Pokhara was a brief break but my one month visa is just about up. We head back to Kathmandu via the tops of buses and enjoy the beautiful scenery from up top one last time. Kathmandu is noisy, smoggy and congested with traffic. It really feels like a terrible place to be after sending so much time in the pristine outdoors. We are only here for one night and decide to find the cheapest place possible. My first room turned out to be a roach motel and after switching we finally found a descent room. The next morning I catch a taxi over to the airport and say good bye to Nepal. Here is a pic of the Himalaya Mountains from the cabin window as I fly from Kathmandu to Lasa, China to Chengdu, China and finally to Shanghai, China.

The hangover from my 2066 New Year Celebration is incredible. I felt like I got shot but managed to get up before noon. I talked our group into renting Motorcycles and exploring the surroundings. Joe and I end up getting 180cc Pulsars which are actually the largest sportiest bikes we are able to rent. Christine and Nate opt for a scooter since neither can really ride a motorcycle with a clutch. Needless to say Joe and I quickly outpaced the scooter group and ended up doing most of the exploring on our own.

At the heart of Pokhara (touristy district) is the lake surrounded back shops, restaurants, cafes and drinking venues. The beauty of Pokhara lies in its surrounds; up the mountains and around the more village like surroundings. The only real way to check it out is on motorcycles or bicycles, but who wants to pedal after hiking for such a long time.

During the start the roads leading out of Pokhara twist and turn up mountains. They are extremely fun on sporty bikes. It is kind of dangerous too since Nepalese people often times than not, don’t stay within their lanes. Joe and I tear it on the twisties, and since Nate and Christine’s scooter can’t even make it up a hill we are free to do some faster paced riding. Man I miss my gixxer!

When we return we come to find that Christine had let Nate drive. Apparently he’s not very good at driving and ran into a ditch and laid the bike over. Luckily neither of them are injured and neither are put off by the idea of riding. The next day we have another go, this time I grab a Yamaha 150cc Cruiser as to avoid killing myself racing Joe on the twisties.

This time around we visit some of the more natural looking areas. Farmlands, hills and lakes are all available within a few minutes of Pokhara. There are nice rest stops on top of the hill overlooking the entire town and lake. It’s a beautiful view, too bad I didn’t bring my SLR camera. Our second day of exploring is cut short by rain and we all end up fast tracking it back to the hotel.

The weather is nice and warm. Tshirt and shorts suffice.  Our accommodations are as close to the ranks of a western hotel as I’ve seen since Dubai. It feels like paradise. After a morning of sleeping in I pull myself out of bed for a nice warm shower. I wonder around the touristy part of town and realize what a change it has been since coming down from the rustic mountains villages of the Annapurna Circuit. I visit coffee shops and gorge myself in western cuisine. I have discovered that the Italian restaurant around the corner has awesome clay oven baked thin crust pizza. Who would have thought I’d be able to get a good Italian pizza in Nepal!

In addition to the Italian restaurants there are other dining venues from all over the world. Due to the popularity of the Annapurna Circuit in the international community and the fact that trek ends in the town of Pokhara there is an abundant amount of western conveniences. They range from budget minded backpacker to high end dinning so there is quite a variety to choose from. It is only here that I would actually trust the meat dishes.

The town is decorated in bright red banners. Happy 2066! Huh? How long have I been gone? It appears that the Nepalese still celebrate New Years or “Navavarsha” during this time. Everyone is outdoors in groups and there’s quite the hustle bustle in Pokhara. That night we decide to visit a Nepalese night club to celebrate. Shots of Nepalese Whiskey and dancing to western music are a nice welcome from our regular nights of relaxing after a grueling day’s walk.

Muktinath is the best accommodating village we’ve stayed in.  It is much larger and one of the first towns that actually has vehicular transportation. We are staying in a guesthouse called Bob Marley guesthouse. It feels more like a lodge. Here fresh hot water showers are more than adequate compared to our lukewarm bucket showers in the village guesthouses. The chef is from Italy so there’s even some international reputation in the lodge.

We take some time to chill and enjoy some western food. Each of the tables has a coal burning heating stove under it making the place extremely comfortable. So far we have been avoiding the meat on this trek heeding the advice I’ve read online about how it can ruin your trek with bad stomach problems.

And thus far we have all been a okay. To be honest this is probably one of the first places I’d feel comfortable about eating meat. None the less I have stuck to an all veggie diet so I continue my vegetarian eating habits.

