Category: Nepal

Today Sponsored by Rox!! Whitewater Rafting the Seti

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Today was an epic day!! We got to go whitewater rafting, care of Roxanna! As a going away gift, Roxanna Martinez gave us such a cool gift – she wanted to gift us one awesome day of adventure on our trip. And I promised I would make it an a most excellent day that she “sponsored” and do something special. Oh boy and we did!!! THANK YOU, ROXANNA!!

So thanks to Rox, we got to do a special treat that Rick and I had both been dreaming of doing, but didn’t think it was possible in our budget – enter Roxanna’s gift! 🙂 We both love whitewater rafting, but had only gotten to go on our honeymoon We each secretly hoped we’d get to go on this trip… but hadn’t said anything to each other yet. And Nepal is know for it’s rafting (think Himalayan mountain range rivers!). So we happened to start talking to a couple of guides in Pokhara and learned instead of taking a bus to Chitwan National Park (our next destination), we could do a day and a half whitewater rafting trip down the Seti River.

Our river guide – just kidding! This was the owner’s son playing in front of the shop. So cute with this rafting helmet and mini-kayak

We met our guides in Pokhara and rode to the put in point. We were the only guests on the raft. The Seti is the warmest river in Nepal, and goes through gorgeous gorges and jungle forest, and has views of the Annapurna range.

It wasn’t long after we got our instructions on “Paddle forward”, “Paddle back” and “GET DOOOOWN!” that we hit our first rapids. The raft twisted around and we paddled hard and made it through – I only thought I was going to fall out of the raft once. Rick says he wasn’t going to, but I’m pretty sure his back touched the water.

Our awesome guides with the selfie

Then we reached a calm stretch and the guides said time to swim. In the back of my mind I’m thinking… hey, once we get to Chitwan, aren’t we going on a crocodile watching expedition? And we’re rafting to there now. And I’m swimming in this warm river. Hmmm…. But we jumped in anyway! We actually got to swim through some small rapids which was really fun!

We continued and hit a couple more sets then reached our stopping point for lunch. The guides made this amazing set up. They prepared everything from scratch and we got to eat on the beach, and relax a little.

More rafting, with the rapids getting a little bigger each time! It was so fun!

We were tired when we reached our camping beach. Since it was an overnight trip we got to camp right next to the river. I was totally surprised by everything those four guys were about to pull out of the raft – we had a sweet camping set up. We got a tent, and they created a “lounge area” out of the raft and a tarp.

And then we started to learn that our guides were also chefs. I think we got a 7 course dinner that night… the food just kept coming and it was all good! We started with f freshly popped (over an open fire) popcorn. Next was this “party mix” of what I think were dry ramen noodles, popcorn, diced up cucumber and onion and spices – it was super addictive! Then we had soup. Then we had bread. Then we had the main meal, which was spaghetti with meat sauce and a couple of sides of vegetables. It was all delicious and it all came from our raft!

As they prepared the meal, we played games with them… just little games with rock and sticks but it was fun. Rick was building things out of little bamboo sticks – and he, feeling highly confident in his skills, challenged me “ok, Liz, what do you want me to make? Anything!” first thing that came to mind was a rocking horse! Rick did not like that challenge so much at first… but of course, if you know him at all, he’s going to take it on and figure it out. So about 30 minutes later, here is the bamboo rocking horse! J pretty impressive!!

As we played and ate, it grew dark and our guides set up us with a campfire on the beach and lanterns throughout camp. The stars were spectacular!!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many or seen the milky way that clearly. I guess that’s the upside of the constant power outages… very little light pollution in Nepal! We found a bunch of constellations and a couple shooting stars. And when we were finally exhausted, we slept very well in our tent.

The next morning we woke up to tea ready for us to go, and breakfast. We packed up and got ready to go. It was cloudier today and we were told we would cross into a new river the Tiraslu, which is much colder than the Seti River… so we got wetsuits! I don’t think I’ve worn one before so that was an experience! But they certainly worked to keep us warm! We went through many rapids that morning and then got to swim in this new colder river – Rick jumped in first and I could tell by the look on his face it lived up to it’s cold reputation! I wasn’t really planning to get in, but Rick said I had no choice as he grabbed the back of my life jacket and pulled me into the river with him. It was cold, but with the wetsuit quickly warmed up to bearable.

