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Published: August 9th 2008
Trekking!
Steps...thousands of them!We survived! And it was amazing! We were extremely lucky with weather and views and we had a great time! We started trekking every day between 6:30-7:30 depending on how long of a day we had and ended between 2:30-5 with usually 1.5 hour break for lunch. So our days were pretty long, but we weren't going terribly fast, instead choosing to enjoy the views and experience the Himalayas. Plus we were at a pretty high elevation so we didn't want to go too fast.
Okay, here goes... We spent the night in Pokhara before we left. Nice beds with mattresses, warm showers, electricity, basically luxury. The first day of our trek (Natapul-1765 m to Tikhedhunga-1600 m) was hot because we were still at a low elevation. It was pretty gradual uphill, not too many steps. After lunch it started raining. That's what happens in monsoon season! It wasn't completely pouring though so it took probably half an hour for us to be soaked through our rain jackets. Our guesthouse didn't have a fire or anything to dry clothes and the air is so damp that nothing dried overnight. Even quick-dry clothes! That's kind of how it was the whole trek.
If there was a heater we had dry clothes, if not, they stayed damp. The first evening it got cold enough to put on a fleece! A novel idea for Nepal! It was amazingly exciting! The little things in life...
Day 2 (Tikhedhunga-1600 m to Ghorepani-2870 m) we stayed dry! It didn't start raining until after we arrived at our guesthouse! Amazing! This was the longest stairs day. Basically we just climbed stairs all day long. It wasn't bad though because it was pretty and we all know each other well enough by now that we have stuff to talk about. And now after hiking and talking together for 9 days we know each other even better! We had conversations ranging from our home states/countries to the US presidential election and from bands and movies to global warming. It's crazy the kinds of topics that come up! And of course we talked about food. It's really sad how much we talked about food. We're only gone 5 weeks and we already miss stuff! I actually really enjoy the Nepalese food and I have 5 months to go so I don't like thinking about missing food yet. I'm excited for fruit
in Thailand though! We didn't get any on the trek. I also got some travel advice for Ecuador and Singapore! Kenny lives in Singapore so he told me a bunch of good places to go and Colin (our tour leader) was in Ecuador for a year and a half. Firsthand advice! Always the best kind!
Alright, back to the trek... Day 3 (Ghorepani-2870 m to Tadapani-2721 m) we were supposed to get up at 4 and hike up Poon Hill to see the sunrise but it was raining so we slept in instead. At 5:30 I woke up and glanced out the window and I could see a mountain so I went out to investigate. The night before we had seen a great white expanse of fog. In the morning it had cleared up to reveal a gorgeous mountain range! It wasn't a magnificent sunrise, but it was still pretty! Everyone else soon joined me to take in the view. We hiked up a ridge in the morning and as we hiked the sky got clearer and clearer and the visible mountains kept multiplying. This was one of the most spectacular hiking days because of the view. We stopped at
Machha Pucchre
View from Basecamp the top of the ridge for a while to just admire the mountains. Being from Alaska I think I've probably seen the most mountains out of our group, but I still love them! They're always different, different lighting, different landscapes, and it was the Himalayas so it was amazing! The Himalayas are more jungly than hiking in Alaska. More tropical and humid I guess. Our afternoon hike reminded me of hiking at Drift Creek Camp in Oregon, so basically big trees, rivers, gorgeous. The guesthouses, starting on day 3 and continuing for most of the rest of the trek, were very basic. Some had electricity, some didn't. The walls were basically just sheets of plywood so we could have conversations with people 3 rooms down while lying in our beds. It was actually kind of cool because then we could all talk together. I'm really glad we weren't camping though! With the monsoon rains we would never have been anything even resembling dry!
Day 4 (Tadapani-2721 m to Sinuwa) was one of our longest days. We didn't get to our guesthouse until after 5 and the last hour or 2 was in pouring rain. We had a lot of both
uphills and downhills. The downhills were basically just endless steps, which end up killing calves and knees. Luckily we didn't have too long of downhills so we all survived. We always hate going down though because it feels like we're undoing all the work we just did going up! We were basically climbing over big hills/ridges everyday so we go up and over and then down the other side, cross the river generally, and then back up another ridge. The paths weren't always just steps though like we were expecting, so it was actually pretty nice hiking! I think I've mentioned before how nothing drys, but it keeps appearing in the notes I took to remind myself of what happened each day so I guess I'll mention it again. Really though, nothing dried! Our guesthouse on day 4 had its own ecosystem in the bathroom! Basically the walls and toilet were covered with moths and other insects. And when I saw covered I mean covered! Once it got dark we had to be careful to have our doors shut when we turned on the lights so that our rooms didn't become even more infested! Moths don't bite though so we weren't too bothered.
Everything on the trek was way more expensive than anywhere else in Nepal because it has to be transported so far. Still not ridiculous compared to the US but about 5 times more expensive than anywhere else in Nepal.
