In Kathmandu's alleys

Saying Kathmandu has a traffic problem is a huge understatement. I rented a bike, and riding it in the overcrowded streets was not fun, since a bike is only above pedestrians in the hierarchy that uses the roads. Bikes are behind rickshaws, motorcycles, tuk tuks, tempos (big tuk tuks), cars, busses, and the undisputed kings of the road, cows. All must yield for the sacred cow, because if you hit one, there will be hell to pay.

The road rules are basically that each vehicle uses its horn to clear a path through lesser vehicles. As a biker you only have a bell, but you must use it constantly to avoid hitting pedestrians. Nobody looks when crossing the street, or pays attention when walking. It’s up to you to let people know you're coming through.

Another reason not to spend time on Kathmandu’s streets is the air quality. I must have inhaled the equivalent of 1,000 cigarettes.

My first stop was Kathmandu’s Durbar (palace) Square, which I eventually found after getting lost, impossible not to do in Kathmandu’s confusing maze of unnamed, narrow streets. I was in no mood to deal with beggars, guides, or “give me chocolate” kids, so I pretty much ignored everyone who approached me.

Must... eat... more...

Then I rode to the ancient city of Patan, which used to be distinct from Kathmandu, but now the two have merged to form a huge metropolis. I stopped at Patan’s Durbar Square, again ignoring the guides and salesmen. A woman asked me if I liked bangles. I told her I like The Bangles. She offered me a special price.

Later, I rendevouzed with the Vagabond, Mike, who I’ll be trekking with. Mike said I looked thin, which is scary, since he met me after I’d already lost at least 15 lbs. Even my efforts to eat three meals a day have not paid off. I’ll have to try to make more of an effort to snack between meals. Curse Asia and its healthy food! We went to Fire & Ice to gorge ourselves on pizza, Guiness, and chocolate cake. It cost me $8, probably the most expensive meal of the trip.

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Masks

I got an early start on the bike at 6, to ride out to Nepal’s biggest Hindu temple, Pashupatinath, and Nepal’s biggest Buddhist stupa, Boudha. I got lost repeatedly on the way. The Pashupatinath complex was full of cows. Non-Hindus can’t go inside the main temple, but I caught a glimpse of many people walking around a giant golden cow. The river running by the temple is sacred, like India’s Ganges, so I watched people bathing and drinking its filthy waters for awhile. There were also a couple cremations going on. I’ve seen picture of the Ganges waterfront. I’d call this “Ganges Lite.”

Then I walked past several rotting garbage dumps and children demanding money to Boudha. It’s billed as one of the larges stupas in the world, but I’d say Yangon’s Shwegadon Paya is bigger and more impressive. It was a bit tacky, because a wall of souvenir shops and restaurants encircled the stupa. Every shop was playing the Tibetan monk chanting song.

After fighting traffic back to Thamel, I’m ready to get out of Kathmandu.

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After thinking all the backpackers lugging hiking boots and sleeping bags through sweltering Myanmar so they could trek in Nepal were silly, I’ve finally verified that this is totally unnecessary. Just buy your ticket to Kathmandu and show up with the clothes on your back. You can get everything here. Well, except good socks.

Thamel has dozens of shops selling a variety of used and new gear. Many items are locally made and decorated with “North Face” or “Gortex” labels, but they are dirt cheap and of adequate quality to survive a trek. None of the shops have a complete selection, so it’s just a matter of going from shop to shop, seeing what they have. After a day of shopping, here’s what I ended up with:

• ”Lowe Alpine” backpack, about 30 L. My goal is to make it my main pack and send my big one home - $11
• ”North Face” sleeping bag, zero degrees. Seems warm, $30
• High Tec boots, the real deal, $35
• lath (walking stick), $2.50
• rain cover, $2
• water bottle, $7.50
• inflatable pillow, $1
• gloves, $1
• hat, wooly, $1
• scarf, $1
• down booties, the trek’s luxury item for those cold nights, $6
• socks, have holes after one use, $1 for two pair

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The beautiful lakeside town of Pokhara is surrounded by hills. They'd be mountains in any other country, but being that this is Nepal, they are just hills. This fact is driven home by the two enormous peaks poking above the hills in the morning, before they go into hiding behind the clouds. A glimpse of things to come.

Mike has a big video camera to carry, so wants a porter, which I'll split with him. This will make life easier, since I won't have to carry my cold weather gear. Unfortunately, we weren't able to hire one of those cool guys who carry huge baskets strapped to their foreheads. We were able to hire a "helper/guide," though, who will carry a big backpack. Tak Pun seems like a nice guy, too.