The crew joked with us and taught us more Nepali words. I have to say, it’s the most fun rafting crew we’ve ever gone with. All smiles and really knew what they were doing -plus excellent chefs!

We finished our trip (back in the raft) with one last great set of rapids! What a treat!! ROXANNE THANK YOU SO MUCH!! We loved every second of it!

October 27, 2014
Home Sweet Home, Pokhara!

Well, we completed our trek, it took us 14 days in total. As most of you know we were incredibly blessed to have gotten through the mountains before the blizzard and avalanches hit. The tea houses varied quite a bit, all of them simple accommodations, but some were still quite comfortable and had hot gas showers (a hot solar shower is just a lie. Never believe it!). Some of them were very new and quaint, with sweet families that welcomed us. Others were…. Uncomfortable to say the least… let’s just say some of the bathrooms made me prefer to use the woods trail-side instead of going into the bathroom. ICK!

So after our little three day extra bit of hiking, we returned to Pokhara. Its funny to say but it felt like going home! We actually knew the town we were going to, we knew we were going to stay at Banyan Tree and that they had hot showers and a nice balcony, we knew where our favorite restaurants were. We were excited to get there! It was so relaxing when we arrived.

We had been running low on money for the last three days, so had to limit what we ate and drank… we got into Pokhara, got to the ATM, and got a big lunch at Silk Road, which has safe salads (I am craving fresh veggies constantly here… it’s hard to get them regularly because only a few places wash them in iodine water).

We started working on what we were doing next, but first a little relaxation! Rick had found a spa in Pokhara. We checked our budget and we had been saving money, so time for a treat!! A spa day!! It was awesome and cheap. We ordered a full day spa for the next day. Which turned out to be perfect timing because it started raining that night and the rain continued non-stop the entire next day and night – it was the remnants of Cyclone Hudhud, which then moved into the Annapurna area and caused the massive snowfall, blizzards and avalanches that caused the disaster.

The spa was so cool because everything was done by hand. I was taken to this little clay hut, where the ladies brought water they had boiled from the house to wash my feet. Then my spa day started with a full body scrub – it was intense! I think it was walnut shells. I probably needed it after hiking for two weeks with limited showers. Then I got hot oil hair treatment. And then we got a full body massage – wow, it was the best massage ever! They call it the “Trekkers Deep Tissue Massage” and they were not messing around (Rick and I still have slight bruising on our calves from it, but without it we would probably still be hobbling around, we were so sore from the crazy hiking). I then got a facial, spa lunch and a pedicure and manicure (those are not their specialities. They were so sweet, attentive and tried really hard, but I’m pretty sure they learned the techniques from YouTube and didn’t really get the purpose of the actions they were doing. Like the cuticle cream… just went on my nail… and then they used the cuticle tool to just scrape over my nail… same actions as a normal manicure, just in the wrong place. It was pretty amusing.)

I felt so relaxed and clean after the spa, it was wonderful!

And that night we went to dinner at a new restaurant – it was a Turkish restaurant. We were a bit confused by the menu (since it was in partial Turkish, partial Nepali, partial Chinese and a smidge of English). The owner/chef came out and talked with us. He was so proud of his restaurant and told us all about his garden, and well water, and where the meat came from and how he had learned to cook from his grandmother, and the history of the restaurant. He told us that he would prepare a special tasting for us! We got a chicken gyro platter, and Alexander the Great kebab platter, and these little garlic breads with a dipping sauce. Everything was SO good!

Rick and I were so excited – after eating Dal Bhat (rice, lentil soup, and curried veggies) for almost every dinner for two weeks, we were ready for something different. Dal Bhat is the traditional dinner of Nepalis and it’s the main thing served on the trek at tea houses (the saying goes “Dal Bhat power. 24 hour!”). Even when you get something else, it’s basically same flavor different form. Momo – same spices, just in a dumpling. Noodles – same veggies, same flavors, just on noodles not rice. Omlette – yep, same spice, same veggies just on eggs. Macaroni – same, same, different noodle shape. Soup – you guessed it, same veggies, same spices, just more liquid.

