Dancing at Ghunsa

Once again, the author of Dreaming Kathmandu is trekking at the roof of the world. This time, his feet and his guides take him to various remote villages in the Himalaya along the track from Kathmandu to Kanchenjunga. In Dancing at Ghunsa, he shares with us the beauty, the silence, and the camaraderie with his guide, porter, and cook, as well as the local people in whose homes they stayed. The author reveals his often hilarious internal chatter and private thoughts, describing his experiences with sheer poetry: The sun erumpent is not yet over the proximate valley rim, yet it has lassoed the snowy summits of the surrounding mountains and set them ablaze with morning light. Initially, the trail walks gently, but turns to wary walking as we hop across creeks that trickle and murmur beneath thin skins of ice. This book is the next best thing to actually being there; in fact, the reader might well decide to forgo the cold, the vertigo, the sore muscles, and the uncertainties of actually being there. Glenn Miller has done it for us, and a very good job, too.