This picture needs to be on the blog, because that man standing in front of his 'hotel' (read: restaurant, sorta) makes the finest chow mein in the land for 15 rupees per plate.
This begins the trek pictures...
Those are huge metal pipes that those guys are carrying. They are wearing flip flops. Seeing them made the backpack feel a little lighter, and allowed me to realize all the jobs I've ever had weren't all that bad.
E boxed in by donkeys. We'd pass these guys all the time, as they carry goods over the mountain from village to village. They all wear bells, so every time they approached I'd think of Christmas.
Beers after a hard day of trekking. The owner of the hotel we were drinking at told Andy he was looking for a business partner, meaning he wanted someone to help him get weed to the U.S.
Our first dreadfully cold night was in Bagarchap, but waking up with this view out your window provides motivation. On the previous days the sky had been really hazy, so we hadn't seen any real mountains yet.
Spinning the prayer wheels.
Another spectacular view the next morning.
On the way out of Chame. My brand new rainbow colored mittens were tucked in to one of the straps of my backpack, ready to provide warmth and color for the rest of the trip.
The higher you climb and the closer you get to Thorung La, the more the villages show a Tibetan influence. This is one example.
The 'Gateway to Heaven'. Well put.
The frozen water fall above was the first ice or snow we saw. With a little encouragement from Andy, I ventured to check it out. Just before seeing this we saw our first Americans of the trips, a couple walking back from when they came, with a man admitting that he 'wasn't thinking'. Turned out altitude sickness had cost him his consciousness on the way over the pass, after he hadn't admitted to having a headache for five days.
We'd been looking everywhere for a bridge to cross the river so that we could head to Upper Timang instead of Lower. This was the bridge we found, and when we reached it we saw that it had previously had a barricade in front of it. We made it across, though.
A Buddhist monastery in Bryaga (just before Menang) that is over 1100 years old, more pictures of which are below. It was absolutely breathtaking. It doesn't have the sheer size of Westminster or St. Peter's or anything else, but it needs to be taken in to consideration that it is built in a place where building materials aren't exaclty readily available.
The monk's bedroom. Later, in the main hall, he tied strings around all our necks for good luck crossing the Thorung La (the pass). He didn't let E in the bedroom, though.
Goat traffic jam.
The last three or four nights before crossing the pass were frigid, so we'd push all the beds together, get in our sleeping bags, throw the blankets over top, and share the heat.
The morning we set out to cross the pass.
The beautiful struggle. While these pictures aren't quite genuine, the climb was really tough. Because of the altitude we'd be sucking wind after three steps uphill, and our legs were really feeling it. Fortunately, though, we were on Diamox the wonder drug, so we never really had any major altitude sickness issues. We were so prepared, in fact, that part way up there pass we were able to hook up some lady with some medicine to stop her vomiting, and we indeed saw her safely on the other side later that day.
At 5,416 meters. Can't imagine too many people were higher than we were at that point.
Hanging out with the Hindu holy men at Muktinath. It's a major destination for both Hindus and Buddhists. I'm going to throw all caution to the wind concerning who may be reading this blog and admit (read: brag) that we smoked weed with them. Sorry, Grandma. It's not a habit.
Andy walking around the Temple grounds at Muktinath.
The views on the walk from Muktinath to Jomsom. It was a pretty boring walk, as we were all tired and hungry.
Our transportation from Jomsom to Pokhara. Small plane, short runway. Scared the crap out of me initially, but it was a beautiful flight. Some uninformed cop told us there weren't any flights out on the day we wanted, so originally we believed we'd have to take a Jeep back. Real glad that didn't happen.
This computer is incredibly slow, so I'll edit this post and try to throw up a bunch of other pictures sometime today. For now, look at the pretty mountain!
This picture needs to be on the blog, because that man standing in front of his 'hotel' (read: restaurant, sorta) makes the finest chow mein in the land for 15 rupees per plate.
This begins the trek pictures...
Those are huge metal pipes that those guys are carrying. They are wearing flip flops. Seeing them made the backpack feel a little lighter, and allowed me to realize all the jobs I've ever had weren't all that bad.
E boxed in by donkeys. We'd pass these guys all the time, as they carry goods over the mountain from village to village. They all wear bells, so every time they approached I'd think of Christmas.
Beers after a hard day of trekking. The owner of the hotel we were drinking at told Andy he was looking for a business partner, meaning he wanted someone to help him get weed to the U.S.
Our first dreadfully cold night was in Bagarchap, but waking up with this view out your window provides motivation. On the previous days the sky had been really hazy, so we hadn't seen any real mountains yet.
Spinning the prayer wheels.
Another spectacular view the next morning.
On the way out of Chame. My brand new rainbow colored mittens were tucked in to one of the straps of my backpack, ready to provide warmth and color for the rest of the trip.
The higher you climb and the closer you get to Thorung La, the more the villages show a Tibetan influence. This is one example.
The 'Gateway to Heaven'. Well put.
The frozen water fall above was the first ice or snow we saw. With a little encouragement from Andy, I ventured to check it out. Just before seeing this we saw our first Americans of the trips, a couple walking back from when they came, with a man admitting that he 'wasn't thinking'. Turned out altitude sickness had cost him his consciousness on the way over the pass, after he hadn't admitted to having a headache for five days.
We'd been looking everywhere for a bridge to cross the river so that we could head to Upper Timang instead of Lower. This was the bridge we found, and when we reached it we saw that it had previously had a barricade in front of it. We made it across, though.
A Buddhist monastery in Bryaga (just before Menang) that is over 1100 years old, more pictures of which are below. It was absolutely breathtaking. It doesn't have the sheer size of Westminster or St. Peter's or anything else, but it needs to be taken in to consideration that it is built in a place where building materials aren't exaclty readily available.
The monk's bedroom. Later, in the main hall, he tied strings around all our necks for good luck crossing the Thorung La (the pass). He didn't let E in the bedroom, though.
Goat traffic jam.
The last three or four nights before crossing the pass were frigid, so we'd push all the beds together, get in our sleeping bags, throw the blankets over top, and share the heat.
The morning we set out to cross the pass.
The beautiful struggle. While these pictures aren't quite genuine, the climb was really tough. Because of the altitude we'd be sucking wind after three steps uphill, and our legs were really feeling it. Fortunately, though, we were on Diamox the wonder drug, so we never really had any major altitude sickness issues. We were so prepared, in fact, that part way up there pass we were able to hook up some lady with some medicine to stop her vomiting, and we indeed saw her safely on the other side later that day.
At 5,416 meters. Can't imagine too many people were higher than we were at that point.
Hanging out with the Hindu holy men at Muktinath. It's a major destination for both Hindus and Buddhists. I'm going to throw all caution to the wind concerning who may be reading this blog and admit (read: brag) that we smoked weed with them. Sorry, Grandma. It's not a habit.
Andy walking around the Temple grounds at Muktinath.
The views on the walk from Muktinath to Jomsom. It was a pretty boring walk, as we were all tired and hungry.
Our transportation from Jomsom to Pokhara. Small plane, short runway. Scared the crap out of me initially, but it was a beautiful flight. Some uninformed cop told us there weren't any flights out on the day we wanted, so originally we believed we'd have to take a Jeep back. Real glad that didn't happen.
This computer is incredibly slow, so I'll edit this post and try to throw up a bunch of other pictures sometime today. For now, look at the pretty mountain!
