End of Day Elevations:
- Day 1 – Machikola 860m
- Day 2 – Jagat 1340m
- Day 3 – Deng 1860m
- Day 4 – Ghap 2400m
- Day 5 – Lho 3050m
The first 5 days of the trek were very tiring but so beautiful. Every moment we were surrounded by amazing views of mountains and that followed through the whole trek. Every 10 minutes or so of hiking you’d see a new huge waterfall. At first we were all awed and taking pictures every 5 minutes but a few days in we started getting used to them. The first few days were also pretty difficult just getting used to going up and down valleys for 6-8 hours every day.
The trails got pretty tricky as well between sharing the cliff side trails with many, many donkeys and hiking over land slides. Most of the hiking is on the edge of the mountains so it was pretty important to be on the correct side when a slew of donkeys came through. You always wanted to be on the mountain side of the trail instead of the edge so you don’t get pushed off the trail down the cliff into your death by the donkeys. Donkeys in Nepal are used as the main transport of goods in the mountains. Many people live high up in the mountains and there are no driving roads as most of it is remote so the only way to get goods to these villages are through donkeys and humans. We’d constantly see people (porters) carrying huge packages and bags through the trails transporting goods. The Nepali people are pretty small in comparison to most Western countries but they are incredibly strong. The landslides were also pretty scary. Some were very recent therefore the trail was very loose. Again, you wouldn’t want to slip/fall on these parts otherwise you’d slip off the cliff.
One of the best part around the trek was all the villages we got to go through. It was so interesting to walk through and see how the people lived in their everyday life. It’s clear to see that it’s a hard life for all the people living up in the mountains. Everything is hard labor. All the food is grown in the mountains (beside what is transported through donkeys and porters) and everything is built there. It’s a very laborious lifestyle but it’s also very simple. Despite the poor conditions through the villages, the people always seemed very happy and were always so kind. The little kids are the cutest and they would just run up to us with a huge smile bowing and greeting us with “namaste”.
As we got higher in altitude, I noticed that there were fewer donkeys transporting stuff and noticed that the prices for food and drinks would go higher in the villages we stayed in. We always stayed in guest houses for Trekkers, also called tea houses, and got our meals served there as well. The typical meal is called “dal baht” which is a rice dish served with a lentil soup and a potato curry which would get mixed all together. Narayan and many other Nepali people referred to “dal baht power” which is supposed to make you very strong. Narayan always said eating dal baht twice a day gave you 25 hours in the day! Needless to say, dal baht grew quickly on me as I had it almost everyday for lunch.
Overall, the first 5 days were very interesting and beautiful but quite tough. The next few days following were getting used to the altitude and preparing for the big summit day!
Eni Travels 