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The stomach problem that started yesterday continued to improve today, but I appear to have contracted a head cold as well. No fair! Only one illness at time, please.
We left Muktinath at around 7:30 am and started on the journey towards Marpha, our destination for the day. The trekking has become very different in character. First of all, this side of the mountains is much drier. Secondly, the trek is now largely on a dirt road. There is not much traffic on the road which is a good thing because every passing vehicle kicks up clouds of dust and exhaust for us to breathe. Whenever possible, Kapil would take us off the road on short cut trails. For one stretch we walked in the flood plain of the Kali Gandaki River, a large braided channel river. Along the way, we had great views of the mountains Dahlugiri and Nilgiri.
Things were going well until about 10 am when a strong head wind kicked up. According to Kapil, the wind starts blowing upstream on the Kali Gandaki river valley every day from 10 am to 3 pm when it calms briefly and then reverses direction. I'm not sure how
fast the wind was blowing, but it strong enough that walking into the gusts was difficult and when the wind hit you from the side, it caused you to stumble. The wind also kicked up a lot of dust, and even wearing sunglasses, I still got dirt in my eyes. I'm glad that with an early start tomorrow, we will have at least a couple wind free hours of hiking. According Kapil, after tomorrow's stop in Kalopani, we won't have any more strong winds on the trek, thank goodness.
We stopped in Jomsom briefly for lunch and to use the internet a bit. Jomsom is a fairly large, bustling town with an airport having a paved runway no less!
After another hour's walk, we arrived in Marpha. Marpha is the apple capital of Nepal. Much like Washington state, Marpha took advantage of its dry, cool climate and access to irrigation water to create a successful agricultural industry of apples and other crops. Apple orchards and other crop fields surround the town. The prosperity of the town is readily apparent as the streets are completely lined with flat stones (no dirt streets here) and the sewage runs through channels
under the stones.
We checked into the Snow Leopard hotel and immediately ran into Katrine and Andre. Lee and Seo were also staying the hotel, as well as Ville and Anna and an American-South African couple that we had met on the second day of the trek. Andre and Katrine had put their foot down with their guide Gautan, not having been impressed with his previous choices of lodging, and requested that they pick the hotel in Marphe. They had a guide book that stated that the Snow Leopard hotel had really good food, and the guidebook was certainly right! I on the other hand, had learned to trust Kapil's choices for lodging because they were always good!
After a shower and a Snickers, I took a walk around the town. The people selling souvenirs here were very aggressive. I can't blame them because it is the off season and they don't get a lot of business right now. I could be wrong, but I also suspect that many of them are Tibetan refugees. But the hassling got old quick, so I headed up to the monastery. Inside, I could hear monks chanting in the main temple. I
did not go inside so as not to disturb them, but listened from outside for a while. It was very interesting to hear the chanting. I could not pick out an order to what they were saying, but every once in a while it seemed that the style of chanting would change in unison. I walked around the monastery a bit, which was very clean and well kept, and then headed back to the hotel. I arrived just in time to see Katrine, Andre, Seo, and Lee drinking cider. Lee generally does not drink alcohol because he lacks the enzyme necessary to digest it. Consequently, upon drinking the smallest amount of alcohol, he turns bright red in the face and has to go take a nap. And sure enough, that's what happened after he drank a small glass of cider! For dinner I had very good spaghetti with tomatoes and mushrooms. Katrine and Andre's apple crumble looked so good that I ordered one of those as well. I love trekking. When else can you eat two candy bars, drink a soda, and have apple crumble in a single day and still not put on a load of fat?! I will
have to be careful not to continue eating this way after the trek is over!
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