We hadn’t even realized we were so tired of it, until the Turkish food. And it tasted so different and SOOO good! I definitely took for granted the variety of food flavors I was able to get in the US… either at restaurants or when I cooked. Asian one night, Italian another, Mexican another… or even just different spices.

So we thoroughly enjoyed our little break in sweet Pokhara — comfy place to stay, hot showers, spa day and yummy food! We’re happy campers!

October 27, 2014
Going Down. Down. Down. Muktinath to Pokhara via Poon Hill

So to get this online a little quicker we’ve condensed the downhill part of the trip, Muktinath to Pokhara via Poon Hill, into one post. We both worked on writing it so I hope it’s not to hard to follow…

Muktinath to Jomsom to Tatopani – October, 9 2014

Liz’s 3 things:
– Jeep to bus to jeep
– Worlds deepest gorge
– Best and worst of Nepali people

We took a jeep from Muktinath to Jomsom. Barely made it on the jeep – lets just say lines or who got there first isn’t really a thing. Rick may or may not have had to use his sticks. Probably one of the roughest roads I’ve been on. But we were so glad to be out of the cold desert!

The Worst Part of the Day:
In Jomsom we said goodbye to Brad and Song as they were going to fly to Pokhara then we barely got on a bus (Liz says,”Thanks for Rick’s aggressiveness we made it!”). And about 5 min later we got a flat tire. It was changed over the course of an hour (by a boy who couldn’t have been more than 11 years old… gotta start ’em early) or so while we watched subsequent busses pass us. Back on the road, we should’ve taken note that the mechanic got on with us. We proceeded to stop for every single broken down vehicle on the road – an entire bus of people. We got to experience lots of roadside culture… Dropping off a parts. More work on the tire. Different bus broke down and blocked a bridge. Yet another bus drove INTO river instead of bridge. A dozen jeeps backedup at a narrow point where the bus didn’t fit. Needless to say it was a looooong bus ride.

Even the cows were a little aggressive in Jomsom!

During one of our many “Stops” we saw this little girl with her kitten.

Once we made it to Ghasa though, we had another problem. No room on the bus that was leaving then for Tatopani. Also no room for non-Nepali on the one that was coming in a couple hours to go to Tatopani. Mind you this was all learned by running around a crowded dirt lot with 10 busses sitting there in half sign language, half nepali and a lot of “No!” But definitely some non-Nepali discrimation going on! Liz got to practice putting her American desire for efficiency and relaible timelines to rest. I say she did really well.

The Best Part of the Day:
So we thought we were going to have to walk and just as we were about to set out this older nepali man flags us down and asks if we want to share his jeep. BEST decision of the day!! We got in the back and got to enjoy wonderful conversation with these three native nepali men from Upper Mustang (that’s farther north than we were, it’s a desolate super high altitude desert plateau. It’s $250/day just to get in for US citizens).

Our jeep broken down but only briefly as the driver was also a mechanic!

They were all brilliant well educated and knew nepal so well! The youngest was a genetic scientist about to go study genetics of snow leopards! They told us we were jeeping through the worlds deepest gorge! And no kidding the drop from 20,000+ ft mountains to 300 ft above sea level was crazy and made for incredible scenery.

We were a little sad we didn’t hike that piece of it… BUT the beauty of slow travel and having everything on your back is that you can fix that!

We’re Thankful for:
So while they offered to take us to Beni, we got out early at Tatopani to enjoy the hot springs and do some hiking in the area. At the recommendation of one of our Nepali jeep mates we stayed at Darmasali Hotel which his cousin owned. We stayed in a lovely guest house with an orange garden all around. Then it was a short walk through the garden and down some stairs to the hot springs. Great hot springs, highly recommended!!! It was more polished than the last (Chame) and a lot more popular, it was privatized so we payed 100NPR each to get in but totally worth it. Two giant knee deep hot tubs one was crazy hot, the other was larger and more of an enjoyably hot temperature. They had drinks and food for sale as well but all we wanted was a bottle of water.

