Happy Birthday Jake! I hope you are having a wonderful day :]
Today
made me second-guess myself for the second time since I’ve been on this crazy
adventure. The first time was at about 4,500km at High Camp, and I was laying
awake, cold, and in pain in my sleeping bag and I told myself “Addy, you’ve
done wonderfully, you are so brave, but life isn’t always fair, and as much as
you want to, you can’t control everything that will happen to you. It is time
to put down the cards and head home.” Chandra saw otherwise that morning and
didn’t let me give up and turn around, as he did today, well with a little help
from impossibility. I want all of you that are reading this to know that I am
no superman. I break just as easily as any other. Up at High Camp I cried for
the second time since being here. I was terribly exhausted, homesick, felt
terrible, and on top of that I felt so weak, and there was nothing I could do
about it. Over the past year I’ve developed that loathing for weakness. It’s
not that I don’t think one should express emotion openly, I personally just
hate letting myself recognize negativity and let it get to me.
Anyway,
back to today. I have been slowly losing steam since Jomsom and today was the
epitome of just that. From this very morning when we started out I just wanted
to get it over and done with, which is definitely the wrong attitude to
take on a seven to eight hour hike with. We began with a climb, our first of a
day full, up many, many steep steps. Once at the top three young boys trying to
sell off oranges they held in woven bags bombarded us. We ended up breaking and
buying some of their green, sour citrus, and continued on our way. Ever since
High Camp I have been traveling on the same schedule as this girl from
Amsterdam, and today we walked together for a while, and are actually staying
at the same guesthouse tonight. She is a singer at home, as well as an actress
in the theater. When we were walking we would fall into separate paces though
and temporarily split up, only to run into each other again later.
So
almost all of today, enough to say about all was climbing up slate stone steps.
Each section varied in size, some making you feel like you had to do a split to
reach the next step, some so close together you could hop two at once. Steps
are literally the worst though. Whoever though that building steps was the
better option over just shuffling up the mountain was terribly terribly wrong.
I would even go as far as to say a sadist. So you can see my opinion on today.
By ten in the morning I was done, mentally and physically dead. I had decided
that I was not going to climb anymore; I was finished. Around 11:30am we
stopped at an Israeli guesthouse and I asked Chandra if there were any jeeps
that could take us to Gorepani. He laughed at me and said “no, only (yeah
okay) three hours left, easy easy, aslowly aslowly.”
I
felt a little better after my meal, but that was short lived once we started
climbing again. I compulsively ate half a roll of chocolate dipped digestive
biscuits while walking today, so that was bad. I listened to music while
climbing too, which helped a little. The last ten-minute climb up the stairs
into Gorepani, Chandra was tired too. He kept saying “up up, then Gorepani,
then down down all the way! No more up after this, all done!” That helped drive
me a little more, along with the promise of a hot shower at the top, which I
was in great need of, being a sweaty, hot mess after all of the climbing. The
guesthouse we are staying at tonight is nice and clean so that makes the harsh
day a little better.
Yes,
and I haven’t forgotten, today is your 20th birthday Jake. It is
just starting for you and I hope it ends up being 1,000xs better than mine, but
I wish I could be there with you. I have no cell reception up on top of this
mountain, but I know I will for sure tomorrow after we start descending, but I
really want to talk to you earlier! I’m going to see if they have an
international phone here that I can use. I’m going to have to make it up to
you, missing your day, a night of dancing sound good to you?
I’m
writing in my room, which makes for bettering thinking, quieter atmosphere, so
I think today’s entry might actually be okay :P Oh, on another random note, my
sunburn on my face is starting to peel and it has now been three months since
I’ve shaved my legs, and two weeks since I’ve shaved my armpits. No shame in
any of that though, once you’ve been living out in the real world for a while,
you stop noticing normal societal expectancies. I know, I know, I’m a beautiful
feminine sight right now. Luckily I haven’t had to see any of my body hair
thanks to the cold, though the peeling is a bit annoying.
Tomorrow
we wake up very early and hike to Poon Hill (a 45 minute hike), to watch the
sunrise over the mountain range. I kind of have the feeling it’s going to be
the same idea as childbirth. Once you see how beautiful it is it will make all
of the pain and time building up to it worth it. Yes I did just relate my trek
to the giving of life; hey there are more similarities than you’d think! Okay,
well I should probably head down and order dinner now, I hope this was adequate
:]
Love you all and see you soon!
Ø I
have so many ideas for paintings and poems!
Ø The
halls here are padded, they are like really thick foam or something under the
carpet so you literally feel like you are walking on a cloud haha :P
Ø I
thought about wearing real clothes today, it’s going to be weird, but so nice!
I’ll never want to wash my clothes haha, it will feel so unnecessary!
Ø I
am glad the walking is almost over, I am getting homesick for Kathmandu :P
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