This bit of meandering happened some time ago. Can you believe it, over 20 years? Anyway, my good friend urged me to see some of the Himalayans and suggested I have a guide. I agreed somewhat reluctantly, but really enjoyed that trek. My guide constantly urged me to 'bistarai janohos' 'go slowly (up those trails)'. Going slowly worked for me, plus he was great company. We chatted in Nepali. During our trek we met two other Sherpas, one carrying a 25 kilo bag of rice and the other going to see family. I didn't learn any Sherpa that I can remember, but we did have a go at writing it. My guide couldn't write in his language, and when he learned that this kind of thing was what I was trained to do, we had at it. I can't say that we produced anything, but maybe it was an 'aha' experience for him. It was for me. The fuzzy picture is another story. I dropped my camera earlier and didn't know the mirror was misaligned. Some pics were okay some not. Go to my photos at Picasa Web for some other shots of that trip.

This was a fantastic trek through Kohistan just as snow started to fall for the season. My guide was much older than me, smoked and carried a bagful of apples, but kept right on going. I had been living in a village nearby at 8,000 ft, but took some time to get used to this altitude at 15,000 ft over the pass to Dir. Every once in a while MJ, my guide would pull out another apple for us both, I'd take another picture and we'd have a short break. We arrived in plenty of time to check into a visitor's lodge and get a meal for the evening.
Trekking to Dir from Kalam