Morning at ABC and Going Back Down

---

October 28, 2008 Tuesday 2:15 p.m. Chamrong Day 8

We’re staying at Mountain View Lodge in Chamrong, Room 5. I’m sitting out in the sun writing with Jane and David, who we met when we arrived here).

Yesterday (Monday October 27 Day 7).

I had a very difficult night at ABC with altitude, headache and panic attack in middle of the night. Bruce gave me a diamox tablet and the headache calmed down. Bruce got up at 5:30 because he was awake and went outside. He came back immediately and told me that although dark all the mountains were sharp against the sky. It was bitter cold with a sprinkling of snow on the ground (it had started to flurry while we were in the dining hall the night before). Bruce took millions of pictures. I got a few nice ones (plus a video of the walls of the sanctuary) also of Bruce and others silhouetted against the mountains.
At breakfast, we met a party of Brits who were on a camping trek - a man and his wife about our ages with his brother and sister-in-law and their 2 teen-aged children. Their camp was at MBC; they had trekked up for sunrise, were having tea and then returning to their camp for breakfast that their chef was preparing. The patriarch of the group has trekked in Nepal every year for the past ten, always with the same guide.

We started down after breakfast and walked to Bamboo. I was extremely tired and hot after a while, and the sun was in my eyes for a long time (I had forgotten to wear my Tilley hat!). By the time we got to Bamboo I was ready to sleep! I took a hot shower, quite nice, dinner (dal bhat). We had had lunch at Himalaya Hotel - I forget what I had. I went to sleep at about 8 p.m., awoke at midnight for a pee and took an ambien and slept through to 6:30 - felt much better!

Today (Tuesday October 28 Day 8) We had breakfast - omelet and a piece of whatever bread Bruce had ordered - and we started down, and down, and down (stone steps) through Sinuwa, down to the river, across the bridge, and then up, up, up and up (again stone steps) to Chamrong. Passed signs of the Festival of the Lights (Dipawali or Tihar) - marigold garlands and prayer flags decorating the bridge and farms that we passed. But nothing much seems to be happening here. We’re at Hotel “Mountain View Lodge”. Just finished lunch - wonton soup and gorung bread. Sitting on veranda. There’s a lovely view of a wooden beehive over the kitchen Dining Room. The lodge is filled; a large French party is behind us. Very large camping trek is set up on flat field adjacent to us. Lots of support people there - porters, cooks, both men and women, it appears. The trekkers seem to be British and northern European. (Actually some were from the US - talked to a man from Colorado.)
Jane just left for a stroll. Bruce is wandering around taking pictures. Dave has been reading but just went to his room. Tomorrow we go to Gandruk, where Jane and Dave leave us to head back to Pokhara and then Kathmandu. They plan a paragliding adventure in Pokhara and an Everest sightseeing flight with Buddha Air from Kathmandu.

About Tihar : The Nepali festival Tihar is also known by many names such as Dipawali or Bhai Tika or Laxmi Puja or as a festival of lights. It is a five-days festival, which comes soon after the Dashain Festival, and Tihar is all about worshiping of different animals such as crow, dog, cow, and worshiping of the Hindu Goddess of Fortune or Wealth (Goddess Laxmi), and cooking great meals at home, brothers and sisters shopping for gifts, flying kites, decorating homes and streets, playing cards with friends, resting and relaxing, and finally ending the festival with an exchange of a special temporary mark on forehead (tika in Nepali). The last day of the festival is known as Tika day or popularly known as Bhai Tika day (Bhai in Nepali means Brother). To sum up Tihar festival, Tihar is the festival when sisters wish a long life to their brothers (Bhai)!

---

Photos

Villange scene
Woman on cell phone