Is this heaven? No it's Nagarkot.

Well, perhaps Nagarkot's not heaven, but after one month in the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu, it feels a bit like it. Nagarkot is a small village in the mountains ringing the Kathmandu Valley. We are above 7,000 feet, surrounded by pine tree forest and have a view of rolling mountains to the north and east. If the clouds clear a bit, we're supposed to have clear views of the Himalayas far to the north. Being out of Kathmandu means, best of all, that we've escaped the smog. And the honking. And the traffic jams. The trip, however, got off in typical Nepali fashion when our driver, hired days ago specifically to transport us to Nagarkot, realized that he'd forgotten to get gas and had already started to climb into the mountains. So back we went in search of a gas pump. After getting what appeared to be a thimble full (less that a quarter tank) we were back on the "road." As an apology, I believe, he stopped and bought us some locally bottled water...that may or may not give us diarrhea. As usual I drank some for Elyse, to look like she had some, then drank my own. We'll see how I feel in about six hours. Now that's taking one for the team.

Twenty miles and two and a half hours later (no exaggeration) we reached our destination. It was definitely worth the detour and the wait. Currently I'm sitting in a cozy common area in our guest house: The Hotel at the End of the Universe. The only thing better than its name is its physical setting. The "HATEOTU" perches atop the tallest hill in Nagarkot providing us fantastic vistas in all directions. Rustic wooden cabins dot the hilly property. Amongst the low profile buildings are gardens, sitting areas, and, at the pinnacle, a small Hindu shrine. The common room is all dark wood, stone and windows. It also serves as the hotel bar, restaurant, and WI-FI hotspot. Perfect! Our little room upstairs is simple and small. Basically it's a bed with walls. Seriously. The bed has walls on three sides. It's like a big boat cabin. But two of those walls are windows, so the view is pretty great. And it only runs us about $20 per night. The plan for our time here is to read, hike, relax and breathe clean air. We will revel in the silence and the cool mountain air. It may not be heaven, or even the field of dreams, but I'm glad they built it, because we came.