Wow! What a few weeks it has been. Where do I start?
I flew into Kathmandu via Bangkok and stayed they only briefly to buy a few goodies and then head to the hills. The quality is a little dubious but the price is certainly right: A down jacket, a new 90 litre pack (my 65 litre was too bulging), and a nice pair of soft core trousers plus a few other goodies for around $100 AUD! All have turned out to be completely worth it. I also ummed and ahhed a lot and finally decided on getting a guide/porter rather than go it alone (like 3 of my harder core friends have recently done).
First mission: Annapurna circuit the most popular trek in Nepal if not the world.
Thankfully it was the end of the season (because the passes get snowed in - but we'll get to that) so the track was almost deserted. In the first few days I saw about one or two westerners each day! It started out fairly easily with a few ups and downs and overall gently working its way up a valley of forests, rice paddies, villages and the ever present tea houses. At about day 3 my right knee started to swell up but it sorted itself out only to replaced on day 5 by pain in my left knee instead, usually only when descending. I expected my left knee to hurt like it usally does so SNAFU. By this stage the trail now is mostly ascending so it wasn't a big deal. I have to admit that a couple times my knee was hurting pretty bad so Domm (my guide) and I swapped packs - 6kg vs 18kg is sooo much better!
By day 7 I was at Manang (3500m) where you typically have a rest day to aclimatise to the altitude and relax a bit. Because of this there was a greater concentration of trekkers here. Manang is quite a nice place to hang out with a few good day walks including a nice frozen lake at the base of Gangapurna glacier visible from the warmth of the hotel dining room. My dreams of a hot shower and washing my clothes however were dashed as the weather closed in (only solar hot water) and the ground started piling up with snow. Being Australian and generally snow deprived I was quite happy to stare at the lazy drifting flakes and just enjoy it for what it is - but many of the other trekkers it wasn't a good omen. The highlight of the trek, Thorung La pass, is still two days walk away and there is a chance that if the snow does't ease, the pass would be closed and we would have to back pedal the whole way. Not appealing! Anyway a few of us decided to wait it out and after three nights of playing cards, eating heaps and drinking litres of mint tea we went to sleep yet again with hope. This is probably one of the worst nights I have had in a long time. The company during the day was good but I really didn't want to walk back. I was cold, my knee hurt lots, I missed Denni, I missed my family and friends and Armidale and I knew things were really bad when I started missing my job. I was trying to tell myself that I didn't hate Nepal, I didn't hate freezing squat toilets and no hot showers. That I didn't hate travelling alone. I was pretty down. Finally I got to sleep.
After the usual wake up at 3am and then every hour after until it is light I finally woke up to a clear beautiful day. The elation I felt was the exact opposite of the despair I felt the night before! Something had clicked in my head and even though I didn't know wether the pass would still be open, and either way it would be a lot of hard work ahead I felt fantastic! So off we headed.
Walking through the snow was fairly easy - only about 10cm on the ground.
STOP PRESS!! Wow I was just abducted from my cosy relaxed internet cafe and thrust into a frensied mob! But I'll get back to that at the proper time ... where was I?
Ah yes. The snow wasn't thick on the ground at this elevation but it was damn cold. Domm (my guide) was still wearing pretty well exactly what he was at the start: A pair of jeans, grey business socks, squash shoes and a light fleese. Mean while I was decked out with layers of wool, polypropylene, wind stopper and gortex. And I was cold! We pressed on as snow started to fall again and finally made it to Thorung Phedi (4500m). Domm is a chain smoker and frequently has coughing fits that even the other Nepali seem to think is unhealthy. At the hotel he starts to show the classic signs of both hypothermia and altitude sickness. But every time I ask he says he isn't cold and he has never gotten altitude sickness. I myself was feeling fine when I got there to the hotel but quickly started to get sick. Dizziness, nausea, lack of apetite (when only 5 minutes ago I was starving!) and as I was about to find out an inability to sleep. There was a couple of German guys there, one of whom had already been sick and forced to go back to Manang and adjust before trying again this time armed with Diamox (anti-altitude sickness drug). He very nicely gave me one of his three remaining pills and I took half now and left half for the morning. After I took it he told me that it worked well except for the side effect of making you piss every hour during the night.
So feeling a little better and forcing some tea down I retired but not before asking Domm if he would like my spair set of thermals and my down jacket for tommorow. All he could manage between chivers was 'OK'.
So I then went to bed and stared at the roof. I wasn't tired. I couldn't sleep. I has just walked for a day in the snow and was knackered but nope I couldn't sleep. And then I had to go and pee in the snow outside. I reckon it was around -15C. Then I checked my watch. Then I stared at the roof. Then I repeated this over and over and over. The best thing for altitude is being well hydrated but this drug just seemed to drain every spare drop out of my body! Eventually at around 4am I got up and went to find Domm and the hotel cook who was supposed to wake us at 4:15 and have breaky deady for us. He was nowhere to be found and Domm seemed pretty cosy in bed. Eventually I woke the cook up who was sleeping in the other hotel and got some porridge into my stomach, bought 4 snickers bars and we headed off. Ahead was a tough day, first an ascent of 1000m through snow and then an even worse descent of 1600m which usaully takes around 9 hours. And Domm didn't take any water or snacks and was a bit vague about wether food would be available on the way. At least he looked a bit warmer in my down jacket. Oh and did I mention my boots were frozen solid?
