Back in Kathmandu at the end of the Langtang trek. Before we reached the trailhead, Lance, Todd, his friend, and I bathed in a pool safe from the river rapids. We toweled off in the bright sunlight, glad to be clean for the first time in over a week. My towel bore the image of my dirty facee like the Shroud of Turin. I gave it to one of the porters along with most of my filthy socks. They were stiff wih sweat. I was sad about leaving the trek and returning to the modern world. I wish I could have continued trekking into Tibet in search of Shangrillah. The mythical valley from the novel LOST HORIZON. I don'the have enough money to keep in pursiuit of paradise. after Kathmandu, a short flight to New Dehli and a long trip to Paris then London and New York. Around the world in more than eighty days. Standing on the dirt road i heard a truck. The first mechanized noise in ten days. the tires crumbling over the rocks. a plum of dust in the air.The modern world. The end of the illsuon of another time. Someone somehwere said that the land behind me had inspired Tolkien to write THE LORD OF THE RINGS, but the Sherpas aren't Hobbits. Farewell to yaks, shepaas and the Himalayas. Next year I will be bacK. To Annapurna and the rain shadow.
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