We arrived in Manang in perfect time for the Badhe (flag) Festival, which only happens once every three years. Between the singing and dancing, costumed men would charge at the crowd led by a man wearing an animal's head. This was some sort of re-enactment of King Kichhen defending his Manangi kingdom. It was all very jolly though, and the locals spent a lot of time laughing.

Manang is at a height of 3540m, and today we hiked higher to Kicho Tal (ice lake) at 4600m for great views and to help us acclimatize. We left Besi Sahar (790m) on 16th October as a party of three - myself, Paddy from Belfast and Ed from Rotterdam. After a few days, Ed developed a cold and decided to rest in order to catch up later. But we didn't see him again.

The Manang valley has been very interesting. We have followed the Marsyangdi Nadi (river) most of the way here. The first few days were hot work, but as we climbed the temperatures started to fall and the leaves on the trees started to change colour as we realized that we were starting to leave summer behind and walk into autumn. I'm sure we will continue through into winter as we go higher.

Weather has been good, bar a few clouds obscuring the mountaintops at times, and a couple of spells of late afternoon and night time rain. One of the locals told me that the rain arrived because the gods are angry at the mass killing of the goats during Dasain. It happens every year he said, and the weather would improve from now on. So far, he is not wrong.

Typical sights once entering Manang District were the prayer flags, mani walls (rows of prayer wheels) and chortens (village gates) reminding us that we were now entering Buddhist territory where the majority of people are of Tibetan descent. Also the mule trains taking goods up and down the mountain tracks, which would once have taken rice to the Tibetan border and brought salt back. These days much of their payload is mountaineering gear. And then there were the goats munching on the seabuckthorn berries. These get crushed and made into juice for our consumption too (the berries, not the goats); and it is delicious. There are also blue sheep in these parts, which are genetically locked somewhere between goat and sheep. I only saw one, and it was definitely blue. Paddy, having grown up on a farm was convinced it was just dye.

At the teahouses, having to personally write down what we want to eat from the menu is common, and it only occurred to me today that this is because many people can't write. Education has suffered during the recent conflict, and most of the last generation of children didn't even get to go to school. It is starting to improve now, but slowly.

We visited a free lecture at the clinic yesterday about trekking at altitude and Acute Mountain Sickness. It was very informative, and I even got my oxygen levels checked for a small donation. It was at 94%, which told me I was acclimatized and ready to go higher (it needs to be above 85%). Awareness about this kind of thing is much better here than other places I have experienced. Good thing too, as there will be no more medical help from here on.

Posted from Pokhara, November 10th 2010.