It was very windy again today, even worse in some spots than yesterday. It also looked like rain most of the morning and it started a bit when we got to Larjung, so we stopped for lunch about 11:30. Luckily, it stopped after an hour, so we set out for Kalopani hoping to make it before it really started raining, and we arrived about 2:30 just before it started pouring.
Even thought it wasn't the best of conditions today, I enjoyed myself. We did a good amount of trekking (about four and a half hours) and it was quite an adventure in the wind and blowing dirt and dust. It blew so hard at times that it seemd to take your breath away. I also had to put a scarf over my nose and mouth, and wear my glacier glasses to protect my face from the dirt. We walked on a flat dry river bed quite a bit of the time, so we could see each other as we trekked. It was neat to look ahead or behind and see the others. I'm so glad we've continued to stay with Elsa and Manu. Shari and I really like them, and Nar and Mingma seem to enjoy each other's company. Their porter, Jingbu hardly speaks any English, so he enjoys being with Singa and Pratik.
We are staying at the See You Lunch Box Lodge. Again, our room is a good size, with an attached bath and we are both feeling better, so we can enjoy the room. When you don't have an attached bath, the toilet room and the shower room are separate and there is usually a sink outside somewhere. When you have an attached bath, everything is in one room and there is no tub or shower curtian. When you take a shower, everything in the room gets wet, and the water just drains out through the drain on the floor. Sometimes there is a sink in the attached bathroom and sometimes not. Today, ours has everything (including a western toilet) and it looks so much like a "real bathroom" from back home that I almost forgot I needed to brush my teeth with filtered water.
Last night Elsa and Manu had some apple brandy that they said was pretty good, so I bought some in Tukuche today - Mustang Apple Brandy, distilled in Marpha (where we stayed last night). It cost 50 Rupees (US$0.64) for about a half-pint bottle. We are going to meet at 6PM for a pre-dinner cocktail. I've had only a half-glass of beer since we started this trek, mostly because I haven't felt very well. I don't think I will have much brandy tonight, but it will be fun to "meet for drinks" anyhow.
The other thing I did today was pick some marijuana with Elsa. It grows wild everywhere here. I thought I could use it as a little room freshener (it smells like some herb from the garden back home) to counteract the smell of the laundry soap. Marijuana must be legal here because all the Israeli trekkers seem to smoke it in the tea houses. It's very annoying when a group of them shows up and starts smoking. They don't care if people are in the middle of dinner, they just light up anywhere.
Well, today I feel I can stick out our whole time in Nepal. It seems to change every day depending on how queasy I feel. Yesterday I thought I would just have to cancel the Gokyo Ri part of the trip, but today I think I can make it. Shari feels the same ups and downs as me. It is very different to think about 35 more days here when you don't feel well. Today, I'm okay, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.
We had a lovely dinner tonight. The dining room had a big table and four smaller 4-person tables. Shari and I sat around the big table with Manu, Elsa, Mingma, a couple on a vacation from Germany (who are working in China for 2 years), the owner of the tea house and his 6 year old granddaughter, Onee. She is adorable. When I was sitting in Manu and Elsa's room in the afternoon, Onee came in to visit us. She is very quiet but very personable and she has a great smile. Elsa and I left to go to my room so Elsa could shower, and Manu ended up playing some made-up card game with Onee. She doesn't speak any English.
Tonight, I had my best dinner since I've been in Nepal - garlic chicken and rice. My dinner was relatively expensive at 300 Rupees (US$3.80) and our room was also 300 Rupees, but the room and dinner were terrific. All the guides and porters were also in the dining room sitting at the small tables watching Nepalese TV. They thoroughly enjoyed the TV and they all ordered Daal Bhat for dinner. It was a very easy, friendly dinner. Manu, Elsa and I shared some of the brandy which was pretty awful stuff.
5/04: We set out about 8 AM for Tatopari, which meant a farily long trekking day, about 7 hours. We got to a police checkpoint in Lete after about half an hour. While Nar was showing his papers to the police, two men started asking me questions about my camera - how much it cost, how did it work. One fellow wanted to take a picture of his 2 friends so I showed him how it worked. They had great fun hamming it up for the camera. He then gave the camera to one of his friends and came to sit with Shari and me to have his picture taken with us. Great fun to see them enjoy themselves so much. He gave me his addresss so I can send him the two pictures.
We stopped for a snack about 11:30 in Kapchepari and then pushed on without bothering with a full lunch, and we arrived in Tatopari about 3:30. We are staying in the Hotel Himalayan - definitely not as nice a place as last night. It's 5 PM now, and Manu, Elsa, Mingma, Shari and I are sitting in the tea house dining room and it is pouring rain. Luckily we had good weather for our hike today. Mostly sunny, but with a reasonably good breeze. It was an up and down trail but overall down, so we are now at only 3,904 feet of elevation. Tomorrow, we will start up again and probably do just a short 4-hour hike to Sikha at 6,562 feet, and then the next day to Ghorepani at 9,022 feet. My favorite thing - hiking uphill. Thanks goodness they aren't long days.
5/05: Last night's tea house turned out to be not so bad. The food was good, and they had a nice garden area that we sat in for awhile before it started raining.
We all started hiking about 8 AM and it was 4 hours of up, up, up. Not a bad day, though. Pretty scenery again - green, terraced hillsides with glimpses of Nilgiri Mountain in the background. It was hot though, partly because we were going up all the time. We stopped for lunch in Sikha but the place wasn't very nice. Elsa and Manu were going on to Ghorepani, but Shari and I were staying in Sikha. We didn't ewant to stay where we ate lunch, so we checked out a couple of other places nearby but they weren't very nice either. We decided to walk on about 10 minutes further and found the See You Lodge and decided to stay there. Iit is just okay, but it is a new low for the cost of a room - 50 Rupees, or US$0.32 each.
I washed up a bit, then laid down to read and nap. It was a very lazy afternoon. We will hike only about 4 hours tomorrow too. Elsa and Manu are staying 2 nights in Ghorepani, so we will see them there tomorrow afternoon.
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