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We were welcomed at the airport today by Elsie James and Rakesh, from Ecological Treks and Tours. Elsie has been corresponding with me via email for almost a year now I think, and it was lovely to finally meet her. She is an energetic retiree from Canada who fell in love with Nepal in 1995 and has been half living here since then. She still treks avidly, and went on the Annapurna Circuit again last year.

Their office is above the Tashi Deleg Tibetan restaurant, where I enjoyed a bowl of thukpa (soup noodles) this time last year. We were very impressed by the professionalism of their company. Rakesh is married to a Korean woman, and speaks the language fluently, as we found out today when he was conversing with a Korean couple that came in!

We met our guide, Pratab, and our porter, Kaji, today. I think we will be very happy with them. We are off at 6am tomorrow on our first trek!