Kathmandu, Nepal

I slept well in to the morning and almost to noon, still feeling the effects of last night; sure I had several beers (four I think, each 650 ml) and a bottle of wine (750 ml), but I’ve had that and more in the past, which means it was either my nearly empty stomach not being able to handle the load or that wine was more than 5% alcohol; oh well, I ended up taking it easy today and stayed in the hostel most of the day. Eventually, I did go out and I walked to the North Face and Marmot stores (the legitimate ones that sell real products, not like all the counterfeit products you find everywhere in Kathmandu) to buy some clothing for my planned trek around the Annapurna Sanctuary. After having read the terrible news about twenty-eight confirmed deaths on the Annapurna Circuit due to a blizzard and avalanches, I wanted to make sure I was well prepared. After shopping for clothes, I then walked back to the hostel and hung out until it was time for dinner; I then walked to a nearby restaurant and had spaghetti with tomato sauce and an Everest beer (another Nepali beer that I prefer over Gorkha). After dinner, I went back to the hostel, hung out, talked with the staff and a German man who is also in the same dorm room.

The whole day I felt ashamed and lucky to be alive following last night’s odyssey; apparently I have a penchant for wandering on foot around cities past midnight while heavily intoxicated – Albuquerque, El Paso, Memphis, Patong, Chaweng, and now Kathmandu. Fuck my life.