Read Part I here.
Just the pictures.
Before I continue, I want to make something perfectly clear. When I said that the trails are just the roads that Nepali people use to move around between the mountain villages, I don't want to suggest that the roads are flat or paved or in any way easy to get around on. There are the cut stone stairs (made of slate taken from the mountains), which makes steep ascents and descents possible, and on the "flat" ground there are usually stones of some kind to keep the roads from falling apart, but they are still very rough (see an example of one of the nicer sections of the road here). These walks are not for the faint-hearted (James, I'm looking your direction), but we did see a woman being carried on the back of a porter in a special chair, followed by another porter carrying her wheel chair (so James, maybe Meghan can carry you on her back!). The walks also aren't too difficult, since the trails are well marked and you don't need special gear or climbing tools... we just wore sneakers and the same clothes every day. And since you stay in lodges, you don't need a tent or food, just a water filter or Iodine (or money to buy tons of bottles of waters, which as I discussed before, is something we're not interested in). Because the trails are really just roads, J and I always laugh at the people who are walking around in huge hiking boots and gore-tex jackets and huge 50 L bags and separate day bags and titanium walking poles, etc.... it's a joke. I'm not sure what these people think they're getting in to, but I assure you, you can do this with just a light water-proof jacket, a fleece, pants, a t-shirt, sunglasses, a sun hat, a warm hat, and tennis shoes.
I also want to mention, since this doesn't appear anywhere in my journal, that the weather and views were pristine for the entire 7-day trek. It was a bit chilly most nights, but during the day, the sun was always out, the sky was so blue you couldn't believe your eyes, and the hugest mountains in the world were just a few miles away... Really, we couldn't ask for better weather that what we had. It was usually around 75 F during the day when we were walking, and although it usually started to get cloudy in the evening, at night the full moon (or nearly-full moon) illuminated the mountains to give us a totally different view than we had during the day.
Finally, instead of including pictures in the actual entry, I've linked to them in the text, so when you see a link on this entry, they all go to pictures of the things I'm talking about. Not all the pictures are linked, however, so feel free to read and click pics as they come along, but also to look at all the pics I've posted (only 23 more than yesterday) when you're done (see above).
Day 4 - 6.Nov
To lower Chomrong (~2100 m)
Start time: 9 am
Lunch: Noon (1 hr in Taglung; good Daal Bhat)
Finish: 315 pm
Dinner: 6 pm (excellent Daal Bhat!)
Started the day with monkey watching (pic is of the comon langur) in Tadopani before taking a steep descent through a mossy oak forest. We soon emerged in an open river valley (pic) with terraces on all sides. We climbed up and down (as usual!) two ridges before cutting across the tops of 2 more ridges and then reaching Chomrong. Since most of the scenery was terraced farm land, it was uninspiring to me (compared to the previous 2 days), but J enjoyed it a bunch and I must admit that it was somewhat interesting for the sheer amount of terracing. Justine also picked up a tomato that grows on trees here, and is used to make the spicy pickeled stuff in the daal baht, which I don't personally like. But when we tried the tomato fresh, it was quite delicious; simultaneously spicy, sweet, and juicy.
The last climb we had, just after lunch, was probably the steepest set of stair we've ever seen: we climbed at least 6 or 700 m in only a 1 km distance! This wasn't the usual road to Chomrong, but a landslide had destroyed the old trail, so we had to follow a new one up to the top of the ridge. On the plus side, most of the rest of the hike after that was on a nice soft dirt path, not the slate stones, which made it seem more like hiking and less like walking the porters' road. We also met up with the German couple from yesterday's lodge on the trail, and we walked and talked with Birget for much of the day (her husband had blazed on ahead, as he's trying to make it to Ann. Base Camp in four days).
Day 5 - 7.Nov
To Jinhu Danda
Start time: 9 am
End time: 10 am
To the hot springs
Start time: 1030 am
End time: 1115 am
A short walk downhill from Chomorong today took us to the tiny village (with only 3 lodges!) of Jinhu Danda. Our hotel was a "short" 45-minute walk (pic) down to the river and 3 natural hot springs (pic). The springs are man-made pools (of slate stone... what else?) that collect the hot water that comes right out of the side of the mountain). We bathed in them for about an hour before it got cloudy and started to rain (just as we made it back to the hotel!). Besides Bharat and the pool's donation collector, we were the only ones there to enjoy the springs and the views from the bottom of the steep canyon were amazing, with lush greenery on all sides! At night, it got really cold and we drank about 3 pots of hot chocolate and played Big 2 and gin for hours.
Day 6 - 8.Nov
To Deurali
Start time: 830 am
Lunch: Noon (1 hr in Landruk)
End time: 5 pm(!)