Joe on the other hand has decided to eat some chicken for dinner. We all jokingly caution him about it and he brags about it as his plate comes in. After dinner everything is all good. We end up kicking it with other trekkers until fairly late and then crash for the evening. The next morning Joe walks into our room looking green. Apparently he woke up in the middle of night with the worse case of the runs.

That morning, Joe, Nate, and Christine all want to take a bus the rest of the way down to Pokhara. I really wanted to finish the rest of the trek on foot but really didn’t want to do it myself. So I cave and follow them to the jeep station. On the way down I see a bunch of chickens out foraging around. Upon second inspection I see that they are grazing on donkey shit. “Chickens eat donkey shit” I thought, “Joe eats Chicken”. And by the transitive property of eating, “Joe eats Donkey Shit”. Well no wonder he got sick. Lesson learned, do not eat chicken, aka donkey shit, in Nepal.

The jeep ride was far from comfortable but I was able to get the local discount so I can’t complain. We switch vehicles a few times and then end up in a Landrover Discovery type vehicle for the rest of the trip. At one point we make a pit stop near some hot springs and run into the big group of Irish people and their guide. A lot of the trekkers take a much needed dip in the hot springs after walking for so long. There are quite a lot of trekking groups here. At this point I really wish I would have finished the trek. I guess I’ll have to come back next time do it in its entirety with the Annapurna Basecamp trek included. We took a few moments to catch up before heading back down the rocky slopes. Soon Pokhara comes into view which is a welcome sight to all the places we’ve been staying at.

The morning came briskly as my watch starts to beep, followed by another alarm and finally a third. I sit up out of my sleeping bag and rub my eyes. I see my breath in the dry cold air and it seems like my head is steaming as I remove my beanie cap that I’ve slept in. I rub the outsides of my arms to warm up and throw on my fake North Face trekking pants, fleece and softshell jacket. Waking up today is has been one of the hardest mornings for some reasons. My throat is dry, my lips are chapped and my thirsty as hell.

I open the doors and immediately stop as a blinding wall of light comes to view. It takes my eyes a few moments to adjust as the snow is already reflecting the morning sun. I do a few jumping jacks to help my body warm up for the day and carefully walk and slide across the trail to the kitchen area of the camp. The doors open and immediately feel the warmth of firewood and the sweet smell of breakfast. All the other trekking groups are already eating and some already heading out, as this is the longest of the days. We will suddenly go from Thorung Ghedi at 4,500m (17,760ft) to the highest point at the Thorung La Pass at 5,400m and then we descend to Muktinath  at 3,800m. This mean we will roughly ascend 900m (2,953ft) and then immediately descend 1,600m (5,250ft), this totals 2500m (8,202ft) in elevation coverage. However, since we forgot to order food the day before we would have to wait for them to cook our breakfast. I quickly order breakfast which consists of pancakes, bread, omelet and coffee and head back to the lodge to pack.

By the time I scarf down my breakfast most of the groups have already long left. We head out behind the camp and start on a series of switchbacks that Joe and I ran down in roughly 20minutes the day before. This time with our gear and going uphill versus downhill it takes us around an hour. Joe and Nate venture ahead as Christine complains of headaches. I urge her to head back down and rest another day but she refuses and we decide to take things slow and break frequently. At this point we are separated into two groups.

Highcamp comes up after an hour’s worth up seriously vertical uphill climb. This camp has only place to sleep and most trekkers prefer to stay lower since there is not much up here. Regardless this camp is the last stopping point before taking on the Thorung La Pass. We break at the top on the bench next to some of the other trekkers. The sun has come out and I lounge with my pack still strapped to my back and quickly warm up. The next part of the climb is all snow and I have to remember what I learned from my Ben Nevis climb to use the edges of my boot to get good traction. Essentially I am walking like a duck with a giant pack on my back.

The rest of the trek is blinding. Christine has somehow lost her sunglass that she picked up at Manang. At first she decides to tie a plastic trash bag around her head. She somehow thinks this helps and is what “they” use to do before the days of sunglasses. Well that method doesn’t work very well and also makes you look like an idiot, so we are sharing my pair; basically taking turns wearing the shades, enjoying the views and leading the blind person. We continue taking breaks as Christine’s headache gets worse, but she decides that she is at the point of no return, opposing my caution to head down, and we continue going. We find two more tea shops along the way. The last tea shop is at the top of the pass at 5,413m. The pass is decorated with a congratulations plaque with a clutter of prayer flags blowing the wind tied to it.

