13k up and down in 8 days part II

Second day was pretty hard. It started with rain. "it never rains this time of year!" said the locals. I had a chance to impress my sherpa by telling him with puppy eyes that I have no raincoat. But they told me in Kathmandu that I should just buy a windjacket. I guess having more common sense of my own would be benefitial. Gelu gave me his own. "it's better". He used his umbrella and off we went. As we were getting further up than the initial planning, my summer minisize sleeping bag became a joke as well of course. I felt like such a 'born for the mountains'. Next night I had to sleep with all my clothes on. There was no electricity and obviously no heating even in the dining room. At least I got some palinka from hungarians.
On day three it was clear I can make it to the top ie annapurna base camp. More commonly known as ABC. Everything had an abbreviation on this route. Sherpa and I were in a good mood. He was singing some nepali songs while we were walking and I felt like we were bonding. I called him by his name Gelu, he continued to call me "Hello", but I had got used to that and turned around any time somebody called my new name.
We met the estonian group at Macchaputchhre Base Camp (MBC!) on their way down, I continued up. At MBC you are standing art 3700 and around and very close are mountains of 6000+, 7000+ and 8000+ shining in bright snow. Beautiful.
As we were going up to ABC 4130m, i started to feel dizzy. Too fast too high. Once up, just took some few pics, but scared that I will soon loose conciousness I said to Gelu, lets better run down. Luckily no need for rescue helicopters. Once back at 3700 felt good again. Weird that 400m make such a difference. Anyway on the way down to catch group Gelu said something like that its good that I'm strong and if I don't like mountaineering. I took it as a compliment, although I often could not be very sure about what he meant. Classical example was when he declared 'it is a bit far'. More often than not it showed in practise that 'its close' not that its too far. What is too far for sherpas anyway?
In the afternoon we caught the group. Its funny to meet estonian group. In the beginning people seem to complain about at least something or be a bit negative. 'what was the point of all this running?'. But then when you give just a little bit of time, you get to know them. Everyone turned out really cool and sometimes I laughed even in my sleeping bag thinking back on some jokes over the evening tea and rum.
Days continued in their usual rhythm following the sun. Waking up at 6.30, breakfast at 7, starting to walk around 8. Finished by 3pm, dinner at 7 and going to bed latest at 9pm. Actually very easy to get to that rhythm. On the last day though the day started art 4am. We wanted to go to see sunrise from a place called Poon Hill (3193m). This is another viewpoint with postcard panorama. Walking under starry sky for one hour and then waiting for sunrise to show the beauty of surrounding mountain giants. As I did not have a winter jacket, I wrapped myself into a very warm borrowed sleeping bag. Not the styliest one of all. Then after I saw one Guy on shirt sleeves (it must have been around zero degrees) and my sherpa came to me, looked at me and with such an intonation asked me "what are you doing??", I decided to man up and pretend I'm warm in his raincoat. It was not too difficult. In fact difficult time still laid ahead. On that day we descended over 2km. This was not planned, but on the next day there was a big festival, so our guide thought we have better chances if our bus driver its still sober. This meant wet had to be picked up early morning next day.
At one point of this descending there where what felt like never ending staircases. 700m descending in a row only on stone stairs. That's like coming down the stairs of 300floors highrise!? Oh Joy. One muscle on my left thigh gave up, so I had to push through some tears and painkillers. There goes my future in mountaineering. My sherpa took my daybag as well while I slowmotioned downstairs. Some people from the group had earlier seen a woman put in a basket carried by a donkey, I did not want the same fate.
Everyone made it and next day it was time to say goodbye to our porters and guides. Guides being Monday, Friday and Saturday. For sherpa and some other nepali people the given name is the weekday of birth, no matter if its a boy or girl. My sherpa is Saturday. Hope he arrives home soon.