Greetings all - I know you have been waiting with baited breath to see if we survived our 6 day journey on the "Teahouse Trek". I begin by making three observations:
1) The "Teahouse Trek" belies its genteel name and features many stretches of tough slogging - mostly in the upward direction. We climbed to 10,750 feet over the first two days and then spent most of the next four days dipping up and down a few thousand feet from this range in what I might characterize as a "What goes up must continue to go up " mode.
2) We had done absolutely nothing to prepare for this trek - a point that hit us in one of those "a-ha" moments about half way and one cramp through Day one (ouch!)
3) Unlike most of our companions on the trail, we're not 25 anymore (ouch!, ouch!).
However, every slog, ache, loss of breath, rain, hail and even snow was amply rewarded by the most magnificent vistas onto some of the world's highest mountains. I am used to seeing mountains in Canada like the Rockies whose peaks loom high on the horizon. The Annapurnas are giants that tower way up above you sometimes seeking camouflage in the high clouds.We enjoyed spectacular views of two the the world's top ten mountains: Dhaulagiri (No.5) at 26,800 feet and Annapurna I (No. 10) at 26,300. In addition to the other 3 Annapurna mountains, we had great views on Maccapuchere (a.k.a Fishtail Mountain) one of Nepal's holy mountains that dominates its valley much like the Matterhorn does in Zermatt (only 6,000 feet higher).
The trail, surprisingly, was mostly "paved" with slate stones and steep steps - some which have been there for hundreds of years since first laid as trading trails and pilgrimage routes to neighbouring Tibet. We must have climbed tens of thousands of steps over 6 days. The trek passed through dozens of hamlets pinned to the sides of the mountains - generally bright and cozy places with hundreds of prayer flags snapping in the wind and the occasional Buddhist shrine. There were, generally, 4-8 guesthouses to be found per hamlet. Rooms were basic (in some cases approaching basic) - a good enough bed to support you as you collapsed after 8 hours on the trail, a table, an electric light (fed an occasional electricity service which, in fact, was generally more dependable than Kathmandhu's!), shared bathrooms with the occasional hot shower if the gods were smiling on you. Double rooms cost between $4 and $8 per night. Each guesthouse had a restaurant often serving guests at one large table from a very Westernized menu of pastas, pizzas with fried rice and Nepalese set "dal bhats" (Lentils, veg and rice)thrown in to keep us honest. All guesthouses had a store stocked with those essentials which we cosseted and comforted Westerners cannot for a moment be without - potato chips, chocolate bars, cigarettes, pop, cold beer - all of which ported up the mountain not by donkeys but by human beasts of burden labouring under the most incredible weights. Not large in stature, we watched Nepalese men haul baskets full of goods and baggage on their backs - head down to the trail and weight braced by tump lines to the forehead. One porter carried 5 flats of pop - 24 cans to the flat - up a steep incline, a load I could not carry from my car to the front door. Trek porters hauled two "hockey" duffel bags strapped together with a backpack horizontal on top - easily 50kg of baggage some of which was likely quite useless in respect of the needs of the trek - moisturizers, laptops, extra books etc. With the understandable exception of the available cold beer, it was enough to make one feel very guilty about our material and consumptive ways. Beer prices increased about 20 rupees per 1,000 feet by my carefully documented observation. Even so, at its most expensive, a chilled 630ml bottle of Tuborg could be had for $4.50 - less than the bar price of a bottle half that size in Victoria. Yak cheese was also widely available.
Despite being Pringles-provisioned throughout, it is easy to slip off the grid on this trek and venture back a few centuries. We saw a fully operational stone grinding water mill and watched local women grinding wheat on large slate grinding stones. Millet harvested from terraced farms was thrashed with bamboo switches to separate the chaff and filtered through hand-woven straw sieve baskets. Along the route, we saw lots of pure grinding manual labour as well as hand crafting of baskets, mattresses and blankets that were destined not for the tourist trade but for everyday use. And along the trail we had to jostle our ways around donkey trains, cows, water buffaloes and the occasional yak in order to proceed along the way. We hiked through lush rhododendron forests and were treated to several dazzling waterfalls. Our disappointment at not seeing a Yeti was compensated by a wonderful array of raptors sailing the mountain thermals and huge Chinese windmill butterflies with arced tails dancing around alpine flowers.
Our trek began at the road head and Nayapul about 30 km west of Pokahara and took us through Gorephani, Poon Hill, Tadapani and Tolka. Our favourite day was Day 4 when we alighted upon the hamlet of Jinhudanda and got to end our day by soaking in glorious hot spring pools lying against a rushing alpine river under the towering gaze of Hiunchili and Macchapuchere. We exited in Phedi mid-day on Day 6 - weary but with a warm feeling of accomplishment.
We returned to Pokhara and set off immediately for a three day yoga retreat at the Sadhana Yoga centre, beautifully set in the hills overlooking the town and lovely Lake Fewa. Where the yoga sessions soothed many aches from the trek, they created many more - so we've descended back to Pokhara and booked ourselves in for some ayuervedic massages tomorrow. We will be rubbed up and down in a rather unique venture - the volunteer-driven Seeing Hands Massage Clinic where visually-impaired but tactile-sharp Nepalese are trained to become licensed massage therapists We're next heading to two towns near Kathmandu - Bhaktipur and Bodnath, the latter to visit the large Tibetan monastery. Then back to India towards the end of the month to meet our children for a much anticipated three week "fam-holiday" in Northern India.
I suspect that it will be hard to match trekking in the Annapurnas for a long time to come. I'll try to post some pictures in the near future.