Day 5 (Sinuwa to Deurali-3230 m) was more gradual hiking. Not as extreme ups and downs. The steps were more scattered and it was overall an easier day. We saw some big glacial rivers and a bunch of waterfalls! It sprinkled for the whole afternoon but I don't mind sprinkling. It's actually refreshing when we're hot from hiking! We didn't have a heater in the evening and we were at a higher elevation, so we were actually cold! Even with fleeces on! Our sleeping bags were warm enough though that we were fine once we went to bed. Most of the food is fried because there aren't ovens or anything besides camp stoves. I was tired of greasy food so I got the dal bhat for dinner and it was the best meal so far! Definitely the way to go! Today we also saw some crazy strong Nepalese workers! Food and building supplies all have to be carried up on peoples’ backs since that’s really the only way to get in there. These men were carrying long rectangles of wood on their backs! They had to walk sideways so that the wood wouldn’t run into the hillside. It was over 15 feet long and weighed over 150 pounds easy. It was extremely impressive! They were carrying the wood to do repairs on 2 guesthouses that had been almost completely decimated by landslides. Guess which guesthouses? The ones right on either side of where we were staying! Not very reassuring…
Day 6 (Deurali-3230 m to Annapurna Base Camp-4095 m) we reached Annapurna South Basecamp. The trail up was probably the nicest one of the whole trek! It was uphill most of the time but it was gradual and there weren’t many steps. It followed a glacial river and we could hear the waterfalls even if we couldn’t see them. There were a bunch of big glacial rocks and nice flowers. We were basically in a cloud all day and it drizzled off and on but not too much. We reached basecamp by noon in time for lunch, so it was a shorter day. Then we had all afternoon for it to clear up. It did eventually for about 10 minutes. Gorgeous! And then immediately clouded back in. Within about 15 seconds. One minute clear, the next clouds! The basecamp is in an ampitheater so basically we were surrounded by mountains on all sides! The Himalayas are similar to Alaskan mountains, but they’re the Himalayas so for me it’s another whole level of cool! I still can’t believe I was trekking in the Himalayas! It got freezing in the evening! Actually it was cold all afternoon. We wore all our warm clothes and covered up with duvets from the guesthouse while we sat in the main room and played cards and talked. The back of the room was only netting and then the room behind was missing a wall so basically the cold air was constantly coming in. But with the duvets, hot drinks, and all our body warmth added together we were warm enough.
The morning of day 7 (Annapurna Base Camp-4095 m to Sinuwa) we woke up to sun and a spectacular view! Even better than the night before! Even the porters and guides were taking pictures and they do this trek all the time so that’s really saying something! The mountains we were surrounded by were Annapurna South (hence the name of the base camp), Machha Puchhre (Fishtail), Gandharba Chuli, Baraha Shikhar, and Annapurna 1. All amazing! Machha Pucchre looks the coolest from far away, but Annapurna South was really impressive up close. Today was another long day. We left at 6:45 and didn’t arrive until after 4. The morning was pretty nice but then we had rain in the afternoon. Pretty hard rain, more than just a drizzle, but still not pouring. We did mostly downhill today, but also a pretty long uphill at the end. Our guesthouse was luxury! There was a heater to dry out our clothes and a hot shower! The rooms didn’t feel completely damp, they were big, and there was electricity!
Day 8 (Sinuwa to Landruk-1565 m) was mostly downhill. We had lunch at a hot springs (Jwinu). And by hot springs I really mean it was a really small pool of water about 1.5 feet deep that was completely infested with leeches! The two people who went in first got bitten so the rest of us never really got in past our knees. We still got bitten though on the half hour hike from the lunch spot to the hot springs. Leech bites bleed a lot! I had one on my toe and in the 10 minutes or so that it took to eat lunch I made a puddle on the floor! Sophie and Colin had the most and the worst leech bites. At the end of the day it honestly looked like Sophie’s legs and feet had been in a war! The trail was nice on both days 8 and 9. Lots of little bridges that we sufficiently bounced and a lot of waterfalls. We even followed the river for a while so the trail was flat!
Day 9 (Landruk-1565 m to Pokhara) was the worst for leeches. They were honestly everywhere! Every time we stopped there would be at least 10 leeches on our boots crawling their way to our ankles and down into our socks. We all got bitten multiple times. We finally gave up trying to get them off our boots as we went because there were just too many of them. We would wait until we felt them bite and then quickly pull them off before they had a chance to inject any anti-coagullant. But we still got bitten. Needless to say, our socks were rather bloody by the end of the day. It rained all day until the last little bit when we had finally descended below the cloud level. We made it back to Pokhara in the afternoon after a successful 9 day trek in the Himalayas!
In the evening our group and our porters and guide all went out in Pokhara to celebrate our success. The banana crepes were amazing and there was live music. The singer wasn’t very good but they played good songs! Mostly English ones that all of us knew so of course we all sang along. It was a lot of fun!
I need to talk about litter and garbage. It is everywhere in Nepal! People just throw wrappers on the ground as they're walking and it really makes it look dirty. It wasn't as bad in Annapurna because it's a park, but there was still some. A couple of us tried to pick it up sometimes but we didn't get it all. Kathmandu there's litter everywhere and random heaps of garbage. And not little ones, they're huge! You can tell it's where everyone dumps their garbage from their houses!
Friday bright and early we got a bus back to Kathmandu. Our last few days we’re back in Thamel doing last minute shopping, laundry, eating, relaxing, and enjoying each others’ company. Today is Saturday and that’s what we’ve been doing all day. Tonight is our last group dinner and then tomorrow we all head off to the airport. I’ve been extremely spoiled with this group! Everyone is amazing and I’m really lucky to have gotten to start out my year with them! The other groups are going to have a lot to live up to…
I’m finally caught up! Enjoy the pictures!
Now it’s off to Thailand!
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Kallie
non-member comment
WOW! This sounds incredible! Trekking in the Himalayas it sounds like something that people in movies do!! Im jealous except the leeches sound gross ;-/ but I suppose hiking in the Himalayas would make up for it! I hope Thailand is just as amazing!