Manaslu cirquit and a lunch in Tibet

Last year I did two long treks in Nepal, so I knew what I was getting into. More or less.  I knew that for this time of year, there is an invisible line at 3000m for example. This line is a separation between the possibility to wash yourself or to continue with natural odor. In fact you are covered with so many layers of clothes, that the smell does not reach the outer space anyway. In other words, no problemo.  On Manaslu cirquit I was above 3000m for a week. I discovered there is another line at 4000m. That concerns washing your teeth. Running water is not available (because its freezing, doh) and buying hot water is so expensive that you don’t use it to spit it out as waste. 

So there I went, freshly equipped with all the new mountain gear bought in Nepal and Bishnu, my Guide-Porter in one person on my side to take care of me. I also had a ghost trekker as Manaslu cirquit you cannot legally do in 1pax, so you need to pay a permit fee of another trekker – your ghost. I believe my ghost trekker was from Czech Republic.

Trek was planned 15 days walking, plus transfer days (read: exhausting Nepal local bus drives that take the whole day). It was November and the peak season for this route was over, which was great because there where only a few other trekkers.

Last year when I went on a solo trek, I met immediately Ewelina, Chris and Mike with whom we became good friends and trekked together. So I kinda expected similar thing to happen this year, but  it didn’t. The first 4 days was cool as there was another German solo trekker with his guide and ghost, so the evenings and lunch breaks we spent together and had fun times. After that they made their way further up the Tsum Valley, but I continued on the circuit. 

For couple of evenings I felt stuck with groups and couples from Belgium and France. Very conscious of my narrow mindedness, but I concluded – French language just does not fit me. So there were few evenings where I tried to understand the conversation around me in French with not much success and then resorted to the only warm place – the sleeping bag. These were evening where there was no electricity and as I had not made a strong connection with anyone, after dinner there is only so much fun you can have in a dark dining room in zero degrees. So you get in your sleeping bag at 7PM and convince yourself to sleep, because this is the best activity for the next 10 hours.

I proved to be very successful in convincing myself to do so. I was in Namrung, 2650m, fifth day of the trek. Earlier in the morning had said goodbye to the German gentleman Joachim and his guide Rinzin. I had also had a bucket shower in the squat toilet. It works like this – you get a bucket of hot water and then you wash yourself. Easy. Only this time there was no dedicated shower room, so I had to do it in the toilet. So excited to pour some hot water on myself, first thing I do is to drop the soap in the toilet hole. How bad can it be? I decided it’s probably not too bad and reached the hand inside to rescue the soap. Oh yeah, nice, don’t you think. It was clean actually, no need to puke. One minute later my necklace becomes loose and the crystal drops to the same hole… ok, I did it once, I can do it again. These are the adventurous moments of a bucket shower. But you have to imagine how great it is to feel hot water on your skin after so many days. I think by that time I had not had hot shower since Malaysia. No kidding.

So after having such a special shower and even washing my clothes with the remaining warm water, I had a nice dal-baht for a dinner, made a phone call to Kathmandu to talk to Milan and decided there is nothing else to do than to go to sleep. Next morning I asked the Frenchies how they slept. Their face depicted drama as they said not so good. Why? Because of the cold? “No, the dogs!” Apparently there where a bunch of dogs howling and barking throughout the night keeping up not only the Frenchies, but anyone else that I talked to. I had no idea as I had slept my 10hours straight. People could not believe this.

After couple of boring evenings I met some new people again and soon we had a card playing team that lasted until the final day of the trek. 

The days itself where filled with walking and making pictures of course. Some views or places or the Tibetan kids are so beautiful-cute, you cannot believe. One of the more memorable days was a so called rest day (i.e. sleep in the same lodge) when Bishnu and I went to Tibet. Close to Sambdo (3875m), on the Manaslu circuit, there passes an old trading route between Nepal and Tibet. I had heard it’s great, finally met people who had just done it and where able to describe it well and explain how difficult/cold/long the trek is etc. The border is at 4900m, so just about 1km ascent.

In fact when I got to Sambdo, I heard that that morning a couple went on this trek so I was waiting for their return. One moment Bishnu indicates me, that the couple has arrived and this is their guide. I asked the guide how it was and he answered with exhausted voice “It was nice, but I'm now too tired to explain. They are in the dining room, you can talk to them.” Oookey…that sounds a bit extreme. I entered the dining room, saw a guy sitting and a girl lying down on a bench, eyes closed and figured it must be them. So they explained me everything and suggested not to leave 6AM as they did, because they were always in the shadow and it was very cold. Cold had been the biggest issue and they had to trek in the down jacket almost the whole time. The climb itself had not been so tough and the views at the border where amazing.

I was convinced I should do it. We started at 7.20AM and after an hour or so we where in the sun and it was possible to replace the down jacket with light wind proof jacket and it was comfortable. The route to the border was 3 hours of quite flat climb, though you still climb about 500m and then 2 hours of more tough uphill to the pass where the border post is. It is an unmanned post and no snipers around to shoot and kill so you can freely cross the border.