We debated staying in Tatopani for a couple of days just to keep using the hot springs but instead decided to hike to Poon Hill instead of continuing on the road to Pokhara as it’s kind of on the way; except for the 2000m climb. It adds a couple days but we think it will be great!

Just a bunch of Nepali chicks.

Tatopani to Sikha – October 10, 2014

3 things:
– Bonus time! We thought we were heading straight back to Pokhara but changed our minds and started the Poon Hill trek, so I consider this “bonus time” and somehow bonus time always seems to end up being the best time. I think today may be my favorite day of trekking.
– Lush green mountain sides
– Snow capped Nilgiri Mountain

The Best Part of the Day:
Hard to pick… We started off late and said “we’ll just go as far as we feel like” there’s something really cool about that open ended-ness. The other days I guess we could have done that, but we had a pass to get over and it was a cold, harsh environment. Now we’re in this tropical, but mountainous and cold at night, but warm in the day environment. We saw only a few trekkers today. And it really seemed like the locals were friendlier. The landscape is finally what I had dreamed Nepal would be like… Lush, but incredibly steep mountainsides with waterfalls flowing, shaded rocky paths, mixed with rice fields, and snow capped mountain vistas the whole time. And it seems like Rick and I have hit our communication groove finally…

Or maybe it’s just me and I’m finally starting to settle into this new life?

Rick scored the best room!! We have two sides with windows! A double bed! With a good mattress! A gas hot water shower – in our room!!!

I’m thankful for:
Just about everything today!! I’d say freedom to do what we want and go where we want.

Sikha to Ghorepani – October 11, 2014

Sikha to Ghorepani was a nice relaxing hike once we figured out which way to go…

3 Things:
-Yak cheese – amazing!!
– Baby goat playing on baby water buffalo
– Stairs, stairs and more stairs!

The Best Part of the Day:
We found a guy selling yak cheese and it rocked!

The Worst part of the day:
We say a snake!

I’m thankful for:
A short hiking day!

Gorepani to Poon Hill to Pokhara – October 12, 2014

3 things:
-Sunrises
– Stairs. Stairs. Stairs.
– Home sweet home – Pokhara!

Our earliest start yet, 4:20am hiking. The goal is to beat the sun up to Poon Hill (3210m) for an amazing sunrise. We made is up to the top and witnessed a pretty remarkable sunrise across the mountains. Then it was down down down. Due to some budget miscalculations on my part (and pretty much zero ATMs on the trail, with the exception of Jomsom) we decided to try and make it all the way to Pokhara today.

The Best Part of the Day:
It’s a toss up between the beautiful sunrise from Poon Hill and making it back to our little home in Nepal, Pokhara.

The Worst part of the day:
Our day included some of the most rediculous “stone stairs” imaginable, Know as the Stairs of Ulleri 500 vertical meters of stairs… Soooo thankful we were going down, but still took it’s toll. So many stairs the number was actually noted on the map (3420 but there is no way that is accurate as some of the steps had steps of their own, like little baby steps). For a little perspective, imagine going to the very tip-top of the needle on the Empire State Building; then taking the stairs all the way down, then once you got to the ground floor you still had 70 more meters to go down… and they are all made out of rocks, of various sizes shapes and textures. Fun times!

This side of the mountains still seemed to have the better scenery, lots of beautiful waterfalls and jungle.

Once we made it into Birethanti, and got our TAMs cards checked one last time we got a great offer on a taxi to Pokhara (2000NPR) so we took it! We would have continued to hike down the road to Natapul for another 45 minutes but judging from the view from the taxi, the taxi ride was definitely the better choice… lots of touts, a small garbage dump between towns and a dusty busy road.

We rolled into Pokhara and straight to find Bayan Tree right where we left it 2 weeks earlier with it’s awesome porch waiting for us to kick our feet up!

