We had a pretty long day but it was fairly easy hiking with just a day pack except the heat really gets to me. It is well into the 90s and we are hiking on mostly open trails. Thank goodness we get a breeze once in a while and an occaisional shady section. When we stopped for lunch I took off my boots and socks to dry them out and we had a good breeze in the restaurant, so I could cool off a bit. The trail is dirt packed with rocks but the footing is good. We walked through many small villages-all with some number of run-down buildings-some of stone and some of wood, mostly all with rusted metal roofs. There are also pens for the animals that have thatched roofs. We also encountered lots of animals on the trail. Mules or donkeys (I don't know the difference), and buffalo. hey use the mules to take stuff down to the market in Besisahar and to bring back supplies to the guest houses and hotels up on the trail. All the tea houses have creative names with the words "guest house" or "hotel" in the name (Buddha Guest House, New York Hotel, Tibetan Guest House, Trekkers Holiday Hotel, Peace Guest House).
It's a bit depressing looking on the trail. There is trash and litter everywhere, lots of mule and buffalo dung and the villages are dirty and run down, but the scenery from a distance is lovely. Huge hills all around with villages set up high and terraces of rice fields that seem to go forever. The people seem happy but they are very poor. Nar told us that some children can't go to school because the family has no money for uniforms, school bags or whatever else they need. Also, some families need the children to stay home and help in the fields or to mind the smaller children. The kids we see range from clean looking school kids in uniforms to small children in sort of dirty clothes, sitting with older people or playing amongst themselves. Most are very shy and some smile at us and say "Namaste" (a Nepalese greeting which means "I greet the god within you."), or "Hello" and some ask for pens or sweets or money. Becky told us to never give anything to anyone begging in Kathmandu or on the trail.
I'm glad I came to Nepal but I think it will be a long 7 weeks. I don't really know how to describe Nepal. Exotic is not really the right word, but to say it is very different than anyplace I've ever been just doesn't do it justice. I don't think most people I know from home would want to come here because it is so basic and dirty. The othet thing that will wear on me is the toilet facilities. When you use an eastern toilet you bring your own toilet paper, squat over a porcelin bowl which is flush with the floor, throw your used toilet paper (no matter how bad it is) in a bucket (they later burn all the used paper) and pour some water down the hole in the bowl (there is usually a faucet and/or a bucket of water in the bathroom for that purpose). Showers and wash basins are almost always in separate rooms from the toilet.
We hiked to Ghermu today (the guide book doesn't list the distances between villages so I won't know how far we will hike each day). The tea house last night had electricity but tonight's does not. Shari and I are sitting on a porch oustide our room talking with a couple from San Francisco and one of the people from the tea house just brought up a gas lantern for our table. We are paying only 120 rupees (US$0.80) each for tonight's room and while we were talking on the porch a woman trekker came up to check out the rooms. When the owner told her it would be 120 Rupees for a double room she said no way - there was another place in the village that charged only 50 Rupees for a double room (about US$0.33) each, so she left. The couple from San Francisco had looked at the other place and said it was pretty awful, but it was worth it to that woman to get a room that was about US$0.93 cheaper than the place we were in.
We went to bed right after supper, about 8 PM. Shari had fallen today and twisted her ankle and got some bruises on her leg and hip. She had soaked her ankle in a bucket of water but it still hurt so it was good for her to lay down and keep her leg up. I was very tired from hilking in the heat but I had a coke with dinner so I couldn't fall asleep. It was neat just laying in the darkened room. Shari was on her bed reading her book with her headlamp and I was on my bed listening to music. Our room was probably 10 feet square with 2 twin beds with just foam matresses, a pillow and a sheet on each. The walls are partly stucco and partly a very thin wood, and the ceiling is just rusted metal roof. It is about as base as you can get. I was thinking about the Nepalese people who live in all these small villages we walk through. They seem like they try to stay clean but their clothes can be pretty dirty anbd there is a lot of trash around. Of course they don't really have any place to put their trash and they don't have many clothes to wear. It's hard to describe life here. It just is. People seem to just accept what they have and the children smile at us and call out "Namaste" as we go by.
4/23: We started hiking about 7 AM and got to Tal at 3 PM. We stopped only for a brief snack about 8:30 because neither Shari nor I wanted a real breakfast. I got a coke, a snickers bar and some coconut cookies. All very American tasting and quite good. It was very hot again today and we did alot of uphill hiking. My hat is a life saver-it keeps the sun from beating down on my head so I don't get a headache. I was drenched in sweat and looking forward to a shower and giving the boys my clothes to wash.
We came over a hill just before we got to Tal and the town looked lovely off in the distance, past the river. Well, our place is probably more basic than last night's tea house (except we have a light in our room). This cost only 80 Rupees (about US$0.50) each. It does have a good place for the boys to wash out our clothes through, and the clothes are hanging on the line to dry. It even had a hot shower although it was one of the worst looking bathrooms I've ever seen. Shari and I said to each other that most people we know would be horrified by the bathroom (especially the shower) and probably wouldn't even use it.
I took my shower first and it was terrific no matter how it looked. It was so nice standing under the water getting clean and then putting on clean clothes. Plus it was very breezy when we opened the window in the room, so I stayed cooled off once I showered. It cools down quite a bit in the evening here which is nice for sleeping. The sheets and pillowcases are always of questionable cleanliness so I just throw my fleece jacket over the pillow. I usually just sleep on the sheet anyhow with my sleeping bag over me. Nar said we have probably two more days of hiking in the heat, and then it will be cool during the day too, because of the altitude.
I keep forgetting to write about how the boys carry our packs. They carry them by putting a white strap around their heads, across their foreheads that is tied to the ropes around the packs, and they carry all the weight with their hreads. They don't use waist belts or arm straps. Almost all the Nepalese people (men and women) carry all their stuff this way. I've seen them carrying metal folding tabales, cages with chickens and pigs, huge baskets with everything you can imagine in them (rocks, clothes, sacks of grain and firewood). You even see little kids carrying baskets with straps on their heads. They are all so strong and yet they are mostly small people (in height and weight). Some of the older women are actually very tiny (well under 5 feet tall), about the size of an 8 or 10 year old girl, but they carry heavy loads on their heads.
Shari and I went for a walk through the village after we took our showers and even though it looked lovely from a distance, it was pretty run down like most of the villages. It was quite large though, and it is in a lovely setting with mountains all around and a big waterfall behind the village.
I took some pictures that I hope show the village life-some boys playing a game, an old woman spinning, horses on the village street (not really a street-just the same mud-packed trail we walk on) and 2 decrpid buildings. One had a sign that read "Forsters on Tap - Hallo Trekkers!!" and the other read "Medical Center" (if there was ever a medical center in that building it must have closed down about 50 years ago!).
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