Annapurna Trek - Week 2

3/30/05 Day 8
From: Yak Kharka 4150m
To: High Camp 4800m

This was a damn hard day, the way up was pretty steep, snowy and muddy, all together. Above 4000 meters, walking is not an easy task.

On the trail, while we were freezing in the wind, we saw yaks comfortably roaming in a 50 degrees inclination hill looking at us like if they were wondering - What the hell are these people doing here.



After 2 hours of walk we made a tea break in the company of a very special goat that keeps walking among the trekkers, since the tables were outside, in the hope of some food. It loves biscuits.
The funniest thing is that if we bite the biscuit the goat refuses it. Only brand new, untouched whole biscuits are accepted.





After the tea break we also stopped in Phedi, Angie was not feeling ok. She had a headache because of high altitude, as almost everybody had, so we stopped to rest and gave her some time to recover.
It was good to stop again in Phedi and rest because from Phedi to High Camp, it is a steep climb, that, combined with the lower amount of oxygen, demands a lot of energy.
Until High Camp we did many short stops, it is impossible to just keep going. At the High Camp Angie's headache got worse and she had to take a Daimox, a, pill that helps to adapt to the altitude. Somehow I was fine, just exhausted from the hard walk.
The view from High Camp.



This was the coldest night from the trek; plus, it is hard to get some sleep in high altitude. We woke up several times during the night. Our guide advised us to drink more water due to the altitude. Guess what? We had to leave our already not very warm sleeping bags in the middle of the damn cold night, walk outside in a freezing temperature to pee, that was just wonderful.

3/30/05 Day 9
From: High Camp 4800m
To: Thorung La Peak 5416m and then
To: Muktinath 3802m

Day 9 was the big day, the day we were going through the pass. It was definitely the hardest walking day we have ever done. We started the day at 5 in the morning with breakfast and were on the trail by 6 am.
The first 2 hours of walk was done without sun light. It was so cold, but so cold, that the water in our camel back froze on the hose and we couldn't drink anymore. Sappa had to give his gloves to Angie, because the ones she had weren't warm enough and she couldn't feel her fingers anymore. I have no idea how Sappa managed to stay without gloves.
The mountain was completely covered with snow but the path was well marked so there was no risk of getting lost. Also the weather was clear giving us good visibility. Here you can see me, always the last one, going up.



Breathing was never so difficult, and the sensation of being in a such wide open area with a reasonable amount of wind blowing in our face and still feeling like it is lacking air is the weirdest thing I have experienced.
We were lucky with the weather, there were no much clouds and the wind wasn't too strong.



At 9:20 am we made it to the pass, 5416m; here the level of oxygen is only 50% of the one at sea level.





From the pass we went down 1400m in 3:30 hours. The pass is the connection between the east and the west part of the Annapurna trek. The west part is known as Mustang Valley and the scenery changes drastically to a desert look.



Within 2 hours of fast descent, both, Angie and I, started to have a headache and feeling like throwing up . We had to stop, seat and wait. Although it didn't help much we had to continue going down.
During the descent, in some parts, we had to traverse horizontally some hills with around 50 degrees inclination covered with a thick layers of melting snow. Many parts were completely muddy and slippery.
At 4000m there was a place where we could have some food. A coke and boiled potatoes were my remedy. Amazingly, 20 min after eating I felt 100% again.
By the end of the day, before going to the lodge, we stopped to visit the Muktinath temple, one of the 7 most important Hindu pilgrimage places. There are four in India, one in Tibet (Kailash), one in Katmandu and the one in Muktinath. On that night Angie tried some yak meat and enjoyed it a lot.

3/31/05 Day 10
From: Muktinath 3802m
To: Marpha 2667m

Walking on that day was pretty easy since it was going down slowly. The problem was after the first 2 hours when the wind started blowing. Before we hit the bottom of the valley we crossed terraces again.



We stopped in a village to visit a Monastery, since the two other ones that we tried to visit in Manang were closed. There, we saw paintings that are more than 500 years old. In the monastery there were many kids and teenagers studying the sacred books and they will maybe one day achieve enlightenment and become a monk.
In the main room of the temple lays two huge statues of Buddha and on the side walls there were pictures of important Monks. Dalai Lama is the most important in the hierarchy.



We left the Monastery to go down the Mustang Valley. The landscape here is quite different than the one on the east side of the Annapurna reserve.



