around the world in 180 days

Hiking at altitude is very strange. You walk up the smallest incline and find yourself panting, gasping for air and your heart is pounding in your chest as if you’d just run a 5k. Your head begins to pound from lack of oxygen as the initial symptoms of AMS set in, and, while your legs aren’t tired, your body feels exhausted. One of your body’s responses to altitude is to urinate frequently to remove toxins that build up in your bloodstream, so you find yourself stopping every 20 minutes to go to the bathroom, only there is no shelter, only rocks and lichen and tiny, hardy plants. It gives me a greater appreciation of the difficulties of climbing mountains.

Yesterday also marked the day we parted ways from Ruth, the German we’d been traveling with since Tal, day 3 of the circuit. She was ambitious and went all the way to Jomson today, about a 6 hour walk from Muktinath. Anna and I, the two Danes and Henri opted for a shorter day andd stopped in Kagbeni, a small, green (we are in the rain-shadow of the Annapurna range, so the hills are mostly brown), medieval-looking village at the confluence of two rivers, which is only 3 or so hours from Muktinath. Kagbeni is as far north as a person can travel in Nepal’s Mustang district without a special, expensive permit. The area north of here lies along the sensitive border with Tibet/China, and tourism is severely limited.

Last night also marked the first night we weren’t going to be gaining altitude the following day and so also marked the first day we could drink beer without worrying about AMS reprecussions the next day. Eight of us, Per and Eskel, the two Danes; a French couple whose names are exotic and difficult to remember; Henri, the polite Frenchman; Ruth, the German (future) schoolteacher and Anna and I sat around a table in the Bob Marley restaurant and stayed up late discussing politics and cultural differences until almost 11 pm, which for us equates to about 3 in the morning. It was a good time.

Per (peer) and Eskel are hilarous. They’re both left-wing, revolutionary anti-capitalists who lived in a commune together in Copenhagen. They’ve been traveling together for 2 months and act like an old couple, arguing and bickering about the funniest things. They’re also very well read, very witty and good conversationalists. We’ve been traveling with them since Manang, day 8, and have gotten to know them well. Per was arrested in Copenhagen shortly before leaving for India 2 months ago for filming police beating protesters at a rally. He refused to give a DNA sample as required by Danish law when charged with a crime with a penalty of more than 2 years and was beaten by police interrogators. He told us this with a disaffected sort of dismissal of his own uniqueness that we were both convinced he was telling the truth. Normally a story like that would raise my suspicion, but he wasn’t trying to impress us. He seemed to only be telling us because we were interested.

Tomorrow we will walk to Marpha, supposedly a clean town about 5 hours walk from Kagbeni. Marpha is the apple capital of Mustang, although not in May. We will be leaving the cooler highlands and reentering the hot subtropical zones of Nepal. Yesterday I wore a thick wool hat and sweater, tomorrow I will be sweating in a t-shirt. This country is amazing.