Then I needed last minute gear: gaiters, carbiners, chocolate, and Tak Pun's backpack. We continued to gorge ourselves as much as possible on the mediocre food available here.

I never noticed how good looking Israelis are. Israelis are famous for traveling in huge packs, and the town is full of packs of them. The guys are all rugged and muscular and have long, curly hair. The women all look like super models. Super models who could kill you with their bear hands. There're all in prime shape after serving in the military for two years. And what better holiday for a lean, muscular Israeli than a month-long walk in the mountains?

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First bridge

First a four-hour bus ride to Besi Sahar, then we hit the trail. Well, so far it's been a rocky dirt road. We should get to the trail tomorrow. We only walked for three hours, but it was a lot of up and down, and surprisingly difficult. Due to the low elevation, it was also unpleasantly hot. Not swelteringly so, but enough to be uncomfortable, probably 85F or so. I got to cross my first dodgy wooden suspension bridge.

A unique feature of trekking in the Himalayas is that, unlike most mountains, they are inhabited, and we passed through several villages. We also shared the trail with children and old ladies carrying huge loads of wood on their backs. This also means you can stay in guesthouses the whole way, and eat in their restaurants. They always have ambitious menus, but you can only order a few of the listed items. It's best to all order the same thing, to cut down on cooking time, and thus conserve firewood.

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Traffic

Six hours of walking up and down hills, and I feel really good. We climbed up 450 m, but only ended up 250 m higher than last night. The key seems to be to walk really slowly, and use my stick to lean on while climbing. Amazingly, my feet don't hurt yet.

Today we shared the trail with lots of Israelis, porters, trains of mules, and herds of water buffalo. The trail is narrow, so when this stuff comes through, you'd better get over!

Not surprisingly, a lot of the kids are beggars. They hang out by the trail, and ask for "school pens," or to be photographed. I wish people would realized that if they wanted to help the children with their apparent dire shortage of pens, they could just give them directly to the schools.

We had lunch at a restaurant on top of a big hill called the Superior View Restaurant, and was billed as being "Not recommended by Lonely Planet." That's good enough for me. The view was indeed superior, with the green/blue river far below, the hills on both sides of the valley, and the top of a rocky snow-capped mountain poking over a hill. I'm thinking it may be best to stick to dal bhat, since our fried rice was poor.

Dhal Bhat

We've been passing through Hindu country, which Tak Pun describes as "not interesting." Tomorrow we enter Tibetan territory, which I look forward to. I have a feeling I'll see more Tibetan culture here in Nepal than in Tibet.

The tiny village we're staying at, just some building along the trail, like many villages, has no electricity. So it was chess by candlelight.

State of the Bowels Report In Kathmandu I had a recurrence of my Giardia. I decided to treat it again, this time using the proper dose, since the doctor I saw told me the wrong thing. But the last two days I had to run to the toilet for an urgent Hershey squirt. Thankfully, this hasn't happened on the trail yet. But the toilets aren't much better, since they are of the squat variety. There are few things worse than trying to squat properly so the violent explosions from your ass spray into a hole, and not onto the floor, or your legs. This would be easier if I understood the Asian art of squatting comfortably. Looks like I'll be getting plenty of opportunities to practice.

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Climbing

Today was a tough day. After a Nepal breakfast of noodle soup, we headed up a steep climb in the hot sun. I was soon covered with sweat. I figured the trail was so steep and rocky that we wouldn't have to worry about pony caravans, which force us off to the side. I was wrong, and we were passed by several.

After lunch of delicious cheese and potato momos, a Tibetan dish, we had a couple more hours of climbing up rocky steps blasted from the cliffs. Again, leaning on my stick and waling slowly I was able to minimize exertion. The stick is key! It was still very hard, though. Later, Tak Pun said today was the second hardest day, after Thorang La. All told, we climbed 600 m. The weather has cooled considerably.

We were climbing far up one of the sides of a dramatic, rocky canyon, with the aqua-colored river racing below. Not too many snow peaks, but still beautiful.

The "town" of Tal is in a dramatic setting. You cross a ridge, and before you is a valley, with a clear river running through it, and high, rocky cliffs on all sides. On the far side is a waterfall, and under it lies Tal, like a town out of the Old West. Unfortunately, the only things here are hotels. I hope we'll go through some more authentic villages, especially now that we're in the Tibetan district of Manang.

