Day 141: Trek Prep

The plan today? Continue to help the local,economy :-). Before I'd gotten out of bed, Beth had been out and back with receipts in hand and empty pockets as proof of a successful morning.

 

We crawled out of bed and made our way down to breakfast... Ah, I'd forgotten the muesli and delicious, cold milk that goes with it in Nepal. The girls and I had just been salivating a couple of days ago at the distant memories of delicious cold milk! We also had a couple of cups of chai that was up to Indian standards... So good.

 

We didn't have much more to get on our list, but that didn't stop us from adding to the list :-). Dear Gram and Banka, we have agreed to open a corporate delivery pickup and storage account with you due to the high volume of shipments we've been generating.... Please forward us the necessary paperwork.

 

The Tibetan guy we ran into at this really cool shop was just one of many desperate, but still smiling as only Nepalese can do when faced with adversity, vendors who are really suffering with the lack of tourists. We were content with his initial prices and didn't even bargain.... Ship it sir! When he heard about the size of the Tibetan community in Etobicoke and that Robin had two Tibetan friends at school, he gave the girls prayer bead necklaces and two extra for Robin to give to Tenzin and Jigmy back home.

 

 

Abby was on the lookout for lunch. Unbeknownst to me, she had practically memorized the top restaurants listed in trip advisor. She shuffled us into a place that promised they had "perhaps the best burger in town". We hadn't had any beef since Colombo, and before that who knows, so we all jumped on ordering a burger for lunch. But hold on, I noticed they sold Hoegarden.... Great work Abby! Though it was a little tiny, it really hit the spot.

 

 

So did the massive burgers.....

 

 

We were pretty much geared up.... Even getting little custom embroidered flags on the girls new hats. Very cute Abbs!

 

 

Beth and I had to do some ATM shopping. Like India, bank machines here give out limited funds, so you have to repeat the process often. Since we were going for nine days, we had to bring enough cash for rooms at all the tea houses as well as all of our meals. Yikes!

 

 

Beth has purchased canes walking sticks and new hiking shoes for Robin and her. For better or worse, Abby and I are the minimalists of the group, so we are opting to suffer caneless stickless and with our shoes.

 

 

I have my map with routes and planned stops, though I'm sure with our two porters to accompany us, we will not be needing a map. What's that you say? Two porters? We figured we could do it with one porter, but we decided to take two to give some more work to someone from the community. The Sherpas are the ones that are suffering the most from the drop in tourism.

 

 

The girls were lost in Inappropriate World again and were also recording "music" (double quotes intentional) so Beth and I went for one last trip to get some sundry items and.... Why not... A beer!

 

 

As Beth and I walked home up Peaceful Road, a road that could have only been named by a Buddhist, we saw Mount Machhapuchchhre lit up by the setting sun in the distance. Our highest overnight destination on the planned trek will be Machhapuchchhre Base Camp ("MBC"). The name of the mountain means "fishtail" in Nepali for its resemblance of the tail of a fish when seen from an angle that shows its double summit. It has never been summited, as the mountain is considered very sacred to the Nepalese.

 

 

I cannot wait for our trek to start in the morning. The girls are giddy and Beth is now pumped after getting us fully equipped. We will see you up close and personal tomorrow, Mountains of Annapurna!