From then on it was a quick all downhill descent from 5,413m to 3,800m. This descent is beautiful at first but the rain starts to move in. This is probably the loneliest part of the trek. I think besides two other trekkers it was just Christine and me. During some portions of it I was truly worried that we had somehow gotten off course. But actually since we took so many breaks we were the last trekkers on this mountain. Much to my relief Christine’s headache starts to get better and better as we descend.

This part of the trek is covered in snow but since the sun was out earlier that day has now turned to slush. And other parts that are in the shade have frozen to dangerously slick patches of ice. Christine falls down the mountain its quite entertaining. My knees are now buckling under pressure from the shenanigans of the previous day and also from stomping downhill this entire way. To help with that problem, we take plenty of breaks to enjoy the view below.

During one of our breaks I turn around to see a huge expansive black sky behind us. It’s a giant cluster of rain clouds and its moving quick. We pick up our pace and chase the disappearing sun. On the bottom of this giant downhill ravine there are a cluster of houses that have accommodations.  We see a few groups of trekkers stopping there for the night due to stomach issues, but we decide to continue to a bigger village.

At one point we can see two villages below; one to the left and one to the right. We are not sure which one to go to but after looking at a plaque we somehow decide that Muktinath. At that point there is series of bridges and the sun blinding us with her last rays of light. It is at this point that small amounts of rain start to drizzle down. It is not too long before we reach the outer walls of the village.

As we enter, I look up and see Joe running over to use shouting. Joe is already drunk and ecstatic to see us. There is a good celebration and an extra burst of energy as we are reunited with our group. Joe wasn’t sure if we were going to make and at that point it was already getting dark. But he saved us a room at their lodge.

At the lodge we say hello to our trekkers that we have been traveling with along the way. A lot of them passed me and Christine heard her complaining about her headache. They were all relieved that we made it safely. There was a big rumor that we had turned back. I guess one of the trekkers heard me urging her to take another rest/acclimatization day. Finally settled I throw my soaked shoes and socks next to the campfire and head straight for kitchen.

I wake up to a loud Thud as Joe bangs against the wall that our rooms share. “Get your ass up” I hear him yell. We leave Manang after some much needed R&R and also some time to acclimatize. The village is much bigger so it takes us sometime to get out of the residential area. We decide  to fill up on two bottles of water eat at this water station since there will shortages of them from here on out.

One of the last buildings we pass is a Gurkha training camp. Gurkhas refer to villagers from the high altitude village of Gorkha. This group also refers to a special unit of high attitude living Nepalese who have been heavily recruited into Indian and British military. If you haven’t heard of the Gurkhas, I’ll attempt to summarize who they are.

The Gurkhas are the most badass troops ever. They are notorious in both Indian and British militaries as being the Martial Race, meaning they’re naturally aggressive and warlike. Gurkhas  can kill anyone they want! How badass is that? They are said to posse characteristics of qualities of courage, self sufficiency, physical strength, resilience, the ability to work hard for long periods of time, fighting tenacity and military strategy. With a fighting motto of “It’s better to die than live a coward!” Gurkhas are so crazy that I want to crap my pants! Furthermore they still carry their traditional weapon of choice into battle, an 18in curved blade called Kukri. Gurkha tradition states that if the Kukri is drawn it has to taste blood, so if the owner doesn’t feed it with the blood of their enemies, they cut themselves as they sheath the blade. Gurkhas will flip out and chop people’s heads off ALL the time and not even think twice about it! A friend of mine told me that the Gurkhas who participated in the invasion of Iraq wanted to attack with their knives only! Now that’s what I call REAL ULTIMATE POWER!  If you don’t believe that Gurkhas have REAL ULTIMATE POWER you better get a life right now or they will chop your head off! It’s an easy choice if you asked me. The Gurkhas training camp had a no cameras sign and needless to I obeyed it.

The daily hikes take on a much slower pace. I am short of breathe with each step. For example, at this altitude getting up a flight of stairs knocks the wind of me. That’s without any gear or my pack. As we trek up, breaks become more and more frequent. It’s during this point of the trek that the porter’s amazing athletic abilities be vividly apparent. These guys are still carrying 20-25kg bags on their heads at 3,000m plus. I guess growing up in the high altitudes really has its advantages.

The worst part about trekking in snow is the slipping and sliding especially when you’re going downhill. It is downright dangerous at some points, but luckily we have our packs to fall onto. There is also the fact that it reflects light is blinding. I break out my sunnies (Australian for sunglasses) and the rest of the crew purchase pairs of fake Oakleys from the nearest village, yes amazing that they sell them up there.

