I ended up with a plan to head to Pokhara with Juni (it was an awesome turn of events that both of our topics happened to work well based in the same city, allowing for much less isolation time in our month away). So a few days after the official begin of ISP, we said temporary goodbyes to our homestay families and jumped on a bus, preparing for the long, hot ride to the popular tourist town. Unfortunately, the ride was a bit more unpleasant than it really needed to be being that I’d decided to try a bunch of street food with my bahinis the day before. My theory was this: If I’m going to get sick from trying something, I mineaswell go all out and try a bunch of stuff, right? I’ve yet to decide if it was really worth it (as my stomach is still in a bit of recovery mode), but some of it was exciting for sure.
Anyways, we eventually made it to Pokhara, and after Anna (who had joined us for the busride before leaving for her own adventures in the village of Ghondruk) headed out, Juni and I set out to negotiate ourselves a decent hotel room. (Don’t you worry, we ended up in Hotel Tropicana: good water pressure, HOT WATER!, and even wifi in our room for a lovely 350rps/night for the two of us. Yeah, that’s about $2.50 each.)
For the next week, we each traveled to the respective organizations we were researching and did a bit of writing. Personally, I have been working with the Women’s Skill Development Project, Pokhara. A nonprofit, Fair Trade organization based here in the city that provides skills training and jobs for women, providing them with a newfound ability to be independent, sustain themselves, and provide their children with education. I interviewed several of the women who worked there, with my basic question revolving around whether or not a skills training organization like this one is truly helpful (as opposed to simply providing non-transferrable skills that get the women trapped in their job at the site). In the end, I met some incredible people – and despite the language challenges, issues finding the site in the first place (much harder when EVERYTHING is written in Dvnagri!), and frustrations regarding the lack of schedules in Nepal - research went well.
Realizing that it was completely possible to get the bulk of our work done early, Julie and I decided to make a plan to meet Anna at the village she’d been staying in and trek up to Annapurna Base Camp (way better option than studying, let me tell you)! Pokhara is great, don’t get me wrong. But really? No comparison to the Himalayas.
So the two of us hopped on another bus to Nyapul (a town that, in theory, is an hour or two away. Though its noteable to mention that it takes a whole lot longer when you make multiple stops for people to board and try to sell you their bags of fruit.) Eventually, we made it to Nyapul and headed on our way, asking villagers to point us in the direction of Ghandruk. We finally arrived in the early evening and were beyond excited to see Amita – and we even ran into Bebol! (I wish I could explain exactly how random it was. A friend of ours who lives in Kathmandu, he’d been guiding a trek to ABC himself and was on his way down.) Fortunately, our random meeting turned out to be incredibly helpful as he was kind enough to help us call some lodges and book rooms. (Another strange concept in Nepal – booking ahead at guest houses is by all means not necessary, though definitely helpful in a busy season like it is now. Even weirder – its not uncommon to show up to one guest house and ask them to call a guest house in the next village to ensure that we’ll have somewhere to stay. Very convenient.)
In addition to his helpful hints and hotel help, Bebol informed us that he’d left an “Into the Wild” flag in the next village up. So, as it panned out, we were dubbed with the mission to take said flag up to ABC and bring it back down to Kathmandu for him. (Made our adventure that much more epic, for sure.)
On day two, we trekked to Chomrong. The day was relatively uneventful, but it left us plenty tired and relieved to get inside the guesthouse just in time to enjoy some soup while the afternoon rain set in. We met another group of trekkers – two from the States, an Irish couple, and a man from England – and had a great time hearing their stories of their own trek, as they were on their way down from basecamp.
Day three began innocently enough… we started the morning with our new favorite, museli (kindof like a cross between granola and oatmeal) and headed off for a long day of a large increase in elevation. Then poor Juni ended up getting sick – but after a short pit stop on the side of the trail next to the donkeys, she trekked on like a trooper. We finally made it to Dovan – the last village before our destination for the night: Himalaya. It was only another four hundred meter increase in elevation, though unfortunately, the last hour or so was made much more difficult when it got really windy, then it started raining, and soon afterwards, it was sleeting. We were beyond happy to reach hotel Himalaya, let me tell you.
Day four took us up to Machhapuchhre (Fishtail) Base Camp, just a short bit below our final destination: ABC. We got lost a couple of times, but fortunately after some frustrating wandering we finally found the trail again and arrived successfully. It was cold that night; really cold. But it was well worth it, and the next morning (on Easter, conveniently enough) we made the final stretch up to basecamp.
Unfortunately pictures don’t do justice – though I suppose that’s something you have to come to terms with when taking pictures in places as beautiful as Nepal. I think what really amazed me about the whole thing (besides the sheer magnitude of the mountains on all sides) was the drastic difference in setting as we went up. When we began back in Nyapul, it was hot. Uncomfortably so. Soon afterwards we were in the forests of Bamboo and Deurali, and before we knew it, we were trudging through the snow. It’s incredible.
The descent went remarkably faster than the journey up, and by day seven we were back in Nyapul where we began.
Trekking is better than school. That’s for sure.
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