Today felt like the hardest day, although it wasn’t even close. Most likely I was so fatigued because my dinner last night was bad and breakfast this morning was so bad I didn’t even finish it. So it was with very little energy that I began the morning. The trail was rocky (hard on the feet) and mostly up and down. Those factors plus the new blisters on the back edge of my heal caused me to be the slowest today. It was three hours to Dana, where we ate lunch and then another hour to Tatopani. I don’t really have much to say about today because the only thing I could think about was walking and getting to Tatopani, although I did notice it was a lot more humid today and we’ve made the transition from forest to jungle again.

The first thing we did in Tatopani was head down to the famed hotsprings (tato pani translates to hot water). We’ve been looking forward to these hotsprings since about Pisang and counting down the days. It felt so good to immerse my tired and aching body in the hot water. We all went down right after arriving and then Udaya, Binod, and myself headed down again right before dinner. Ahh, hotsprings. Can’t really describe how good it felt after how many days of cold trekking. We finished off the night with a great dinner and the brandy that Franky and I bought yesterday, some rakshi that our guides bought, and Simone’s bottle of local rum (it actually was much tamer than those numbers indicate as they were quarter bottles and there were seven of us). Nonetheless, hotsprings and few drinks to celebrate how far we’ve come.

The next two days will be up, up, up to Ghorepani, and then the final two days will be down, down, down.

 

Yesterday was a relatively fast and easy walking day to Marpha, with the only obstacle being the dust and wind the last hour.  I think we could have made it further today, but instead we spent an hour slowly meandering along a dried riverbed searching for fossils.  It was a comical sight—all of us spread out, periodically stooping with our backpacks to pick up a rock and throwing it down against a larger one to break it open.  In the end, all the fossils we found were already exposed and the best specimens came from close to where the river still flows (not by the road where I was looking more forward to lunch than fossils…).

            Today was a longer walk to the village of Ghasa.  We had a couple of stops along the way for a snack at the famed Tukuche Dutch bakery and a few minutes later at a brandy distillery down the road.

 

A little while later we stopped for lunch.  I finally had dal bhat again.  It was my first big meal since getting sick again after the pass and much needed after all this walking.  The dal bhat is starting to get a little bit tastier with a few more spices in the dal and veg curry, and more variety than just potatoes.  The landscape is starting to get more lush again, the air more humid, and we saw our first monkeys in a week.  Right now it’s about 4:30pm and we just got to our guesthouse.  I’m hungry again and Matt and I are waiting for beverages (apple tea and hot chocolate) and a Tibetan bread (like a flat cakey donut with slits instead of a hole in the middle).

Today was a long, but fun day. Unsurprisingly we left Marpha around 8am. By 9am, we had reached the village or Marpha, which warranted a stop to visit its Dutch bakery and brandy distillery. The Dutch bakery was delicious, as its run by a Dutch-Nepali husband and wife. We met a German guy there who was stoned out of his mind and being outrageously funny as he talked about the apple crumble and “real coffee, real filtered coffee!” Imitating him is far funnier than writing down everything he said and did, so you’ll have to ask me about it whenever you see me. After the bakery, we headed farther into the village to the distillery. It was rudimentary to say the least, but the lady that made the brandy had a half-dozen different flavors of brandy. I’d sampled the local apple brandy in Muktinath and Marpha, but I decided to buy a small bottle of cherry brandy for Tatopani, where we’ll be tomorrow.

 

Today was an interesting day.

 

It was a really short walk, but we spent an hour walking around a rocky floodplain looking for fossils. We’ve seen them in Pokhara and a few little stands along the trek, but today we actually found a few. Pretty much we just looked for blackish rocks, picked them up, and threw them at the ground. Like Joylani mentioned, all the ones we found were halves that were already broken. I guess we just thought maybe we’d find whole ones with both halves like the ones found in the shops. However, Udaya said those are really difficult to find.

 

Anyways, we stopped for lunch in Jomsom, which is actually a town. It has an airport/airstrip that people fly into or out of to begin or end the Jomson Trek. FYI, From here on, the Annapurna Circuit Trek is the same as the Jomsom Trek. After lunch, we made the short, but incredibly windy and dusty walk to Marpha. Marpha’s a larger village with large monastery. All the buildings have piles of firewood and corn on the roofs. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day, but we met some cool Belgians, Franky and Belinda, at our guesthouse. I guess they had been trekking with Hans, Sky, and Cal, but had separated along the routes as us, Pete and John. So we hung out with them a bit and watched the sun disappear behind the mountains, leaving us in the cold again. Even at this lower altitude, it still gets really cold at night.

