9 Days of Himalayan Fun

Let it be confirmed that the Himalayas are really big (Annapurna South on the left). After nearly a week of lazy lounging in the laid back city of Pokhara, we rented a backpack, a couple of sleeping bags, and started out on one of the most famous treks in Nepal, called the Jomsom Trail (or appropriately dubbed the 'Apple Pie Trail' because of the number of westerner trekkers--and the apple orchards).

The original plan was to take a 20 minute flight to the top of the trek, and then make the 9 day journey back down to Pokhara. As it turns out, we spent yet another morning waiting in a small airport for a flight that would never leave--seems to happen a lot here because of the wind in Jomsom. It was slightly reminiscent of our experience in Bolivia so many months ago.

Anyway, we decided to start from the bottom of the trail and hope that we would actually reach the end destination, then be able to fly back....more on that later.

A two hour bus ride took us to our trailhead where we started. To our surprise we were feeling rather good for how out of shape we've become after not getting much exercise since S. Africa. Then the steps began--and they didn't stop for about 3.5 hours. At some point in time the Nepali people decided that the quickest way to travel from point A to point B was a straight line--no matter what was in the way of that line. Not only do the local people of the foothill villages cover ground quickly (up hundreds of thousads of meters at a time), they do it with massive loads of goods and sometimes they're wearing flip-flops. Even the porters who are over 70 years old move at a pace that put us to shame. Really amazing to witness.

The views on the trek are all of the Annapurna Range, and while making the ascent there are soaring peaks of varying heights, some of them up to 15,000 feet or more. Then after hiking for a while and we were on higher ground the REALLY big mountains come into view. In this range of the Himalaya there are several peaks over 8,000 meters (25,000 ft.+).

Along our route we stayed in guest houses that line the trail (which is sadly being converted into a road), some of which were pretty nice. Most days we stared hiking about 8:30 and would finish mid-afternoon in one of the villages that dot the trail--in fact, you can hardly walk 10 minutes without encountering people working their crop terraces, collecting cow dung to use as a fuel source, washing clothes or lazing about in the afternoon sun.
Near Jomsom I came down with something, still not sure what, and had a long night of night terrors and feverish ramblings while poor Shanon devised evacuation plans in her head and tried to figure out how she was going to get me to a good hospital in Bangkok. I survived the night, thankfully, and we made it Jomsom and scheduled our flight back to Pokhara for the next day. As fate would have it no planes were leaving again because of wind, and so instead of hoping for good luck the next day we decided to retrace or steps--some of them by jeep, and get back down the long way. In other words, our 20 minute flight back to Pokhara turned into 2 more days of trekking/transit.

Overall....
The Views: Woweee.

The Villages: About every 10 minutes or so--but fascinating to see how people live up here.

The Food: Decent, but after four days we decided that they might be recycling grease up there, and everything started tasting the same.

The Smells: Ahhhh....Fresh Himalayan air, lots of body odor, and plenty o' mule stench.

The Trekkers: Slightly sore, but happy (and healthy).

In the end...success. The struggles always prove to be some of the best stories when you look back on an adventure, and this trek definitely had a few struggles. But what a beautiful region and what friendly people. Since it's winter here there weren't alot of trekkers, so we were often the only two people in the guesthouses we'd end up in, but one friendly local told us that in October his small village sees more than 250 foreigners roll through in a single day. We love the off-season.

We're now safe and sound back in Pokhara, and planning our next move. Nepal is a small country, so it's been a nice change from having to take 10 hour bus/train rides to get to our next destination. Next up will likely be the noisy capital of Katmandu.

The trekkers cheating a bit and catching a ride on top of a local Himalayan taxi.