Girl in hut

The guesthouses have been very basic, but this one is even more so. It's constructed entirely out of plywood. I wonder if the building inspector saw it? For dinner they served us the worst dal bhat I've had. The bhat component consisted of boiled spinach. Yuck! But, this was the first place to have "apple fritters" (all places use an ACAP approved menu with the same items). As usual, they weren't what I expected, but they were delicious.

That night there was some kind of dance show. About 100 villagers were excitedly watching what appeared to be a dance contest. I have no idea where all the people came from. I was too tired to watch for long.

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Walking

We all seemed a bit unmotivated today. Maybe because it's hard to get enough sleep due to the noise of Nepli hotels. Maybe it's because Tak Pun wasn't feeling well. He's our leader and sets our pace, and even though he wore a huge pack, we walked behind him at a very slow pace.

Luckily, today was an easy day, and we only walked about four hours. Even though we climbed 600 m, same as yesterday, there were no descents, so it was much easier. We also seemed to dodge the crowds. Right after leaving Tal, the crowds of Israelis raced past us. We had lunch between towns, so no tourists were there, and there's nobody staying in the little Tibetan village we're at.

Not only has it gotten considerably colder, the villages are starting to have Tibetan touches, like stone archways over the trail, and prayer wheels. There's still not much to see in the villages. There's usually a stone wall along the trail, then some houses. You can walk through in 5 minutes.

The scenery is nice. Still not too many snow peaks, but we walked high up on the side of a deep valley. We saw eagles and vultures soaring about.

Tomorrow we should reach 3000 m, the danger point for Acute Mountain Sickness.

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In the mountains

Today should have been an easy day, so we didn't start until 9 am. I had gone to sleep at 10 last night, and was awakened by TP at 8. I could have kept sleeping.

Right after leaving Donagyo, we came to a fork. The left branch went up, the right stayed level. I knew from my book that the usual route is the low one, but I saw Ian and Jamie going up, and I thought they were following TP. After about 30 minutes of climbing, I asked them about this, and they said TP was behind us, and they were just following the sign to Chame. Unfortunately, the right trail said Chame too. Rather than go back, we decided to press on, until this trail rejoins the main one. It was a hard climb, and we walked fast because we were worried, so it was very tiring. However, the scenery was spectacular. We were finally amoung the mountains. There were stunning snow peaks all around us. As cliche as it sounds, pictures do not do them justice.

Really, they don't

We got to a small town with a checkpoint, and didn't see Mike or TP in the register, so we went for some dal bhat. Two hours later they showed up. They had walked back to the junction, then TP walked up the high path looking for us. In the future we'll have to be sure we know where we'll be stopping for the night.

We ended up only walking about 4 hours today, but we climbed 300 m at a fast pace, so I was bushed by the time I got to Chame, a pretty big little town. By day it was hot in the sun, cold in the shade, but by night it was very cold, probably 40 F. We'll be looking at a cold 10 days or so. The hotels are uninsulated, being only wooden shells, and unheated, so bundle up. Going to the toilet at night is an especially complicated process, involving finding a torch (flashlight) and flip flops, then heading out into the freezing pitch blackness.

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Beyond spectacular

Another six hours of walking. Some climbs, but mostly over level ground. Now we are walking among the mountains. It looks as if you can just reach out and touch the snow-capped peaks.

Now we're starting to enter the AMS danger zone. It seems more difficult to carry on a conversation while walking, since it's harder to catch your breath.

The Tibetan town of Pisang is of course in a spectacular location. The lower part is just hotels, but the upper part, 100 m up, is a traditional town. I walked up there, huffing and puffing. They were having an archery competition, which I watched for awhile.

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On top of the world

From Pisang, there's a high trail parallel to the main one that's about 300 m above it. It also takes about three hours longer. I wanted to take it, to aid acclimatization, and for the views. But none of my companions wanted to, since they are lazy. Luckily, two American girls with massive backpacks were going that way, so I accompanied them.

It was 100 m up to Upper Pisang, then 370 m of steep switchbacks to Ghyaru. Very hard work, and lots of heavy breathing. The views were spectacular, though. Right across the river, and seemingly level with us, were the snow capped peaks of Annapurnas II, II, IV, and Gangapurna, and behind us Pisang Peak. We were truely surrouned by mountains.

