martaandbruce

November 8, 2008 Saturday Day 19 Today is the last day of actual trekking - back to Jomsom. And on Sunday we catch a morning flight to Pokara. We stayed at Hotel Nightingale in Muktanath last night. It’s a rather large hotel and all the rooms were full. Our room door opened off the roof. We met an American expatriate named Susan whose room was also on the roof and was actually set aside as a temple or meditation room. She is on a spiritual quest to Muktinath and was rather pleased with her room. We enjoyed having dinner with her and talking with her about her 15 years of living and traveling in Asia. She studied linguistics and anthropology in California and came to Asia to teach English as a 2nd language after one or ... read more

November 5, 2008 Wednesday 2:30 p.m. Marpha Day 16 Dilman just came to us (we’re sitting on a sunny rooftop of the Dhaulagiri Guest House in Marpha) to tell us that Obama has won the election. Tomorrow we’ll be in Kagbeni and should be able to catch some news on the internet. It was quite cloudy yesterday; a few drops of rain fell during lunch, but then stopped while we walked through Lajung and into the neighboring town of Kharbang, also referred to as Khobang where we stopped at a very quaint western-looking lodge called the Musk Deer Valley Resort (also Restaurant and Bar). It appeared to be run by a woman in her late 30’s with a teen-aged son and daughter and a 49-day-old baby girl. We were chilly in the afternoon and she immediately ... read more

November 3, 2008 Monday Day 14 Ghasa We walked from Tatopani to Ghasa (or Ghansa as it is spelled on the menu). We’re at the Golden Inn Guest House. We had an early wakeup call from Dilman at 6:30 a.m., but it took us forever to get organized and packed. We had breakfast at 7:20 and left the Guest House at 8 a.m., arrived at Ghasa at 2:30 p.m. with several short breaks - tea break, apple break, then a coke and boiled egg break. Again the walk was different than any other day. The trail starts up the Kali Gandaki valley which is said to be the deepest gorge in the world. During the first part of the morning we trekked through farm land - citrus and banana trees, terraced fields. We stopped for tea ... read more

November 1, 2008 Saturday Ghorepani (Horse Water) Day 12 We relaxed in the dining room (which had a fire under the table - so our feet got quite warm - nice) most of the afternoon and early evening. We met a young woman from San Francisco who is trekking alone. She is on a 3 ½ month unpaid leave from her job teaching pharmacology at SF teaching hospital. She spent a few wild intense weeks in India, and then decided on the spur of the moment to go trekking in Nepal, so she got on a train to Kathmandu, found a trek and a guide through some storefront agency and here she is. They told her she didn’t need a porter - maybe they meant her guide would double as porter (many do). But this one ... read more

October 30, 2008 Thursday Ghandruk Day 10 Wrong! It wasn't 1 ½ hours to Ghandruk; it was about 1 ½ hour to Komrong - all uphill after you cross a bridge over a small river. And then, according to Lonely Planet: “a steep climb through a forest on an interminable set of switchbacks” to Komrong. Then it was level or even slightly descending to Ghandruk. It started to rain shortly after we left Kimrong. The switchbacks were unending. It was warm, so we were sweaty inside our ponchos. We were all walking kind at our own paces. Jane and Vim in front, followed by Dave, then Dirga, then me and finally Bruce and Dilman. We stayed last night at Breezes Guest House. Drank a lot of whiskey with Dilman and a party from Australia - a ... read more