The longest and possibly the toughest day on our trip, we finished with 2 hrs. of stairs (maybe we climbed a thousand or more for 1 km uphill) up to Deurali. This extra-long session was designed to have us avoid any climbing for tomorrow, our last day. The terrain today was quite diverse, beginning with a climb down to the river, which housed lush nearly-tripical vegetation and huge bolders in the areas nearby the water flow. A slow climb through a thinly-packed forest brought us to terraced hillsides above the river (probably 500 m up) and back towards civilization (Landruck is quite a large village). All around us, as far as the eye could see, the hill were being farmed and grazed, and whereas most of the morning Annapurna South and Hiunchuli were in clear view out the western end of the canyon, from the terraces the mountains fully disappeared until we reached Deurali. In addition, because we walked so long and so late, the sun was mostly down by the time we finished climbing the steps to Deurali, so we were sweaty but freezing because it was dark and the wind picked up a bunch. Although we both "showered" (using a bucket of hot water each) when we got to the lodge, it wasn't until we got into the dining hall where the fire was that we began to warm up.
At the lodge, we met a nice Australian chap named Greg, and his porter/guide named Prim, who joined us in playing Big 2 with Bharat. The food was good, the fire hot, and the babies (of the lodge owners) were super cute! In the morning, we ate pancakes, muslei, potatoes, and Justine just had to order some apple pie!
Day 7 - 9.Nov
Back to Pokhara
Start time: 945 am
Lunch: 130 pm (Phedi)
Took a taxi back to Pokhara and arrived at our hotel (pic) at 230 pm
A rather boring walk down from Deurali through Dampus (pic), which has gorgeous views of the whole Annapurnas, to Phedi was somber and sad. Worst of all was the 20-minute walk down the road at the end of the trail to the Phedi and the HORRIBLE daal bhat at the restraunt while we waited for our taxi (the rice tasted like cigarette smoke... blech!). After so many good meals, slience, stunning views, and clean air, it's a total bummer to be back in the world. Even yesterday was a sad reminder that the trip was ending, as we were greeted with numerous "one rupee, pen, sweet?" calls from the kids in Landruck.* We also saw several groups of trekkers numbering 12 or more making noise and carrying around their huge bags and shoes, which was another sad reminder that our time here is done.
* These are the usual things that kids in Nepal beg for, even though they rarely need food or pens for school. It seems that some tourists, rather than giving money, started giving out candy and pens, or letting kids try on their sunglasses. This means that now, every child in Kathmandu and Pokhara demands that you give them something, whether or not they even need it. It turns out that the kids just turn around and sell the pens to other tourists, and it has become quite annoying. It had been days since we had heard these calls, so Landruck was a powerful reminder that we were almost back.
It's strange that I really feel as if part of myself is left back in those mountains for me to come back and rediscover. I spent a lot of time in my head these last 2 days and I've come to two conclusions that are probably the same thing:
1) I'd like to be more giving of myself and my time. [Part of the reason we started volunteering at the Nepal Children's Welfare Association after our trek, though we had planned to do this, anyway... see Part I and we'll have another post about this later.]
2) The world is so huge, but people aren't so separate.
Basically, we saw that people here and everywhere (cities and villages in Nepal, China, Japan, America) live and breathe and work the same as you. They might do different things, but you really get a chance to see that you're the same. You meet other travellers, too, and they instantly know you and bring a sense of community, trust, and belonging. Really, you are the same as everyone else and to do wrong or harm to others (or to hold grudges) is to do wrong and harm to yourself. How can you live if you can't forgive yourself? How can you survive if you don't give to yourself? It seems silly or maybe obvious now that I'm writing it, but I can't express in words here how I really do feel more connected to other people through this trekking and all of our travelling experiences.
Day 8 - 10.Nov
Dinner at Bharat's (see here for pictures) in Pokhara.
Bharat cooked us Daal Bhat tonight, and it was possibly the best dinner we've had this whole trip! Here's how it breaks down (Bharat, please correct me if I made any mistakes in the ingredients!):
-Tons of spinach/chard, chopped. Cook in a bit of water with oil, salt, chopped onion, and shredded garlic and ginger
-Daal/lentil soup, cooked and served plain with a bit of oil, salt, and termuric.
-Veggies, cubed potatos, cauliflour, minced onion, shredded garlic and ginger, salt, turmeric and cumin. Fry in a bit of oil the potatos with the onion and salt. Add the cauliflour and other ingredients when the potatos are half-way finished and add a bit of water, if necessary, to soften them.
-Sauce (Baan?), Hemp seeds, toasted (substitute with toasted almonds in the States where hemp isn't available?). Fry some tomatos with chili powder, garlic, and cumin. When done, blend the tomatos with the seeds/nuts until smooth... add water if necessary. (This was the tastiest part of the meal!)
-Plain white rice.
-Pickeled stuff that was made before we got there.
Serve all together on a huge plate and enjoy!
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