We passed through two traditional Tibetan towns, which were quite surreal. Built on hillsides, with boxy little houses reminiscent of the Pueblo Indian houses in New Mexico. We had lunch of dal bhat with a spectacular (of course) mountain backdrop. Jumping down from the platform we were sitting on, I landed wrong, and seemed to hurt my left knee. It felt better after a few minutes, but I favored it all the way to Manang.

Manang

I got to Manang around 5, after eight hours of walking. The rest of the gang had been there since 2. The people of Manang know what trekkers want, so I pigged out on chocolate "Denishes," macaroni, and apple pie.

Even in this remote region, you can't escape the news. Well, Manang's not exactly remote. Everybody I've met on the trail is here, and some people have paid the exorbitant rates to use the satellite internet. So I've heard about the end of the war. The Nepalis seem to do a good job of keeping abreast of the news with their radios.

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Above Manang

Today was our acclimatization day, i.e. "day of rest." I managed to sleep in until 8, then ate the "cheese breakfast." What better way to start the day than with delicious yak cheese! Then a little laundry, a veggie burger lunch, then TP rounded us up for a little climbin'. It's better to climb high, and sleep low, so he wanted us to climb 250 m up to a monastery. TP seemed a bit confused, and led us up a very faint trail. I seemed to be breathing a bit heavier than every one else, but otherwise felt OK. We got pretty hight, but it was thundering, so we headed back down to beat the rain. TP led us the wrong way, so we had to slide down on our asses.

Then a hot shower (solar powered to save wood), a yak cheese quesadia for dinner (strange but delicious in its own way), and some reading. As usual, I'm incredibly tired. It's 8 pm, but feels like 1 am. So early to bed again.

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In the kitchen

A tasty yak cheese breakfast and a yummy chocolate "denish," and we set out at 9 am. We had to walk up about 500 m, and I was feeling pretty sluggish. I had a slight headache too, and it was hard to catch my breath.

We're walking through some pretty desolate terrain. Trees have given way to shrubs, or just dirt. Yet people still live up here in remote little villages. So there are plenty of places to stop for snacks.

For lunch we ate yak cheese, which was quite tasty.

After we checked into our hotel in the Middle of Nowhere, TP wanted us to hike up 300 m to the top of a hill. Once again, he had no idea where he was going, and it was a steep, dangerous scramble down.

The lodge served good pasta and apple pie for dinner. Sitting still is OK, but doing any task involving moving, such as walking to the bathroom, causes heavy breathing. I also have a slight headache. Very tired, so bed at 9.

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Locals at the chorten

Today was the most disastrous day yet. I don't know why TP took us up so high yesterday. We went up 600 m, not 500, according to my guidebook. You are only supposed to go up 300 m each day, to prevent AMS. Ironically, even though my book points this out, it recommends going up 720 m for yesterday.

I kept waking up last night with a slight altitude headache. It was minor, but I didn't want to go any higher today. Of course everyone else were being asses, and wanted to go on anyways. Then another guide told us TP was dizzy, vomiting, and having trouble breathing. Those are serious symptoms, and require immediate descent. This just goes to show AMS can strike anyone, regardless of age, fitness, or previous experience (TP says he's gone around 22 times).

We walked a couple hours back to Gunsang, but the trail was pretty flat, and TP still felt bad. The English guys couldn't be bothered, and went back up the trail. Mike went back to Yak Kharka, where I'm supposed to meet him tomorrow. The Nepali guy who was going to take TP down to Manang wanted to have lunch, and TP was vomiting, so I threw my pack in a room, and escorted him down. We had to walk all the way to Manang before he felt any better, since the trail was pretty flat right until town.

Trail kids

He was good enough to have lunch, and I had some more excellent (and pricey) yak cheese quesadillas. Then he went to the clinic. The doctor thinks it's AMS, and gave hime some diamox, but the question is if he'll be able to do this in the future. I imagine it will ruin his career if he can't. He said he may meet us on the other side of the pass.

Then I had to hike back up to Gunsang a couple of hours, and 400 m. The trail that seemed level this morning was now uphill the whole way. Complicating matters was the dropping temp, and the fact all my gear was in Gunsang. Then it started to rain, which became freezing rain, and finally snow. When I got there I climbed under a blanket with all my clothes on, the only way to keep warm in the unheated mountain lodges. When I awoke, a thunderstorm blizzard was in progress, and a couple cm of snow had already accumulated. I hope it's not too bad on Thorong La. I'm the only guest in the tiny lodge, and I finished the only book with me, so early to bed tonight.