October 26, 2014
Thorong La Pass!!! (5416m) – October 8, 2014

Today was THE DAY! We went over Thorong La Pass at 17,769 feet! And even climbed a little higher to go over 18,000 feet!

We stayed at High Camp the night before, the highest you possibly can stay overnight on the Circuit.

It’s a 3 hours climb to the pass from High Camp. All 110 beds were filled at high camp, porters and guides were sleeping in tents and rumor was about 40 slept in the dinning hall. The next morning high camp was buzzing at 4 am. We started up with Song at 5:09 am. It was cool seeing all the little headlamps make their way up the path in the dark like little glowing ants.

The wind on both sides of the pass gets unbearable starting at 10am so you want to be over and a couple hours down the other side by then. It was crazy to see the line of hikers, going by the light of each of our headlamps only, slowly crawling up the mountain. And it was so cold!!

We watched the sun come up as we made our way up. It was a steep incline up all of the way. We struggled to breathe at the high altitude and with the steep grade… so it was little baby steps the whole time. Little by little we inched our way up the pass. We were definitely ahead of most of the crowd though, so we were feeling good about our progress.

We summited the pass at about 8:15 AM. I think we had expected it to be this beautiful viewpoint, peaks all around, glorious mountain views…. It was not. I don’t know why I was thinking that, I mean it’s a pass, the low point to cross between mountains. It was gravely and steep. But what it lacked in beauty it made up in grandeur. I still couldn’t believe how high up we were.

Song had grand plans of hiking up the hill an extra 250 ft to clear 18,000 ft with his altimeter watch. We agreed that would be a cool accomplishment so we joined him and made it to 18,010 ft! That extra 250 feet, I have to admit, were pretty hard just due to the altitude and lack of oxygen. But totally worth it! That means that we hiked higher than the 2^nd highest peak in the United States – only Mt Mckinnley is higher than where we hiked in the U.S.

18,010 Feet Above Sea Level

We spend about an hour on the pass, took a bunch of pictures, had some tea and then started down the other side.

Thorong La Pass, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal

Song, Liz and Rick at the official pass marker

Of course there was celebration!

“Airplane” over the pass!

Liz up at 18,000 feet

the view from 18,000 Feet

Liz trying to stay warm

Down was very steep and gravely. We made our way down and at the first tea house ran into Brad who had come up to meet Song. He had gotten altitude sickness and decided it was better to just get over the pass and down than go back down to Manang.

We checked out the “Russian Sauna” we had seen lots of stickers ads for which turned out to be a large (and presently cold western sauna (cedar boards and all) and they wanted 5,000npr ($50usd) to turn it on for us, just a touch out of our price range 😉

Another small avalanche

We ended up staying at Hotel Bob Marley which had a great shower and bathroom (!!!!! YEA !!!!) and good food. We enjoyed a hot shower, apple pie and a beer to celebrate our big accomplishment. It still got really cold at night in Muktinath and was super windy… in a moment of weakness, Liz couldn’t help herself and bought a warm wrap/shawl make of baby yak wool from a local craftswoman. It was incredibly warm… I have a feeling you’ll be seeing that wrap in a few pictures over the next week! She won’t take the thing off!

October 25, 2014
Churi Letdar – Thorong La High Camp (4925m) – October 7, 2014

It was a very cold and overcast start to the morning at 7:00am. We saw a large heard of big horn sheep on the way to Throng Phedi. Later we found out from Brad that there was a wolf stalking them as well, but we never saw it. We survived the “danger zone,” a 20 minute section that cuts across an extremely loss gravelly rockslide area the warning signs say “Step lightly.” It was about two hours all in to Throng Phedi. We saw a hand written note from Brad to Song on the gate entering the village that said thatBrad was going to cross the pass today and would meet him in Muktinath tomorrow (crazy as he started in Yak Kharka and apparently passed us somewhere on the trail, probably along the section where there were 2 routes, one on either side of the river). After a quick break we were off for another 1 hour and 15 minutes of step climbing on lose rock up to high camp.

A lot of other people were talking about going over the pass as it was only 10:15am when we reached high camp and the clouds were moving out. We decided to stick with our plan to enjoy the altitude and the views and have an easier start to crossing the pass in the morning.

