Annapurna – The Americans with the Red Eyes
Day 7. Bahundanda>Chamje 4.5 hrs 1430 M. So we finally felt like we could leave and start the trek again. So after saying goodbye (temporarily) to our German friends, Lars and Barbara, who were having porter problems (not a good sign when a porter can’t even make it through the first day).
It’s kind of cool that we kept seeing some of the same people every few days depending on which town we were all staying. It was almost like playing leap-frog. You wouldn’t see some people for a few days and then all of sudden, there they were at the guesthouse you were staying at. Or you’d hear about them from someone else trekking – I guess those are the advantages of going trekking during Monsoon season – not as many people but AMAZING WATERFALLS!
This was a brutal day for us (I’m sure it had nothing to do with being bed-ridden for like 3 days) – we thought we were only going to be making it to Jagat again but after taking lunch we were refreshed enough to make it to Chamje (like a 1/2 hr down the road). We ran into a couple that were coming down who unfortunately got all the way to Thorung Phedi and got bad AMS and had to come down without crossing the pass. Not exactly the confidence booster. We also met Laura, the Australian, who thought we were on some serious drugs since our eyes were so red (she also gave us the name “The Americans with the red eyes”) & Dale, the Canadian, who had also come from Africa and was doing an extended trip as well.
This is also where John started getting addicted to chicken noodle soup. They’d use those packaged soups and then add a bunch of stuff to it – he was so sick of chow mein by this point that we started eating it pretty much until we got to the other side of the pass – for breakfast and usually lunch. It never tasted the same but it usually tasted pretty darn good!
Day 8. Chamje>Bagarchap 4.5 hrs 2160 M. Not much to say, except for our guest house, Marsayangdi, had really good food. There was this killer hill you had to go up before Tal that had about 1,500 steps (yes, I’m crazy, but it prevented me from actually looking up and freaking out). Tal was supposed to be a “Wild West” looking town but it didn’t really look like that much different of a town than the rest of them.
Day 9. Bagarchap>Chame 3.5 hrs 2670 M. In case you haven’t figured it out, I estimated the times – I just took the maximum time allowed from our guidebook – which we seemed to be right on pace with. Anyway, this was a short day and I really have no recollection of this day except for the super hot showers at the New Tibet Hotel where we stayed and the extortion they were charging for internet at this cafe (which was advertised all the way up the trail). So we passed on the internet since we probably could have bought a piece of land with the amount they were charging.
Tags: annapurna, Nepal, RTW Trip
JohnCin
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