Going down helped my headache, though. From now on I'll limit ascents to 300 m a day.

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Resting

I woke up at 6 am, and after 10 hours of sleep, I felt good. Best of all, my altitude headache was gone. I still got out of breath packing my bag, though. After a tasty "Swiss breakfast," cooked over a yak dung fire, I headed back up the trail two hours to Yak Kharka, where I slept the night before last. There were a couple steep climbs, which made the back of my head throb with pain on each step, but the headache went away with rest.

In Y.K., which isn't a town, but a collection of about five hotels, I picked up Mike, and our new porter, Rudra. Mike wasn't feeling that great, so he took a Diamox.

I swear, it's about to charge

We're limiting ourselves to 300 m a day now, which we should have done from the start. That means we only had a 30 minute walk up 150 (I went up 150 from Gunsang already) to Letdar. We're in Alpine territory now, so there are no trees, just scraggly bushes. And lots of rocks.

Letdar is another "town" of hotels, but only four this time. It will be our penultimate stop before crossing Thorong La. Lunch of potato momos, then we walked up the trail an hour, and maybe 300 m up, to aclimatize. One thing strange about walking in the mountains that I never realized, is the extremes of temperature you have to deal with. When the sun is shining on you, it gets amazingly hot, and you start taking off clothes. But the instant you step in the shade, or the sun goes behind a cloud (or sets), you're freezing your arse off. The main time of discomfort is sitting around before bed. Once I get under a blanket I'm fine, since I wear all my clothes (which I haven't changed for five days). Including wooly cap and down booties.

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King of the mountains

A short two hour walk to the Thorong Pedi base camp. But it was 300 m up, and was very tiring. The only thing here is a single hotel, at the bottom of the steep climb to Thorong La. The place features a wandering dog, who we dubbed Mountain Dog.

After lunch, we headed up the trail to acclimatize. It took us an hour of huffing to climb the 400 m straight up to the High Camp Hotel, a grim and isolated little building. While we struggled to catch our breath, who should we see but Mountain Dog trotting up the trail.

There was a big hill/little peak about 100 m up from High Camp, and we decided to climb that too. The top was crowned by cairns and prayer flags, and offered spectacular views of the mountains all around. Mountain Dog joined us at the top.

The walk down was hard too, since going down puts strain on the knees. I was exhausted when we got back, so dinner, then bed at 7. Tomorrow's the big day.

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Going up

Today was the most physically challenging day of my life. I proved to myself that I can endure eight hours of sustained strenuous walking at high altitude.

After a sleepless night, due to an altitude headache, we got up at 4:30 am. But we moved so slowly that we didn't set out until 6:30. This turned out to be OK, since we were the last to go, so didn't have to put up with large groups of people. In fact, we didn't see anybody. The climb up to High Camp, which we did yesterday, seemed twice as hard today. Beyond High Camp there were some stretches of narrow snow-covered ledges, where a bad step would send you down an icy slope into oblivion. I wasn't too crazy about those. Then there was seemingly endless climbing up the snowy trail. Needless to say, the rarified air made the climb even more difficult, and there was much stopping to catch our breath.

We stopped at a remote teashop at 5000 m for Cadburys, and who should be waiting for us, but Mountain Dog! He must have been acclimatizing! Our new companion followed us, and accompanied us all the way up to Thorong La, at 5416 m, about a three hour climb. At the top was a big cairn, covered with prayer flags, and, of course, a tea shop. Its prices matched its elevation, with a cup of hot lemon tea, made from fresh snow, going for $1. Cheap for Starbucks, expensive for Nepal. We couldn't resist the novelty, though. I was still feeling good, so I climbed a little hill to get to 18,000 ft. I was feeling so good I started to jog up, and almost fainted! The views were good, since we were right up in the mountains, but not spectacular.

After an hour, it was time to head down. Going down is worse than climbing, due to the severe strain in puts on the knees. And we had 1600 m to go down. This took forever (about four hours), and was incredibly tiring. There wasn't much to see, either. The only things up there were snow and gravel. Nepal has a huge untapped resource of gravel on top of its mountains. None of this stopped Mountain Dog, who trotted behind us the whole way.

Resting

We finally emerged on one of the most beautiful sights I ever saw. A huge valley, with green terraced fields, villages, hills, and huge mountains on the far side. It looked like an oil painting you could touch. Unfortunately, we still had an hour of steep, slippery gravel trails to descend.

