"Life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them, so go out and start creating.”
"Every great adventure starts with a bit of a rain."
Song for today: Nina simone- i feel good
After deciding the trek, I went to the permit office to get my permit to enter to the nature reserve area. There, I met a boy from Belgium called Toon who was going to do some trek as well. We exchange numbers just if we happen to leave at the same time to the same trek. Toon send me message the evening before that he was leaving for the trek the same time. So we decided to walk few days together.
How weird was it to place my light trekking shoes on again, I had used sandals for cycling and flip flops for everything else for the past 4 months. My feet were complaining from the very beginning and before leaving I stocked up some sport tape for coming blisters. I said good bye to lady princess, who was stored to the roof of a beautiful Banyan tree guesthouse. I rented a backpack from one of the several trekking stores in pokhara and had some problems to pack it, because I had gotten used to four panniers. Toon took his tent, which was big enough for both of us to fit in and we bought some food ( I think I had enough porridge for myself for the first part of the trek).
This time walking felt easier than in Sikkim in India. I was not as clumsy, I didn't fall down to every singe branch. The most important was that my feet remembered the walking pattern and they didn't try to peddle instead of walking. Quite quickly we found out with Toon that we are both very unorganized and neither of us had proper or any kind of a plan for the trek. Both of us wanted to find the small villages instead of big artificial guesthouse villages. I thought, I will do the trek in two weeks but then again I had basically unlimited time and so did Toon. Yet we thought that we will spend few days together and then part to be able to walk alone as well.
Different ecosystems, different climate zones and cultures from Hindu villages at the low foothills to Tibetan Buddhist culture of Manang valley and lower Mustang, were passing by as we walked. No wonder why Annapurna circuit trek has been voted often as best long distant trek (we walked over 290km). I was amazed in every turn by the upstanding scenery. Walking allows to sense the nature better than cycling, since the space is lower. Further we walked the higher the mountains were, snow peaks everywhere. The trek was so well marked that one don't really need a guide to show the way. Many trekkers were paying for porters to carry their bags. Some porters were carrying up to 40kg (including their own bags). What does people need on the mountains? Why and how people dear to make the porters carry hair dryers and nail polish up to the mountains?
During Annapurna circuit trek there is guest houses and home stays in almost every village. Even though we had a tent we stayed most of the time in the guesthouses, because they often gave a free accommodation if we had dinner and breakfast there. In one of the village, I got the best bed in the world in one of the guesthouse: I was able to watch all the snow peaks glimmering with the stars and on top of this I watched shooting stars from my own bed, one of rear nights that I tried to stay awake and just float with the universe.
The awe-inspiring ancient villages (each village had a monastery, prayer wheels, prayer flags and little gate at either end to enter) and fortresses with extremely rough climate and breathtaking environmental conditions made me wonder how on earth people manage to leave up there? People still stay up there but many people have seasonal homes: they go down to Pokhara or Kathmandu for the winter to visit relatives or do pilgrim trips, and return to the mountains when the spring arrives. The faces of people are so beautiful, especially women are stunning, rough and all their faces tell stories from past. Children have red faces, because of the strong sun and wind, old people have more wrinkles than I have ever seen. Nobody is harrying nobody looks angry, everybody is so fast to smile.
Some years back there a road was built following the trek ( which is logic, because trek is following a river). Lot of trekkers were complaining about it, but for local people it brings long waited development and for example, easier access to get into hospitals. Many villages are depending their electricity from solar-panels, which are provided by different NGOs. After Throng La pass there was solar cookers on roofs of many houses and it was nice to see that people used them as well (families had to invest into them as well, if they wanted to have a solar cookers).
One of my dreams for long time was to visit Mustang region. This trek after Throng La pass took to fill up one of my dreams again. We spent over week there admiring its dry and windy beauty. To get to Mustang, first we had to pass the high Throng La pass, which took us up to 5416m. After cycling for eight months my body was stronger than my head with the altitude. Once we started to walk over 5000m, I got horrible headache and the ground underneath my feet was not stable. Thank you for Toon, who was looking after me on my unstable moments. Even if I might have been telling him not to baby sit me, since he was literally holding me straight when I my world was spinning under my feet. Obviously, I have been too long time alone and how necessary it was just to put down my pride and accept help.
Slowly after the pass and Tibetan plateau we made our way to Poon hill, where we camped with full-moonrise and woke up with magical sunrise lightning up the mountains. There would not be better way to end our one month trek. We hitch hiked to pokhara with a track and were amazed with all the impulses that city life can bring. We camped some time on top of one of the hills before I cycled to Begnas Tal, where surprise surprise I met Toon again.
I want to thank Toon for being the best trekking partner ever. Before starting the trek, I could had never imagined to find such an open minded, beautiful hearted, warm brother from another mother. After being alone or spending short times with people, I didn't realize how much I was longing to be connected and needed to share moments. The universe has its ways to give us what we need. After spending over one month with a friend who stays in a present moment, has good sense of humor, deep thoughts and teaches the pits that I had to learn, I wonder am I ever ready to settle down with my solitude again?
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