The Festival of Tihar (See http://www.nepalhomepage.com/society/festivals/tihar.html ) closes school for (yet another) week. This was to be followed by a 3 day Maoist called National Bandh (strike - nothing opens or moves), giving me just enough time to travel by bus (7 hours) to Pokara and trek for 12 days to Anna Purna Base Camp.
The people in the Everest Region are Sherpas; here they are Gurungs, also Buddhists, but more subdued in their prayer flags, shrines etc.
Like all tourism, the trekking industry is way down. Many nights we were the only person staying in our lodge.
The first night I stayed in Pokara. View from hotel
There was a crisis right away as my guide took us on a short cut, and we discovered the bridge was out. We had to wade through water, over sharp and super slippery rocks. Naturally I fell in. Getting Out
Note the shorts! This trek is the first time I've worn shorts outside the house since August (shorts are frowned upon for women in Asia), but it was really warm during the day at the lower levels.
But nights were cold Here I'm warming my hands.
On the second morning, all the foreigners in town (Ghorepani & Ulleri), got up at 5, and climbed for an hour before breakfast to Poon Hill. It was grueling and very cold. But we all got to talk to one another while we stood around in the dark, waiting for the sun to come up
Some enterprising folks set up a coffee stand
Every village had a board with more a local map and varyingly accurate estimates fo the time to get to the next or previous village (distances are measured in time in Nepal)
Spelling is an art form in Nepal. Restaurant is often spelled "restaurent" and here we have the Dinning Room
On to Tadopani which means "distant water" and a nice view of it in the distance
Here I am again, and here is a girl we met along the way.
The bridges were more primitive, in general, than at Everest.
My guide when we stopped for lunch
I actualy went to 2 base camps. First is Machhapuchhre Base Camp called "MBC" by the Nepalis. (Everest Base Camp is EBC)
This man is a lama. He is 55, he said, and he works as a porter carrying 50+ pounds to support his family who live in a village on the Tibetan border. He only sees them once or twice a year. He had a peaceful aura about him I cannot describe.
Note the sandals It is cold.
And finally, I arrive at Anna Purna Base Camp (ABC) at 13,000+ feet
The following were all taken at ABC:
The lodges all look something like this
Up high, the lodges all had kerosene heaters that they put under the table at nighttime (so your feet and legs were warm, your upper body cold)
And then the few of us who were there got up to se the sunrise:
Me and the Sunrise again at ABC
And finally, we started down
Some pictures of Michael (he was educated at a missionary school), my guide Crossing a bridge
Here I am washing clothes In Chhomrong
That night, we were the only people at the lodge (again) and the owners invited us to a dance. Note that it is outdoors - it is very cold. I liked it for the first 20 minutes. Then I was frozen and bored for the next 2 hours:
They made me do it (I'm in the blue jacket)
A typical day of the Anna Purna trek is to climb down thousands of stairs to the river, cross the river, and thn climb thousands of steps back up. Here we are having lunch at a cute little village at the top of one of these days:
This village woman was 70 She was sitting there smoking.
And here are grandparents Taking care of the baby
And then we climbed down to Ghandruk
We stayed at the Snowland Lodge, an old Gurung farmhouse:
There is a Monastery and a museum in the village
Before every Bandh, the maoists bomb things. The day before I arrived they had bombed the AnnaPurna Conservation Committee Building
And, finally we trekked out. These young girls held hands and asked for money to let us by (we didn't pay)
By now, it is the 2nd day of the strike, and we didn't know how we could get the 25 km back to Pokara (others walked the whole way). But as we were sitting having tea, a rogue bus pulled up and charged us all 500 rs ($6.50) for a ride back. I paid it gladly, but we were all very alert on the way back looking for Maoists - we didn't see any.
Then, I had to take a plane back (they always run during strikes) because the long distance buses were not running...
And now, I am sick of bad food, pit toilets, cold etc. I won't be trekking for awhile. Maybe.
