We had such a nice time with Jyoti, Remy and Chloe (and Dawa and Thinley) in the tibetan settlement. It felt like we were living in the community and not being mere tourists. We especially enjoyed cooking together again after our communal cooking in Sadhana (where we had met everyone) and Pune. Dawa taught us how to make tibetan bread (amongst other things) and Jyoti showed us that you don't need an oven to make a stunning lasagne!
So to our trekking...since we had only given ourselves a week in Nepal (seems a bit silly in hindsight but what a week it was!) we didn't have time for a high altitude trek so Jyoti recommended an excellent 3 day stroll in the hills behind Pokhara. Unfortunately she couldn't come with us so it was just the frenchies and the kiwis.
The first day we had a very relaxed start (a big cooked breakfast is essential ;) ) and took the bus through the rain to Phedi. From there a steep but short climb lead up to the mountain village of Dhanpus. Walking took maybe 2 hours at most but we spent the best part of the day meeting local farmers and trying our luck at rice harvesting (they plant only a small patch, let it grow for two months, pluck the blades and replant them in other fields where they multiply and are harvested at maturity 4 months later). In the afternoon we met Tej, a local farmer who invited us to have lunch at his restaurant. We tried the local Diro (a millet porridge eaten with dhal and Suji (veges) ) which left us full of energy till dinner. Then we sat around, sipped nepali chai (with milk only) and learned about mountain farming from a very knowledgeable Tej while two 6 day old kids (the goat variety) practiced their jumping skills around us :).
We also did a small trip to the top of the ridge to look from the viewpoint and imagined the vast Annapurna massif lurking behind the dense cloud cover. No view this time, except of the nearby ridge opposite where we would head tomorrow.
We decided to stay the night with Tej's family and had a small room to the four of us, sandwiched between the main house and the stables. We fell asleep to the soft breathing of the two buffaloes next door and light snoring from the other side ;).
The next morning we awoke to a typical monsoon downpour. As we waited for the rain to ease we sat on the porch, sipped our chai and tasted some delicious millet pancakes!
The rain eased and mist came drifting down the valley. We said goodbye to the family and headed down sturdy rock paths to the valley floor. Trekking here meant more socialising with the locals than serious walking and that's exactly what we enjoyed. Every person we met on the way, asking them for advice or simply giving a "namaste" was always helpful and friendly. After a few hours of crossing rice paddies and walking along a new road cut through the jungle we arrived at Naudanda.
It was time to extract some hangers-on (leeches) and re-hydrate so we made a stop at the local chai wallah.
There we met a Nepali who had been working in Dubai as a waiter for 7 years and was back visiting his family for 1 months (wow what a life...). Apparently there are many like him who come from Nepal, India and many other Asian countries (as well as Europeans) to work as waiters or laborers in the growing Arab state. He said the potential to earn big money meant that his family could live in relative luxury and could afford good education but it was quite a sacrifice for him. He said he was lucky to have a job in a fancy hotel, some laborers had to brave the Desert sun for their work building skyscrapers and were often paid less than him.
The walk from here went along the ridge towards Sarangkot. A slow and steady climb which took us several hours as we stopped for lunch during another downpour and spoke to more of the locals. The highlight was the lake at one of the villages where the boys were doing flips and jumping from a tree into the lake. Oh and of course being asked every few minutes for "give me sweet!" "give me money!" "give me pen!" etc it seems like we had stumbled onto the tourist highway. It was fun to joke with the kids and ask them their own questions, though I was never successful in getting anything save for a leaf ;)
We arrived in Sarangkot in the late afternoon just as the clouds were dispersing and we were rewarded by a beautiful panorama of Pokhara and the surrounding hills. I saw the Peace Pagoda, far down and across the lake where I had stood with Mark three and a half years ago after our little motorbike ride and felt a little nostalgic ;) Too bad my memory card has packed up because I got some really nice photos from up there, I'm sure Miriam got some too. (we'll add the pics soon)
Everything can be bargained for during the low season and so we got a pretty good deal on our room (400 nepali rupees between four) but food on the tourist trail is still expensive. Still, we managed to get half the menu price which ain't too bad :)
Our final day was a real mission. We had been told by Jyoti that there was a steep jungle trail leading off the ridge directly to Hyemza (to the tibetan settlement) and we were asking every local we could about this mysterious trail. " too difficult, very bad trail" is mostly what we heard , "many, many leeches" and "not possible during monsoon" were other pieces of advice. However we had been warned that this would be the reply and because Jyoti had told us that it was possible we stubbornly held our course and headed for the start of the trail. We actually stumbled upon the beginning of the trail before knowing that it was what we were searching for (no signposts here) and after some more asking and back tracking we finally started our descent. The beginning of the trail traverses the hillside below the summit and after a short scramble across scree heads into the jungle. Armed with umbrellas we swatted at the spider webs crisscrossing the path and made a slow but steady descent through leech territory.
We all wore open sandles and it wasn't long before the little bloodsuckers had smelled our fresh skin... Miriam (very smartly) wore socks and didn't get a single leech, while inside my crocs a leech farm was growing.
The path had obviously not been used in a while and we often had to backtrack along false trails. At one stage we had lost the path completely and were bush bashing proper until we were finally bluffed out. A short back track brought us back to the path and we made a steep descent along a ridge following a small stream (man-made?) to the rice fields in the valley. My legs and feet were a mess of squashed and pulsating leeches and my own blood and even once the stubborn ones had been forcibly evicted (lighter) the blood kept flowing and didn't stop till an hour later. Clever little buggers.
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