April 27, 2003
I woke up as the day light was coming in the window. It was only 5:30. The sky was blue, the sunlight was glowing on the snow of the mountains, eventhough I couldn't see the sun. It was absolutely beautiful. I had to get up and take pictures. I went for a walk also so I could see the sun rise.
It must have been cold last night because there was ice on the picnic tables. I was pretty warm in my sleeping bag. I slept well, until I heard Laurie get up. She went out and when she came back in, I asked where she went. She was looking at the stars. She said they were great. I looked out my window deciding whether to go out and look. I decided I should take the opportunity to see them. They were great, but I thought the stars on Rainier were better. It was hard to pick out the few constellations that I know when there are so many. I did see the Big Dipper and it was clear enough without the binoculars to see the double star. I also saw the Pleidas, looked great with the binoculars. I also think that Jupiter was visible.
Back to my early morning walk. I went down the road and saw that there was a place that showed movies on a big screen. "Into Thin Air" was one of the movies that was playing so I was hoping that we would get to see it.
After my walk I went back to bed. About 7:30 Nar was looking in my window. I decided that was the signal to get up.
We had a terrific breakfast and then we did a hike. It is good to hike to higher elevation to help acclimatise. Elsa and Manu, the French couple, joined us. The clouds were moving in and the sky was grey. I was disappointed that we weren't going to have the best views. In the morning I saw Gangapurna and other mountains that I am not sure of. While we hiked we could see the Gangapurna Glaciers. There is a lake at the bottom of Manang that the glacier melt dumps into.
We hiked up quite a bit and we could see the village of Manang. It was neat to see it from above.
We finished the hike about 11:30 and then Laurie and I went into a couple of shops.
We made plans with Elsa and Manu to have lunch at this new restaurant. We went there and they took a very long time to prepare our lunch. Laurie and I were going to go to a talk on AMS, Acute Mountain Sickness. We were afraid that our food would not come in time. I had a vegetable lasagna. It was quite good. The woman who runs it with her husband opened up the restaurant about a year ago. The woman came from India, her husband was from Nepal. They moved back to Nepal from India nine years ago. The woman spoke terrific English. She attended a convent school.
We barely made the AMS talk. A volunteer group called the Himalayan Rescue Association, doctors from the states and Europe, volunteer their time to teach and be available for trekkers and the village people. The talk was very good. He explained the problem that I had the other night, about waking up and gasping. He said it was normal. Our breathing slows down when we sleep and since the oxygen is lower we get even less oxygen so our bodies kind of wake up and says I want oxygen so we start breathing heavy.
The doctor said that he would test our oxygen levels if we wanted for a donation of 100 repeles, which is about $1.25. Since I have been having the headaches I wanted it tested. Mine tested good. Laurie is on the border, but since she doesn't have any symptoms she should be OK.
Later in the day, Elsa, Manu, Tara, Vanessa, Laurie, Nar, Singa, Pratek, and I went to see "Into Thin Air". Laurie and I treated Nar, Singa, and Pratek. Now this place certainly isn't a cinema. We bought our tickets outside, walked up 4 cement steps and went behind the curtain for the theater. It had 5 rows of pew style seats on each side which only held 3-4 people. The seats had an animal skin, maybe yak.
The video was not the best quality. I think they tried to copy from an original because I kept seeing the FBI warning appear about every 20 minutes. About 1:15 into it the electricity shut off. It was completely dark. There are no exit signs. Laurie and I both dug out our head lamps. The projectionest, a boy about 14, stood on a stool, did a couple of adjustments, and we were able to finish the movie.
Since I will be in the Everest Region in about a month I would like to read the book again.
We got back to our rooms. I checked the lights in the room and they worked. Nar told us the villages have electricity every other day. It is not the best lighting, I still have to use my head lamp as I write this.
The evening ended by having dinner and playing cards. We have to leave Manang tomorrow. It was nice to stay in a place for two nights.
April 28, 2003
Today we were only going to Gunsang, but we got there about 10:30. Becky, the woman that planned this, wanted to be sure that we would be OK for further elevation. Since the next place was only about 300 feet higher and a couple of hours more to go, we decided to go for it. Another reason we wanted to go, is because Elsa and Manu were going to Yak Kharka. We arrived at Yak Kharka about 12:30. It was spitting snow on the last hour and it was getting colder. We are at 13,169 feet. When we reached Yak Kharka it was snowing pretty hard. We went into the dining room and had something hot to drink and something to eat.
I saw Pratek, Singa, and Elsa and Manu's guide and porter playing cards. I watched them play and I played a couple of hands. I finally understood what they were doing.
Took a nap to warm up. Nar wanted us to go for a hike afterwards to get a little higher altitude. The saying is hike high, sleep low. So about 3:30 we headed out. It stopped snowing and it was clear. He had us go up the side of the mountain that was steep. I didn't bring my poles so some places it was hard. We hiked for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. When we reached the top it was totally fogged in and we couldn't see the village. When we got down it was snowing again. We could hear thunder. At first we thought it was glaciers caving, but I am pretty sure it was thunder. We went in the dining room and picked out our meal. It was dark and cold in there. They pulled out a kerosene heater and lit it. I can't stand the smell. Then they put the heater under the table. Laurie and I just looked at each other. The table is covered with a tablecloth on all sides. I couldn't believe that they did that. First, because of possible fire, second, the fumes would be dangerous. I can see why people don't live so long in Nepal. I read that the average life expectancy was 57 for men and 58 for women.
