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Published: January 15th 2009
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Our hostess for lunch
Served up a great bowl of noodle soup. Weekend Trekking Trip
After breathing in the city smog for a week, we decided to go on a weekend trekking trip to see a bit more of the “real” Nepal. It was also a good test to see whether we were all fit enough to handle our big treks later on in our stay. Elizabeth is planning on doing the Everest base camp in mid-February, Katharine is doing the Langtang trek at the end of January with her boyfriend, and I’m heading over to trek the Annapurna region next week. We had arranged for Dhilip, my guide from Durbar Square, to pick us up at the guesthouse at 8am Saturday morning.
Prior to leaving, I engaged in a big internal debate as far as footwear was concerned. I had a good sturdy pair of running shoes which had been thoroughly broken in, and I also had a pair of brand new hiking boots which were likely more suitable for the trek, but were guaranteed to give me blisters. Hmmm….decisions decisions...
I finally decided to tape up my feet in the hopes of avoiding blisters, and go with the hiking boots. It only took about 15 minutes into the
My first squat toilet!
It took a little while to get over the mental block of using one of these, but desperation is a powerful motivator. trek for me to realize that I had made the right decision. My expectation of this trek was that it would be a stroll through the park…literally. I mean, how difficult could a National Park be? It’s not like we were planning on scaling Mt Everest or something. We were only expected to walk 30km and complete an overall incline of 800m over the course of the 2 days. Pfft - piece of cake.
The reality was a grueling climb up the mountain of death. The first 3 hours of the trek involved stairs…and more stairs…and still more stairs. Imagine going on the stair-master at the local gym for 3 hours with a backpack on your back in the scorching hot sun. A lot of sweat was involved, with a liberal sprinkling of groaning and obscenities. We stopped off at a teahouse halfway up the mountain for some homemade noodle soup and tea. It was definitely not the kind of meal that I would normally order back home, but I scarfed it down in the hopes that it would provide me the necessary energy to do the final 2-hour push to Chisopani. The final leg of the trip was
My first view of the Himalayas
We stopped here for a short water break while we soaked in the beautiful view. significantly easier, if only because there were no more stairs. Have I mentioned how much I hate stairs??
We reached Chisopani at about 3pm, which was about 6 hours after we started hiking. I was amazed to find not 1, not 2, but 3 hotels at the top of this mountain! And they had pizza on the menu...bliss. The three of us promptly collapsed on the rooftop terrace to soak up the sun, the beautiful scenery, and as much tea as we could handle. We met a crazy old English guy who had just finished trekking both the Langtang and Annapurna region. He was 65 years old and has been going on a crazy adventure every year since he retired. Last year he biked from Canada to Mexico. I hope I’m that fit when I’m 65 years old. And that brave.
I had hoped to spend the night playing cards and talking with the locals, but was so exhausted from the hike that I went to bed at 7:30 - definitely the earliest night yet. However I felt somewhat vindicated due to the fact that I had been up for 14 hours already that day, and was setting
Are we there yet?
Almost at Chisopani my alarm for 6am the following morning to catch the sunrise over the Himalayas.
The next morning we all bundled under blankets and watched the sunrise over the mountains. To give you some perspective on how cold it gets at a 2000m elevation - I slept in my coat, hat, mitts, long-johns, and pajamas...and was still cold. The sunrise was beautiful though and worth the early morning wake-up call. We’d planned on leaving at 8am, but Elizabeth started to feel sick and wanted a nap before we left, and so by the time we actually ended up hitting the trail it was around 9:30am. I think our guide Dhilip was anxious to get going, because he sped off into the distance and left us scrambling to catch up.
I was quite looking forward to the second day of the trek because we would get to experience the gorgeous mountain views without the grueling mountain climbing! He had originally told us to expect about an 8 hour walk on the way back…we did it in 6.
I wish that I could credit our amazing athleticism for this feat, but unfortunately I cannot. The reason why we were able
Sketching the View
My sketches definitely did not do it justice. Even my camera couldn't do the view justice. to shave off 2 hours of walking is because Dhilip took us on some shortcuts.
A word about shortcuts: There’s a reason why these routes are not chosen for the main path to begin with.
The first hour of the hike was a beautiful meandering road overlooking the Himalayan mountain range. We then stopped off at a small farm for a tea break (and a marijuana break for our guide). After an intense Nepali discussion with our hostess, Dhilip announced that we would eat lunch right away and then take a shortcut back to our end destination of Sankhu. It sounded good to us, despite the fact that we had to say goodbye to our wide and beautiful road in favour of a steep and rocky path down the side of the mountain.
We’d probably only walked for 15 minutes when we met up with a group of locals. Dhilip stopped for another intense Nepali discussion. The only word I caught was “Sankhu”, however since this was accompanied by a lot of pointing I assumed that our guide was asking for directions.
I began to get a bit nervous.
When I sought confirmation of this
Langtang Mountain
This is where Katharine will be trekking to in a couple of weeks assumption, the response was “No worries. I’ve been this way once before”
I began to get a bit more nervous.
About 20 minutes after that, we came across a lone farmer in the fields. Again, Dhilip broke out the Nepali and the pointing. We were told that we had to backtrack to the last fork in the road. When we got there, Dhilip noticed the concerned look on my face and again reiterated “No worries. I recognize this path now. This is the second time I’ve been here. Good shortcut”.
As an aside: I’ve noticed that the standard Nepali response to any request is “No worries”. From experience, I’ve learned that this response warrants some anxiety.
We continued down the trail (which wasn’t really a trail so much as a jagged ditch carved into the ground) until we hit another farm. We had to cut through the farm to get to the other side. We met a group of young men sitting on the porch, and again using my keen observational skills, determined that half of the men were advising us to go one way, and the other half to go the other way.
I
Fighting the cold
Cuddled up to watch the sunrise over the Himalayas didn’t even need to ask for a translation this time. Dhilip immediately launched into an explanation about how there were 2 ways to get to Sankhu from there; the long way and the shortcut. He advised that we take the shortcut. We agreed and set off again.
Shortly afterwards we met up with a little girl and Dhilip slowed to a stop and exchanged a rapid conversation complete with pointing. Elizabeth, Katharine, and I exchanged a look…we were unsure whether we found this amusing or alarming. The little girl then turned around and began guiding our guide! She couldn’t have been older then 5, and walked with us all the way to the next settlement.
From here, Dhilip seemed to regain his confidence, and he navigated the rest of the trip without incident. Though the return trek was challenging, the landscape was very rewarding. The trip up the mountain was rather brown and barren, whereas the trip back down was lush with forests, rice fields, and streams. We reached Sankhu at around 4pm, and after a snack at a roadside food-stall, caught a taxi back into the city.
Well, I can now say that I survived a
View of Chisopani
The three large buildings are the three hotels. There wasn't much else in the town. Nepalese trek through the Himalayas. And it only cost me some sore muscles, 7 blisters and $60 USD.
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