 

Slept in a bit today, which I feel like we deserve after waking up at 4am in the freezing cold yesterday. After breakfast, we bid farewell to Pete and John, who went straight to Marpha today, instead of detouring to Kagbeni like us. It was only a 2.5 hour walk, which was most a gentle downward slope. The scenery was amazing as it has been the past few days. Descending out of the snow, the landscape is mostly desert here. But if you read my posts on Ladakh, you know I think this type of desert mountainscape is one of the most beautiful in the world. The last stretch was pretty steep down, but we were soon at Hotel Shangri-La. The place really lives up to its name as it’s the most relaxing and my favorite place so far. Relatively nice rooms, great dining room (which if you haven’t noticed yet, is where everyone spends the majority of their time), and good food. Kagbeni is the Mustang district, which is split into Upper and Lower Mustang. We’re right on the border between the two, right now. In fact, we cannot go north into Upper Mustang unless we purchase 700 USD permits. The reason is that Upper Mustang is a restricted area and the Nepali government wants to preserve the area by keeping tourism down. We learned that Upper Mustang actually has its own king, although its still part of Nepal. Nonetheless, I’m happy to actually be in Mustang at all. I’ve heard and read about it before and I never thought I’d ever come here. Its such a remote and isolated place, the descriptions of the lost kingdom deep in the Himalaya sound almost mythical.

            One last interesting note about this place is that its run by a wife who’s married to two brothers. Our guides explained that the practice of marrying two brothers is actually a really old Nepali custom that’s still practiced sometimes in the really rural areas. From an anthropological standpoint, its explained as a way to increase survival chances in this inhospitable environment. Any children born are the older brother’s children. Seems like a strange custom (even to our guides), but it definitely shows how remote we are. The other thing that we laughed about all night was one of the ladies that works here is always nursing her baby and walking around. When she was nursing him when we arrived, I thought maybe we just caught her at a bad time, but she walked around and did her duties at the hotel with her sweater constantly pulled up to nurse the kid. The funniest thing was when she approached another group’s table, with one hand holding the baby hanging off her breast and the other hand on her hip, and said, “What you want order?” We laughed all night at that as we imitated her. Food notes: yak cheese is reallllly good Chyang, the local beer is not so good. Its like a thin yogurty drink made from rice. I’ll stick to the rakshi.   

  

            So yesterday we only walked a few hours to Kagbeni.  The downhill wasn’t so bad as the day before, but I could definitely feel the stiffness in my thighs, knees and shins from the descent the day before.  Even my toes were a bit sore last night when I stretched them out.  Happily the lodge we’re in turned out to be pretty nice.  You can see in the wood panels, stone floors, and overall construction of the place that more money and thought went into the construction of the building.  Its not composed of crookedly placed plywood boards like many of the other places we’ve stayed.  I like that this hotel is all enclosed—no outside corridors.  For the first time since Manang, the pipes didn’t freeze at night and our room was finally warmer (being at a lower altitude helps).  Happily the food here was good, with the apple momos (think fried potsticker filled with apples and cinnamon) and veg thukpa (fresh noodle soup) being very satisfying. 

 

We made it over the pass today!  It feels so nice to have it done, to have accomplished it!  That, and it was also the part I was least looking forward to—the cold, altitude, getting wet from snow, and just a long day to get through it.  We started walking just after 5am.  It was still dark out, but the snow reflected enough light from our headlamp to show us the path.  Some places it seemed really narrow, and I was thankful to not be able to see how far the slope went down before leveling off.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t so bad.  We walked really slowly because of shortness of breath from the thin air, stopping periodically to catch our breath and once to attempt to eat a frozen snickers bar. 

 

It was really cold.  But there’s not really anything to do but keep walking and make it over the top, so that kept me going.  The sun rise was delicately beautiful as it slowly lit up the vast peaks and blanketed us in warmth and light.  Even with little bit of warmth from the sun, the last bit to the top was still really cold.  Last night Matt and I stayed warm by sleeping in our clothes with hot water bottles by our feet (not to mention the batteries and other items of clothing we put in the bag to keep them warm for the morning).  But from the time I got out of bed my toes and fingers were numb until a little while after we started the descent.  The moisture in my breath froze on my scarf which I had loosely wrapped around my face, and when I sniffled I could feel a crackle from the thin layer of snot that had frozen inside my nostrils.  True mountain men, the Kiwis even had snotcicles dangling off their beards, looking like something out of National Geographic. 

 

Thankfully the snow was really dry, so I didn’t get soaked like I was afraid of.  And my fingers and toes started tingling again when we started going downhill.  By that point the sun was fully up and we could move faster, getting the blood flowing again.  Our little group all “summitted” at about the same time (around 8am) and we congratulated each other with hugs and smiles before taking a quick group victory picture and retreating inside the shack, er teahouse, at the top to try to warm up.  It was awesome to be able to look down at the other side of the mountain. 

