Eventually, we managed to climb yet another mountain to reach Hille where we camped. We were supposed to go to Tirkhedunga (another 30 minutes or so away), but the head man decided that we probably wouldn't make it there in time. It was 4 pm when we arrived at Hille. I didn't really care for this camp site. It was behind this inn. No view at all, and not very nice either. Oh well. This inn actually had a bathroom and a toilet. Eveline and Eric took a sponge bath in the bathroom. I just washed myself in the tent because I was so tired, and then I had Robert stand guard by the door to the toilet because I didn't want to latch it. It was pitch black inside and didn't smell exactly kosher. Yuk. After washing up a bit, we had tea at the inn while we waited for dinner. Life was so simple when you trek...you ate, slept, and trekked. That was all. Well, occassionally, you shat (Eric just found out from his book that the past tense of shit was shat....very interesting stuff we talked about during our trek!). I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this Caucasian in his jogging shorts go running up the hill! Good grief! Wasn't all-day trekking enough for this fellow? There was also another man doing some writing at the next table. Turned out that he was British, and had been travelling around a bit on his own. He used to work in Switzerland, but he quit his job to travel around the world for a while. He had been in India visiting his friends for about 9 weeks, and had been in Nepal for about a week or so. Unfortunately, he had been sick for a couple of days. Food poisoning, I guess. He had walked to Hille from Pokhara and had taken him 3 days to get there. He had decided to turn back since his illness had prevented him from enjoying the trek. I had started talking to this guy because there was a VERY strange young woman at the inn who insisted on staring at us while we were waiting for dinner. She would lean across the table to stare intently into our eyes. When it got dark, she looked real spooky. We jokingly told the British guy to be careful because she might attack him in the middle of the night. Eveline told him to keep his bedroom window open so we could hear any strange noises. Cookie had bought this chicken from a 'chicken vendor' who carried his chickens in a giant basket on his back. We had chicken soup and also had the chicken as the main course. The villagers have this way of 'weighing' the chicken with their hands. Even the little kids would imitate the adults doing that. In any case, Cookie found us our chicken....but the chicken was so TOUGH! It was the toughest chicken I have ever had. Perhaps it was because these chickens were free to run up and down the mountains, and had built up big muscles. After dinner, at about 7:30 pm or so, we were all getting very tired, and decided to call it a night. We had another dog with us that night, a yellow one with a damaged ear. It was quite nice. We had to keep all of our belongings in the tent with us, including our stinky boots. This was because thefts are not uncommon in Nepal, and boots are one of the strongly desired items. Robert and I got quite good at arranging our two bags, a backpack and our boots in the tent. Our down comforters were quite nice. I had brought along pillow cases and a duvet cover... so they were extra niceties from home.
More roosters woke us up at dawn. This time, we actually set out at 7 am sharp. Today was to be the tough journey. We would need to trek UP a very steep mountain to Ghorepani. It wasn't too bad until the sun caught up with us. Then it became so hot! I took every excuse to rest....to let the donkeys or other people pass on the trail. The trail seemed to last forever, but I guess since we had been told about this day would be the toughest one, somehow I endured. Both Robert and I only wore our T-shirts and shorts because we knew we would be climbing all day. We climbed to 9300 feet that day. As we climbed to the higher altitudes, we got quite cold at times. It was strange... I would be sweating and I would be cold at the same time. At the first sight of the word Ghorepani, I was totally delighted to think that we have reached our destination. Turned out that our camp site was to be at the next village. I was about to kill the guide. This guide was very clean cut. He was wearing a khaki shirt all neatly buttoned up, and had a nice jean-jacket. I guess he got a lot of nice clothes from the tourists at the end of the treks. Eveline and I saw both guides washing their clothes meticulously at the end of trip. Anyway (Eveline always says that Robert and I use a lot of anyways in our speech, so I wouldn't want to disappoint her), turned out that the extra hike UPHILL to our campsite past Ghorepani was well worth the effort. We were rewarded with a WONDERFUL view of the snowy mountains from our camp site. This was the biggee! Well, it was the most beautiful scene that I have ever seen, even better than Switzerland, I have to say. The nice yellow dog from the camp site the night before actually followed Cookie's crew to this new site. I was very glad to see him again! Dogs in the villages were generally pretty well-fed, especially when compared to those in Kathmandu. Problem was that Robert and I were FREEZING to death up there, and our porters had not yet arrived. For once we beat them to the destination! We had to huddle in the hut where Cookie was cooking so we could get warm. Eventually, the porters arrived and they were so nice! They brought our bags to us right in the hut so that we could get our coats. These people were so nice to us all the way. Eveline thought that this one porter who had this tattered T-shirt looked very handsome. He was always all-smiles even though he had just walked for 8 hours with a 130 lb load on his back. At the end of the trip, I gave the porters a bag of apple candy and also a pack of playing cards. They seemed to like to play cards. They just didn't seem to get tired at all, not like the 'bloody tourists', as Eveline would say. We watched Cookie bake an apple pie for us that night. It tasted quite good considering he didn't have an oven! Eveline started having her cup of soup 'to feel good'. It was quite cold that night so we went to bed early AGAIN, right after dinner. Cookie would always cook for us first, then he would cook for the rest of the crew. The headman would get a portion of 'our' food. The rest of the crew would eat rice with sort of a thick soup on top of it. I guess they call it 'Dhaal Bhat'. That's the staple of Nepalese food. They all ate it by hand. There was a real hierarchy with the crew. The head man only had to carry a very small daypack. The 2 guides carried their own backpacks and had to carry our lantern also (perhaps the lantern was in case we got lost or was still on the trail by nightfall). The porters and the kitchen boys all carried large loads. Cookie never had to carry anything. He was always the boisterous one. He would run up and down the trails and laugh and sing. He would always get the 'boys' to sing. Sounded like Chinese opera to us. I hated to have them follow me when I hiked. Their loud singing and laughing always made me nervous.