After getting a room we took the short 20 minute hike to the view point to take pictures. Then we settled into the dinning hall and talked with an isreali couple planning a road trip in the US for their honeymoon… Made me a bit jealous for good food!! Shortly there after, Song came into high camp and we spent the afternoon chatting with him and playing 3 man spades before more of the Isrealis showed up and we learned to play Yanni, and made up a few new catch phrases; “You gotta risk it, to get the biscuit.” We think it’s the made-up equivalent of “go big or go home.”

Liz’s 2 Things:
– 16,158 ft highest we’ve ever been! Thorong La High Camp is the last place you can stay before crossing the pass
– Blue Mountain Sheep – we saw a whole herd close up!
– Cold, cold cold! Boy it was cold and windy. We arrived in Thorong La High Camp early and it was chilly then, only to get chillier. Even inside, they said it wasn’t winter so no fire inside… which means NO heat! bundle up and order some hot tea and hope for the best. The bathroom run was quite cold. It was not near any of the rooms mind you… it was out in the middle of the complex, a good 20 yard sprint from the dining hall where we hung out or our room. But a good sleeping bag and a down jacket and we made it.

Best Part of Liz’s day:
Crazy panorama views from up here of the Chulus, the Amnapurna range, even Annapurna 1 (which is the biggest and we haven’t gotten to see yet!!)

Liz’s Worst part of today:
Thorong La High Camp is crowded and lacking in charm or amenities, and freakin cold!! We got in early, about 11am, which was good so we got a room (about 40 guides had to sleep in the kitchen and many porters had to sleep outside in tents). But getting in early kinda sucked because it was too windy and cold to be outside really so we had to sit around in the common room of the tea house – unheated. I swear I was cold for 20 hours straight! But we did make some new Israeli friends and learned a new card game “Yanniv”? Which I turned out to be pretty good at and it was a lot of fun!

I’m thankful for: still feeling good, no altitude sickness which can be deadly at these altitudes. God is blessing us with good health, a wise and careful husband who acclimatized us well and good meds to help too!

Memory Verse:
Assurance of guidance (Proverb 3:5-6)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

October 25, 2014
We’re safe and sound!

Many of you have probably heard about the horrible blizzard and accompanying avalanches that have killed a number of trekkers, porters and guides on the Annapurna Circuit.

We want to let everyone know that, while we were just there a couple days ago, we are safe, made it out before the storm and are no longer in the region effected. Our blog on the other hand (due to a general lack of Internet on the circuit) is still a week or so behind. So rest assured we are safe, but you’ll hear a lot of places talked about in the news on our blog for the next few days.

Please join us in praying for the families of those involved, as well as those involved in the rescue efforts.

Rick & Liz

Update:
Liz found this link with current accurate information updated frequently:
http://www.taan.org.np/live/

Update Oct. 27, 2014:
If you are looking for missing trekkers from the disaster, their is a Facebook page set-up to try and help reconnect people. It has an unofficial status list updated regularly as well as other information. Please check out the Annapurna Nepal Blizzard and Avalanche Info Share Page on Facebook if you might have or need any information.

October 16, 2014
Lost in Translation – Episode 1

When Liz and I were brainstorming some blog ideas with some friends before we left one of the ideas was to document things “Lost in translation;” i.e. things that for whatever reason translate really funny, or don’t seem to make any sense at all.

With that back story, I present the very first episode of “Lost in Translation.”

Throughout the trek in the little villages there have been a number of posters, etc. with community messages on them. Many of them around hygiene or keeping Nepal clean; public service announcements.

Then we found this:

Unfortunately there wasn’t an english translation, but from the illustration it’s pretty obvious what the message is… maybe not.

Anyone wanna take a shot at translating this one for us? Don’t worry if you don’t know Nepali.

October 7, 2014
Manang to Churi Letdar (4200m) – October 6, 2014

Got a good early start this morning (6:45am) and made it to Yak Kharka (Yak Attack on many of the signs pointing the way) easily. Nice gentle up hill the whole way.