Then came the worst part of all. We thought the town of Muktinath was close, but it was an endless walk (about an hour) over the valley floor. Even though the terrain was relatively flat, there were still many rocks we had to climb over. By the time we got to Muktinath, we were hobbling like two old men with canes.

Mountain Dog followed us into the bizarre Bob Marley guesthouse (which only plays Bob Dillan), then disappeared. I guess he couldn't wait for us. We ate a huge dinner, and went to bed at 7.

Stair Machine We climbed up 996 m. Chicago's Sears Tower is 442 m high, with 108 floors. So we climbed up the equivalent of 2.25 Sears Towers, or 243 floors. To make it more challenging, these Sears Towers were 4420 m up, or built on top of ten Sears Towers! To complete the insanity, we climbed down 3.7 Sear Towers, or 395 floors. Feel the burn!

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My legs felt like I had just run a marathon. So we decided to rest today. I walked over to the big Buddhist/Hindu temple complex. Sadhus walk from India to visit it, but it was a little underwhelming. Other than that, there was just a lot of gorging ourselves on the Bob Marley's unique take on Italian and Mixican (sic) food.

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Kagbeni

In retrospect, the only reason to go over Thorong La is to prove you can do it. There’s nothing to see up there, since there is no vegetation, and nobody lives there. Now, on the other side, is a beautiful green valley, filled with interesting medieval villages. This is why I cam to Nepal, to observe the people, and I’d like to take my time exploring. Unfortunately, my companions, like most trekkers, think we’re done now, and just want to get back to Pokhara ASAP. Yet they refuse to fly back from Jomson. I don’t understand their logic.

So while my companions rushed ahead, I wandered through the little fortress village of Jarakot, spectacularly situated on a hill, with stunning views of the valley. I think the valley is the most beautiful place I ever saw. After finding my way out of the narrow streets, I caught up to my companions. We walked to Kagbeni, a striking medieval fortress town. It was a green oasis in the middle of the desert-like country of Mustang, Nepal’s forbidden kingdom. My companions reluctantly accompanied me to the gompa (monastery). We were lucky, and were in time for a ceremony, which involved eight monks chanting, and performing various rituals. They chanted out of time with each other, sneezed, and talked, and the cacophony produced an earie kind of music. It was fascinating, but unfortunately I had no idea what was going on. And my three companions stormed out after a few minutes.

I wanted to stay in Kagbeni, which was picturesque, but the rest of the group wanted to rush to the ugly city of Jomson. The walk was rough, since we were against the wind. The terrain was ugly too, since we walked on a gravely riverbed.

I’m slightly torn, since I want to take my time, but I have been walking for two weeks. I guess I’ll stick with the group.

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Inside a gompa

My hotel was the nicest I’ve stayed in, and had excellent food. I had yak cheesecake and yak cheese and macaroni. But the lady kept saying “bad people, bad thinking; good people, good thinking.” Luckily, I was classified as a good person.

The terrain of the valley we are passing through, the Kali Gandaki, was again uninspiring. A flat valley flor covered with rocks, making walking difficult. The strong wind blowing in our faces compounds the problem. However, the hills are starting to become green, as pine tree forests are starting to be found.

Lunch at the Yak Hotel, which featured “a real yak on display inside.” The stuffed beast proved rather gruesome.

Like many villages, Larjung has a ton of guesthouses, and most are empty. We are the only ones at ours. Normally I’d wonder how they all stay in business. But the families that own them keep on doing their normal things like growing crops and herding goats. If they happen to get guests, the women just have to spend the night cooking strange foreign meals in their primitive kitchens that they would never dream of eating (while the men play cards). This time we made their lives easy, and ordered dal bhat, which was tasty. The beauty of dal bhat is that always, always, seconds are offered. Not so if you order “pizza,” or an “enchilada.”

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Flat trail

We walked along the last stretch of windy, rocky valley, thankfully. After lunch, the terrain finally got interesting, with lots of green forested hills. And, of course, huge snow-capped mountains.

I’ve resigned myself to the desire to get back to civilization. We’ve been walking for a long time, and it will be nice to get a change of routine. And to check email.

Our hotel had a chicken steak special we were interested in. Mike asked to see the chicken, to make sure it was fresh. So the guy took us out back, and gestured to all the chickens wandering around. It looks like it will be fresh! We placed four orders, then watched the guy pick out a big rooster, and carry him to the makeshift chopping block. Unfortunately for the chicken, his knife was dull, so he had to give him a few poorly-placed wacks. It was more of a bludgeoning than a decapitation. It turned out pretty good, though.

