Annapurna circuit Part II
The evening before the weather had thrown as much drama at us as it could. A noisy thunderstorm with suitably impressive lightening and lashings of rain, made us scamper indoors to the café where everyone congregated. Then it cleared up to show us stunning views of a mountain called, rightfully so, Sundari with a glacier below it. We went for a walk through the village, and as it was New Year the next day, I needed a few supplies which I managed to get in the few shops that constituted the main street. The women, as everywhere in Nepal are not shy of speaking to tourists and we had a lively discussion about life in the village.
We started our day trekking along the shady side of the valley, the kind of climb and ramble that I could have done for days. Suddenly there was a gateway, opening into the Manag valley. What a view! A flat river bed hemmed in by towering mountains, and numerous tall waterfalls.
The water was a light icy blue and the stones bleached white, the banks were green, lush meadow with flowering cherry trees! We stopped at a village called Tal and all of us concurred that it was the kind of place we would like to settle into for a week or so....a young man was sitting on the grass, shirtless, being given a fancy-ish haircut by another young man. The latter doubled as the shopkeeper and left the haircut halfway to attend to us. We bought chocolates and biscuits.. it would be one of the last places where we would get them at that price. The cost of things escalate along with the altitude.
After some lemon ginger tea we set off along the trail for a bit then crossed over the river to the other side. There were gushing waterfalls, tumbling over the rocks from high up, one of them was a veil of misty showers through ferns and moss, another light green frothy water corkscrewing its way down in to the river. Slowly we climbed towards Dharapani village which had a spectacular waterfall forming a deep green pool, then falling out of it into another pool jade green in colour. We passed by the entire village, every muscle complaining by now, and finally reached our small hotel, all wooden, with rooms on the second floor, toilet on the first, down steep wooden ladders, and the bathroom opposite the street near the dining room and kitchen. The kitchen was abuzz with muleteers and porters around the blazing fire. The shower had a gas heater which was a godsend in most places, a bath for Rs100 was worth it. After settling in we ordered a large flask of tea in the wonderful Chinese flasks which keep liquids piping hot till the next day! Ashok taught us a card game called judgement and after a few hands of that and Monopoly Deal we wolfed down "dal bhaat" and rolled up into our sleeping bags. It was cool , not yet cold with the first of the conifers appearing, being at around 6,000 ft.
Leaving Dharapani after a huge breakfast of fried potatoes and omelette,we alternated between uphill and down for a while, till we climbled up a steep rocky mountain path, onto a dusty road made pleasant with many waterfalls. We stopped at Telang for hot lemon tea. It was a hot walk but not tough, pleasant with much chitchat. Then suddenly, we looked up to see the most gigantic peaks, we had ever seen, covered with snow. The Annapurna range!! Awesome is finally a word used in its rightful sense.... breathtaking, jawdroppingly magnificent! At that time we were gobsmacked! We had never seen such huge mountains, these were the big guys!
Soon clouds hid these heavenly peaks from us and we came to the village of Chame where we were to stop for the night. It was a prosperous village with a mainstreet full of shops where I got a decent day pack for Rs1600, Nepalese rupees. The village is bustling with many women chatting in groups and numerous fat, red cheeked healthy babies. After a wander we settled in to play cards and eat dinner by candlelight. It had got a little cold being at 9,000ft.
The next village called Chamje was another thousand feet up and the heavens opened as we reached it and poured buckets down on us! The dining room was a Tibetan delight with half of the large room reserved for diners and the other half with an altar and a low mud stove, shining pots and pans on the mantel, a bed with a fat little baby wrapped up and asleep and a large Tibetan matriarch chanting prayers while swinging an incese burner with juniper powder spreading its fragrance around the room. The rom was full of people from around the world and a very garrulous guide telling mythological stories with a wide berth given to the original!
