Day 16 - February 14, 2010 - Out to Civilization

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Chamche to Pokara

We left Chamche shortly after breakfast, I had tibetan bread (similar to fried bread dough) and an omelet. The hike to Syange was about 2 hours and it was a warm day. We'd also been dropping in altitude like crazy so it should be warmer. It was good for our spirits to have nice weather with us.

This dog followed us for two days, he was our guardian for the really long day that went into the darkness and escorted us out to the road, we wanted to take him with us, but knew we couldn't.  I can't remember what the Nepali word that we used to call him, it was something like "white one."  I'm not a dog person, but I liked this do a lot.  It was almost as if he only existed for us in those specific moments of each day we saw him; fading in and out of reality as he appeared and disappeared throughout our time together.

Ultra steep trail down a dangerous rocky slope that was being ripped apart to make a road, rocks tumble down with the slightest touch.  Oh look, a donkey train is coming up to pass us, they'll be above us as we go down to the bottom, isn't that nice?

In  bus #1 of 2 on our way to Pokara

We arrived in Syange and had a bottle of Coke, this was my first "unhealthy" food in quite a while. I also didn't feel bad about the empty bottle, the road allows them to be brought back out and returned rather than being dumped down an embankment like in the higher elevations.

We had another dhal bhat lunch and boarded the jeep around 1:30. The jeep drove for about two hours and made it out to civilization. Once we grabbed our bags and walked back into town, Sujan arranged a van to take us to Pokara. We rode for two hours and then got in another van for another two hours and finally arrived in Pokara around 7:45.

The end of the ride was marred by a disagreement with the driver of the van and what rate we agreed upon. It ended up working out fine though, it makes a big difference having native Nepali speakers. Elana and I would get ripped off so much if we didn't have Khem and Sujan. Everyone wants to charge the "gweilo" tax.

We checked in at the hotel and then went out for dinner. Khem picked us up some Nepalese whiskey, which if I remember correctly, had a bagpiper on it dressed in a turban. We had a snack of buffalo "chili" which is just fried buffalo meat with some peppers and onions that you eat with toothpicks. The dhal bhat came out with popadum (a crunchy cone shaped tortilla chip) and buffalo curry. We talked quite a bit about the next few days and then made it back to the hotel and went to sleep.

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Day 15 - February 13, 2010 - Changing Climates

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It was an early start, there were quite a few trekkers at the tea house, most were heading down, but some where going to take their chances going higher. Khem and Sujan did quite a bit of research and asking around about the pass, everything came back negative, the locals said that it would be at least a week before the pass is opened.

We walked for 8 hours, starting in snow, then hitting slush, then mud and finally dry dirt for the first time in days.

We had lunch at Dhara Pani and found out we would have to purchase another trekking permit for the other side of the Annapurna Circuit once we left the area. A new permit is 2000 Nepalese Rupees (27 USD), not too much but when you pay 10 Rupees for tea and around 75 for breakfast, it's quite a bit more.

 

 

We walked and walked, stopped and had tea, then walked some more. We stopped to have tea around 5:40 and then decided that we needed to push on to Chamche, another two hours down the trail. We'd be walking in darkness and it was already a long day, but we pushed on anyway. We hoped to make it out to Syange tomorrow and take the jeep the rest of the way out, making up tons of time in the process. If everything worked out well we would be in Pokara much sooner and be well on our way to Muktinath on the other side of the circuit.

It was an amazingly clear night. We lit our way with headlamps, the trail was difficult and the darkness made it that much more ominous. Finally, we made it in to the place where we had a rain soaked dhal bhat on the first wet and chilly day. We were very excited when we arrived, we agreed that it was a memorable experience, guh-zup-chaa! (excellent in Nepali). I ended up getting a cheese pizza for dinner, just for the heck of it, but once everything came out I realized that I should have got the curry instead. It was worth the experience though. We had some jar to drink with scrambled egg in it.

The shower was another experience, the solar heated water had run out so I made it a quick one. As I was putting my clothes back on my watch read 45 degrees, sleep is going to be good tonight!

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