: one for Nepali citizens and a higher one for foreigners. And, despite the language difference, you were expected to bargain! PRIME: What was the best part of the trip? Skar: Everything! PRIME: Can you give some specific examples? Skar: I was scheduled to fly alone out of Kathmandu to a small town called Pokhara to do some trekking in the Himalayas. The day of my departure, fog delayed my takeoff and I sat at a tiny, primitive airport trusting that my guide would be waiting for me when I arrived at my destination. I had no way of contacting him. He waited! After a very bumpy two-hour ride high into the mountains including a change of cars due to "bad petrol" my guide, Rohit, and I started climbing. Due to the elevation, the afternoon sun was very hot. We climbed past dry small patches of terraced land and primitive farms where people grow rice, wheat, corn and millet. Surprisingly, the trek was mostly on man-made stairs of stones! Along the way we met the heavy laden donkey caravan and women and men carrying huge logs or propane containers on bent backs. After hours of walking, I spotted a sign: 8848 steps to here and now you have 4252 left to Gandruk, my destination. By then it was late afternoon and we needed to reach Gandruk at 3000 meters elevation, by dark for the overnight stay. At dusk, I finally arrived at the guest house and quickly had the best hot (solar heated) shower (in a freezing bathroom,) I have ever had. I ate a small bowl of rice and settled in, exhausted, for the night, satisfied. I slept wearing all my hiking clothes, including my hat, windbreaker and gloves, tucked under two handmade, heavy blankets. At dawn I awoke in the utter silence of the cold mountain air and climbed another few hundred steps to see the sunrise over the Annapurna range. Pink sunlight scanned the ice capped mountains illuminating Machhapuchhre at almost 7000 meters, a holy mountain no climbers may scale. It was magnificent . the world stood still for a moment. The experience was truly awesome, and worth the exhaustion of the climb. (and the very painful, tender hamstrings I experienced for days afterwards!) PRIME: Was that your only solo foray in the country? Skar: No. My other solo trip was to the southern part of Nepal to Royal Chitwan National Park which borders India. I took part in an elephant safari into the hot, dense jungle. In this subtropical climate, I saw rhinos close up and lots of wildlife. In the early morning mist I took a (wobbly) canoe trip in a wood vessel carved out of one large tree trunk. It lay low in the river. A single oarsman stood steady, barefoot at the back guiding me. Right next to us on the riverbank rested huge crocodiles, waiting for the sun to warm them while colorful birds chirped to welcome another day. This became both a magical and a mystical ride.