We ordered the apple crumble, which I was enjoying until Mike pointed out the mold on the crust. This confirmed my worst fears about baked goods sitting out too long. I may have to truely rough it from now on, and make due with Mars bars, Cadburys, and Mentos. Life in the Himalayas is not easy.

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Snack lady

Another seemingly endless day, and motivation was low. When we got to Tatopani, we were forced to console ourselves by sitting in the hot springs for awhile. Even though it was unpleasantly hot today, the hot water still felt great.

Later, we were forced to each huge “pork” steak dinners (made from water buffalo), followed by big pieces of chocolate cake. We must get ready for the climb up Poon Hill tomorrow.

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Prayer wheels

We were faced with a difficult decision. Whether to leave today, or to take an extra day to walk to Poon Hill. Even though we all had had enough, we decided to go out with a bang and do the Poon Hill thang. Unfortunately, this involved a 1500 m climb. It was insane, and was eight hours of climbing. Sometimes up stone steps, sometimes slippery marble steps, sometimes rocks, and sometimes just dirt. But it was up all the way. The elevation change was so extreme that it was sweltering and humid at the outset, and cold and windy when we finally got to Gorapani at 5. This was the most we climbed in one day, even more than when we crossed Thorong La. I promptly got into my sleeping bag and went to sleep, only slightly disturbed by the shouting Germans next door. The team woke me up for dinner at 8, the I went back to bed.

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It was worth it

We rose at 4:30 to climb Poon Hill. This was impossible not to do, due to the shouting Germans next door, who were at it at 4. The steep climb of half an hour, then we had a good view of the sunrise over the hazy mountains. The problem with trekking in the spring is the haze, which obscures the peaks. It produced an interesting effect this morning, though, and it looked like the peaks were floating in space. Was it worth a day of hell?

We had six hours of walking before we could make our final escape. The morning was 2000 m down steps. This was rough, and my knees were in great pain. We passed spectacular scenery, starting with jungle, down through villages on hillsides with bright green terraced fields. But we were all too tired to appreciate it.

After lunch (or “dinner,” as the wacky English contingent refers to it, leading to no end of confusion), we had three more endless hours over “level” terrain. In Nepal, level terrain means for every hill you climb, you descend one of equal height.

The gang on Poon Hill

For the last hour we raced a thunderstorm, which finally exploded into furious rain as we entered Naya Pul. So much for completing the while trek without getting wet. Surprisingly, after being away from cars and busses for three weeks, I didn’t find their amazingly loud and annoying Indian horns shocking. What did find shocking was walking through a real Nepali town after three weeks in tourist towns made up of hotels. The dirt streets, the filth, the screaming children, and the crush of people was unsettling.

The five of us piled into a tiny cab for the hour ride to Pokhara. The combination of torrential downpouring hail, lack of defrosters, excessive speed, windy mountain road, huge oncoming busses with no headlights, and random cows made the ride particularly terrifying. Forget terrorism and SARS. The real danger of traveling is the driving.

We celebrated with a big dinner at the Lemon Tree, then I read email (i.e., deleted spam) for two hours.

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Nepali children

I’ve just finished walking for the longest I have, or probably will (20 days is a long time) walk in my life. What did I think of achieving one of my life’s ambitions?

It “wasn’t too bad,” as the English contingent noncomittedly describes most things. But I couldn’t help being disappointed after coming from a place like Myanmar, where the people are actually glad to see you. After 30 years of trekking, the people along the Annapurna circuit are understandably blase. The only time they talk to you are when children are begging for a “school pen,” or when women are trying to extort money from you for their authentic Tibetan souvenirs made in Hong Kong. One such woman actually demanded of poor weak-willed Jamie “You give me 300 rupees now!”

On top of the disappointing people, the views disappointed, which are hazy in the spring. And the crossing of the pass was disappointing, since there is nothing above 4000 m but snow, gravel, hotels, and teashops.

But I’m glad I did it. I proved I can walk for a long time in difficult conditions, and that I can survive the altitude. The mountain views were still good, the Tibetan architecture was interesting, and the beautiful Tibetan people were fascinating to behold. In the future I’d like to do two shorter treks in more remote areas. If you’re going to trek in Nepal, you should consider that too. There’s nothing sacred about the Annapurna Circuit, and 20 days is a long time to walk.

So now I’ll dispel some myths about Trekking in the Himalayas.