I'm quite helpless when it comes to maps and it was first time for Bishnu as well on this route, but we made it there without ever getting lost. Once on the pass, both the beauty of the Tibetan mountains and the cold wind struck us. With the down jacket on it was warm though and we ended spending about an hour in Tibet. We walked down to a better view point around the curve and had a chapatti-egg + green tea with honey picnic on the grass. It was really lovely.  Soon it was one a clock and time to start the 3 hour trek back. This reminds me – I think at 4000m there is another invisible border for me. Above that line to have a break, I will search for a place to lie down. Sitting just doesn’t seem to cut it. Lets say you are walking on this windy path and are quite tired and then suddenly there is this big enough rock to act as a wind shelter and flat enough rocks or even grass behind it - isn't this just a dream come true?

After Sambdo there was only one night left before the Larkya La pass i.e. the highest point of the trek 5100m. This one night was to be spent in Dharamsala 4460m. As I had done the side trip to Tibetan birder I was not afraid of the altitude, just hoping it will be good weather. 

Once we got to Dharamsala it was nice and sunny. They have one lodge there, built from stones, but the wind blows right through it. Thus my guide insisted that I should sleep in the tent and I trusted his opinion. In fact at that moment, because it was sunny, it was cosy and warm inside the tent. Around two the sun was behind the mountains though and it got so chilly. I decided to stay inside the sleeping bag until dinnertime. When I got off the tent the ground was covered with snow (just a few mm, but still) and it was very cloudy.

Had a dinner, played some cards, borrowed secretly an extra blanket and went to sleep at 8pm. I put my boots between the mattresses so they wouldn’t freeze. I tried to put the waterbottle inside my sleeping bag, but that stupid top kept on leaking so I put it between the mattresses as well. Well, it was frozen the next morning as it had been -7 degrees that night.

Breakfast was set at 4.30AM. I did not have an alarm clock, because the phone battery was dead. So before falling asleep I thought to myself that I have to wake up at 4AM. From previous experience I know that it is possible to set an inner alarm clock, to tell yourself what time it is needed to wake up. So I did that. Surely enough exactly 4AM I opened my eyes. I found it so cool when stuff like this happen.

5.20AM we where on our way with the headlights and star lights. There was no wind. During the dawn everything around us was in magical blue light, even the snow. It was like nothing else I have ever seen. Going to the pass I was sometimes the very first person to make the footsteps in the snow. It’s more playful trying to find the path rather than follow the footsteps of others. By that time the sun was high and bright, but the silence was complete. There was no wind. I had remembered from previous day, when I was lying down and resting (so above 4000) and it was not windy, but you could hear the wind circling around the top of one of the 7000+ peaks nearby and whirling the snow. But now, on the way to 5100m pass and even on the pass itself, it was so quiet. There were no birds, animals, no other people nearby. Definitely the loudest silence I have ever consciously experienced. Magical. 

After the pass you still have to walk a bit almost horizontally until you see what is on the other side and wow what a mountain range. Amazing. And then there was wind again as well so I knew the world is in order again. 5 hours descent was ahead. Some of it so steep and slippery that you have to be quite careful. I managed to limit myself to a single easy fall. The last two hours was not so steep any more, but relentless downhill nevertheless. It starts to feel like never ending and I was getting quite convinced that this place, Bimthang 3590m, were we are supposedly heading, has disappeared from the face of the Earth. Bishnu confirmed that the village is still further down beyond the bend of the river, so we can’t see it from this angle. For me it seemed that the bend of the river is so far that it is ridiculous that Bimthang is located so far. Why isn’t it closer? I have a slight headache and it’s 1PM and it’s time to call it a day. Ok, ok, I will stop complaining inside my head, I thought. I can do this, in fact it is not even that hard, I told myself.

2PM we were there. Bimthang existed after all. I had an amazing tomato package soup and fresh momos and celebrated the fact that I’m over the pass, it’s done and it was great and perhaps tomorrow I can have a shower. Since the shower in Namrung I had never taken off my scarf (you know the one from fleece that is just a circle around your neck or you can turn it into a hat by pulling from the string) and had taken off my hat for perhaps 20min in total. These garments stay on day and night. At some point you realize that combing your hair serves no purpose. If I was courageous enough to wash my face with ice cold water, I would just push the hat back a bit. Easy.

Hopefully this was about to change as next day took us down to 2300m. The lodge owner claimed there is hot water there and so there was. I stayed under the weak flow of water as long as my environmentally conscious mind allowed me. I still remember vividly how amazing it was to smell cent of shampoo on my hair.

After few more days the trek was over. It was time to celebrate. At the finish line the first thing I ordered was a beer and it tasted marvelous. I also ordered chicken curry which ended my vegetarian epoch.  Next day took me back to Kathmandu where I stayed almost the whole remaining time in Nepal.