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Published: December 10th 2009
As we arrived in Kathmandu from Bangkok after a 3 hours flight, the first thing we noticed was that things looked quite similar to India. The airport, which looked a bit like an old school building, was alright. But as soon as we stepped in the open air, the sound of cars and people, the horrid smell of open sewers freely mixing with that of spice and thee shops left little illusion. Yet, although Nepal boasts many similarities it is also very different from India. One major difference for example is the amount of women in public life. Nearly none in India, Nepalese women actually seem to take part in society. Also, Nepali touts aren’t near as sophisticated as Indian as we even managed to turn the tables on one and got a cheap taxi ride into town. Here we stayed somewhat north of Thamel (the tourist district) in a somewhat more quite neighbourhood of Kathmandu. Here one must remember that it is Kathmandu were talking about, a city very much like many Indian cities, thus quietness is somewhat relative here. As we didn’t like Kathmandu very much we set forth to arrange our trek as soon as possible.
The specific trek we wanted to do was the Annapurna circuit. This tea house trek is one of the most popular treks in Nepal. Due to its popularity and hence many facilities for tourists, it is now known as the apple pie trail. Still, doing the whole circuit takes about 2 to 3 weeks, depending on pace and acclimatization. Also, it requires some paperwork and dollars to arrange, mostly for your own benefit, or so they say. Since we always like to do these things ourselves, especially in these types of countries it took us a day or 2 to get all ends sorted out and due to Kathmandu’s popularity, not to mention its pollution, we were on the road on day 3.
The first day of our trek took us by bus from Kathmandu to Besisahar from which we would start our walk. Besisahar is a nice little town which receives most of its attention due to it being the starting point of the Annapurna Circuit. It is here we left around 7 the next morning for our first day towards Manang and the Thorung La. Our aim was to reach Manang in 5-6 days and then
cross the Thorung La pass a couple of days later. Manang village is important because it is located at around 3,700 meters. This makes it an excellent acclimatization point before continuing on to the Thorung La pass which is located at 5,400 meters.
The start of our first day was good since the first hour of walking was over dirt road. After, it changed into a mountain trail and it is here were the real trekking began. But instead of following the walking schedule on the map, we decided, together with Francesca, a wonderful Italian woman we met on the road, to continue on a little bit further. Hence, instead of an easy first day of 4 hours of walking, we spend 8 hours, of which the last one was spend walking seemingly strait up. Even now, I do still remember well how I cursed every kilogram of weight on my shoulders. But after 8 hard hours, after we finally made it to the top of the hill, were we could sit down to a wonderful sunset. Having our first dinner of dal bath in the evening, Francesca claimed that Nepal had much more stars then Italy, on
which we had to agree with her.
The next couple of days were a tad easier, probably because we adapted to life on the trail quickly and our muscles getting used to the weight of our backpacks. Most of the trail was pretty straight forward. Sometimes dirt, sometimes stones, sometimes up, sometimes down (but more up then down obviously) sometimes cross the river, and again, and again. This last bit was because the trail basically follows the river all the way up to the Thorung la from where it springs nearby. Yet the reason why we had to cross the river all the time was because of the frequent landslides in this area. Often these were small and could still be climbed, but sometimes it was a necessity to cross on the other side and continue there.
At one point I can remember that we were walking on one side on the river, saw the path on the other side and it suddenly just disappeared. Apparently sometime ago, a massive landslide had swallowed it and it now seemed like there never was a continuation of the path. But, there were times that there were no bridges
to the other side or no path leading further. This meant we had to climb the landslide area which added some climbing activity to the adventure. Although quite doable it is here that I have to offer my respect to the many porters that braved the same path. Even for us with just a backpack weighting about 13-14kg it was quite hard. Most porters we encountered had double the weight, some triple and a few even more than that, carrying whole tables up the mountain. Yet, even with all the trouble we arrived safely in Manang a couple of days later.