It’s cold in Nepal everywhere, all the time
Since Nepal’s at the latitude of Florida, and gets as low as 100 m, it is tropically hot in places. Kathmandu has the ideal climate, and is pleasant year-round. The mountains don’t start getting cold until 2000 m, and even at 5400 m it's amazingly hot in the sun, even while you’re surrounded by snow. I didn’t need a down jacket, and was fine with long underwear top, longsleeve tee shirt, fleece jumper, rainshell, wooly hat, and gloves. Nighttime is when you get cold, and I would say fleece pants are indispensable. You actually don’t need a sleeping bag if you don’t mind sleeping in all your clothes on the dodgy beds. It’s nice, though.

You’ll be living off granola the whole time
You can eat “Mexican,” and “Italian” food at 4500 m. Sure, it’s often best to go with the dal bhat, but the choice is always there. Mars bars, Snickers, and Coke are available everywhere, even on top of Thorong La. The most I paid for a Mars bar was $1, twice the cost in Kathmandu. I ate more candy bars and apple pie than I have ever eaten before, and even the English contingent noted that the amount of tea we drank was excessive.

You’ll be deep in the wilderness and won’t see any people
Sorry, you picked the wrong country. People live up to 4000 m, and you’ll pass through many villages. On the trail you’ll see porters with huge loads strapped to their foreheads, trains of ponies loaded with cargo, sure-footed children on their way to school, families going wherever they go, sadus who have walked on pilgrimage from India, pretty girls washing their hair and spitting hockers, and, of course, your fellow trekkers, many of whom you’ll get to know during your nights in the hotels.

You’ll be sleeping in tents
Some people did pay more money to do this, which I don’t understand. For less than a dollar you can have a dingy little room with dirty sheets, plywood walls, and no heat. Hey, it’s better than nothing!

You’ll be having an “eco-adventure”
I wish more people would think about this. The scourge of mineral water has made it even to the remote hills of Nepal, and many tourists guzzle bottles down without thinking about the fact that the locals have no way of disposing of the plastic bottles, so just throw them in the river. Tourists order complicated meals and take hot showers without thinking about the rampant deforestation they are causing. Tourists hand out candy and pens to kids without thinking about how they're turning them into beggars. Tourists wear skimpy outfits without thinking about how the locals are offended by this kind of dress. Tourists pee close to rivers without thinking how people drink from the rivers. Trekking can be an “eco-experience,” but it’s up to you to make it one.

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The right to public assembly and protest is a fundamental right of any free society. But imagine if a few students who had some arbitrary complaint shut the entire city down. Then imagine if they shut the entire country down. Finally, imagine if this happened on a weekly basis. Business people would suffer, tourists would be scared away, the economy would be ruined, the protests would become meaningless, and anarchy would ensue. Welcome to Nepal, a tiny country with some remarkably big political problems.

In 1990, the student activists of Nepal organized shutdowns, or bandhs, as a means to bring about a constitutional democratic government. They succeeded, but the bandhs didn’t stop. There have been 77 since then, ranging from one to five days. The communists call many of the strikes, but they can be for any flimsy political reason.

Today and tomorrow there is a bandh that seems to be protesting petroleum rate increases. Nobody really knows for sure. Even with the warning email from the US embassy, I didn’t think about what this would mean until I went out in search of breakfast. Nine out of ten shops were closed. The few that weren’t were only “half open,” with their “garage doors” that cover their storefronts pulled half down. People loitered about, and children played football in the vehicle free streets. It seems the schools were closed too.

I drank juice at one of the brave sort-of-opened shops, until a warning shout came up the street, and they kicked me out and hastily closed up shop, pulling their door all the way down. The street was a cacophony of shouting and doors being frantically closed.

A few minutes later the agitators walked down the street, carrying red communist flags. There were only about 20 of them, and they didn’t seem too threatening, but this is the third world, so there is nothing stopping them form rioting if they come across an open business. This frequently happens, and bandhs often end in vandalism. I imagine insurance is unknown here, which is why most shops simply close.

A few minutes after the would-be-rioters passed, a couple trucks full of riot police, wearing body armor, and armed with lathis (sticks for beatin’) sped slowly after the crowd.

In a sense, I’ve gone from one extreme to the other. From a country that will jail without trial anyone who dares to protest against its government, to a country that allows frequent protests to regularly shut down entire cities, and does little to stop the ensuing anarchy and destruction. It seems like there is a lesson in moderation here.

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