To Tadapani (May 18)
Following the morning excursion to Poon Hill was a nap until the usual trek starting time of about 8 am. The hiking was very
much up, then down, then up again. Very foggy, so unfortunately not much visibility for the scenery. Still kind of a neat, somewhat eerie feeling being in the fog. The day was a relatively uneventful trekking day (for being in the Himalaya that is, still plenty of fun was had.) Lunch was eaten in Banthanti. Yes, there are 2 Banthani's!Our afternoon approach to Tadapani did have a pretty funny incident though. We ran into another trekker who was somewhat lost, complaining about climbing some reasonably steep steps, and trying to decide on where to stay for the night. He had his own guide/porter who knew Ram, but for some reason decided to ask for Ram's and Navaraj's opinion, too. Except he completely confused them by using the terms "up" and "down" rather than "North" and "South" to describe positioning on his map, so Ram thought he was talking about elevation. The trekker appealed to me as if the confusion were caused by a language barrier, so I tried to hint that he needed to be clear about his map directions.
Upon settling in Tadapani for the night, we again encountered the afternoon Nepal rain. This time it evolved to pounding hail! Neat! I made a pretty quick dash from the outside non-western bathroom back to our teahouse after being caught off-guard. I enjoyed my last Dal Bhat for the trek and joined Ram and Navaraj for some more slapjack. They'd picked it up very quickly and I was regularly losing.
To Sinuwa (May 19)
The theme for this day's hike could be "Wow, a level bridge would make things a lot easier." There was even more up, then down, then back up again. Elevation wise, that is. No climbs were as hard as the climb to Ulleri though. We passed a school on the way to Chomrong, our lunch stop. I thought about how different life would be hiking on a trail to and from school every day. Navaraj decided it was time I learned more Nepali (other than "Namaste dai") so he taught me to say "Thik cha" which means "fine". I slightly mispronounced it and said the Nepali equivalent of "F___ You," but in a cheerful, friendly way. I felt like Eddie Murphy in "Coming to America."
Following a lunch of pizza and coke, we descended AGAIN to a suspension bridge, crossed, then prepared our final ascent of the day to Sinuwa. Except, this time we were met by an obstacle of 500 goats! My first instinct was to stay to the side of the trail and let them pass, but I realized Ram and Navaraj were just heading directly through them. So I followed. Most avoided me on my way up, but a few stopped, sniffed, and "baa"-ed at me.
The afternoon hike was plenty wet. I spent some of the time thinking about how my dad must have been about to start his trek, too, as he was scheduled to fly to Lukla on the same day. I later heard from Ram that flights to Lukla had been canceled for 3 days due to bad weather! So I had no idea where my dad was at the time. At dinner I met a couple studying at Michigan. Coincidentally, the girl was actually originally from Los Altos. They had returned from ABC that day. I made a comment that all my clothes are now wet and don't seem to dry overnight anymore, then heard from the couple that I shouldn't expect them to dry until I was well on my way down. My teahouse room was shared that night by at least 30 bugs of some form or another and I had a harder time sleeping.
To Deolari (May 20)
THIS was a great trekking day. I woke up a little nervous about the 900m ascent for the day and took 1 Diamox tablet. Ram
provided us with bamboo poles as some of the trail would be steep and slippery. The terrain definitely proved to be a bit more challenging and thus more fun! I did my best to manage my wet clothes and we journeyed off to Bamboo and Dovan. We stopped at the Himalaya Hotel for lunch. The climb to the hotel was just fine because I could see where we were headed, something that wouldn't be true the rest of the day. I decided I was done with Dal Bhat for the time and that I'd stick to eating spaghetti and noodles.The afternoon trek was full of
adventure. We saw waterfalls that had trickled down from glaciers a bit higher up. We crossed a river at the base of one of these waterfalls, as well as glacier a bit higher up. We also saw absolutely breath-taking views of Machhpuchhare on our approach to Deolari. I had been having a lot of fun and enjoying the whole experience so far, but I think this day's hike was maybe the first WOW moment I had on the trip. Honestly, it's sort of hard for me to be writing this blog now, as I realize how spectacular everything is compared to my ordinary life. And I consider myself lucky being so close to Yosemite, Tahoe, even the coastal mountain range.
At one point in the afternoon I stopped to add a Nuun salt tablet to my water. I'd learned the value of salt tablets from my experiences with long distance running and biking, so figured they'd be of use hiking too. Navaraj somewhat surprised me by asking if the tablets had B-vitamins in them. I checked the ingredients, and they did. We then discussed Glycolysis and Oxidative Respiration. Turned out Navaraj actually teaches high school level science! Both he and Ram were very highly educated. Ram worked as a pharmacist as well.The evening came with some good news. We were a bit ahead of schedule and were actually going to head straight to Annapurna Base Camp the next day! This news offset the fact that I was drenched and cold. Since they no longer had showers at that elevation, I purchased a bucket of hot water to wash up for the night. After I decided it was only a matter of time before Navaraj and Ram consistently beat me at slapjack, I taught them hearts. I would enjoy the advantage of experience for the next 2 nights while they caught up with the strategy. But I think playing cards with them was one of the highlights of Nepal for me. After prepping for bed, I pulled somewhat of a MacGruber and turned my headlamp on and propped it on the other side of the room. The bugs were drawn to the light and left me alone! Time to sleep before ABC.
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