14.10.07:- Woke up this morning to the sound of birds rather than a marching band. I may have forgotten to tell you that delight, because it is the Daison festival the band will play in the new day, guess what the festival lasts for 20 days. We had a really nice shower in the Lai Lai, however we had to use the bed sheet to stop anyone looking through the window. We hoped today that we could finalize details for our trip to Tibet, but when we arrived @ the office our agent was not there. So wee left understanding that flights had been booked for the 27.10.07. Who knows what will happen, hopefully it will all be sorted by the time we get back from our trek?
On our way back from the tour operator we decided to pop into our place of residence called the Nirvana Gardens Hotel, thankfully our room was only 30mins away from being ready. So we headed back to the Lai Lai & gathered our stuff & dropped it off at the Nirvana. We took a 10mins walk to Durbar (Meaning Royal) Square, this is a monument zone & is located @ the heart of the city & is a complex of beautiful temples & shrines, both Hindu & Buddhist. We spent a couple of hours here soaking up the atmosphere & taking pictures. Drew took a couple of fantastic pics of two women smiling enthusiastically @ the camera, will see if I can get a couple on here?
Afternoon was getting hot so we went back to the Nirvana to sit in our peaceful gardens & read our books, lovely!
Our meeting with the next tour took place @ 16.00 in the lobby. Both Drew & I are a bit unsure about another group tour; we feel that now we are ready to go it alone. Our group seems ok, although it is a bit difficult to understand our tour leader Herin. Everyone had an option to go to a traditional Nepalese restaurant tonight, but we decided to go to the Roadhouse café again, @ least we know our stomachs will be ok!
On our way back to the hotel a Nepalese man asked if he could ask us a few questions. His name was Promod (translated means happiness) & we chatted with him for about an hour, learnt so much about him. For instance he is extremely clever & can speak 5 languages fluently including Japanese, of which he tried to give us a lesson in; I do not think we would do that well in Japan!
15.10.07:- After very good nights sleep we headed to a bakery called Hot Breads, which fellow group mates Jackie & Steve told us about. It was lovely; we had a pineapple Danish each & a fresh cup of coffee perfect way to start our day.
The rest of our group today headed to Pasupathnath & Bouddhanath Stupa, so as we had already been to these sights we opted out. We decided to go to Swaymbhnuth Stupa, known locally as Monkey Temple, because of all the monkeys hanging around taking all of the offerings people lay out for the gods. Our taxi driver suggested that he take us right to the top. I’m glad he did, because seeing how many steps (360), we would have struggled. Once we stepped out of the taxi the atmosphere could be compared with that of Bouddhanath & I found the views of Kathmandu valley below & the Himalayan foothills completely stunning. Monks were chanting as we walked clockwise round the Stupa, which created a lovely feeling even though you had to dodge the monkeys! After our time @ Swaymbhunath we went back to the hotel gardens & relaxed for the rest of the day, heaven!
16.10.07:- 7.30 start in the pouring rain, we leave Kathmandu taking us a full hour to get out of the valley, as there is only one road in& out of Kathmandu. Once on the Miranda Highway though, we get stuck in many traffic jams due to the rain & overturned lorries on the edge of the road. Everyone looked on nervously hoping that we would not be the next accident. Scenery on the way has been pretty poor due to the low clouds. However when we start our drive into Pokora the clouds lifted to reveal lush green valleys with rapids running through. We were all struck by the views once the Annapurna range came into eyeshot, it was amazing. The ranges looked like they had been painted as a backdrop & we can not wait to start our trek to take in further fantastic views that Nepal has to offer. Arriving @ 17.30 in Pokara we hurried out of the hotel room to watch the sun set on the Annapurna ranges. Light shifting & glowing in different directions. Today has been the 1st day we have had to use our Rohan jackets as it is slightly cold @ night. But we are not complaining after coming in from India it is a refreshing change. Pokora seems to be a calmer place, where shop owners smile & greet you with Namasti whilst not forcing you into there shops.
