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Chicken Run
Enroute to Bagarchap Let me tell you a little bit about Hari. Hari is 48 years old, father of 4 and has worked as a porter in the Himalayas all his life. He has recently developed his English and wants to become a guide. On this particular jaunt, Haris is acting as porter-guide carrying my 60L pack and offering insight where possible into local culture. Up until today Hari has been doing his thing, leading us both in the right direction, moving himself and my pack (and his own daypack) steadily onward and upwards in outstanding heat and without it seems even breaking into a sweat. Hari is eager to please and always ready to share a smile and a joke. Tonight we arrived in Bagarchap, a small village right on the doorstep of some of the bigges mountains on the planet. Annapurna II should be visible from our guesthouse room at dawn.
We have had a very tough day. We are now at almost 2200m and climbed over 600m today. We crossed the river several times todayincluding a particularly difficult crossing to Karte over a very long and in my opinion dangerously high suspension bridge, A small Nepali boy seemed to sense
Hari inebriated
The local brew packs some punch my discomfort and escorted me across seeing as Darren and Hari dashed across oblivious to my plight. I rewarded him with 2 very tasty sweets which he tucked away somewhere on his person lke a small human hamster.
Today involved a lot of waiting around, there seemed to be a lot of donkeys on the trail today and where the path is not so wide it's best to stand aside and let the procession of serious weight bearing creatures pass without hindrance. They seemed particularly flactulant today as well, one beast very nearly blew me clean off the face of the cliff I was so shocked at the wind it did pass. Other highlights of the day are that we are now in Manang district having crossed from Lanjung district earlier this morning. Amongst others we passed through the villages of Tal Phedi, Khotro, Karte and Dharaphani and we arrived in Bagarchap at the 'Eco Holiday Home' at around 5pm.
Anyway, back to Hari. I was very tired on arrival at Bagarchap tonight and I decided I would treat myself to a beer (beer is gtting more expensive as we go higher - it all has to come
Weed
Darren takes an unhealthy interest in some of the local flora by mule up the mountain afterall). I offered Hari a glass and Daz had one too. 3 hours later I'm chatting with Thor of Denmark and Derek of Poland in the tea house and Daz nips in after having a smoke: 'Hari is absoluely steaming-he's been on the local brew'. Hari shortly after appears at the teahouse door and bids the whole dining area goodnight. I'm intrigued so invite him over for a nightcap. 3 minutes later Hari is kissing my hand, rubbing my knee and telling me 'You are in my heart! I love you!' before laughing uncontrollably. Thor and Darren sitting on the oher side of the table were enjoying the whole scene immensely whilst I was trying to calm Hari's enthusiasm a little. Hari insisted that photo's be taken at this point. A group of 8-9 Nepali lads were laughing along to the whole episode as well as they were getting stuck into their Dal Baht.
I'm hoping Hari is fit enough for our 7.30 start in the morning. We're not yet at 3500m which can trigger altitude sickness headaches so good old Hari won't be able to blame his raging hangover on that tommorow morning...
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JJ
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Eating Well
All sounds exhilarating, would like to say though judging by the pictures you are both eating very well (could it be the munchies?). Dazza must be in his element £2.00 a night for a room. Take care