Next Stop: Unknown

Sorry for the delayed updates everyone, it’s been one of those weeks.  After the trek in Nepal, Jenn and I got back to Pokhara and crashed from exhaustion.  When we finally made it out of the room we found a cute little Indian joint called Punjabi, where we ordered a few of the waiters suggestions… garlic nan, and two different chicken dishes.  They were excellent, of course, incredibly spicy.  So much that Jenn couldn’t even eat one of the dishes.  I probably shouldn’t have, as it took me a bottle of water just to replace the sweat that dripped from me as I put it down my gullet.  Super hot… and super delicious.  I expected the worse, but somehow felt really good… must have been the endorphins!  We took it easy the rest of the evening, and the next morning too.  After breakfast, Jenn said she wasn’t feeling so well, so we went back to the room…. she took a nap, and I went to go ease my sore legs with a massage.  We had decided that we were going to skip seeing the rest of Nepal and head to someplace more ‘beachy’, and I managed to find us some pretty cheap flights into Bangkok Thailand.  So, for the next couple hours, I was on a mission to get us out of Nepal.  I finally found two confirmed tickets into BKK for May 1st, so I booked them, and all was ready to go. 

When I got back to the room however, Jenn was burning up with a fever, and was feeling really nauseous.  I got her a sprite, and something for the fever, but it didn’t help.  Within minutes she was having a go at it from both ends.  I’ll spare the details, but it wasn’t a pretty sight.  After the third straight episode, I went looking for a doctor.  I found a local pharmacy who called up a doctor, and within 20 minutes we were back in the room with the physician.  He did his doctor stuff, asked a few questions, took temperature, pulse, and all the normal stuff.  Then he started writing things down on a pad, mentioned something like “acute food poisoning”, and off to the pharmacy we go.  8 prescriptions later, I’m back in the room.  Pill #1 was an anti-vomiting pill.  Take it, wait 15 minutes and see what comes up.  If nothing, then we move on the rest of them.  Fortunately, either the pills worked, or there was nothing left to spew. So, we started wit a 4 pill course of antibiotics to kill any bugs, a pill for stomach pain, a pill for diarrhea, a pill for fever, sour bowels, abdominal pain, and a couple more… oh, and some really nasty tasting rehydration salts that even I couldn’t force down.  Jenn took it all in stride.  The funny thing, all of the medications only cost 500 rupees,which is about $6 USD. The doctor bill was $60 dollars though, which I’m sure was about 6x Nepali price, but still insignificant in comparison to a emergency room visit back home.

I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so when Jenn had finally settled in, I went out for a quick bite.  I ran into a Swedish couple… and ended up having a birthday drink with them.  Well, they bought me two drinks and I ate a cheeseburger.  They were quite the odd couple.  The man was a middle aged daytime tv actor turned med student.  Turns out he was on some Swedish soap opera for 15 years, and then retired.  But, instead of retiring, he decided to start medical school.  And he was here in Nepal looking for some kind of inspiration for his dissertation.  His “wife” was a 27 year old blonde girl, who was traveling along with him.  I had a couple unnamed drinks, finished my cheeseburger and bid them farewell and thanks, and went back to check in on Jenn.  She was half asleep, so I called it a night.  We were planning on being on the 7 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu the next morning.  I was hoping to god that we would be able to make it, otherwise we’d miss our flight to Bangkok the next day. 

Fast forward to the morning, and Jenn was feeling quite better… a new person. However, something hit me hard… it was now my turn to fear the vomiting and ass-travaganza.  I felt as bad as she looked the previous night.  I quickly at one of her anti-vomiting pills, and managed to flush most of the contents of my bowels out in the room, and we packed up and headed toward the bus.  I was seriously considering not boarding the bus, but I really wanted to make it to Kathmandu and on to Bangkok.  The bus was not air conditioned, and we were near the back.  It was a bumpy ride, and the whole first 3 hours I was sure I would be vomiting all over the place.  When we stopped for lunch at the halfway point, it felt like we had been in hell for 12 hours already.  We both ordered veggie soup, and neither one of us could take but a couple bites before nausea set in.  I bought us a couple waters, and back on the bus we go.  Fortunately, the windows opened fully, because just a few minutes later down the road, Jenn lost her lunch with her head out the window, scared oncoming traffic and proceeded to cause at least a few cars an early trip to the car wash.  To make matters worse, there was a collision on the road, and for 2 hours we sat in stop and stop and stop traffic until it was sorted out.  By the time we got to Kathmandu, our 7 hour trip was more like 9, and both Jenn and I looked like we had been turned inside out and blended.  We checked into the guest house and then Jenn took her turn to take care of me.  It was my turn to be sick all night, and I completely ruined the bedroom we were in with sickness.  I feel sorry for the person who was to clean it all up later.  It wouldn’t surprise me if we got blacklisted from the hotel. 

