I think this hotel in Chamrong has been our favourite up here.... It's so very chill.
7:30am. Up a little later than usual, it also felt like a long sleep in. We stumbled downstairs for some mountain bread and masala tea. I'm going to miss the chai for sure.
The boys had a late one last night, polishing off three tiny bottles of rum, but as Beth says, they only weigh about a buck twenty each so it doesn't take much. They put on a brave face and were ready for day seven...
Our porter friends donned our bags and were ready to go.... Sort of :-)
8:35am. We started off pretty flat, then started climbing. We were in unfamiliar territory, as we were taking the longer way home with an intended stop in the large town to Ghadruk tonight.
9:10am. I think one of the reasons we had to climb so much before the obvious descent we would need to take to cross the river at the bottom was that there was a large landslide area below the path. It must have happened a while ago, as when we got to the top of the climb, there was a hotel called Hilltop. We pressed on to the descent.
Looking down, we could see the tiny shape of the suspension bridge we would need to cross - it looked like it was over 1000 meters down...
Robin was having a tough time going down - it was hot and so was her temper. For this early in the day, and facing a tough climb coming up, it was not looking good. I gave her some distance, and Keshab moved closer, sensing she needed some third party moral support. It was another way he showed maturity and intelligence beyond his age.
9:45am. We got near the bottom and took a rest in the shade of a house. We took the opportunity to chug the rest of our water and fill up. The kids were very amused by a bunch of little baby chickens and suddenly, Robin was back!
9:55am. We set off down a little more, then across the huge suspension bridge that crossed another large Modi Khola tributary.
We heard Abby giggling with Robin behind us at the bottom. Halfway up, with the three of us in the front and Robin trailing behind, smartly going her own pace, we asked Abby what Robin was talking about. Abby said, "she pulled me aside and said "we're in damn hell frickin' paradise" ha, ha". We burst out laughing. That little turkey is her own person for sure... So funny, so weird, so unique.
When we looked down at her on a switchback ten meters below, she looked up, smiled and yelled "GIVE ME A HELL YEAH!". I don't know what she's on sometimes... I think maybe it's called "life". :-)
11:05am. We got to Komrong with no sign of the boys. The climb was tough for sure, though I found it pretty easy to go slow and steady, staying relatively cooler as most of the climb was in shadows. I'm sure Keshab and Suresh were feeling the effects of too much rum last night.... Oh, to be young again.
We found a perch on the top of the hill where we could watch the path below, and after a few minutes, we saw them crawling up the climb with the heavy bags.
The owner of the restaurant / guest house was pretty smart: she had a bowl of ice cold water filled with drinks, including a large Everest which Beth and I soon polished off.
Abby knocked a glass on the ground by accident and it shattered in the cobblestone floor. The owner rushed over and said not to worry, just leave it. A minute later, she came by with a fistful of cow shit and she began using the clump to pick up the shards of glass. Abby remarked how clever it was, but all Beth and I could think of was that she would soon be heading into the kitchen to help prepare our food....
The dhal baht was delicious by the way.....
The going was easy and fun. The path really became a cobbled narrow road, and you really got the sense that the path was leading to more of a real "town" rather than a tourist only stopover. We saw a couple of elderly men being carried up towards Komrong in baskets. I can't imagine how hard it would be to live in the countryside of Nepal if you were not able bodied or had some kind of physical disability - this is a tough country.
1:30pm. In just over half an hour, we were in the outskirts of Ghandruk. It was hard not to skip down the rocks, stairs, paths and cobbles as we got closer and closer to town. For the last ten minutes, we followed a horse train with each animal carrying an empty propane tank on each side. The distinctive sound of the horse bells and the driver cackling and yelling at the horses would be a familiar sound throughout the day, night and morning in Ghandruk. This town was a major transportation hub for supplies going up into the mountains.
On the edge of town lies the old part of the city, with dozens of traditional buildings where most of the farmers live.
1:55pm. In no time, we were checked in, unpacked and showered and I then forced Beth to book a massage guy to come treat her legs and feet that Keshab helped arrange. The girls were off on their own, and I tended to the blog for a bit. There was no uploading, it would seem, until we got to Pokhara, but at least I had the afternoons to keep the notes up to date.
I took the girls for a walk to a little vendor working along the main "road", and they bought a bunch of candy that came to 530 rupees. I gave the older woman running the store a 1000 Ruppee bill and told her to keep the change. I feel so bad for the lack of activity everywhere we've gone - these people are really hurting, and they are so kind and laid back, it really pulls at me.
Beth and her little masseuse came down after a while and he slipped into Keshab and Suresh's room with a laugh - they boys were getting some well earned, free massage for their efforts at arranging the business transaction.
We watched as sacred Fishtail lit up in the early evening sky.
We played a lot of the "choose it" game that the boys had taught us a few days earlier. Keshab said that this was the first trip where shy little Suresh has felt comfortable socializing with the trekkers. You know, we really didn't know what to expect with these guys at the start. If you told us we would enjoy hanging out with two twenty-two year-old guys at night after long days on the trail, I'm not sure we would have signed up for that - we don't really like being painted into a corner. However, the guys have really contributed so much to our enjoyment on this trek, and the girls have really bonded with them. Thuli and Kanxi will miss Keshab and Suresh and I'm sure we'll be taking about them as much as we talk about Koda-San, Emi-San, Siya, Gauw, Uday, Pranav, Ashraf.......and the list goes on, and on, and on.....
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