Manang is a nice small village located at around 3,700 meters. This is basically the highest height to crave out an existence based on farming. Here they get by mostly on wheat as rice doesn’t grow here. This offered the opportunity to eat bread again. Although never far away in Europe, bread is hard to find in the places of our venture. Add here that I have been used to eating bread for 2 of my 3 meals a day and you can imagine I liked Manang right away. Thus it was no problem for us to stay
for another day in order to acclimatize to the height. Also Manang is located at a high point in the valley and offers spectacular views of the valley, not to mention the Annapurna range. But it is also in Manang were we ran into some trouble.
Ilse had been suffering a bad cold ever since we left Kathmandu. Although it was never really bad enough to hamper our trek it got much worse in Manang, forcing us to stay for 2 more days. In one way, as already written, Manang isn’t one of the worst places to recuperate. But in other ways it is never entirely satisfactory to stay when sick in a little mountain village far from civilization or medical assistance. Luckily Ilse recovered quite quickly and we were back on the trail again 4 days after we first entered Manang. But this wouldn’t prove the end of her ordeal. Apparently the flue left a little bit of a cold which hampered her breathing. This is obviously no fun at around sea level, but up at around 4km it’s hellish. At these heights air becomes so thin that even totally healthy every breath is a battle and you
find yourself constantly out of air. Probably the best way to describe it is as having asthma all the time. Still she battled on and we arrived at the next village around 500 meters higher.
This little village, if you can call it a village consisted of 2 houses, both lodges. It was obvious that during the winter or off seasons no people live here as the sole purpose and existence of the village is based on providing accommodation for tourists. The next two ‘villages’ we would cross towards the thorung la pass would be just the same. These places were obviously very welcome to us as they provided warm meals and at least some shelter against the weather which became increasingly cold. After one night we also left this place behind in order to reach our last stop before the thorung la pass, Thorung La base camp. It was this day that was probably the hardest on Ilse.
Still having problems breathing and still climbing, every passing minute brought her not closer to relief, but even more hardships as we climbed even further still. Somewhat around noon that day we reached thorung pedi, pedi meaning base and
it was here that we took a rest before tackling the last 3-400 meters to thorung la base camp. Sadly these last 400 meters were almost straight up. Although hard for me but especially for Ilse, it was also somewhat magical. Here at around 4800 meters the air was so thin that few people had any breath left. The mountain was so steep that every bit of energy was directed towards getting the one foot in front of the other again, and again. As a result, the 20-30 people on the road seemed actors in some kind of weird slow dance and it was eerie quite on the mountain. In the end we made it to the base camp, located at around 4800 meters and it was here we encountered our first snow.
We had seen a lot of snow already of course, especially on the Annapurna range. But all this snow had mostly been on the other mountains and our road had been fully snow free. Probably the reason why they made the mountain trail were it is. More importantly, snow means low temperatures and that is what we encountered at base camp. Of course this had to
be expected, something we did, as we were prepared for these kind of conditions even as we went on our journey 5 months ago. Worse than the cold however, is that we could not escape it. In the Netherlands there is always a well isolated house to run into when things get messy, but they don’t have those at these heights. Hence, everyone convened around the fireplace were there was at least some warmth. It is here were Ilse found the solution to her crisis. Diving pills!
Yes you hear it correctly, diving pills would provide the answer to the problem even at 5000 meter above sea level, let me explain. When we were arranging our journey we planned to do some kind of diving somewhere along our trip. There are however some condition with which one cannot dive. One of these conditions is having a cold as it keeps you from equalizing pressure. But it seems there is a pill for everything as Ilse found some diving pills back in the Netherlands. What these pills do is clear your airways for a couple of hours. Although very convenient it can prove disastrous when diving, as it can lead
to a reverse block, which is something I would defiantly never want to experience. Still, something to clear the airways was exactly the thing Ilse had been looking for and it worked like a charm. So the next day we took of around 5:30, just before sunrise on the most epic part of our journey. It is here at 5km above sea level, in Asia, Nepal, far away from civilization, that we encountered a very familiar phenomenon, which we thought had left far behind when we left the Netherlands.
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Marlies
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Whow, great experience and adventure. Beautiful pictures.