The first village we arrive to is Yakharka. The snow starts to fall as we arrive and the skies darken even though it is only 3pm. There are less and less guesthouses at this attitude. Things are getting more and more expensive. The prices for items follows the elevation curve that we are on. Luckily or maybe perhaps its traditionally, we are still getting rooms for free as long as we eat at our guesthouse. With the dimming skies, we quickly crash for a cat nap. These rooms are the simplest yet. The walls are stone and cement. There is a bed, a small chair with no back and one lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room. It’s the compact florescent type and glow dimly. Joe and Nate are next door and for the first few minutes we are exchanging jokes through the cracks in our wall. It is so cold in our room but somehow I am still able to sleep. Later that night we get up at 7pm to catch dinner and then some hot chocolate at the neighboring guesthouse since our guide book recommended it. Tasted pretty normal to me.

The next day the ground is a winter wonder land from the day before. Sunlight from our only window peaks in and strikes my eyes. I squint and rub my eyes until they adjust to the light. It’s beautiful outside and the light is just right. We are still in the shade of the valley but the neighboring mountain is shiny bright. Winds are blowing the flaky snow off the peaks and everything around me is white. I climb to the top of our building on the roof. It was probably not the smartest idea to climb on a tin roof with a layer of ice and snow on top but I didn’t notice it until after I got off.

This day of trekking was revitalizing. I had stopped taking as many pictures as I go use to the scenery and now everything was new and amazing again. The coldness of the air is so refreshing and I feel like I have this new found energy. That crushing of the newly fallen snow beneath my feet was a welcome sound as set off once again into the distance.

Thorung Ghedi is our next stop and we actually get there much ahead of schedule. In fact if memory serves me right we got there around noon. If not noon, it was not much after that. I settle down in the common dining area and relax. I take the opportunity to relax and play some board games. Soon group after group of trekkers start to come in. I think this is the only guesthouse of Thorung Ghedi and the kitchen actually does an amazing job of preparing delicious meals.

Again the kitchen is on the right of the path as we enter town and the lodging area is on the left. This place is super cold. It is also one of the only places we are able to get a 4 person room which I guess makes it slightly warmer. At the same time it makes it a lot smellier and louder as night as Joe and Nate both snore. At this altitude the signs of AMS really start to kick in. Nate and Christine both complain of headaches. Soon Joe joins the group. I don’t have a migraine sized headaches like the rest of them, but I do feel slightly lightheaded. One of the trekking groups loans us their blood oxygen detection tool and everyone seems to be in the clear, but we decide to take an extra day to acclimatize to be on the safe side. The next day is the crossing. Thorung Ghedi is at 4,500m, the Thorung La Pass sits at 5,400m and then we descend to Muktinath  at 3,800m. It’s a long day and it covers a lot of km both in elevation and distance, so we decide to rest one more night for it. I ended up not getting much sleep because of Joe and Nate’s snoring, but that was fine since we are taking an additional rest day.

For the second day we change rooms so Christine and I can actually escape the smell and snoring. Joe and I decide to trek up to the next village, Basecamp, and then come back down. This is that whole safety concept of hiking up to an higher altitude and then sleeping at the slower one. Joe and I have the same competitive pace. We make it up the uphill trek fairly quickly. Towards the top the melting snow begins to form a wide shallow water fall. Luckily the boots I picked up in Dublin are quite good. After passing Basecamp we head out to a scenic view area. It overlooks the Thorung Ghedi village below and has strung up prayer flags everywhere. The view was amazing and the skies clear. Below I could see the helicopter landing pad as a small “H” and then a few blue dots as the roofs of the village.

It was quite slippery getting up there since the snow was smelting and the tracks had frozen to ice. At the top we ran into one of the porters that have been with us the entire time. We chatted briefly and took a few snap shots before resting in the sun at camp. There we talked to most of the groups that were making the pass.

For some reason we decide to race on the way down. It kind of reminded me of the time when Casey and I got stuck on a mountain and the only down was this rock quarry [link].  The rocks slide out from under you as you’re walking down. We were essentially skiing downhill on rocks with hiking boots. Well same situation here but smaller rocks and a longer fall. Somehow we don’t  kill ourselves scrambling down the mountain. It took us 2hours to walk up, but we by-passed all the switchbacks and made it down in roughly 20minutes. Needless to say, it was a pretty stupid idea since our knees are now shot but it was still a fun time.

At the bottom we find Nate and Christine chillin’ in the lounge and join them for some instant coffee and lunch. We rest the remainder of the day and prepare for the following climb tomorrow.