Where the hell is Priya? - Part II

Disclaimer: This blogpost is not rated PG. I warn you now, so you can stop reading in advance for those of my readers who would like to continue seeing me in a certain light. Whether that light be as a lovable family member, a beautiful student, or a very happy traveler - just don't read this one blog post. Wait until the next, more friendly one. This one is a rough ride!

Let's start with some pictures since I feel as though I left most of you hanging last time.



Check out this little girl. Way more talented than me.


Omega Trekking team. The tall guy behind and to the right of the kid wearing the Reebok shirt was our guide: Kumar.


Alex and the chickens he bought! Just kidding, but there were chickens everywhere. However, none of the restaurants would kill them since it was low season and they didn't want to waste meat on just one traveler.


One of the many views you will see

Not Nepal but Bali! Me and Yvonne, the Dutch girl I stayed with. Us at starbucks. We are flashpackers.

Day 5: July 26th- Dharapani to Chame 2670 m
Only 2 days until my birthday! And I was feeling better. Definitely. Those antibiotics pretty much saved me, but I had to be super consistent with them. As we arrived in Chame, I saw the most inviting sign: Internet now in Chame. How exciting! I felt like it was 1996 and I was expecting there would be a dial up modem with sounds like a capuccino maker. But when I found out it was 10 rupees per minute, I decided to skip going on the internet. Anyway, Peter, Alex and I arrived in Chame to some dinky hostel and I practiced my usual ritual of laying in bed until dinner.


Aside: I haven't mentioned anything about the traditional Nepali meals: dal baht. Literally translated it means: lentils and rice. It's what I've grown up eating and is probably my favorite meal in the world...when cooked right. But Indian dal baht is different from Nepali dal baht. Basically, in Nepal, they serve you 1 kg (that's 2.2 lbs, Americans) of rice with usually some watered down version of lentils that have no flavor. And there is never enough lentils for all the rice. It also comes with some mixed vegetables and pickled mango. But the one key about dal baht is: free refills. It's the only meal in Nepal where you can constantly get anything refilled, so you can REALLY get your money's worth if you are hungry and the food is good. But I'm not going to lie, my overall dal baht experience in Nepal was negative. Lack of flavor, too much rice and not enough variety with the mixed vegetable dishes. Also, lacking spice. Come on Nepal, India is right next door. You can 'borrow' some recipes from them! I guess I'm just not used to eating bad dal baht. This is probably what Aishwarya Rai sounds like; I'm so high class.

Anyway, in Chame they actually made the dal baht in front of us and according to Peter and Kumar, it was delicious. But I really don't trust Kumar's opinion, he ate dal baht everyday, twice a day the entire time we were trekking. I had my usual meal of Maggi noodles, which as my mother will tell you, I love! If there is one thing Illinois made me love it's Ramen. We hopped off to bed at 8.00 PM (yes, we partied hard in the mountains) with our headlamps and the sound of pouring rain.


Day 6: July 27th - Chame to Upper Pisang 3200 m
So far, we had lucked out with trekking during rainy season. It had rained every night, leaving the days foggy, but tolerable to trek in. But this morning was different. It was different first, because it was 1 day until my birthday! Second, because it was raining. We decided to wait for a couple hours and maybe even stay in Chame for the day, but by 10.30 AM, Peter and Alex were so restless that we decided to leave for Upper Pisang. Whatever, I was in no mood to argue as long as I had my medication. We started the trek, ran into Nathan and Sarah for lunch and I think this is where Alex developed an infatuation with apple pie. As an American, I love apple pie. Especially McDonald's baked apple pie! It's the best part of any road trip. During lunch, they cut, rolled and fried the apple pie right in front of us and Alex fell in love. And for those of you who don't know, the second part of the Annapurna circuit is nicknamed 'The Apple Pie Trail', so I think Alex had at least 1 meal a day set for the rest of the trek. As we walked to Upper Pisang we made it to Heaven's Gate. I don't have a picture of it right now, I promise I'll post one at the first opportunity, but it was probably one of my favorite views of Annapurna. Unreal. And the rain made it look even more amazing. After a long trek, we made it to Upper Pisang where as 12.00 AM (my birthday!) approached...everyone went to bed! Except Kish! He stayed up to celebrate with me and it was pretty amazing since it had been cloudy all night but at exactly 12.15 AM the full moon came out to wish me 'Happy Birthday!'. Really, one of my favorite birthday nights ever. A year ago, I would have never guessed that I would be 3200 m high on my 23 birthday.


July 28th: Upper Pisang to Manang - 3500 m
My Birthday! After shaking Alex awake to make him wish me a happy birthday I looked out the window and saw something amazing: the sun! It was a clear day! The first one! There are two paths to Manang: the regular 3000 m climb or the 'challenging' climb which rises something like 600 m extra. Alex and I decided to take the easy route whereas Peter decided to hike the challenging climb. As we parted paths, I couldn't help feeling that it was going to be a
good day for me. The walk seemed to fly by for me, while poor Alex was not having the best time (he decided to carry our 12 kg pack to challenge himself, eek.). We arrived to the much anticipated Manang! It was the biggest city before the Thorung La Pass. Here, we were promised bakeries, fresh bread, internet, laundry service...pretty much my heaven! But as we arrived, we once again found ourselves as the only tourists in town. What did this mean? No bakeries were open, no bread, internet was no 20 rupees, laundry cost around $5 for 5 articles of clothing and it was basically a glorified version of every other town we had been to. But that did not dampen my spirits!

Aside: Showers. The Showers during the trek are solar powered meaning that the water is heated by the sun. So, the only real time to get a hot shower is when the sun is out...not very often during rainy season. Also, so far I was averaging around 1 shower a week. I was also sweating profusely each day. Why do people talk to me?

Since it was so sunny and I had a good feeling, I decided to take a shower. Steaming hot! It was my lucky day. Did some laundry and somewhere around the middle of the day, I ran into Peter. Apparently he had quite the rough trekking day as well. The climb was 'brutal' and he was having some issues with using chlorine to sterlize his water (I won't go into detail). But whatever, he had arrived to celebrate my birthday (or at least, that's the way I saw it). Now it was just time to wait for Nathan, Sarah, Kish and Jack and the party could start! We milled around the city all day and at night I tried my luck with ordered dal baht: bad choice. Not good. Oh well, you win some you lose some. But, we celebrated my birthday with a couple shots of Bagpiper (i.e. the cheapest) whiskey and everyone went off to bed.

Ok team, I bet you are all so enraptured in my story by now, but I'm tried of typing once again. You'll find out if I made it to the top soon enough! Until next time beloved fans!