 

Leading up to that point all we’d been doing was looking up.  The descent was much easier on our hearts and lungs, but the constant downhill was hard on my knees (they feel a little stiff now that I’ve been resting for a while).  It took more concentration than I thought as some parts were quite steep.  The trail was either icy, gravelly, or snowy requiring a little thought and lots of balance as I carefully placed each step.  Between the concentrating, my knees, hunger, and being tired from waking up at 4am, my pace at the end of the day seemed to be the slowest it’s been all trek.  Our rest stop came just in time and after peeling off my socks and shoes I bravely ordered a bean and cheese burrito for lunch, which was more like a chimichanga, but thankfully turned out to be quite tasty.  Our accommodation tonight is a step above the rest, and we finally have a room with an attached bath!  After my bean burrito I had my first shower in 3 days (if there was a shower at the last couple places we stayed, I didn’t see it, and it was too cold to take one anyways).  It was nice and hot—one of the best I’ve had in Nepal so far.  Hot showers make me miss the developed world where hot water is more consistent and rooms usually come with a private bath…one that’s separated from the rest of the bathroom by a tub or shower stall.  As much as I like traveling, nothing beats the comfort of home.  It would be so nice right now to put on a fresh pair of sweats and t-shirt, pour myself a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats with cold soy milk and curl up on the sofa with a blanket and a good book.  But here I am in Nepal.  I’ve completed the hardest part of a trek I never really thought I was capable of doing, survived giant spiders, sub-zero temperatures, getting hit by a rock…I crossed the cold Thorung-La not in hiking boots, but in my trusty Nike trail runners and made it down the other side.  Now I’m sitting by a sunny window enjoying being warm without wearing a ton of clothes and this is a pretty nice feeling too. 

Today was a really long day. We woke up at 4am, which wasn’t as bad as it sounds- I think it was colder in Letdar. We ate a quick breakfast, geared up (put on every single piece of clothing we brought), and were walking by 5am. After a minute our two, I couldn’t feel my feet under several layers of socks or my fingers balled up in my gloves. The first hour was in the dark, which was probably good considering the path looked pretty sketch in some parts- all snow, narrow paths, steep dropoffs to the rightside. Luckily between the five of us, Binod and Joylani’s headlamps provided enough light. Looking above us, I could see the LED-glow of several groups that left before us, making their way towards the pass. They just looked liked bluish dots on the mountain. The best thing about the dark, was seeing the stars. The stars were so bright that despite it being a moonless night, I could see the snowy peaks all around us. It was the most stars I have ever seen in my entire life and definitely the brightest too. I never even realized a night’s sky could look like that. It was really stunning to learn something everyone grows up with their entire lives could be so new and intriguing.

We made it to our last stop before crossing the pass! Luckily no one is experiencing any problems besides heavier breathing while walking. There were some falling rocks right before Phedi. It’s a landslide area, and there were some deer up there causing the rocks to fall as we walked through. Binod was looking out for falling rocks because he’s had problems in that area before, and he told Matt to look out, who in turn told me. I ducked down next to the side of the mountain where there was a short retaining wall, but my arm still got hit by one of the rocks. After the shower of rocks passed we ran. It all happened in just a matter of seconds. My arm hurt, but I think more than anything I was really just shaken up. I mean, falling rocks—you could die from that or get really seriously injured. As we walked the next 20 minutes to Phedi I just kept thinking what ifs and was glad that I only got hit in the arm. Having to get helicoptered out would be awful for several reasons, but especially this far into the trek. At Phedi we rested for a half hour and I was able to ice my arm (luckily ice is in no shortage at this altitude). Thankfully I am able to move me hand and wrist ok; I’ll probably just have a bump and bruise for a while.

High Camp is in an amazing setting, nestled in the snow between various peaks.

It is also somewhat disgusting. Between frozen water in the flush bucket and apparent problems with people being able to use the squatters (how they still don’t know how to use one this far into the trek I don’t know…), let’s just say the bathrooms are less than sanitary. It’s so bad that people are just going outside behind the buildings rather than inside the outhouses. Descending tomorrow will be good for many reasons.

Cold. That’s pretty much the only way to describe today. It snowed again last night. Inside our room, Joylani’s alarm clock said 29 F. Nonetheless, we departed Letdar at our usual time of 8am. We made our way towards Phedi and then up to High Camp. Most of the past few days have been a gradual up. Today was back to Nepali flat- down a big valley and then up again. Besides being cold and above the snow line all day, we had another incident today. Yesterday, Binod warned us about a rockslide area and told us some personal and second-hand stories of the dangers. Passing a warning sign, we made our way along a path on a steep mountainside. All of sudden, a few meters ahead of me, Binod yelled, “Matt, rocks!” I quickly glanced up, expecting to see a large rock rolling down towards me, but instead I saw 4 or 5 golf-ball-sized stones whizzing towards us- too many to try to dodge. They made the sound of a baseball with busted seems- zzzzz. I turned and yelled at Joylani to get down, as I fell to a crouch in the corner of the left side of the trail (as the trail was an L-shape cut out of the slope). I heard the rocks whiz by and waited until Binod told us to get up and run. After we were somewhat clear, I learned Joylani had been hit in the arm. We took a rest at Phedi and iced her swollen arm. I felt pretty lucky for a few reasons. One, Binod had heard/seen the rock and alerted us. Two, Joylani only got hit on the arm by a smaller stone- a Swiss lady we met tonight got hit by larger stone on the leg and apparently has a large black bruise. Three, some American girls passed out at Phedi from the altitude. So, with all things considered, we’re doing okay.