1) The "Teahouse Trek" belies its genteel name and features many stretches of tough slogging - mostly in the upward direction. We climbed to 10,750 feet over the first two days and then spent most of the next four days dipping up and down a few thousand feet from this range in what I might characterize as a "What goes up must continue to go up " mode.
2) We had done absolutely nothing to prepare for this trek - a point that hit us in one of those "a-ha" moments about half way and one cramp through Day one (ouch!)
3) Unlike most of our companions on the trail, we're not 25 anymore (ouch!, ouch!).
However, every slog, ache, loss of breath, rain, hail and even snow was amply rewarded by the most magnificent vistas onto some of the world's highest mountains. I am used to seeing mountains in Canada like the Rockies whose peaks loom high on the horizon. The Annapurnas are giants that tower way up above you sometimes seeking camouflage in the high clouds.We enjoyed spectacular views of two the the world's top ten mountains: Dhaulagiri (No.5) at 26,800 feet and Annapurna I (No. 10) at 26,300. In addition to the other 3 Annapurna mountains, we had great views on Maccapuchere (a.k.a Fishtail Mountain) one of Nepal's holy mountains that dominates its valley much like the Matterhorn does in Zermatt (only 6,000 feet higher).
The trail, surprisingly, was mostly "paved" with slate stones and steep steps - some which have been there for hundreds of years since first laid as trading trails and pilgrimage routes to neighbouring Tibet. We must have climbed tens of thousands of steps over 6 days. The trek passed through dozens of hamlets pinned to the sides of the mountains - generally bright and cozy places with hundreds of prayer flags snapping in the wind and the occasional Buddhist shrine. There were, generally, 4-8 guesthouses to be found per hamlet. Rooms were basic (in some cases approaching basic) - a good enough bed to support you as you collapsed after 8 hours on the trail, a table, an electric light (fed an occasional electricity service which, in fact, was generally more dependable than Kathmandhu's!), shared bathrooms with the occasional hot shower if the gods were smiling on you. Double rooms cost between $4 and $8 per night. Each guesthouse had a restaurant often serving guests at one large table from a very Westernized menu of pastas, pizzas with fried rice and Nepalese set "dal bhats" (Lentils, veg and rice)thrown in to keep us honest. All guesthouses had a store stocked with those essentials which we cosseted and comforted Westerners cannot for a moment be without - potato chips, chocolate bars, cigarettes, pop, cold beer - all of which ported up the mountain not by donkeys but by human beasts of burden labouring under the most incredible weights. Not large in stature, we watched Nepalese men haul baskets full of goods and baggage on their backs - head down to the trail and weight braced by tump lines to the forehead. One porter carried 5 flats of pop - 24 cans to the flat - up a steep incline, a load I could not carry from my car to the front door. Trek porters hauled two "hockey" duffel bags strapped together with a backpack horizontal on top - easily 50kg of baggage some of which was likely quite useless in respect of the needs of the trek - moisturizers, laptops, extra books etc. With the understandable exception of the available cold beer, it was enough to make one feel very guilty about our material and consumptive ways. Beer prices increased about 20 rupees per 1,000 feet by my carefully documented observation. Even so, at its most expensive, a chilled 630ml bottle of Tuborg could be had for $4.50 - less than the bar price of a bottle half that size in Victoria. Yak cheese was also widely available.
Despite being Pringles-provisioned throughout, it is easy to slip off the grid on this trek and venture back a few centuries. We saw a fully operational stone grinding water mill and watched local women grinding wheat on large slate grinding stones. Millet harvested from terraced farms was thrashed with bamboo switches to separate the chaff and filtered through hand-woven straw sieve baskets. Along the route, we saw lots of pure grinding manual labour as well as hand crafting of baskets, mattresses and blankets that were destined not for the tourist trade but for everyday use. And along the trail we had to jostle our ways around donkey trains, cows, water buffaloes and the occasional yak in order to proceed along the way. We hiked through lush rhododendron forests and were treated to several dazzling waterfalls. Our disappointment at not seeing a Yeti was compensated by a wonderful array of raptors sailing the mountain thermals and huge Chinese windmill butterflies with arced tails dancing around alpine flowers.
Our trek began at the road head and Nayapul about 30 km west of Pokahara and took us through Gorephani, Poon Hill, Tadapani and Tolka. Our favourite day was Day 4 when we alighted upon the hamlet of Jinhudanda and got to end our day by soaking in glorious hot spring pools lying against a rushing alpine river under the towering gaze of Hiunchili and Macchapuchere. We exited in Phedi mid-day on Day 6 - weary but with a warm feeling of accomplishment.
We returned to Pokhara and set off immediately for a three day yoga retreat at the Sadhana Yoga centre, beautifully set in the hills overlooking the town and lovely Lake Fewa. Where the yoga sessions soothed many aches from the trek, they created many more - so we've descended back to Pokhara and booked ourselves in for some ayuervedic massages tomorrow. We will be rubbed up and down in a rather unique venture - the volunteer-driven Seeing Hands Massage Clinic where visually-impaired but tactile-sharp Nepalese are trained to become licensed massage therapists We're next heading to two towns near Kathmandu - Bhaktipur and Bodnath, the latter to visit the large Tibetan monastery. Then back to India towards the end of the month to meet our children for a much anticipated three week "fam-holiday" in Northern India.
I suspect that it will be hard to match trekking in the Annapurnas for a long time to come. I'll try to post some pictures in the near future.
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1 comment:
Hi Patty and Stuart!
Nice pictures!
Hope you're totally peacefull after all the ' Soooo Hammmm' meditation. We are:)
How was your massage at the seeing hands clinic?
We leave Nepal tomorrow and we're heading towards Hongkong.
If you wanna have a look at our site: www.bloggen.be/katesommer
Kiss,
Kristien and Kate
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