At the Ghorepani hotel, there were quite a few characters.

Everyone staying at the place sat around the wood burning stove for heat and spoke english to each other in different lovely accents… French, Chinese, Indian, Nepali, Belgian, Korean, Kentuckian+Texan… There were 3 Korean men who, although they didn’t know very much english, were hilarious.

They hired two porters and a guide for their trek because they brought so much stuff with them… They brought all of their own food from Korea, to be cooked and made for them… At first, I thought it was crazy and wasteful, but then they started sharing the weird stuff they brought with everyone, and it turned awesome😄 They had dried octopus (it still looked exactly like an octopus), snake skin/meat(?), snake skin dried in some kind of sweetness (korean beef jerky?; the sweet snake skin/meat was pretty good!)

And 9 BOTTLES OF SOJU. People tasted it and said it tasted like rubbing alcohol… The biggest one who knew a little english said, “National drink of Korea! Very special!“😂 Yes, sir!

Here they are at the top of Poon Hill the next morning… they brought fake oxygen masks, four or five different signs to take pictures with, and one of them had a sign proposing to his girlfriend!😍

3 crazy koreans + mexican in taiwan + indian + moi

Notice what’s in my hand… masala tea of course. I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I prefer masala tea over coffee. Addicted. Harry ordered it for me everytime we stopped… And now it’s gone😢

That night also included an Epic Blanket Battle between the hotel owner and me over whether or not two blankets was, indeed, warm enough for the night, instead of my requested three or four. In the end, Harry secretly helped me get a third blanket, and although I was still cold, I survived and was able to sleep a little bit with three😚.

random lederhosen guy👍🏼

Watching the new day’s sunlight reflect off the world’s 7th highest mountain, Dhaulagiri, was amazing. Using my not-fit-for-trekking boots to go back down to Ghorepani from Poon Hill was not. I fell twice on the snow/ice.

these boots do not like snow and ice

The boots are super warm, but they have literally no tread. So, Harry and I went back to the hotel to gameplan. The rest of the day, on the path we were supposed to take, it was going to be a few hours of downhill on ice, and he could tell that I really didn’t want to do that. A girl who had been on that trail already told me there was nothing extraordinary about it. So, Harry suggested a different route, with only a little snow and ice. I WAS SO GRATEFUL FOR HIS HELP. I would’ve been stressed for hours trying to go downhill on ice in my boots! So, off we went towards Tatopani, which ended up being totally amazing and beautiful.☺️

lovely

farm land

not a bad view from their yard

(masala tea time)

mountain fried rice:)

When we stopped for lunch, I don’t know what happened, but HARRY DECIDED TO TAKE A NAP!? Unacceptable. (this is also the only time that he DIDN’T eat dal bhat for lunch… I thought he might be sick, so I checked to see if he had a fever… I think the no dal bhat and napping are related, but I have no way to prove it.)

Sleeping will not be tolerated. Jamjam, Harry!

And the mules in the yard next to the restaurant patio were napping too!?

I SAID – SLEEPING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!

No one listens.

beauty

Nepali traffic jam cam (aka silly western girl freak-out):

It doesn’t matter who or what you are, we all walk the same path. The sound of the bell and the hooves click-clacking on the rock is musical🎶.

orange trees below

sweetest oranges ever

still behind Harry😄

Soooo, walking up and down these mountains is hard enough with just my little pack. We constantly saw people transporting stuff like this:

these women are all ~60 yrs old

They have dried leaves in the baskets. It looks heavy, but is it?

this shit was HEAVY

Harry made me put it down really fast because he was afraid I was going to drop it… that’s how heavy it was, just to pick up! Let alone, walking up a mountain… let alone, being a 60-year-old woman!? I bet their neck muscles are really big.

THEN WE SAW MONKEYS.

nepal gray langur monkeys (I guess they like high altitude)

hello, friend

The scenery the rest of the way down to Tatopani was amazing…

temple on the edge

not ready, Harry

out of 5 pictures he took, this was the best one:/

amazing view from temple – worth the climb I’m sure

we’re going down there.

bridge walkers

kali gandaki gorge

crossing the gorge (harry, u should totally make this your facebook profile)

gandaki river

To this adorable little village in Tatopani just in time (my feet hurt and had blisters😆)! According to my iPhone app, we walked 8 miles and went up 104 flights of stairs. The day before, my iPhone was dead, so I couldn’t record how many flights of stairs we went up, but it was at least 400.😅

archery tournament!

We stayed at a place called Old Kamala Hotel, and there was still no heat, but it was sooo much warmer there than 4k feet higher; I was elated!

(masala tea time)

view from room

view from room

comfort

hotel, from the river

dhaulagiri mountain?

pano

hot springs too

omg, HUGE lemons!

please let me pick one…

always smile

Always smile… even after you accidentally kick a kid’s soccer ball over the cliff into a chicken coop😳.

harry always gave me this for dessert… so nice!

smoke in air, river in background, lone flower thrives

(masala tea time)

waiting for dinner

relaxing

night falls

End of trekking… bittersweet.

Next up: Rafting!