The Trek

Have just arrived back in Kat. The trek was amazzinggggggg. We arrived in Pokhara on thursday and then spent the day/night there and left for Beshi Nagar, which took another 5 hours from Pokhara. Pretty brutal bus rides. We started the trek at about 1:30pm on Friday (it usually starts to rain around 2:30...really intense downpour, not just a light drizzle...it is the beginning of the monsoon season right now) so anyways, the first day was supposed to be a 2 hour walk to this town called Bhule Bhule...it was more of a walk along a dirt road and within an hour it started to POUR with rain...bridge and i wore our flip flops cuz it wasnt too intense, and had our matching rain jackets (and matching umbrellas that we snatched up) and were attempting to cover our backpacks. it was hilarious, and of course we all bought umbrellas from town, whcih are CRAP made and within the hour were turning inside out from all the wind. We took a pit stop in a town before Bhule Bhule for a drink while it was pissing with rain, and as a bus drove by (literally JAMMED packed with people) we decided to hitch a ride for the next 30 minutes of the walk...not a normal bus ride though...we rode on the roof of the bus along a road that shouldnt even be considered a road, because it is so ridiculously bumpy/muddy/rocky (with boulder rocks, not small pebbles)...so 6 of us westerners and some random Nepalis were sitting on the roof rack for the rest of the ride untill the road got too bumpy and we had to come down and get jammed into the bus. at the point where we transferred all our stuff into the bus, it was pretty packed. a bus that should comfortably" sit like 16 people, had about 35 at the time...and we'd approach these groupings of people standing inthe rain waiting for a bus to come by and we would all be like to eachother "oh shit that sucks, theyre gonna have to wait there for quite some time for the next bus" but noppeeeeeee....the bus pulls over and picks up all 15 or 20 people waiting...people are sitting on top of people, and hanging out the door on the side. hahah it was hilarious and this happened more than once. so anyways we arrived in Bhule Bhule and stayed the night. Because of all the rain/monsoon season coming, trekkers are warned of the leeches that fall from trees/linger in the puddles/etc...so we stay the night at a guest house in this little town, and right before we all decide to go to bed, one of the girls we are with screams, and so we all start freaking out cause this place has no power, and there were weird creatures haha, and it turns out a leech has somehow landed right on the veins between the forearm and the upper arm (where you get blood taken from) and it is latched onto her...soo gross! the only salt we had was our oral rehydration salts for in case you get sick, so we busted opena pack of those and dumped nearly the whole thing on her arm! the next day was much more intense...since you go to bed around like 9:30pm (cause there is nothing to do with no power and these "towns" are really like 4 houses/huts with maybe liek 20 people there) we woke up at about 5:30 am and had breakfast and then started the longer day of trekking. we also had to leave early because the rain starts in the afternoons and we wanted to get to our destination before then. That day the trek took 5 hours...supposed to take 6 -8 but we kept a steady pace. it was pretty f-ing hard! there were parts that was like climbing the grouse grind, they didnt last for long but it was definitely tough considering the heat and the altitude. The most amazing views though, everywhere, the pictures can not do justice to it at all. Bridge and I both wished that we couldve stayed longer or done the whole thing but we had to be back in Kat for this last week of work. the place we stayed the second night, after our long trek was soooo much bettter than the first, in this beautiful little town called Ghermu, it was so quaint, and so nice, and so rural. all of these places we pass through were. It is sooo different, its hard to even describe. Some parts of the trek were so ridiculous too haha, we would get to parts where there had clearly been a mudslide and taken out like a portion of the trail, so we had to like physically get into the dirt to climb up this hill which used to be a trail, but was now just straight mud/dirt...the locals working on the roads were just laughing at us cause it was clearly a struggle, but something that they deal with regularly. Returning home today was pretty ridiculous too. Basically everything in this country is, we have learned that you really cant go anywhere with any sort of expectations because really, everywhere you go and anything you do is NEVER what you expect...even if you are warned or told the details by someone else. Today we had to catch a jeep from the last town that is accessible by car called Syange, and in the lonely planet guidebook it warned us of this 'uncomfortable ride' back to where we started the trek, but even that cant warn you of what to expect. so we get on the jeep, and of course everything here is inefficient, and nobody is under any time constraints, so the jeep driver would just stop in the little villages and linger for what felt like sooo long. Meanwhile, there is this old woman (maybe not old, it is really hard to tell how old Nepali people are because the work that they endure could age them or their health, or they could just be old) but anyways, she was suppppperrr sick, and something was definitely really wrong with her back/stomach region and she had to endure this 2.5 hour jeep ride from hell. she was laying in the backseat on her daughter (or maybe granddaughters) lap, while we were in the back part of the jeep. I felt like i was in the Jurassic park movie on this 'highway' of a dirt road that is no more than 12 feet wide, following the river, along the edge of a cliff, with this woman moaning the entire time, f, it was just ridiculous! Then once we got to where we started, we had to get on another bus back to Katmandu...and after that production we got on what they call a microbus...a van that is SUPPOSED to fit 16 people...but again they love to ram them full, so it probbaly had maybe 25 on it...all smooshed in this stupid bus with no airconditioning, in like 45 degree weather all through the mountains, and us in the backseat. Nepali people are really funny that way, they havea completely different sense of space than westerners. They have No problem whatsoever with being right up next to you, right in your face, or squished between like 10 people. meanwhile me and bridge and this other girl are dying from overheating and sweating profusely. hahaha so funny (at the time, maybe more annoying, but still you cant help but laugh because everything about this place is just soooo ridiculous/unpredictable/inefficient BUT somehow it is absolutely amazing at the same time, its weird. Anyways, this is getting pretty long. but we are home safe, back in dirty, dusty, and loud Kat with a week and a bit left before we head back home!
xoxox