The Mustang valley is a huge corridor with a river at the bottom but, during the dry season, there is only a small stream of water. Donkeys are constantly on the trail going up and down.



Women carrying big loads are also not uncommon.



This area is also quite developed. Along the trail there were posts for the energy lines graffited with 'Long live Lenism, Marxism and Maoist'. That was the first Maoist sign we saw since the beginning of the trek.



At a certain point the wind started blowing stronger and stronger making it hard for us to walk.



When we got to the bottom of the valley it felt like walking in a wind tunnel. It was terribly strong and it blew until the end of the day. In this region the ground is very dusty and sometimes the wind was throwing the sand in the air and we had no choice but give the back to the wind, protect our face and wait until it calmed down before continuing.



The best part of going down is that the days were getting warmer. Around 5:30 pm we got to Marpha, a really cute village. It is very clean and with many shops around held by Tibetan people that settled in another village close to it.
Each morning they go up and down the hills to get to Marpha in order to sell their handcraft. Marpha is also the apple capital of Nepal. Indeed it is surrounded by apple orchards and they even produce apple brandy.
At night, there were some traditional music and dancing on the streets, but we were so tired that we didn't join them.

4/1/05 Day 11
From: Marpha 2667m
To: Ghasa 2013m

Due to the wind experience of the previous day we left early to avoid the wind which strangely starts each day at 10 am. There is a little airport a few miles away from Marpha where planes only land and take off before 10 am in order to avoid the dangerous winds. Marpha was a nice place but we had to move.



The villagers were the attraction, the Mustang Valley has many Tibetans, as mentioned earlier, who fled to Nepal when the giant China invaded Tibet and took over the control.



As we walked away from the village some houses were like a live painting, with the mountains in the back, a wheat field and a river around.



Porters didn't stop surprising us; they can really carry a lot of things.



At this point, the cold was definitely left behind and the strong sun called for a refreshment. A cold Everest beer tastes just perfect after a couple of hours of hard walk.



Wheat fields are also along the way and with the mountains it composes quite a sight.



Our plan worked well, we left the Valley before the wind started. Daulagiri, 8176m, is the 7th highest peak in the world can be seen from the valley. The trail went back in the forest before we got to Ghasa, where Angie tried Chang, which is one stage of fermentation before the rice wine turns into wine. It could be described as rice beer.

4/2/05 Day 12
From: Ghasa 2013m
To: Tatopani 1189m

Although we went down 1000m we had to go up quite a lot. The destination was Tatopani, which means 'hot water'. The place is famous for its hot springs, that comes out of the ground at 60C. We got there early, around 2:30 pm
The lodge was very nice, with a relaxing garden and a bakery with croissants, cinnamon rolls and chocolate breads, a treat. The menu had also good Mexican food.
Here we started to feel our knees, due to the steep long down walks we had done.
The path in the village was surrounded by colorful flowers.





As I said before, the porters didn't stop surprising us. Some of them carry chicken from village to village where they sell them, but only after a long negotiation.



4/3/05 Day 13
From: Tatopani 1189m
To: Ghorepani 2855m

This was another very hard day. Before we started climbing, we went down facing many
caravans of mules and had to stop at the check post and wait, because the army was checking the mule loads one by one.
Not too long after leaving Tatopani, just after we climbed the first hill in the direction of Ghorepani, we crossed a sign indicating who controls the area.



We were expecting to meet them but luckily we didn't see any. The Maoists ask for a 'donation' that will be around 1500 Rps per trekker.
They give a receipt that can be presented in case you are stopped by another group of Maoist, this way you don't have to donate twice, which is a nice thing. It is a kind of commitment to rob you only once each time you trek.

For those who haven't followed the political events of Nepal, the Maoists are a group of rebels that wants to get rid of the king and install a communist regime. The current king took power after a dubious story, he dissolved the parliament, created by his father, in order to have absolute power. The former king decided to transfer part of his power in 1992 and to instaure a parliament elected by the Nepalese people. According to some Nepalese people he was a good king helping the country to move forward. Unfortunately, he got murdered with his first wife and her family during a dinner. According to the official account, Crown Prince Dependra had a drunken argument with his parents over his choice of a bride. He retired to his quarters, then emerged with two automatic weapons and massacred King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and numerous other members of the royal family before turning the gun on himself. Though Dipendra was in coma, he was declared king in accordance with the 1990 constitution. When he died three days later his uncle, Prince Gyanendra, was enthroned in a hastily arranged ceremony. Unfortunately, instead of developing the country, he now spends all the money for the army to protect himself and get rid of the Maoists which are trying to increase their number and to get organized against the king. They also have several illegal radio station.
Anyway, about the king, we will never know what really happened.