We got to the airport the suggested 3 hours before departure.  We had heard getting out of Kathmandu was difficult, even with a confirmed ticket.  At 6:05 we were #2 in line to check into our flight… at 7:45, we were still #2.  Around 8:00, I think someone finally came along and took our bags and gave us a boarding pass, where we proceeded to the gates.  We progressed through several security checks, body scans, bag scans, and even a scary rubber glove room (thankfully no rubber for us) before moving onto the tarmac and walking to our plane.  Whoohoo, finally we escape Nepal.

Note: Please read the following blog entries in the correct order, starting from Day 1.  Since I’m posting them all at once, I wouldn’t make much sense to read “newest first”, you’d be going backwards.  So, scroll back to Day 1, and start there to get current.  Enjoy

Jenn and I woke up about 5:30 to pack and get to the airport for our 6:30 flight back to Pokhara.  I was a bit worried about our flight… as when I booked them, the lady just took my money and handed me a boarding pass with nothing on it.  I had written our names down on a piece of paper for her, but she didn’t even seem interested. 

We arrived at the airport (a 2 minute walk from our hotel), and waited to be let into the departures gate.  So far so good, our blank boarding passes got us through the front gates.  When they called for our airline, we walked around a corner to a desk, paid a 170 rupee airport tax each, had our bags weighed, and then searched for security.  We were then sent to a security check station where we were patted down, and sent to a waiting area.  Where we waited… and waited, and waited.   About 2 hours later a roaring prop plane touches down, speeds down the runway, and does a 180 in front of the waiting area… Yeti airlines…dang, not us.  The yeti ticket holders walk out to the runway and start boarding.  About 2 minutes later, another plane that looks identical touches down, and pulls the same maneuver.  Seti airlines, sweet, that’s us!  Funny thing though, the plane doesn’t even power down… both props running, baggage handlers push carts down, open up the bay areas, toss things in, and into the plane we go.  The plane holds about 20 people, and before the door is even closed, the plane is taxing down the runway.  I kid you not, people were not even in their seats (first come first served) before we are powered up and starting down the runway for takeoff.  There is no door to the cockpit, just an open area, two guys wearing their DC headsets, and off we go…. As we gain altitude, we pass through a valley with mountains on both sides… and over a cliff, clearing it by at most 100 feet, I was pretty shocked.  We were basically gaining barely enough altitude to keep from hitting things along the way… and there was no way we were getting up OVER the mountains on either side… we navigated through a channel in the valley, and then started dropping altitude like crazy.  Pokhara is at a much lower altitude than Jomson, so for most of the flight, we were actually descending… it was quite weird…

We landed at Pokhara, grabbed our bags, a taxi, and back to our hotel, all before 9am.  Sweet god, time to recover.

