Dad and I woke up this morning around 5:45AM for an early start. We went down to the lobby and ate a quick breakfast, then met with our tour guide from a few days ago, Krishna, for an overnight trek to Panchasse. We hopped in a taxi and took a quick fifteen minute drive outside of Pokhara, and started the hike.
The road we got dropped off on.
It was pretty much instantly a mess: we realized we had forgotten to bring sleeping bags, the backpack dad bought the night before instantly ripped open due to a faulty zipper, and a water bottle fell out and burst, all within maybe five minutes of starting the trek. Yikes. We kept going, however, and we were quickly rewarded with stunning views of the valley below.
Around the first hour or so, I realized it was a mistake to bring all the camera equipment again. The three lenses, the dSLR and the tripod were just ridiculously heavy (I’m still sore two days later). We met some school children who were surprised to see us — I got the feeling not many trekkers came through this way. A few of the kids wanted to race, so I reluctantly said “teen…dui…et!” (my attempt at counting backwards in Nepalese) and we took off. It was an even race in that I immediately took the lead, but quickly the weight of the camera bag caught up to me and I was reduced to a quivering ball of jelly. Within a few seconds the kids caught up to me and ran laughing down the path, eventually stopping to turn around and view a sorry sight of a foreigner panting his way up the dirt road. They waited for me, and we walked together until they reached the entrance for their school. I shook their hands and they left for classes.
Krishna, dad and I continued up the mountain, stopping every few moments for a rest and a water break. Here are some of the photos I took.
Eventually we left the open-air trail and ascended into a thick forest. We could hear farmers whooping and singing on either side of the path, talking as they gathered food for their livestock. At some points, the forest was so lush that it was hard to tell where the path was. Krishna occasionally asked the villagers (by shouting off into the forest, hoping for a response) which way the path went. Luckily, we never got lost (although at one point we had to back track for a minute or two).
Eventually we left the forest and reached the ridge line once more. It’s surprising how quickly the fauna changes on one 15KM hike: we even saw cacti at one point! After a few more hours hiking, we turned the bend to see a cow glaring at us. The cow, Krishna said, belonged to the owner of the guest house we’d be staying at: we had arrived.
This photo is dedicated to my mom, who would have loved the wide changes in fauna we saw in Nepal
Unlike the trail we hiked, the guest house we stayed at had a number of tourists. There were four Israelis, a Swiss family and an older Frenchman. We had a nice chat, and by some strange occurrence of fate, it turns out that one of the Israelis worked in Vermont. Surprising, I thought, what are the chances? After all, he was from a family of farmers in Israel, and Vermont is a state with a lot of farm activity, but maybe he was in one of the larger areas such as Burlington or Montpelier. Nope. He worked at a farm in Caledonia County. Another coincidence, I thought, but then again, this county is home to St. Johnsbury. Another big name in Vermont, not that surprising. After a little more prodding, though, our new friend recalled the place he had worked: East Burke. Not even the town of Burke proper, no: the village of East Burke. The very same place I worked this summer to pay for my trip to Nepal; a rural area in northeastern Vermont with only six hundred inhabitants. What are the chances that 0.3% of the workforce of a small village in a small New England state will meet up together at a guest house 35KM from Pokhara? Quite large, apparently.
Krishna rests at the guest house after the long trek.
Krishna and I helped the owner of the guest house gather vegetables for her buffalo.
After some more chatting — and an invitation to play hakky-sak, which I honored for a few minutes before apologizing for my lack of tact and agility and excusing myself from the game — I noticed that the sun was starting to set. I setup the camera and tripod, and set up a timelapse which ran until dark. The timelapse looks great (it is of the top-left peak in the above photo, called either ‘Fish Tail’ or ‘Machhapuchhare’), but I decided that I won’t post any more individual timelapse videos until I complete the video I am working on of all the timelapses so far, matched with music. Seven second clips without audio aren’t very representative of the beauty I’ve found in Nepal, so I’ll wait until the video is done before posting any more! After the timelapse, the sun had set and it started to get cold. Before the moon rose, I saw the amazing view of mountains with the stars shining high in the sky. The moon was full that night, however, so the stars weren’t fully visible, but the air was clear and the sight was spectacular.
Click this photo for a link to the 1280 x 800 desktop size version.
Clouds moved in, but I managed a shot of Pokhara under the stars.
Taken as the moon was still low in the sky
After this photo, I went to bed — it was going to be another early start the next day, and I was incredibly tired from the long hike.
That’s all for now.
Charles
I was born in London, England. At the age of ten, I moved to Hong Kong, which opened up a whole new part of the world: Asia. Since then, I have enjoyed traveling to different locales around the world. Having graduated from High School, I am taking a gap year to work on a computer project in Nepal, and later a cultural immersion trip in Ghana. This is the blog I am using to keep the world notified. 