So we headed off and slowly trudged our way up through the predawn darkness with our headlamps on while it snowed. Or at least I had a head lamp! I know Domm had one but he prefered to stumble around in the dark. I think Nepali guides just like suffering. The snow was around 20cm deep and not too bad. By the time we got to the high camp it was dawn and the snow was around a foot deep but still ok. The first of the rock hard snickers somehow wasn't that satisfying! Then the next few hours were tough. One step. Breath. One step. Breath. Visability ranged from 50m up to maybe 500m but the sky and ground inevitably merged indistinctly some where above. I was like being on a step machine, inside an industrial freezer, blindfolded, through which you can occasionally glimpse an endless field of white like mashed potato. It is definitely one of the hardest things I had ever done.
After one false "We're at the top!" we finally made the pass just as the clouds finished parting and suddenly it was blue skies and the ordeal seamed like a dream that didn't happen. I struggled to find the energy to take a few pictures (very odd for me!) and then Domm muttered something about having a bad headache and practically ran off the other side of the pass trying to lose altitude and ease his pain - with my water and food!
So I struggled after him, the descent was easy now except my knee started to hurt like hell and I resorted to taking dolly steps, keeping my knees straight and doing all the motion with my hips instead. Very slow progress! And so the second stage of the ordeal began. Finally after hours and hours of watching the tiny village, all the way down, there get closer and closer I finally walked into Muktinath and into the very cosy Bob Marley hotel (yay! Hot water!).
The ordeal was over!
The hotel was pretty good. I ate some soup and mint tea as I couldn't think about solid food just yet. The shower was so good and hot and then suddenly the gas ran out and I finished it cold. It was then that I realised that even though we had descended 1600m, and yes it was warmer than the pass, it was still bloody cold. All the shadows hid frozen ground. The floor of the bathroom was a layer of ice after the hot water ran out. By the time I got dressed I had a splitting head ache from the cold and ran to bed. I ordered some food and a pot of tea to the bedroom and then passed out before I had barely touched it. That was about 5pm.
The next morning I woke at around 6am to find my potatos solid and the tea pot completely frozen solid. The potatoes went down ok - I was starving!
By this stage my knees where a complete wreck and the thought of another week or so walking down the valley dropping 3500m to Pokhara seemed like hell. I had found out that Jomsom, the next big town, had an airport and a lot of trekkers finished there instead of walking the other 8 or so days back to Pokhara. I was saved! Domm even organised for a jeep to take us there instead of walking the 4 or so hours down to Jomsom. Yep I am a wimp!
Then after a semi rushed night trying to organise two seats on a flight the next day and having to contend with the hopeless Nepali phone system, Nepali culture in general (ask a simple Yes/No question then listen to 5 minutes of Nepalese argument and then have to repeat the question) we finally flew out to Pokhara the next morning (ie today).
So now I am in heaven! This is the Chiang Mai of Nepal I have decided. Less rushed than Kathmandu (or Bangkok) and much more laid back with seemingly a lot more to do. A couple of nights ago (I think in the deepest night of my despair) I discovered that Pokhara has perfect weather and terrain for paragliding and that several companies operate here. Ever since the paragliding championships at Manilla I have been keen to try this and perhaps take it up - perhaps with a bit of peer pressure from Sam. And seeing as the main reason I am in Nepal is to trek and that isn't really an appealing option anymore it seems perfect.
So back to my adbuction before. I was relaxing in the internet cafe catching up with everything when Domm was a little insistant that we eat lunch. I told him to eat without me but I was hungry anyway so I left it and we went for a walk. As usual he is a bit low on the communication side of things. We walked one way trying to find a cheap foo joint, then ended up in a taxi drove a couple km's to one near the airport. After that we kept driving the opposite direction even after he said 'Ok back to internet'.
Then we ended up at a crazy cross between a Country Town Show and Ag-quip. I found myself slowly squeezed into the mob and funneled towards the ticket booth. Nepali have a complete lack of understanding of lines and order in such things. It was way worse than a mosh pit as I was pushed and elbowed and trodden on and everyone is yelling and screaming. Finally Domm ends up with some tickets and I realise he has bought about 10 for various people who handed him money at some point.
Then into the show which was actually very similar to one in Australia once inside. Except everyone is crammed in much more. Very loud, very dusty, with lots of stalls on studying abroad, hot water systems, computer systems, sweets, fairy floss, ballon animals, bad nepali music, rides. The one redeeming factor was that despite the availablility and abundance of fairy floss and sugar lollies almost everyone was eating mandarine's! The ground was carpeted with peels.
So finally I escaped and we took a bus back and now I am sitting here finally at last relaxed and up to date!
Until next time...
Well a small milestone today: I finished the Parapro 2 level! I am off my L plates and onto my P's. I'll have a break for a few days and head to Chitwan National Park and then back for another 5 day course to finish the Parapro 3 which would mean I have a pilot license and could fly without an instructor if I was in the UK. Today was some of the best flying we've had catching good thermals and getting some great unusually strong and consistent winds in the afternoon to practice more reverse takeoff's on the ground. I ran myself ragged doing a reverse mock takeoff's, ground flying/running for 20m or so then turning back around and kiting the wing back to the start and repeating over and over. Yesterday was kinda funny as two of the students ended up wet from landing in the lake!
