A night with mice

I am writing this message from Mount Shivapuri. I am in some kind of storage house with one big room full of mattresses and blankets.

I am alone.

I am not very sure of the purpose of this house. It is one of the four houses that you can find at the peak of the mountain. I’ve been told that a great spiritual guide was living here and that this house is used for his disciple to sleep. But either they haven’t been here for months, or they really don’t care about things being tidy, or both, because that’s quite a messy place. Mice are running around, and I am here in the middle of this in my sleeping bag. Quietly writing to you. Despite the appearances, I feel good here. It’s quite warm and protected from the wild animals outside in the forest.

How did I get there?

Maybe because of this Russian woman whom we are hosting these days through CouchSurfing, who offered me to join her and another friend of hers in this overnight mountain expedition. And maybe because I was too scared to sleep outside with them without a tent in the middle of a forest I know nothing about. Maybe because I told them I would prefer to sleep in this house instead, and that it was OK if they left me there while they would have gone for a 25 minutes walk in complete darkness in this forest. A forest which – I have been told – is unsafe at night because there are bears and black panthers. Also, I think it is going to rain.

So that’s maybe why I am here.

Posted from Budhanilkantha, Central Region, Nepal.