2nd Day of Walking, 3rd Day of Trek

Last night at the guesthouse I met two trekkers that were coming down off of their trek, on their 14^th day with only two days left to go. They had previously done the Annapurna Circuit four years ago where they had actually met at the same guesthouse we now sat in. they greeted me eagerly, introducing themselves as Haley from Toronto and Joanna from Wales. I came into the dining room and sat with them while they waited for their dinner. They told me about what to expect over the course of the trek and tips they had picked up along the way. They told me about how deathly freezing the pass at the top is and how you are never able to get warm for up to three days. They said that they were so cold for 8 days straight that they didn’t shower or change clothes, with didn’t matter much anyway because you aren’t sweating or anything. They also warned me about elevation sickness and how you have to be careful and move very slowly as you get higher because you can get sick from the change. I wasn’t sure what this meant exactly, but they went on to explain how a friend of theirs got sick while they were up crossing the pass and she went a little crazy. She got very violent I guess and tried to take off her clothes, which can be deadly in the extremely cold temperatures they were in. we were all terribly tired so I ended up going to sleep around 8:20pm.

            This morning I woke up to my alarm at 6am, pulled on a fresh t-shirt since I had, had a hot shower the night before, and my trekking pants/boots. I had a breakfast of milk tea and a veg omelet, and hung out with the girls while they had their breakfast. Haley was so kind and gave me a small bottle of chlorine that she had only used a small bit of while on the trek. This made is so you could drink the water from any tap, in Nepal there being black hoses dispensing water along all the roads, often used by nearby home and shops for washing. All I had to do was fill up my 1liter bottle with water, add 3-4 drops of .05% chlorine, wait a half hour, then I was good to go. The price of things get more expensive as you go higher so I was very thankful for this gift, probably saving me quite a bit of money.

            We started walking at 8am, after the owner of the guesthouse cut me a bamboo walking stick to help me on the trail. I felt good today, and I think it was a combination of the walking stick helping me along, the climate now shifting from hot and dry to cool and wet, and also the chemicals in my water haha. :P I actually stayed ahead of, if not next to Chandra the whole way, which isn’t actually saying much since he is carrying my very heavy pack :/ The hours actually flew by today. I loved the view the whole time; it was very lush and green. The stone cliffs were carved out into beautiful smooth forms, erosion from the monsoon creating the 8^th wonder of the world laid out before me.

            We trekked on meeting a young man from the French Alps at a teahouse, and stopping for lunch at a restaurant and hotel, not but 45 minutes from where we are staying tonight. I got milk tea, which I am beginning to fall in love with, and veg-egg fried macaroni. You have no idea how much your body loves carbs while trekking. It feels like I burn them all up in but two steps here anyway. We arrived at our guesthouse- Hotel Tibetan of Danaque, Manang, around 2pm, where I was led down a long, dark hallway on the second floor to my room. This place somewhat reminds me of something out of a horror movie, and is stone cold, but that’s Nepal for ya.

Some thoughts on today…

Ø  When we were walking on the trail we passed two girls, my age if not younger, and one of them was carrying a little tiny baby on her back that was definitely hers. Something in me wanted to stop and talk to her, ask her about her life, what it’s like being a teenager in the Himalayas. It’s still so crazy for me to think that normal people function out here, so far from civilization.

Ø  We saw a newborn goat, still covered in afterbirth, still had its umbilical cord attached. It was the smallest, cutest goat I had ever seen, which is saying a lot because I’ve seen some pretty cute goats :]

Ø  I’m not looking forward to the pass and freezing my ass off. It’s kinda stressing me out.

Ø  I caught Chandra playing with a few little kids and dogs and its adorable.

Ø  I wish I knew more Nepali.

Ø  I want to watch Forest Gump.

Ø  While I was walking today I started doing this new thing where I write poems in my head for all the people I know that have been through some hard shit in their lives. They are my gurus on this trek. So far I’ve written one for, Melissa Eastman, my dad, Jake, Jake’s dad Robert Thompson, and Maggie :] That’s just so far anyway.

Ø  I don’t know how much I will be able to write once it starts getting colder, cold hands :/

Ø  My new theory on the yeti-

o   He is in fact a lost trekker that went crazy from elevation sickness and ran into the woods, maybe fell, hit his head, and is now living out there, hunting, being hairy, livin’ the yeti life ;p