The next morning was cloudy when we set off and we were out of breath almost as soon as we started climbing. The altitude began to show up my lungs!! We were climbing to almost 10,000ft. It was threatening to rain. I started off donw the road trying to avoid a steep short cut up a hill but had to turn back at a waterfall, rushing across the road and that had resulted in a land slide. The road was blocked. Some Isreali trekkers had set up a little camp near the pool and were making tea on the grass beside it and taking a bath. They seemed well settled for the day. I went back, a needless half kilometre and took the steep climb up. It started drizzling a bit and we put on our raincoats and huffed through a forest. Slowly it started with small drops of rain and then they slowly turned into tiny flakes of snow and then big flakes silently twirled through the sky. It was magical!!! the rhododendron forest looked dark and enchanted. It was eerily quiet and the snow swirled down onto our faces and eyelashes and tongues...one of those memories that last for years to come. We slogged onwards towards Pisang and high on the hillside we saw a monastery, blending into the rock.
The landscape had turned lunar and the gray of the stone village merged into it, the front of the houses having a burnt desolate look. It later turned out that those are the open kitchens with the ceilings and walls blackened with years of smoke from the cooking fires. The only colours are from the flags fluttering in the cold winds. The arched gateway welcomed us up the steep slope approaching the village which seemed kilomteres away from it.
After wandering about past a lake we found Hari beckoning us to a shortcut. It seemed we had missed the turning and wandered outside the village!!
The Hotel Maya had a balcony to the rooms and we sat and rested and drank in the views. Kaeed found out there wasn't any hot water for a bath so we took turns at the cold tap to wash up and then go to the dining room for our tea. There was a bukhari or wood burning stove to keep us warm in the centre, a welcome addition to most tea houses. Hot lemon tea and a home grown pizza, lots of vegs on a chapatti, really much nicer to taste than it sounds, took away most of our tiredness and we could go for a little walk along the main streets to take in the sights. There were a couple of amazing bakeries offering apple pie and chocolate cakes along with croissants and breads.
We had reached quite a height and walking had become difficult and slow and the weather was very cold. Another hard day of walking and we would have a much longed for day of rest at Manang.
The evening before the weather had thrown as much drama at us as it could. A noisy thunderstorm with suitably impressive lightening and lashings of rain, made us scamper indoors to the café where everyone congregated. Then it cleared up to show us stunning views of a mountain called, rightfully so, Sundari with a glacier below it. We went for a walk through the village, and as it was New Year the next day, I needed a few supplies which I managed to get in the few shops that constituted the main street. The women, as everywhere in Nepal are not shy of speaking to tourists and we had a lively discussion about life in the village.
Leaving Dharapani after a huge breakfast of fried potatoes and omelette,we alternated between uphill and down for a while, till we climbled up a steep rocky mountain path, onto a dusty road made pleasant with many waterfalls. We stopped at Telang for hot lemon tea. It was a hot walk but not tough, pleasant with much chitchat. Then suddenly, we looked up to see the most gigantic peaks, we had ever seen, covered with snow. The Annapurna range!! Awesome is finally a word used in its rightful sense.... breathtaking, jawdroppingly magnificent! At that time we were gobsmacked! We had never seen such huge mountains, these were the big guys!
The next village called Chamje was another thousand feet up and the heavens opened as we reached it and poured buckets down on us! The dining room was a Tibetan delight with half of the large room reserved for diners and the other half with an altar and a low mud stove, shining pots and pans on the mantel, a bed with a fat little baby wrapped up and asleep and a large Tibetan matriarch chanting prayers while swinging an incese burner with juniper powder spreading its fragrance around the room. The rom was full of people from around the world and a very garrulous guide telling mythological stories with a wide berth given to the original!
The Hotel Maya had a balcony to the rooms and we sat and rested and drank in the views. Kaeed found out there wasn't any hot water for a bath so we took turns at the cold tap to wash up and then go to the dining room for our tea. There was a bukhari or wood burning stove to keep us warm in the centre, a welcome addition to most tea houses. Hot lemon tea and a home grown pizza, lots of vegs on a chapatti, really much nicer to taste than it sounds, took away most of our tiredness and we could go for a little walk along the main streets to take in the sights. There were a couple of amazing bakeries offering apple pie and chocolate cakes along with croissants and breads.
We had reached quite a height and walking had become difficult and slow and the weather was very cold. Another hard day of walking and we would have a much longed for day of rest at Manang.
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