We saw a small avalanche high in the mountains (off Annapurna 3 maybe?). Didn’t get the camera pointed at it quick enough but you can still see some of the snow in the air.

Just before Yak Kharka we stop to look in a little tea house with a vicious Year-moo I’ll let Liz explain.

We also saw Brad in Yak Kharka and had a little tea with him before heading on for another hour up to Churi Letdar. Staying at the last hotel in Letdar “Hotel Churi Lattar.”

There are at current count at least 5 ways to spell this town:
Lader
Ledar
Leder
Letdar
Lattar
All of which have appeared on “official” looking signs.

Liz’s 3 Things:

-Yearr-moo attack
(year-moo is like a ferret type thing, and this one was stuffed) I asked the owner of the little shop if I could take a picture with it. He didn’t speak English, but through charades and pointing, and the kind owner obliged… then he wanted to be in the picture with me… and as I’m smiling for the camera, he makes what I can only guess is a yearr-moo sound and has it jump at me. I was surprised and jumped and so we have the picture. He seemed quite pleased with my reaction to his little joke.

– Fresh yak meat

That’s some fresh yak meat in that basket.

– Gorgeous views

Best Part of Liz’s Day:
Getting in early to our tea house. At such a high altitude, our daily mileage was pretty short, we only hiked for 3-4 hours and were at the next village. There were a couple reasons for this. First, now that we were higher up into the mountains the villages were few and far between, no longer were there little stops all in between. We really went from one village until the next that was our stop for the night. So you either hiked 3-4 hours or you hiked for 8 hours. And because there were fewer villages, it was harder to get a room… we didn’t have our pick of a bunch of places, there would be just 2 tea houses in a village, and if you wanted a room with a bed, you had to get there early! So you didn’t want to try to make it to the next village and arrive late in the afternoon (it gets dark at 4:30-5pm) and not get a room. And the second, main reason for hiking only a few hours a day, is acclimatization. We are climbing in altitude very quickly! Basically constantly walking uphill at a pretty steep grade. And we are being very careful not to climb too quickly for fear of getting altitude sickness – a VERY real concern here. We’re at or above 14,000 feet now, and the precautions are to gain only 500 feet per day, a maximum of 750 feet in a day. We are taking Diamox now twice a day to help with breathing and more than anything to help with sleeping. Your body doest’ get used to the lack of oxegen.

Worst part of today: It was a great day!

Memory verse:
Assurance of forgiveness ( 1 John 1:9)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

October 6, 2014
Manang Acclimatization Day (aka the day hike from hell) October 5, 2014

3 Things:

– Hiked to over 15,000 feet elevation (higher than the summit of a 14teen-er)
– adorable dog guardian of the ice lake at 15k ft
– kinda wanted to die

Best part of the day:
Switched tea houses to “the good one” for our second night in Manang. And it had a warm shower and good food!! Of Dal Bhat – yum!! A good meal, nice shower and friends to hang out with was much needed after the day hike from hell (see worst part of day). We got to chat with some fun folks from Israel and Germany and the States.

Baby, yak. Sooooo cute with his little bow.

Worst part of the day:
Guidebook said “nice half day hike for acclimatization” … And “beautiful ice lake with 360 views of 3 mountain ranges”. It was 5 hours UP. We gained 1,100 m in 10-12k… That’s 3,609 feet in elevation gain ! To put us at 15,000+ ft in altitude. It was no half day hike. There was no ice in the lake, it was more of a puddle. And to ad insult to injury the clouds rolled in just as we were getting to the top, so no 360 degree views for us. On the positive, it was great prep for the next couple days. We don’t go that high again until the day before we cross the pass. And alwadty I feel better acclimated.

I’m thankful for:
God giving us bodies that are so adjustable. It’s pretty amazing how my lungs and heart and brain can all change to less oxygen this quickly. And how my muscles and legs are about to carry me up these mountains. It’s a pretty amazing creator that designed these bodies.

Memory verse:
1 John 5:5
“Who is it that overcomes the world except he who believes that Jesus us the son of God.”

