Nepal blog 8

Our tiny little plane left a day later :( There was such a big storm on Tuesday, that our plane on Wednesday was delayed, so we left Pokhara on Thursday. Mum was definitely nervous, but she did a great job for someone that didn't really have a choice ;)

At 10am we were flying over the Himalaya's, which only took about 20 minutes. After arrival in Jomson we had some tea and we started walking at 11 am. An easy day to begin with: only about 3 hours. That day we went north to Kagbeni, where we were going to spend one night, but it tuned out a bit different.. The next morning a snowstorm hit us and there was no way we were going to go outside that day, although it might have been the same temperature inside as outside. The houses in Nepal are really nice, but a bit poor manufactures. There are little holes everywhere and since there is no central heating, it is quite cold and even colder at night. The sleeping bags Lara and I hired from the 3 sisters (3sistersadvertures.com) said to be warm even at minus 20 degrees, but we found out that wasn't the case. Mum was very happy in her own new sleeping bag though (grrr). So the second day, we were mainly laying in our sleeping bags trying to get warm, which was quite impossible. Later on, as we had dinner in the main room, they put coals under the table, so that we were getting warm from the feet up to the legs and well, when your feet are warm, the rest will follow… Luckily they had some nice books to read at the Asia House, so it wasn't too bad…

At least we saved up some energy to walk all the way to Jharkot, Muktinath and back to Jharkot the next day. In Jharkot we stayed at the New Plaza hoteland we dropped our stuff there before climbing the mountains up to Muktinath. Mum wasn't feeling that well: high altitude sickness?? And she was way too tired to climb another 200 meters, so she hired a horse to go up, which was a good choice: Lara and I had quite a work out going up to Muktinath. (Kagbeni - 2800 meters, Muktinath 3800 meters). This day was one of the most beautiful days of our trip. There was about 20 cm of snow and a blue sky. Unluckily I didn't feel to good that evening: probably a sun stroke :( The next morning I felt much better though and we had quite a walk to do that day: another 5 hours, but mostly downhill now, which was quite a challenge with all the snow and the ice: slippery… We were accompanied by a cute dog, that we met the day before in Muktinath. He joined us all the was to Jomsom, where he disappeared..

That night we stayed in Jomsom, where we had a really nice room with television ànd a hot shower, which is very rare in Nepal… After a movie, we had a nice sleep and in the morning (Monday the 15th) we left at 8.45 am for Larjung. Our original itinerary was a bit different, but we lost one day because of our flight and one day because of the blizzard, so we had to move on if we wanted a day rest at the hot springs in Tatopani. So day 5 we walked again for about 5 hours and we started to getting used to all the walking. In Larjung we met a lovely couple from the UK and they rent a cottage in Wales, close to where I worked a couple of summers ago as a surf coach. Since I'll be going to Wales again this may to redo my lifeguarding course, they invited mee to come over: too sweet :) (Sabine: their cottage is a Broadhaven/ smakhaven South!)

Day six was a piece of cake and we arrived in Ghasa around lunchtime (1.30 pm). Again dal bhat, which is the only food our guide and porters seem to eat, except for breakfast, when they eat noodle soup, Tibetan bread (which is actually pretty good), etc. Dal Bhat is white rice with curry and Daal (lentils) and (if your lucky) a papadum. There are as many different dal bhats as there are cooks, so the one is definitely better then the other, but of course you never know that beforehand.. This Tuesday, I explained our porters: Nar Maya, Man Maya and Mina, how to play s***head (card game) and they had a blast!

The next day we had a long day walk to Tatopani, but the hot spring made up for that. We were quite exhausted on arrival and Lara didn't want to go to the hot springs anymore, but I persuaded my mum and it was great! So relaxing, exactly what we needed. We stayed in till about 9pm and went back in the next morning after breakfast ànd after lunch! Mum and I had a massage as well, which was amazing. I was reborn after Tatopani and well, I definitely needed that for the rest of the trip… The food in our guesthouse: Dhaulagiri Lodge, was really good, so all together, if you're in Nepal, don't miss out on Tatopani!

Only a couple of days left, some of the most heavy days.. Day 9 and 10: each 4 hours uphill, all together nearly 1700 meters up . Mum had injured her knee coming down from Jharkot and she wasn't really looking forward to all the climbing, so she decided to hire a horse for day 9, which was very smart, cause it was quite a heavy climb. That night we stayed in Shikha at the Serendipity hotel: definitely not the nicest place of all… Day 10: climbing again and mum did a great job.. All the way to Ghorepani, the sunny hotel. This hotel was huge and, although the rooms were small and freezing, the common room was really nice.

The next morning we had to get up early, because we were going to climb Poon Hill and look at the sunrise, which was amazing by the way. Those steep 400 meters up were a bit of a struggle in the dark, but we made it, except for mum, who got stuck halfway….

Anyway, the view was amazing (see pic's) and definitely worth step up…

Back down, mum and I went for a little nap before leaving for Hille. Only 2 days left, 2 days down.. Can't be too hard, right? Well, as we found out, going down was pretty heavy. It took me about a week to get over the pain in my calf muscles that those (over) 2 million steps the first day gave me.. It was about 5 hours downhill for me and Lara and 8 hours for mum… poor mum! Her knees were swollen and she felt exhausted…

That night, our last night on trek, Lara and I had our last Dal Bhat (ever?) and mum didn't even have dinner, but went straight to bed. Lara an I did enjoy those last moments inthe mountains though. We played some cards (for old times sake), had some tea a chocolate and chatted with the other guests.

On Monday morning we headed back to Pokhara. We were supposed to walk all the way to Nayapul, but an hour before we got there, we arrived in Birethanti and we were offered a ride in a jeep for Nepali prices, which we couldn't resist (we should have taken a public bus from Nayapul to Pokhara otherwise and this guy was going to drop us of at our hotel :).

Back in Pokhara we had a rest, went to the tree sisters to get our money from our lost day back, brought away some laundry and eventually had a really nice dinner at the Olive Café… Lara's last night :(.

The next morning, Lara and I walked to the bus station (about a 40 minute walk) at 5.15 am, where we said our goodbyes.

Back in the hotel I went back to bed and our last couple of days mum and I rested a lot, did some souvenir shopping and so on. Unluckily I got pretty sick on our last night there, so no dinner for me and the bus ride back to Kathmandu the next morning was not very pleasant either. Just found out that Lara had the same problem after she left..

Back in Kathmandu we enjoyed the really nice, powerful hot shower we have in the guesthouse :). Yesterday Chintamani (our yoga guru) came to visit us and we had a chat and some tea. Waël, who we met at the yoga center last month, came over to Thamel (the tourist neighborhood here) to have dinner with us, which was great. I shouldn't have had dinner though, because I'm still feeling pretty sick.

We'll fly to Hong Kong toninght @ 11.30 pm. It will take us only about 5 hours to get there and it will be around 7.30 am there, so we have a short night ahead.. Might go for a snooze now and a final hot shower before leaving.

Hope to see you all soon…

xxx