Our original goal was to go from Besishar to Jomsom, which is just over 140km.  Today would be our last day of trekking.  Jenn woke up feeling not much better, and we seriously considered taking a Jeep to Jomson.  The waiter told us it was only a 4 hour walk, so we decided we’d just trek it and save the money.  The trek started out beautiful, easy downhill, not too steep, along a river with more and more greenery.  We came back to an altitude where trees actually grew, and there were goats and cows grazing along the way.  This was looking to be the best day of trekking yet.  At one point we came to a spot where the river appeared to be running uphill!  We tried our best to figure out out… we were walking alongside the river, going up, and it just kept on going with us.  It had to be an optical illusion, but it sure was convincing.  As we neared the 4 hour mark, we realized the waiter flat out lied to us.  Jomson was way further away, but not worries, it was a nice hike… until we hit dessert.  Desert doesn’t do it justice… it was a valley with not a single living creature.  Every now and then we’d see a dead bush, dried up and shriveled.  But, it wasn’t sandy, it was rocky, and dusty, and hot.  OMG, hot.. the sun started beating down on us.  We had reached the Mustang Valley.  I checked the GPS and we had gone 14km, only 6km more to go… no problem, that should only be a couple hours.  But, as soon as we entered into the dried up riverbed, the wind hit us.  Hard.  I would guess the wind was blowing at a solid 35mph, with gusts almost twice that… and it was right in our faces.  Sometimes it would gust so hard I’d lose my step and almost fall over.  This valley is ripe for about 60,000 wind turbines, and we could power the entire world.  And 60,000 wind turbines would fit here, with room to spare.  This valley was miles and miles across, with huge 3000 meter sheer walls on both sides… it was a virtual wind funnel tunnel, and we were heading into it for 6km more of pain.  Both Jenn and I were entirely numb, sun burned, and our senses no longer worked.  I couldn’t hear anything because the wind was so loud, couldn’t see anything for the dust was scraping my eyeballs, and forget tasting or smelling anything.  We couldn’t breathe through our noses as they were stopped up from all the dirt and dust in the air… so we were sucking down a mixture of oxygen/sand directly into our lungs.  And we weren’t alone, a small line of trekkers were all dotted along the path hunched forward pushing against the wind, hoping that a miracle would come save them.  It never came…

Eventually we made it to the city of Jomsom, where we couldn’t find a hotel, or anyone friendly to ask.  After about an hour of walking, we finally stumbled upon the street we needed to be… checked in with the AC checkpoint,and found a place to eat.  I ordered a garlic steak, and Jenn some kind of chicken dish.  Finally, MEAT!  The only protein we’d had for the last 4 days was egg. About 20 minutes later, the waiter informed us they had no meat.  WTF?!?!?!  I saw a cow and several yaks coming into the city.  Go fetch me a tenderloin.  No luck… I ordered Veg noodle soup, and Jenn had a pizza with canned ham.  Hers was good, mine was enough to stop the hunger pain, but it was basically flavorless ramen.  At least we had some fresh apple juice that took away the sting from our throats. 

We were pretty exhausted… and decided we’d take a flight from Jomson back to Pokhara, rather than continue on or take a jeep/taxi/bus for 12 hours.  I stalked the nearest flight counter and booked us on the next available bird out, 6:30am the next morning.  Sweet, we were one nights sleep away from civilization!

We needed to pay our porter, Bir.  We had hired him for a 10 day minimum at 900 rupees per day… yet only used him for 7.  But, we were obliged to pay him, and frankly, it was worth it.  So, 9000 rupees is what we owed him, and I’d already given him 1500 rupees during the trip for supplies and food.  But, we were so happy to have him, that we gave him about 11500 rupees total.  That’s about $140 US, or $20 a day.  That’s a huge sum of money for a Nepali, but he worked his ass off, and I felt good giving it to him.  He had a daughter and son back home, and he never embellished one little bit.  We even gave him candy bars along the way and he wouldn’t eat them because he wanted to take them home as treats for his kids.   Having Bir made our trip possible… and he didn’t speak one lick of English.  So, communicating was always hand gestures and smiles.  None-the-less, we said our goodbyes and checked into a hotel nearby, hoping our flight for the next day would come quickly.

Wow, green again!

And into the dessert we trod.