Rick’s Take on the day:
Found good coffee at Tilicho Bakery, 2 double espressos!

“Easy half day Manang Acclimatization Day” turned into death march from hell. Guide book said 4-5 hours, turns out that’s only the uphill part not coming back down. Good views which would have been better had we started earlier but with switching rooms we got a late start. Clouds rolled in in the afternoon and spoiled most of the views. The lakes themselves weren’t that spectacular, small shallow and surrounded by dusty rocks. Highlight of the hike was the puppy dog that meet us about 14.5k ft and leaded us to the lakes. Sweet dog, all by himself at 15,000 ft!

New place to stay “Tilicho Hotel” was very nice! Food was great, we both had Dal baht, and seconds! Great common areas and a warmish electric shower.

Owner saw a snow leapard right by our room just 5 days before we arrived, and had lots of pictures to prove it! Soo cool.

Liz hiding in the Yak Herder Ruins.

October 5, 2014
Ghyaru (3670m) – Ngawal – Manang (3540m) – October 4, 2014

3 things:
– Yaks!
– Drugs from friends
– Desert

Hiking today was through high altitude desert, which really surprised me. It look a bit like Utah. But with great mountain views!! Saw Annapurna II, III, and IV

Best thing about today:
So I haven’t slept in 2 days. I’m exhausted. I mean the sitting up wondering what’s wrong with you that you are so tired but can’t sleep. Staring at Rick sleeping. But it’s supposedly part of the altitude effects that it’s hard to sleep. Today I was over it. Need. To. Sleep. It’s making me crrrrraaazzy! So we got into Manang and met up with some American friends, they were saying they had the same problems and helped us find some drugs to help me sleep. It’s the next morning now and I feel like singing!!! Yea for kind new friends with medical backgrounds! Rick’s best part of the day was Manang had “everything” for sale so he went a little crazy and got some Pringles, chocolate, TP, comb, sunglasses and cookies!!!

A tale of two drinks:
We stopped at a Tea House in Ngawal for a tea mid-day and they had two surprising additions the the usual, black, mint, ginger, masala teas; Local Herbal Tea and Sea Buckthorn Juice. Now Sea Buckthorn Juice was something I had heard to try and Rick was curious to try “Local Herbal Tea.”

Well the results are in and Sea Buckthorn Juice is the clear winner… “Local Herbal Tea” tastes like something they sell to adventures trekkers that don’t know any better (Rick). It looks (and tastes) like it is comprised of stuff they swept up off the porch and steeped in hot water. Basically it’s like drinking Magnolia Soup (The pretend soup our neighbor girls made for us out of things they found in the yard). Shout out to the Jacobus Girls.

Worst thing about today:
Made a bad choice on the tea house to stay at. Room was ok, but there were no common areas, the staff was not very good or friendly, and the promised hot shower, was neither hot nor a shower. But worst of all was dinner. See when you stay at a tea house/guest house, you have to eat breakfast and dinner there – so the cooking is as important as the room. We got excited upon seeing all of the yaks around that we could get some meat finally! Everywhere advertised yak steak!! So we ordered for dinner. Mistake. It was a sort of meatloaf-esque chunk (maybe 20% meat) seared and covered in mystery gravy, some chunks and a few soggy fries. Like poutine’s evil cousin. Even the plain rice at this tea house was bad! (See: Rick and I debating if the little brown oval shaped things were mouse poop or a special spice. I’m still voting mouse poop)
Our California friends stayed at a different one and we had major tea house envy… Tomorrow we move. 2 nights in manang for acclimatization.

This was supposed to be yak steak… it was more of a yak meatloaf patty. Even the “salad” was covered with some kind of “gravy.” Just no good.

I’m thankful for:
Drugs to make me sleep.

Memory verse:
We were slackers today 🙁

Tomorrow is supposed to be a “rest/acclimatization day” and we heard the “100 rupee monk” (as recommended by or “guide book”) is still alive but sick and in Kathmandu so no easy hike there. New plan to tackle the Ice Lake tomorrow… our guide book says it’s an easy half day hike.

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October 4, 2014