ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT / DAY 10 - 12

DAY 10 ( Letdar 4.200m - High Camp 4.850m )
After throwing ourselves out of the lodge as quick as possible, we climbed for about 45 min. up to a teahouse. Mila was so slow due to her headache. We were checking each other on the way; the altitude made this necessary. Just before we reached at the teahouse (4.310m), I started to feel the altitude also as it had been difficult to keep up the usual pace.

We drank our teas and Julian & Renata asked the price of one cup of black tea: 70 Rp. ( It normally varies between 15-20 Rp.). They started to argue with the Tibetan lady. When I got close to the venue, things had already got ugly as Tibetan lady hit Julian and Julian responded. While they were yelling each other, I realised that the husband? had taken his Gurung knife (has a similar form of a boomerang). I tried to calm him down and prevent him doing something stupid. Other trekkers were watching the movie, even one old guy had told the Arg. couple that they should have been ashamed of themselves. Anyway, at the end we paid money they wanted to end the conflict. On the way to Thorung Phedi, still some British were critisicing the Arg.s.

I'm not saying that Julian had completely behaved correctly; but it was so clear that the Tibetans had tried to take advantage of us, since we hadn't asked the price before ordering. And I hadn't seen any effort from the trekkers (mostly Europeans) to end the tussle.

Close to 11:00 AM we arrived at Thorung Phedi (4.450m), which consists of two hotels. After a short discussion, we decided to climb up to High Camp (4.850m) with our backpacks to stay the night there. In case of any altitude problem, we could have turned back to Thorung Phedi.

The 1 hour 15. min ascent was at a very slow pace. Still I cannot forget the last 10 min.. We saw the buildings of the only hotel in High Camp, it was just 20 meters away; but it took Julian and me 10 min. to get there:)

After we arrived and put our things to rooms, Julian & I climbed up to the chorten to have the view while the girls were trying to find way to get warm. As the sun set after 15:00 at the back of the mountains, everbody gathered around the tables to feel the heat coming from a small electrical heater. The old (around 55) guy from New Zealand, we met on the table, was the inspring surprise of the day. He had quited
from his job and left his wife and children to trek Annapurna Circuit and Everest Base Camp. In 2 months time, he would meet with his family in Kathmandu and travel Europe for two years with their van. He had a serious headache as Mila had, but still didn't lose his sense of homour.


High Camp / View from The Chorten

I could only have stood until 8 PM, the crowd had disturbed me and I was feeling tired because of the oxygen level. We agreed to start the trek at 6:00 AM with the light, while most people preferred to launch at 4:30 AM due to strong wind at the pass after 10:00 AM.

DAY 11 ( High Camp 4.850m - Muktinath 3.800 )
The day started as we planned. Other than Mila's headache, nobody had had an altitude problem in the morning. The trail was somewhere snowy and somewhere rocky, but easy to follow and almost flat:) The problem was that a few quick steps were enough to make us feel breathless. We were very cautious in our speed.

At the end of the 1st hour, we gave a long break in the teahouse since Mila's headache had been troubling her more and more. Onion&garlic soup and black tea she had as it had been the advise of porters and guides all through the circuit. We were back on our feet after the 30 min. break, but Mila's condition was making us very nervous. At the second time we stopped, she searched other options as she talked with the one of the local guys, renting horses to carry troubled trekkers. 50$ for carrying her to the top was too much for her. She decided to move on.

MILA
An Argentinean lady, aged around 35, who is working, living and travelling around the world for 14 years. But always selecting the hot seasons:)

2 more hours it took us to reach the Throung La Pass (5.416m). I was the slowest member of the group and had fallen 10 min. behind of my friends. I saw Renata&Julian at the pass, but Mila wasn't there. As Renata told me she hadn't stopped at the pass and went directly down. We hug each other, celebrating our conquest:) Took the picture and started descending just after. After a hour of descent on the slippery steep trail, I realised that after 10,5 days of climbing I had just stopped for one minute at the pass:) That 4 hours of climbing in the morning didn't let me to think clearly.



The view had completely changed at the other side. The huge and wide Muktinath valley gave us a desert landscape. There was no life sign up to the point where some villages around Muktinath were seen 1.600 meters below. Almost 3 hours later we found Mila sitting in a lodge restaurant and drinking her coke. She told us that after she had went down for maybe 200 meters, she asked a guy about her headache. Just after the guy told her that unless she puked, the headache was not so critical since she was descending; she puked in front of the guy:) Then ran down as fast as possible. She could have broken the time record of that descent trail:)

After a half hour walk, we were at Muktinath. As we got closed to the town, it was so clear that we would have a different trek during the rest of the circuit. Significant sized Hindu temples and Buddhist gompas (Tibetan Buddhist monastry) could be easily seen from the top of the town. We were now at the last town of the popular Jomsom Trek, which includes Lower Mustang district towns that had played an important role during "Salt Trade" era between Tibet and Nepal.

Agreed with the first lodge of the town and had our hot showers. Following our visit inside the town, we went to the most popular place of Muktinath, Bob Marley Hotel&Restaurant. The trekkers, who had been driven by their guides, were all there. The place was excessively branded with shirts, flags, any item you can guess of Bob Marley:) Julian and I tried the Yak steak finally. It has a very similar taste with cow meat.

DAY 12 ( Muktinath 3.800m - Kagbeni 2.800m )
No more appointments for the morning to start trekking from now on, it was the time to explore these historical towns. Everybody was all of one mind. It was around 14:00, when we left the lodge and started our short trek to Kagbeni, the gateway to Upper Mustang district and the closest point you can get to the mysterious walled city - Lo Manthang, the capital of the legendary kingdom of Mustang - unless you pay 700$ to enter the district.


Mila & Kagbeni

Accompanied with the great view of the Muktinath valley, meadows and streams, we first past Ranipauwa and then Jharkot villages. A hour walk on dusty stone road after Jharkot brought us to the edge of Kagbeni. It was nearly dark, when we went down the hill to enter the town and found Red House Lodge , serving inside a 350 years old building with a little monastry inside. A short walk we had after and spent the night talking with a middle-aged Australian-British couple in the lodge.