17.10.07: - We start our very bumpy drive to the beginning of the trek @ 7.15. Our starting point is called Birethanti & the views of the ranges are already far better. 9.00 & we are off; we begin with a fairly gentle walk (worse to come) in the morning’s sun. Thankfully there is a nice cool breeze coming up from the river which stops the heat from being overpowering like Chitwan. We stop for lunch @ Sikhar Guest House & restaurant in Syanli Bazar. Once we are settled we both tuck into a fantastic spring roll that looks more like a Cornish pasty.
Ghandruk is where we stopped for the night. Although we nearly did not make it as our guide walked off with other people in the group & left us behind. We ended up searching hotels in the area for our group. Eventually our guide came back to find a very unhappy Michelle & Drew. Needless to say once we arrived at the hotel we changed into our warm clothes & tried to calm ourselves down by looking at the magnificent views in front of us. This was helped by a little bit of Royal Challenge Whisky.
18.10.07: - Today we left Ghandruk & our final destination is International Guest House, Tolka via Landruk for lunch. The first part of our walk seemed to be ok; we had to descend 900m into the valley. Although our legs feel ok now I think we may feel the burn at a later stage! We have a quick break before we have to ascend to our lunch stop at Landruk where we have a Veggie Spring roll, although it should have been called cabbage spring roll. This afternoon’s walk was a bit of a struggle, the majority of the walk was flat but when you hit the steps you certainly felt the muscles you had worked the previous day. We decided to slow down a bit & take it easy walking with Catherine & Terry at the back. At least we could not get lost this time round as we were with the guide @ the back. Once @ Ghandruk the views are out of this world, they are getting better as we go along.
19.1.07: - Today we opted to start early @ 7.30 with Catherine, Terry, Wendy & Tony for a couple of reasons. 1) to get a head start so we can sort of turn up to our destination at the same time as we are a bit slower than other people (that we are not afraid to admit) 2) to distance ourselves from some very immature people of the group, who the other night were overheard making some very derogatory comments about everyone else in the group. I think that they forgot the walls were very thin, hilar!
Anyway today our thigh muscles are killing us from our previous days down hill section, so we are taking it slowly slowly as the guides say. It was a lovely day’s walk, walking & chatting to pass the time. Whilst taking lots of little breaks to catch our breath & take in the wonderful views surrounding us. Before our lunch stop of which I have forgotten the name we reach the maximum altitude of 2100m, thank goodness the altitude is not affecting us that much, although Drew’s cold has come back so he is taking Sudafed to try and dry it up. We descend after lunch on a really nice walk, with not many hills to tackle. As we take our final walk to our hotel we see a group of people gathering ahead, our tour leader tells us to walk on. We later find out that the group of people had been Maoists he had to pay a “donation” of 4400 rupees for our group. Once we arrive at the hotel, we can see that the best views have been saved till the last. Mountains: Annapurna 1 & Fishtail are so close and the light that reflects off of the surface is memorizing.
20.10.07: - Today we were woken @ 2.00am by a group of villagers, who it turns out were in the partying spirit, as today is the 9th day & an important day of the Dasain Festival. However we did not feel like joining in & they soon vacated the hotel. We took this morning last walk very slow as Drew’s thigh muscles were playing him up, mine also to be fair. It was nice tasking a leisurely pace with Catherine & Terry, we took the time to take in the changing scenery & @ one point we had the pleasure of watching a massive eagle soaring above us trying to target its prey, although @ one point we thought it could be one of us the way it swooped down low. Something that the rest of the group missed in their haste to finish their haste to finish the trek. Once down @ the end of the trek the sense of achievement is enormous, I am so proud of Drew as in his own words he admits that climbing around the Himalayan Mountains has been a dream & one that at 18 years old he thought he would never be able to accomplish. Well Drew has and I am so happy that he has been able to fulfill a dream.
