Nepal: Journey back to Pokhara (May 23 - 25)

There is of course no road from ABC back to a trailhead, at least not now. I would hope not for a while. It might mean an increase in trade opportunities for the villages which would be positive, but it would also bring more rubbish, erosion, and would decrease the feeling of being in an isolated paradise. Being isolated means you have to journey back, too, and for me it was a mix of anticipating my return as well as trying to enjoy the last few days out.

To Jhini Dandu (May 23)
We took a different route back after Sinuwa, which was nice because we saw different parts of the area. We returned to Chomrong, then took a NICE easy descent to Jhini Dandu. After depositing gear for the night we took a 30 min walk down to the hot springs for a relaxing afternoon. We ran into the other 6 trekkers we'd met up in ABC and decided we'd take turns jumping from the hot spring to the very cold river and back. Sort of like hot tub to snow and back. I got a tip from the trekkers that the chicken tasted very good, so for dinner that night I ordered it. My first meat in over a week! I joined Ram and Navaraj for our traditional post-dinner hearts games and drank some whiskey provided by Ram. We were on a break! (a rest day)

To Pothana (May 24)
Woke up thinking about how much I'd miss the nights in the hillside villages with rain pouring on the tin roof over me. I think the only time in my life I didn't really like pounding rain was college, since I spent so much time casually walking outside. But these storms were awesome. Our trek for the day began crossing a "new" suspension bridge. Definitely the most unstable one I'd been on.... adventure! After, it was yet another down then back up hike to Landruk. After lunch and a brief nap it was a pretty solid climb to Jolka. PHEW I thought I was done with the climbing! There was a great photo op though as I saw a goat who'd climbed a tree to eat some leaves. Fortunately the hike to Pothana was very level. We enjoyed our last village town dinner for a while as the next day we would return to Pokhara. I was both not ready to return and anticipating being home simultaneously. Life had been a lot simpler and more peaceful when my daily goals were merely hiking through a few villages.

To Phedi and return to Pokhara (May 25)
One last mountain morning. Porridge and black coffee. Then one last packing and we were off. We enjoyed a nice gradual slope down (ohralo in Nepali) to the town of Dhampus. Along the way we ran into the Canadian couple we'd met at ABC again. Signs of civilization (well, relative signs that is) were increasing, including jeeps and electricity. The last stage of our trek was a VERY steep downhill back to the town of Phedi. We passed some trekkers who had just started their journey, a neat perspective. I fully deet-ed up, but I could NOT manage to save myself from getting caked by a layer of bugs! Then, just as I was getting sick of going downhill, we saw our taxi that would take us back to Pokhara. Crazy. The longest period of my life I'd been sans vehicle.

After arriving in Pokhara, I joined Navaraj and Ram for a lunch of momos. Then I couldn't resist the urge to check email any longer (maybe the first time I'd identified myself as a Silicon Valley geek) and dropped into an Internet Cafe. I had a lot of things on my mind that actually would be answered by reading a few emails: had my brother and Subechya returned home safely? How was my dad's trek going? How was stuff back home? Had anyone poked me on facebook? Most things were predictable, but I received a bit of a shock. My dad had decided to not do the base camp trek all together and returned home with Andrew and Subechya. I'd heard of the delay of flights, but it turned out my dad had actually been on TWO flights that left Kathmandu and could NOT land in Lukla due to thunderstorms, so they returned to Kathmandu. Thank god they didn't try to land. Over aggressive landings had caused flights to crash, killing all aboard, as recent as last October. The Lukla airport is no ordinary airport either, only STOL (short takeoff and landing) planes can land, and due to altitude these planes have NO chance at aborting an approach, circling, then trying to land again. You get one shot to land.

My dad made a very wise decision. Due to the flight delay, the program was attempting to speed up the acclimatization process to hit the May 29 marathon date, a VERY dangerous and risky idea for even the goal of reaching EBC, let alone running a marathon. I guess my gut had been right about choosing Annapurna. I loved the experience, there's a good chance I would've done nothing if I tried for EBC, and I can anticipate going back to EBC some day.

It was time to grab my essential shopping items in the downtown of Pokhara: a T-shirt, a shot glass, and a poster. Walking around, I heard a somewhat familiar voice, and realized it was Saga, the Swedish girl I had met at ABC. It was good to run into her and we exchanged facebook info. Returning to my lodge in Pokhara, I ran into Ram and Navaraj who were watching some volleyball. It was a bit sad realizing this would be the last night we'd hang out together, but we enjoyed our traditional game of hearts. Later that night I was treated to a violent lightning storm.