Robert was the only brave (and tough!) one to go to Poon Hill for the sunrise. The guides were not too pleased that they would have to hike all the way up just for Robert, but they did wake him up at 4:30 am. The hike took about an hour in the dark. All the way UPHILL! Robert said that the hike was very tough. He was lucky that he brought a mango juice with him...that 'hit the spot'. Unfortunately, the clouds got bigger and bigger and they kept waiting for the sunrise with no luck. Eventually, they gave up and came back down at about 7 am. I had no problem sleeping in! It was nice and cozy in my tent. Eric and Eveline always got up before we did, and Eric kept on telling me that I was missing the beautiful sunrise. I finally got into my boots and looked around quickly, then decided that the view was just fine from my tent! I was so sly! And so lazy! When Robert came back, we listened to his short-wave radio during breakfast, just as Clinton was making his victory speech. It was strange to hear such a clear broadcast of it halfway around the world and in the mountains! The Nepalese were all very curious about Robert's radio, and took turns looking at it. After breakfast, we set off again. Turned out that we hiked quite a ways uphill, and we saw the same view that Robert saw from Poon Hill. He felt really cheated. The view was fantastic. I felt like I was at the set for Sound of Music. We were surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains. I guess all that hard trekking was finally rewarded. After the mountains, we trekked through a relatively flat trail of 'jungle'. It was really nice to be among the nice tall trees. It reminded us of Washington State, so Robert and I started making these stupid jokes about everything reminding us of Washington State. Poor Eveline and Eric had to endure our endless 'We love America and especially Washington State' jokes. But while we were making our way through this narrow trail along the side of this mountain, Robert fell off the trail and tumbled for about 3 to 4 feet. All I heard was Eveline's gasp, and then I saw Robert rolling away like a stunt-man. He performed the stunt beautifully, and didn't lose anything. He even held on to his walking stick all the way! Unbelievable! Later on, we heard this little 'Baaaaaa's from somewhere in the thick growth around us. Apparently, some poor little lamb was lost in the thick brush. Every time we made a 'Baaaaa' sound, the little lamb would respond. Eveline and I wanted desperately to go rescue the little lamb, but we couldn't figure out where it was. Luckily, another Sherpa came along the path. He was the shepherd for the little lamb apparently. So he went looking for the poor little thing. Next thing you know, FIVE little lambs showed up! They were SOOOOOOOO cute! There were a couple of chocolate ones, a white one, a black one, and the last one was black and white (my favorite!). These little lambs ran all over the place and barely stayed on the path. The shepherd did not have an easy job, they needed a 'Sherpa' dog. Later on, Eveline found a nice bathroom spot a bit off the trail. But these two holy water buffalos that were coming up the trail decided to check Eveline's spot out while she was still there! Good thing I decided to wait till Eveline was done for my turn. I wouldn't want to be visited by two holy water buffalos and the Sherpa tending to them while I was 'doing my business'! Eventually, after yet another long tough day of hiking, we FINALLY arrived at our camp site at Ghandruk. It was 5 pm when we arrived. I had 'died' several times from exhaustion along the way. The last part of the trail was horrible. It consisted of jagged little rocks going steeply downhill. I could imagine horses and mules breaking their legs on that trail. Needless to say, the guides had to help me again. This chosen camp site was at a very nice place. They actually had lots of marigolds and nice bushes. The view was excellent. We saw MORE snow-capped mountains. But poor Robert just found out that the shoelaces on his brand new hiking boots were being severed off. Of course we didn't bring spare shoelaces! Luckily Robert adjusted the laces and they seemed to hold up okay. The inn actually had electricity and a 'hot' shower. We all decided to take the 'hot' showers, which turned out to be luke-warm water trickling down from a little faucet about 3 feet above the ground. The 'shower' room was cold and Robert and I had quite a time when we tried to put our clothes back on. My fever started again, and my Cup of Noodles didn't help too much, although it made me 'feel good'. I went to bed shivering and Robert tucked me in. I was REALLY freezing that night. Couldn't remember much...I guess I passed out from the fever. There were four big black dogs at that house. They fought through the night. They even started barking when Robert unzipped our tent to go to the bathroom.
More roosters in the morning! Robert was convinced that Eveline was the one getting the roosters all excited so that they could crow all day long! Ah...I thought, our last whole day of trekking. Friday would only be a half-day, the head man promised. We were to trek to Landrung for lunch. That's about 3 mountains away. |
