Howie-n-Karen: Asia

Cathy gave us a travel agent to contact once in Gangtok. We arrived at one in the afternoon and by the end of the day, Mr. T. Dorji had put a trek together for us, starting the following morning.

We drove up with Bhaichung, our 27 year-old guide and Suresh, our 31-year old chef. The rest of the crew was found in Yuksom, our first destination and the end of riding in the jeep.

Early the next morning we started our trek. Six porter accompanied us; not yaks – they were all spoken for. We birded up the trail, getting passed by all the pack animals and most of the people trekking.

A hot lunch was prepared for us along the way. The first of many delicious and amazing meals by Suresh(on the right) and his helper.

Trongsa was our fist camp. To acclimate, we stayed 3 nights. Also, to bird. Reaching the camp gave us our first glimpse of the snowcapped peaks.

First real views of the peaks.

Friends we made from Bangkok provided us with essentials we were rumming low on (very important: batteries for our camera).

What follows are photos of the rest of the trek.

A meal (for Tom) papadums, wonton soup, apple pie for dessert (there is no oven)

orange-headed bf

On the way to Dzongri; old chorten made of rough rocks in back.

View from 4300 meters (Kanchenzonga, the 3rd highest peak in the world, at over 8,000 meters, is in there).

Khanchendzonga

Views as we hiked toward Thansing; we hiked down to the river. The field was our destination and was to be the base for hiking to the highest pass, Goechala (over 17,000 ft.).

After an evening of thunder and lightning in the distance, we awoke to a changed world.

Throughout the day the storm gave hints of breaking, so we waited optimistically. That is our tent in the foreground. The porters kept brushing the snow off.

The view downvalley during a break in the snow.

Rosy pipits were our camp companions.

We bundled up (I wrapped my feet in plastic bags inside my hiking boots) and all trudged down, on the 3rd day, in driving snow and wind.

We gradually left the bad weather, slipping on the melting snow which turned the trail into something like a mini-Maine-mudseason. We turned around when we got back to Trongsa and saw this.

The next day we hiked down to Yuksom a couple of days ahead of schedule. Found out later it was a good decision as the snows did not let up for another two days.

On our last big hike before leaving this area we almost lost Howie on a short cut down to the road. He was on the narrow trail behind Bai Chung, the guide and I was behind him when all of a sudden he went off the trail to the right, head first. Before I could react I saw his feet go over his head and it looked like he was starting to gain momentum. When he realized that he was not just going to land but tumble, he grabbed the vegitation and came to an abrupt halt. Bai Chung jumped down to save him, not even looking to see what was below. Luckily no one was hurt. It happend so fast! The steepness of the dropoff was hidden by the growth, which also hid the hole Howie stepped in.

Other than that, the trip was uneventful.

On our last night we showed the gang the photos of our trek and they made us a cake we shared sll around.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 8:25 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.