Catching up again

Saturday, October 6

We have left the jumping-off town of Jomsom and hiked to the small agricultural village of Kagbeni.  Marty's rest yesterday worked wonders, so  after a very filling breakfast at our Jomsom hotel, we hit the trail at 0830 due north along the Kali Gandaki; a seriously major river that rises at the Tibetan border and flows through Nepal and into India.  Between Jomsom and Kagbeni the riverbed is generally about a kilometer wide and meanders gently through an ever-changing path through its stony bed.  We started early in order to arrive at Kagbeni before the fierce winds begin around noontime.  Along the way, we met many Trekkers; some headed in our direction and others headed south.  Among these were at least a dozen on mountain bikes!  We stopped for tea after about two hours and shared the table with two young people from Taipei: the young man (who goes by the western name of "Johnson") spends his summers teaching skiing in Australia and then travels during the off-season.

We arrived in Kagbeni around noontime and took advantage of the time and dry climate to catch up on laundry.  After lunch at our hotel, the New Asia, we took a walk-around, spending most of the time at the Buddhist Monastery, which has 25 monks and is building housing for even more.

The scenery here at Kagbeni is breath-taking: looking down the river we see clouds of dust carried along by the afternoon winds.  Looking up, we see the massive Nilgiri Center, about a thousand meters shorter than Annapurna, but mighty impressive in its own right.  Nilgiri absolutely dominated our view to the southeast; hopefully tomorrow as we move eastward toward Muktinath we'll start seeing the Annapurna peaks themselves.

Harry's musings:

Dinner last night was vey lively, with two large groups dominating the dinning room. One group was predominantly French and about to embark on a trek to somewhere. The second group was of undetermined origin, but had just completed the 10 day hike through upper Mustang (Moo-stang) and they were ready to celebrate. First the French group started the rowdiness with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" (en francais). The "Moostang gang" was not to be outdone and began rhythmic chanting. The Francais responded, of course. Soon the rowdy competition was in full swing with "Alouette" going as a round including solos and the "Moostangeers" adding drumming with a back beat. The four of us foolishly headed to our rooms to dormier way before the revelry was completed. Amazingly, Marty S soon fell into a sound slumber leaving me to marvel at her achievement. Mysteriously, the next thing I recall was the profound silence of no singing and no wind pounding our windows and rattling our door. So ended another day in the Kali Gandecki valley. 

Sunday, October 7 (combined reporting by us all)

Last evening we had dinner at our Kagbeni hotel with a USAID group on their way to La Mantang, which is in the high mountain Upper Mustang region very near the Tibet border.  As the name sounds, this is a VERY remote part of Nepal.  Anyway, this USAID Group consisted of Environmental and Health components from the Kathmandu Mission.  Two young American women on the team told us of current projects in Nepal, such as village manure-to-methane digesters. We learned of the effectiveness of Family Planning in Nepal, lessening the strain on economically challenged families. This was a lively happy group celebrating the beginning of their trip with folk singing and playing a drum at their dinner table. Soon there was dancing in the dining room. After eating his yak steak, Harry joined the dancing with our porters, Hari and Tulsi. He learned that dancing at altitude is very challenging (especially on a full stomach). 

We got a good early start today from Kagbeni to Mukhtinath for our hard trek.  We climbed 900m (roughly 3000 ft), which was putting us into much thinner air than normal. We did manage to get started ahead of all the jeeps, but were not able to completely avoid them and their dust.  We met many, many trekkers going back down toward Kagbeni and were passed by only a few going up.  There were also caravans of horses and mules carrying goods up to Mukhtinath as well as those with no cargo returning to Kagbeni or Jomsom to replenish supplies.  The road was so dusty though that our boots went from normal color to several shades lighter.

We stopped at a small tea house called Romeo and Juliet to sit in the sunny courtyard for our extended rest on the way up.  This tea house was in Khinga, so when we made this rest we had gained around 500m.  We also stopped in Jharkot for lunch for another 200m gain before we headed up the final stretch of 200m.  We walked around Jharkot a bit before the last leg. The final stretch was quite steep & required us to stop frequently to catch our breath.  We often felt that we were on our hands and knees even though we were not.

We met up with and hiked intermittently with young Taiwanese trekkers, Johnson & Momo, while hiking yesterday. We shared several meals along the way. Today they bought local apples as a gift for all of us at lunch and then joined us for dinner tonight also. Delicious food for dinner - though interesting names - including fresh veggies (yea!) - Koolsla (coleslaw) & Waldoof (Waldorf) salad. 

Dinner was in the hotel's (North Pole) lower dining room and was filled with many trekkers from all over the world.  We talked with some German mountain bikers who had biked down from Tibet to Kathmandu then came here and yesterday hiked up and back to the Thorong La pass which is the highest pass in Nepal.  Basically they went up over 2000m and back down again.  They were celebrating with sizzling dinners that filled the dining room with steam

Our rooms in these tea houses/guest houses are always interesting.  The beds are either semi soft or semi hard, the bathrooms are something else and last night David and Marty's developed a small river that ran across the floor.  Harry and Marty's bathroom also had a small river as well.  After  David and Marty's river began, Harry and Marty's bathroom developed a ceiling leak!  Of course, all this water on the floor meant that one needed to put on hiking boots to avoid getting wet feet.  

Monday, October 8

Every day our meals have been getting better and better.  Each tea/guest house has a very extensive menu (although not all items may be available on any given day) of Italian, Mexican, Indian, Nepali, Continental and "burgers".  Last evening at Mukhtinath was wonderful, and tonight at Joung we had the best dal bat of all.  We had promised to eat Nepali-style with no utensils (right hand only, of course), so tonight was the night.  All but David saw it through to the end bare-handed; he grew impatient and reverted to a spoon.  Hem and the local cook were greatly amused with our actions, and many photos were taken.

Harry continued a long standing tradition of spreading his parents' ashes during his travels to distant lands. Today they became one with the Mustang in two separate rivers. At the Thorong there was a low stone bridge for the ceremony while at the Yakinga a high swinging bridge and the wind sped them on their journey. Hem was very moved and thought Harry was an "excellent son" (ya hear that Eleanor?).

The hosts at our guest house in Jhong have 2 boys, the youngest of whom was around 2 years old. It was challenging for us to witness his wobbling gait along the steep drop off next to the front table by the front door where we sat for tea at the top of a ledge. Mom intermittently came by and clucked to the little one who wandered around playing. Later in the evening two village boys were playing with this little guy and brought him in where we were finishing our dinner. They gently teased him, trying to get him to put salt in his palm and lick it. Later when I intervened and moved the salt away the teasing continued and the little one began to fuss. This gave me a wonderful opportunity to bring him up onto my lap where he snuggled in and interacted with us all. What a sweet little guy. 

We had an extended conversation with our guide after dinner and learned more about his family and his responsibilities as the oldest son who has stayed in Nepal.  His concerns about his aging parents who in a village without services such as medical or transportation.  Also about his sisters and brothers along with his own young family.  He works hard to provide for everyone the best he can, and as we saw first hand, it does take a toll on him.

Tuesday we have trekked back to Kagbeni over jeep able trails.  We did some fossil hunting in which Marty S. was most successful.  We met more mountain bikers from Australia who were headed around the same circuit we were just completing but in reverse.  The group was of all ages and We are certain they will have an amazing adventure!  As we neared Kagbeni the wind picked up and the closer we got the stronger it was!  We had lunch in Kagbeni and then took a jeep back to Jomson.  Worst reckless driver we've encountered.  Tomorrow am we will fly back to Pokhara, this part of our Nepal adventure ending.