Day 3 - The Ups and the Downs

Nepal is beautiful but it's also the toughest hiking we have ever done. The trails are a series of ups and downs with almost unbelievable changes in elevation. One kilometer up, one kilometer down, 1500 meters up, 500 meters down. The ups are long, the downs are relentless and everything is steep. There's rarely a level stretch of trail anywhere.

Stone steps and laid slate form the main trails between villages. At one point we climbed over 500 meters of switchback stone steps laid into the side of a hill. The work that went into building these trails is incredible. Outside of the villages the trails can be anything from dirt footpaths across one of the many farm terraces carved into the hills, to an array of boulders or lose rocks. There are a lot of river crossing too, some of which don't look all that safe.

Today we hiked for five hours from New Bridge to Chhomrong. I almost fainted when I looked up the slope from the hot springs to Taglung. "We're going up there?" From Taglung I looked up again. "No way, this isn't humanly possible." But apparently it was, because we are here at the very top of a hill in a village set so high that there isn't any more up to go. But there is down and there is up again on the other side. But let's not talk about that for at least a day.

When we reached the top, I put my pack down and I'm not sure I'm ever going to pick it up again. When we began this trek I thought that hiring porters wasn't necessary. Now, I'm beginning to wonder. But here I am complaining again. I'm carting around a mere ten kilograms and some of these porters have loads that are bigger than they are. With their amazing strength some can carry as much as 60 kilos.

The Moon View Lodge in Upper Chhomrong looks out over the Lower Chhomrong village and to the tea houses perched on the slopes of the hill beyond that. Far down the valley, rising like a God, 6997 meters into the air, is Machhapuchhare, the Fishtail mountain. The sky is clear tonight and the views are magnificent.

For me, it is time to relax, enjoy the view and sip my Tuborg beer. Beer, by the way, is $2 a bottle, twice the price of a room. If it has to be carried in by porter, the price increases astronomically. The heavier the item and the further into the hills it is transported, the higher the price. But even at $2, it's a bargain.

I didn't expect to be eating as well as we are here. This hotel has pizza, pudding and fried Mars bars as specialties. What's a fried Mars bar? Alright, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I didn't know either. It's just what its name implies, a candy bar (Snickers are good too) wrapped in dough and deep fried to bring all that gooey chocolate and nugget to its melting point. This could be the biggest thing since Cheese Whiz. They certainly bring new meaning to the words 'gut bomb'.

The fried Mars bars will have to wait. First I'll try one of those pizzas. John's having dal baht, the Nepalese staple meal: rice, lentils and vegetables all served in their respective cubbyholes on a divided dinner plate but ultimately all mixed together into one big mushy soup. It tastes better than it sounds. It has protein, carbos, vitamins and everywhere we've ordered it so far, we've been given second helpings for free. Can't beat that.

The hotel here is full tonight. It's one of the nicer lodges with a slate patio overlooking the mountains and a solar shower out back. We met Ingrid and Christian from Germany here and we've had a great time listening to their Thailand adventures. Ingrid made me a knotted friendship bracelet (now I truly look the part of a traveler since every wrist I've seen seems to have one) and told us all about what to expect when we reach Annapurna Base Camp. She and her husband have just come down from the top.

We all got a big laugh while talking about getting directions in these hills. There are no markers or signs so we are all constantly asking the way to the next village. We learned quickly to phrase the question so it didn't require a yes or no answer, otherwise the answer was invariably 'yes' (the locals all want to please trekkers).

John and I, on one occasion, scooted down a landslide to the river. We missed the trail completely because we asked a farmer "Is this the correct way?" We got that Nepalese nod of approval and ended up an hour off-course. Ingrid and Christian ended up walking across an active avalanche path for the same reason. A porter from across the river dropped his load and ran to correct their direction.

So now instead of "Is this the way to Landrung?" we say "Which way to Landrung?" Of course even with this approach, directions can be fuzzy. The Nepalese wave their hands in an all encompassing upward movement to indicate direction. If we took most of these hand signals literally, we would be on the moon by now. "Which way to Chhomrong?" got us a hand flying into the air, an eye movement to the left, a head wag to the right and a palm arcing in a circle to the sky. The direction was up into the hills. I threw my hand in the same arc to confirm and got a smile and a nod of approval. "To the moon John!" and we were off.

Well, at least for a day, up is going to wait. We are taking tomorrow as a rest day, or what I call a muscular recuperation, swelling-relief, so-I-can-walk-again-without-pain day. I wonder if other people hurt after all this hiking? We've seen some trekkers in tennis shoes; that's got to do a number on the shins and calves. But most of these people had no pack, six earrings in each ear and a hash pipe. Maybe if they can survive piercing holes into their cartilage, they can handle stubbed toes and shin splints or maybe that's why they carry a hash pipe.