Thursday, 11 October
We (Marty and David) are off on a two-day trek in the Annapurna foothills northwest of Pokhara. A hired car took us, Hem and Tulasi, first on a paved road, and then turned off on a bone-jarring track up and up to the small village of Dhampus, which is a shade over a mile above sea level. When we arrived at the hotel, the surrounding hilltops were in the clouds, but tomorrow morning we expect to be treated to a spectacular panorama of the Annapurna range; even better than what we had from Sarangkot this morning since we're considerably closer. Our hotel, the Dhaulaghiri View, sits a bit above the village of Dhampus, and features a front yard absolutely full of wild flowers in such abundance it nearly boggles the mind. The particular microclimate of this region also supports rice, millet, and fig trees.
This village is very neat and tidy. Most of the walkways between the houses are paved with stone. There are also many areas where the villagers have made stunning sets of stone steps! Often at the entrance to a set of steps there is a gate, but not the usual idea of a gate. These gates are usually two or three poles that fit into either stone or wood panels on either side in thick there are holes carved. To close the gate one runs the poles (bamboo) through the holes and voila you have prevented the water buffalo from being able to go up the steps!
We watched Fishtail reveal itself off and on on the late afternoon. By evening it was hidden from view and when went to dinner we were completely clouded in.
12 October
We awoke to clear skies and a very close up view of the Annapurna range. It is a beautiful day day and we will continue on our way shortly. Marty had a great breakfast with millet bread which was quite lovely and light in texture and was fried like the Tibetan bread.
Our morning's walk had us retracing our steps through Dhampus and then along a high ridge to the southeast. Part of the walk was along a forest trail, and occasionally we'd pass village houses, which invariably had chickens, goats, water buffalo and oxen. Of course there were terraced fields on the hillsides, planted either with rice or millet. Sometimes we saw the terraces uncultivated and Hem explained that this was because the families' sons had gone to live in the city; the parents had grown old and were unable to continue farming themselves.
All along our route, though, we continued to see the snow-covered Annapurnas and Fishtail. Sadly, by late morning the clouds obscured our view of the mountains. A little after noon we arrived at the Annapurna Eco-Village, a small mountaintop establishment that has about seven guest rooms, beautiful gardens and, of course, great views of the Annapurnas. Hem also informed us that the food here is all organic. For the first time the menus is limited to two things per meal which certainly simplifies food prep for the cook.
Have we talked about bathrooms? Ah, there have been so many and so varied. Most bathrooms, however, have one major drawback and that is that they don't have a real separate shower stall so the water from the shower goes directly on the bathroom floor making it impossible to use the toilet without putting on ones hiking boots! Our hotel last night had a bath tub, the first we have seen in Nepal. But since we were taking showers and had no shower curtain we had to squat down to use the shower wand unless we wanted to....guess what....get water all over the floor! Also, we always could get cold water, but hot water is more spotty. Electricity is expensive and is rarely used to heat water, so (especially in the mountains) hotels and guest houses go for solar-heated water. Here at the Annapurna Eco-Village they use a manure digester to produce biogas (methane), however it only produces enough for one shower room, not for each guest room.
We have returned to Pokhara this morning after a short trek and some great conversation at breakfast. We met some lovely folks over these past few days. Elizabeth and Ann from Australia who both work in Africa! Sisters who had been trekking for over 20 days and were about to head off to do the Everest Base camp trek before going back to work. (We met the sisters in Dhampus.) In our last tea house we met a lovely Dutch woman named Raphela (father is Italian mother Dutch) and two more Aussies, Taj and Punya (Punya is half Thai) who were self-guided and on the adventure of a life time with rafting, zip-lining, paragliding and trekking all on their list of things to do over the next few weeks before they head to Thailand where they will be working. Raphela was to spend another two weeks before returning to the Netherlands and was talking about future volunteering in Nepal. We laughed and smiled and shared things about ourselves and when we left were giving hugs to these young people whose lives had enriched ours.
Now we are organizing our things for the return to Kathmandu and then the final organization for our return to Maine. What a great trip this has been!
Now 4:00 pm and we've got a fierce wind, rain, and thunder. The storm was building for well over an hour and has now broken loose. All the nice Tibetan women who sell jewelry by the lake side packed up and left almost an hour ago. Now there are white caps on the lake and everyone has sought shelter. Glad we are not trekking right now! We have had to close our windows and doors because of the wind!
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