Oops, Tenzing's on the left in that picture.

I'll sign off with a few more pics.
10/10

Tenzing, a sherpa with 7 Everest summits to his name (dude's on the list of people with most ascents)
9/

But safety standards are 2/10. I had a near-death experience at one point where I lost my footing after stepping into gravel and being brought down on all fours: desperately hung on for life, and cried for help before someone - not either of the guides - rescued me. The arrow marks where I slipped

Glad I also took my drone (DJI mini 3) along even though it meant lugging a heavier load. Got some jawdropping shots of one of the campsites that stood by a lake called Tulpar.

The hospitality and landscape are 10/10, no question. The trek views easily rivalled any great Himalayan trek. I got up to ~4800m and was constantly spellbound.
4/

Opulent throughout even on the mountainous terrain. They're perhaps the only people who still spend 6 months by choice every year in remote mountains. I'm quite pleasantly surprised that such a hardcore meat-eating peoples honoured my vegetarian food request. Salam to them.
3/

BBC and NYT choosing to highlight news about the new pope over two nuclear-armed nations going to war is...I don't know, I can't come up with the right adjectives to describe it

Geo TV, one of Pak army's any mouthpieces, claims "poweful" retaliation 🤣

Interestingly, Pak media claiming that they downed 5 Indian jets during last night's strikes. Sounds like an exaggeration but I guess we'll find out.

Hindi is very tricky with all its signs and symbols popping out of nowhere. I admire your attempt to learn it at all. What inspired it?

Btw, here's the google AI overview for halant (fairly accurate). It's usually used in the concluding letter of a word to kill the trailing अ sound.

The India-fication of the US -- business leaders prostrating themselves before the king -- is painful to see.