Let's go back to trekking...
A delicacy from Nepal, yak cheese, can easily be found along the trail.



As we went up, we could see lots of terraces with different greens and the high mountains in the background. Also we crossed a forest with bamboo, banana, figs, berries and rhododendron flowers. It was really beautiful.



When we were passing by a field, a woman asked for some medicine for her kid, that fell and got a wound on the head. The locals know that trekkers are carrying medicines and since in the mountains there are few or no hospitals depending on the place, to ask a trekker can sometimes be the only choice.
She said that her husband left to work in Kathmandu and she was left alone with two kids. She works in the fields from early morning to late evening for a farmer that in exchange gives her a very basic shelter and some foods. So she does not earn any money at all and can't buy any medicine. Unfortunately, lots of people in Nepal are in the same poor situation. She also asked for medicines for herself, showing her swollen ankle.
We gave her some pain killer and band-aids but couldn't really do much more. Some things can strike us in the heart, but how and what should we do to really help? Here they are.



Life is cruel and we had to leave. The woman was happy that we stopped and helped, even though it was a little thing.
Further ahead, we crossed a house in the village where some women were spinning, working wool and making clothes.



We came across many interesting people like a guy walking from village to village to sell fabric...



a teahouse owner...



and a little girl taking care of her sister...



After a long climb, we did a long stop for lunch. The place had a beautiful garden where I found this.



I couldn't believe when I saw the village at the end of the day. We climbed 1700m in one day, not accounting the ups and downs, just the altitude gain. The last hundred meters were very steep and the cute stone stairs surrounded by blooming rhododendron seemed never ending.

Here we found a real hot shower after 13 days of cold or luke warm showers. What a pleasure.

4/4/05 Day 14
From: Ghorepani 2855m
To: Tadapani 2630m

The day started very early, we left the lodge at 4:45 am to climb Poon Hill and watch the sunrise. Everything was left at the lodge so it was much easier to walk without the load. It was still dark when we started.
The walk took 45 min and it went up 400m. The visibility was good and the sunrise was magnificent.



Only after the daylight, on the way down, was that we could see that the Poon Hill was covered with a Rhododendron forest.



From Poon Hill it is possible to see a big part of the Annapurna Range.



There were also many other kinds of flowers.





At the top is possible to buy tea and as we had left the lodge without breakfast, plus, it was quite cold up there so early in the morning we couldn't resist the temptation. We watched a wonderful sunrise with a mug of hot tea.
We were back at the lodge around 8:00 am, had breakfast and left. From the village we had to climb around 400m before starting the descent of 1100m.



This is a real killer for our already hurt knees.
After a never ending descent we had to go up 300 meters again.
This area is very humid and the forest is such a contrast from the dry Mustang Valley. The trees were full of moss and lichen.



We arrived to the village quite early, around 4 pm and heard more stories about the childhood of Sappa, his family and how thing were few years ago in Nepal. Once a year his family used to go to Kathmandu to sell a goat so that they have some money for the hard times. Otherwise they would not have any money since they were working in the fields and live from the harvest. The trip to Katmandu was taking them 4 days walking up and down the mountains to get to the market in the suburb where they used to stay just the time to sell the goat before walking back for 4 other days. On the way they slept in the free shelters that each village has for the traveller. They were cooking on the side of the road in order not to buy anything and still nowadays in the mountains you can see Nepalese porters cooking on the side of the trail. Sappa told us that today to go back to his village from Katmandu, he has to catch a bus for a few hours and then walk for 9 hours to visit his Dad.
As a little child, Sappa did not have shoes and it was really uncommon. When somebody was entering the village wearing shoes, all the kids would run to see them. When his grandpa got sick and to come to Katmandu a few years ago, Sappa bought him sandals to walk in the city, but he did not use them because he did succeed to walk with them. But he was so proud to have shoes, that he was putting them on to go to bed where they would not annoy him to walk.
Sappa also explained to us that each village had a spot on the outskirt, usually half an hour away where people were going for the call of nature since they did not have toilets. Image walking up and down the mountains for half an hour each time you need to go to the toilets.