Pisang to Manang

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It took us some time to get going today after a bitterly cold night at Lower Pisang. We woke early and drank several cups of hot tea to warm up. I decided that since the cold was getting serious I would revert to porridge for heat and energy. It came with chopped up apple throughout it for flavour which is good because otherwise it would just have been hot and flavourless! Maybe the altitude is affecting my taste? Anyway with what felt like a lead weight in my stomach we pulled on the boots, now looking suitably walked-in and dusty. I think I may have damaged a toenail on my left foot and have a blister on my right heel but other than that my feet are holding up pretty well. Clarisa's are fine too, she is having more of a stomach issue at the moment but is managing to hold it together quite well. As we sat last night in the lovely warmth of the dining room playing cards we noticed the porters and guides crowd round the stoves to keep nice and warm... good idea, we'll try this at Manang I think! We also had a chance to look at our maps we brought with us from Kathmandu. Judging by this we had a fairly easy day ahead of us and so we were slow packing up and moving out of the sunny breakfast/dining room. Unfortunately Sonam had other plans for us which involved several side trips for acclimatisation which he had neglected to mention! We headed off and had a nice gentle start to the walk on the lower route (great we thought, we had heard the upper route, although beautiful and worth the effort, was steep and took 3 hours longer) by this time with somewhat weary legs a bit stiff from the cold, an easier day seemed just what was needed. Weird in a way as we had both wanted to do the higher walk initially and simultaneously changed our minds when we saw it!! Sonam had decided though, because we had built in a necessary acclimatisation day in Manang, that the easier day would be tomorrow and today we'd do a couple of side trips. He has since explained the theory that if you tell a group of trekkers what is going to be attempted the next day, the various amounts of ascending and descending then they will lie awake worrying about it and how they will perform, if you tell them nothing then they'll just get on with it. Erm, yes I guess so.... but it was a suprise to divert from one side of steep valley to the other basically bisecting the contours at right angles and climbing up a fair old gradient for 45 minutes! He is mental! Our side trips indulged our new found love of Gompa's and Sonam's love of visiting and praying at remote caves. We visited Braga Gompa on the north side of the valley which is special in that it is over 500 years old. Here we ran into an American tourist who had basically staked out the whole gompa with his camera equipment. There was a massive tripod in the centre and he was walking around trying to get the lighting right in the rather shady small main room. Clarisa and I were a bit nervous about becoming part of his carefully planned home video of the Gompa but Sonam was having none of it and walked straight through to do his usual conch-blowing, drum-banging, water-flicking routine, good on you Sonam! He and Clarisa had little blessing and did one for me too which was sweet of them! I got to drink some water with what tasted like chilli in it from a little brass object which looked to me like Aladdin's lamp- ok so I have no idea what it was all about but it involves safeguarding our passage through the Himalayas and over the high pass. Aside from the camera guy, this place had quite an eerie feel and I could see why someone would want to capture the atmosphere there. After getting a few blurry shots of our own we left making a donation to it's upkeep. It's amazing that the remote little places are so caringly looked after and patronised by the local people, religion is still strong here at least for some.
Our second side trip was the Ney Guru Sang Phuk cave on south side of the valley, hence the straight down, straight up walk. To be honest the trek up was 45 minutes of uphill, zig-zag, icy hell! We saw a pure white chorten emerging out of the trees and Sonam started off towards it, ok it was only half way up the side... but once we had reached it and admired the views he got up again and with a sly smile started to bound off up the hill again at an even faster pace! Clarisa and I exchanged glances and continued up not knowing what we were going to find. The path got icier and soon snow was all around, we began to have the occasional slide just to add to the uphill fun and were about to turn round when we ran into some yak (or dak, not too sure) who gave a startled moo and suddenly all their neck bells were ringing! We had to have been the only people up there in ages! We climbed on amused by the way Sonam would perch somewhere waiting just to disappear from view again whenever we could see him. We arrived at the top rather jelly-legged to see a very big smile on his face. There we saw a giant golden statue of Guru Rinpoche, a Himalayan sage who is reputed to have spread the particular form of Buddhism known as Vajrayana to Bhutan and Tibet in the 8th century. Sonam told us a very long complicated by none-the-less entertaining story about Guru Rinpoche but i'm afraid I didn't make an effort to remember it after the 5th or 6th plot twist. It is a beautiful statue and one he believes arose there by itself without being made by man. Well it certainly does beggar belief how anyone could get this huge heavy statue so high up! It sits in a little enclave which again is remarkably clean and orderly given that it is so isolated and open to the elements. We stopped for a group photo and a quick drink on the top before contemplating the downhill. This was slippery and steep and there were a fair few bruises that afternoon, both of pride and physical ones! It was only on the downhill that I realised I had quite nasty headache like someone had my head in a grip, it improved as we headed back down the hill and was all but gone by the time we arrived in Manang early evening, altitude sickness possibly or just a touch of dehydration? We'll have to wait and see! Good thing is that we have our acclimatisation day tomorrow so will be sleeping at the same altitude, Manang is at 3540m.
We were surpised at the size of Manang, it seemed no larger than anywhere else we had stopped, yet we'd heard the name for days. We were expecting more buildings and hassle but were pleasantly surprised to find just one wide 'high street' lined with teahouses, guesthouses, shops and a bakery. It seems to be an administrational headquarters rather than anything else as there are several offices. We were too knackered that evening to do much exploring and were keen to get a much needed place by the stove to thaw out our feet! We had an interesting dinner, mine seemed to be some sort of wheat based material with beans and cheese on top which tasted very calorific, was very filling but most importantly hot! We drank tea and boiled water like there was no tomorrow and sat reading with our feet on the stove, bliss! It was quite quiet in the guesthouse, only one French couple having a very in depth discussion with their guide about their plans (made me laugh to imagine Sonam's discussions with us which amount to 'Get up at 7.00 yes? What do you want at breakfast?'😉 Our room backed onto a balcony/roof area with THE most amazing up close view of Gangapurna glacier, you felt as you could reach out and touch it! As the dark closed in around it, it loomed menacingly above us. I swear just the sight of it made me feel cold! What a fantastic spot to stay! Looking forward to exploring Manang tomorrow!

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