We had breakfast with Natasa and Damesh and then started hiking at 7:45 AM. We weren't sure how far we would go today - Chhomrong or beyond because it was somewhat overcast and we thought it might rain. Well, it was a very up and down trekking day. There was quite a bit of uphill when we first left Bamboo and then some significant downhill to the river just before Chhomrong. I counted the steps up to Chhomrong from the river. There were 680 steps (mostly of rough stones) from the river up to the start of the real steps up to Chhomrong. Then there were 1,050 steps up from the start of the village to the highest part of the village.
We got to the Himalayan View Guest House about noon. It's the place we stayed 5 nights ago on our way into the Sanctuary. We had lunch with Natasa and Damesh and then it started to rain so we all decided to stay here for the night. It rained on and off until about 3 PM, and then it started pouring with great rolls of thunder overhead (just like last time we were here). We sat on our balcony looking out at the valley watching the rain, and the fog poured in, so we could see nothing of the mountains in the distance that we had hiked from earlier today.
It stopped raining about 4:30 and the views were incredible. I took lots of pictures. Machhapuchha (the Fish Tail peak) was there in front of us in all it's glory, and Annapurna South was off to our left. Fish Tail is my favorite peak here. The combination of the snow-capped mountains and the clouds with the late afternoon color of the sky was absolutely stunning.
We had another entertaining dinner with Natasa and Damesh, and they bought dessert for a treat for us. I had chocolate pudding for the first time in Nepal and it was quite good. We sat talking and laughing until around 8 PM and it was nice to be up past 7:30 again.
Even as I went up to go to my room, the darkened sky with an almost full moon was still quite beautiful. I was quite startled, however, as I was walking along the balcony toward our room when I saw a bat flying directly towards me. I had heard Natasa making noise a few minutes before and I found out she had also seen the bat. I let out a few shrieks and quickly ducked into my room. I've seen lots of cows, mules, buffalo, cats, dogs, chickens, and some monkeys, but that was my first bat here.
5/14: I got up early to take some pictures of the mountains. I just love that Fish Tail Peak and the views were great this morning. We started trekking about 7:15 AM and had a long down to Jhinu and the boys were waiting there for us, because there were 3 tables of vendors selling jewelry, scarves, carvings, etc., and the boys knew we would want to do some "shopping." They were right. I bought a beautiful topaz pendant to match the earrings I bought in Kathmandu, and I bought a bracelet and another necklace. Shari bought some things, too.
We continued our trek to Landruk and arrived about 11:30. Nar, Shari and I had a discussion last night about leeches, and just before we reached Landruk Nar picked one up off the ground. I took it and called Shari to show it to her. We were thinking it was a good thing we didn't have any problem with leecheses getting on us. Well, imagine our surprise when we got to our tea house (we are staying at the Hotel Hungry Eye) and Shari took off her socks and boots and noticed blood on her legs - not 1 but 2 leech bites (thankfully the leeches were gone). Then I took off my socks and boots and the same thing, only one bite. Boy, do they bleed. I think they leave an anti-coagulent in the bite mark so it bleeds for a very long time. Oh well, another Nepali experience.
After we took showers, we ordered lunch and I decided to have chicken curry. Shari was going to taste it, and have it for dinner if she liked it. Nar took our order to the kitchen and came back a few minutes later to tell me that I couldn't have chicken curry for lunch because the chicken hadn't been killed yet. He said "it was still singing in the yard." So I said fine, we'll have it for dinner. At least we know it will be fresh!
Shari, Nar, Pratik and Singa played cards for a few hours and I read, listened to music, and took a short nap. It started raining about 2:30 and was really pouring around 3:00 PM. That seems to be the pattern for rain these days. The 5 of us were the only guests in the tea house for the night. Tourism is very off in Nepal and quite often there are only a few of us at a tea house. Nar says sometimes there can be 40 or 50 "members: (as he calls the trekkers) at a tea house and then the Nepalis end up sleeping in the dining room or kitchen. I'm glad it hasn't been very crowded when we've been here.
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