Nepal -- trek from Dunche to Gosaikund

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Ok...so it has been so long since the last time I blogged so this one is going to be very long. I do not even know where to start.

After I went out to dinner with Andre the next day we took a day trip to Bhuktapur. It was a 2 hour bus ride on 2 local buses. Quite an adventure. In Bhuktapur we did some sightseeing and ate some food nothing special...but after is where it gets interesting.

Another volunteer who had stayed at my host family's house invited Andre and I to his nice hotel in Thamel for dinner. At the time I did not know it was a nice hotel I just thought it was going to be some shit hole...but when I walked in I was so amazed. They had a library and nice kitchen and bar and fountains. I was very happy. The owner of the hotel is named Pujan and he likes volunteers in Nepal so he offered to pay for 1/2 of Andre and my dinner and after dinner he gave us a really nice room for free (and some free drinks!) I was so happy..I never thought I would get to stay anywhere like this in Nepal...the room costs $130/night..I just don't have that kind of money.

The next morning I got to walk down to the kitchen and order ANYTHING I wanted. I had a huge breakfast..omlette, potatoes, and fruit bowl. They must have thought I was a pig. Then Kim an American I had met the night before invited me to go on a trek with her..from Dunche to Gosaikund. She told me her guide was coming in a few hours and I should meet him and decide. So I said...sure. Later around 5:00 the guide showed up... His name is Ishwor....he is 30..and the first Nepali guy I have thought was hot!! Once I saw him I was for sure decided sure I am going. So the next day I spent the whole day shopping for treking gear and then (got another free hotel room) off in the morning for a 9 hour local bus ride along roads that NO bus should ever go on. The local bus in Nepal is a trip. They pack it as full as it can possibley be and you can bring whatever you want on it....I mean whatever...a goat..a huge bag of rice...a bag of puppies...fuel..whatever. People will just sit on your armrest without saying anything thing to you...it is a different world. Oh and how they smell...the more you get out of the city..the more they smell. That and the puking....Nepali people do not seem to do so well with motion sickness so they are puking out the windows or some in the middle of the bus..or hanging out the enterance.... I was worried puke was going to get on me!!!

So after 9 hours of stinky..puking..uncomfortable seat..we fnally reahed Dunche. By this point now I have a huge crush on our treking guide...In the morning we started our trek that took 7 hours straight uphill the whole way. It was so fucking hard!!! I had to stop and rest every 15-20 minutes. I am such a baby! Finally at the end of the day we arrived at the Red Panda Guest House. We all went into the kitchen and I ate a ridiculous amount of fried rice and warmed up by the fire because the weather was FREEZING..I mean the kind of cold that a California girl like me has NEVER experienced.

The next day we treked to our final destination...Gosaikund. 4300 meters...the HIGHEST I have ever been. I felt totally fine and thought great..no altitude sickness. the lodge we stayed at was awful...but the only choice. the food was terrible. I made the mistake of eating chow mean...i would regret it in a few hours. I had a whisky drink with Ishwor and my porter and then went to bed around 9:00. oh...a bit of info...Ishwor kept telling us eat garlic soup it is good for preventing altitude sickness...well it may be good for that but as everybody knows it is not good for your breath or other things. Also about altitude sickness...you can feel ok but not be able to sleep...that is a beggining sign...so after 2 hours or restless sleep an attack of the shits hits me hard..Kim is also awake with the same problem. I tell her I will go first and then get up to walk outside of our room to the disgusting icy squat toilet down the hall and almost faint and have to run back to the room and throw myslef of the bed. Kim is so concerned..what is wrong...I say fuck I think I have altitude sickness....but i cannot stay in the room so i then have her hold me and help me to the bathroom. Now comes one of my most emberassing moments ever....Kim takes me the toliet room..which is 2 rooms. The toilet area and this kind of waiting area are seperated by a door and wall....but the wall is only about 5 feet tall and then the rest is open so if you are in the other room you can hear and smell everything going on in the toilet...or course kim stayed in the other room because she was worried about me...so the poor thing heard and smelled everything going on. Let's just say the garlic did such a number on my body it was one of the most disgusting smells I have ever experienced...and poor poor kim had to experience it all...after only knowing me for 2 days. You will find in Nepal when tourists meet eachother shitting and puking are on of the first things they discuss...anyways...after i come out of the toilet i laid on the disguting flloor of the other room because i was so weak i could barely move....the bucket in the toilet you use to flush things down was frozen solid so poor kim had to go and get hot water and dispose of it for me....not even boyfriends i have had for ages have had to do such things. I appreciated her greatly for this. She then helped me back into the room and handled her own stomach problem. Once we were both in the room we started discussing if we had altitude sickenss or food poisoning..we concluded maybe both. We tried to sleep but couldnt..my stomach still hurt..i was dizzy and breathing heavy...we didnt know what to do...we started screaming for Ishwor from our room because we didnt even know what room he was in...a few minutes later he appears...what's wrong...blah blah...so we tell him everything...he makes us take diomox (AMS med) and immodium. Thankfully...by morning I am better..but poor Kim is still doing bad...so she goes down with the porter and I went up to 4800 meters with Ishwor to this amazing view point. And so began all my alone time with him. I was secretly happy she went down with the porter....not that i wanted her to be sick..i would never wish that upon anyone...i just wanted my private time...to flirt. And flirt I did...it was really fun. It was like being in 7th grade again...Nepali men are sooo different then Western men.

Ishwor and I walked down for about 5 hours alone together and talked about everything...I asked him all the questions I had always been curious about Nepali culture and he would answer any question..no matter how personal...very interesting. We then met up with Kim and our porter and thankfully she was feeling a bit better. We stayed at Red Panda again..and then next day..back to Dunche. I got another few hours alone with Ishwor..as kim is fast at walking downhill (she later told me she did it on purpose so I could be alone with hime). Once we got to Dunche Ishwor and I went out on a walk..staring at the stars..blah blah...he took me to his favorite view spot and we held hands...so cute and innocent. We then stayed up and played cards until about midnight and maybe a little kiss (OH!).

Next day...back to KTM...local bus ride...9 hours again.... There were the cutest puppies on the bus...I had one..Kim had one..and 2 other American guys...almost simaltaneously we all got pissed on. Now I had to ride back rest of bus ride..covered in piss....I thought it was hillarious. Those puppies got off the bus..then these other puppies in a box next to my seat shit all over eachother and I had to smell that for 3 hours..and deal with the shitty puppies trying to get out of the box and start climbing on me...lucky ishwor was keeping guard and anytime a puppy would start to come towards me he would knock it back down in the box. Oh the things that could only happen in a counrty like Nepal.

This trek occured about 3 weeks ago..since then many things have happened..i will try to blog about them before i leave for my next trek...14 days no internet beggining 3/4

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