Today is the big day… To cross the Thorung Pass is the “high” point of the journey.  We awoke around 4:45, packed up and had breakfast.  We wanted to cross over before the winds picked up around noon.  Heading up to high camp just at dawn was beautiful.  The sun peaked over the east mountains, lighting up the west ones in an array of gold… as much as white snow can appear gold anyway.  I was really glad we had done this part of the hike yesterday as a test… as it felt much easier the second time around.  We did it in 50 minutes (where it took more than 90 before).  However, our triumphs were short lived, as we stopped to use the bathroom at high camp only to find frozen pee-sickles everywhere… it was freezing ass cold.  Also, our porter didn’t have gloves. Since he was carrying the bulk of our gear, I loaned him mine, and kept my hands in my pockets.  It didn’t really help, as they turned numb in about 20 minutes anyway.  We continued to hike toward the pass, one false summit after another.  It was beautiful in a barren snowy kind of way.  No plants anywhere, just rocks, ice, and trekkers, casting long early morning shadows as we forced one foot in front of the other.  Finally, we rounded a corner and caught a glimpse of flags… the top was in sight!  The last stretch was a breeze, and we had a mini party with all the other trekkers at the summit.  Everyone handed out food, chocolate, candy, nuts, whisky, all the stuff people had saved to celebrate with once they made it to the top.  We saw several of our trekking friends, and then the wind started to pick up, so we decided to head down the mountain to the next village. 

Holy $hit… Getting to the summit was the easy part… Turns out, the downhill portion on the opposite side was way worse.  By the time we reached a tea house about half way down today’s portion of the mountain, I thought I was going to die.  My knees were killing me… It was such a steep descent that every step sent painful jolts up my entire body, from the ends of my toes, up.  At one point, I considered turning around and going back up the mountain… but no way in hell I was going to do this twice!   Jenn wasn’t doing any better, and we were both wishing we had wrapped our knees for support.  Our porter who had always ticked along like a clock, was even sweating it a bit.  After lunch, we continued on to the town of Muktinah, where we planned to meet up with our friends at a place called “hotel Bob Marley”.  On the outside, it was a dump, but the inside was pretty nice. 

Jenn was exhausted,and crawled right into the bed and passed out with her clothes on.  I managed to unpack and find a shower. Ahhh… it was hot, and wonderful, and I never wanted to get out.  We hadn’t had any hot water since Day 5, and it was 3 or 4 days since my last (cold) shower.  It was pure bliss… I washed my hair twice, scrubbed myself clean and then put on my last pair of clean underwear.  (I had saved a pair, and a clean shirt for this occasion).  I then headed up to the restaurant and shared a beer with Aubrey before going down to wake up Jenn.  She was pretty ill.  Her dry cough had turned into a wet one, and she still had a bit of fever.  She was suffering from HAPE… High Altitude Pulmonary something… the cure for which is to descend to lower altitude.  We had already dropped 1800 vertical meters today, so hopefully the next day she would continue to get better.  She managed to get up and shower and then come up for some food and cards with Katie, Tim,and Megan.  We played some rummy until we were ready to pass out… which was only 7pm. 

Nothing like a little dawn in the mountains.

And then sunrise comes!

Freezing, but happy we are almost there.

Hooray, 5414 meters, nearly 18,000 feet!

The sign at the top, covered in prayer flags…. now you don’t have to go up to see it

Jenn was playing photographer, as my hands were too numb to operate the camera.

This was a surprisingly easy day as it brought us to the “foot of the hill” (Phedi).  Four hours past landslides (a not so lucky horse was taken out the day before), a very enterprising tea lady “no water for many miles, stop for tea!”.  We stopped for a big, had a small pot of Lemon Tea.  Along came some older folks we had passed previously, they must be taking it really slow.  Turns out they were from Spain, and Lucas chatted with them in Spanish for a bit.  They were impressed we were “on holiday” for a year!  Turns out there was a stream right around the next corner, sneaky tea lady!  But after the water was a very disconcerting downhill sting, only because it meant we then had to go up MUCH, MUCH higher.  When we reached our destination Bir (our porter) was disappointed.  He wanted to go to high camp  one grueling village farther up a series of serious screes (new word for us).  Instead, we stayed put, and did the uphill as an acclimation test in the afternoon.  Oddly enough, the owner of the lodge where we stayed had sent his son to high school in Bellevue! 

Could you ever get tired of these views?

Trekking it with our new Seattle friend, Katie.

Jenn’s a sucker for the furry ones!

mmmm, Tea, something to warm up the insides of my empty belly.

Jenn with Bir, our wonderful, non-English speaking porter.

Getting up there pretty high… and much much colder…. and steeper.

This is one of my fav’s… wraparound-vision through the sunglasses.

Our friends Amy and Aubrey, at the top of “high camp”… we hiked up an extra 450m of vertical to “acclimate” for the trip the next day.