We woke up and saw the sun rise against Annapurna II – absolutely amazing! There was the smallest bit of snowfall from the night before on the tables outside and it was damn cold, but at least there was only a little bit of wind.
Mountains, mountains, mountains!!! We took it a bit easier
today, which worked out well because of the amazing views and Wendy’s sore
hip. I took a little more weight from her, but she kept insisting it was
because of the stairs, not weight, that was the problem.
As we hiked winding paths of small rocks, through peoples’
fields and then scrub forests, we saw more and more incredible mountains. At
one point, we could see Annapurna II (7937m/ 26,040ft), Annapurna IV (7525m/
24,700ft), Gangapurna (7454m/ 24,455ft), Annapurna III (7555m/ 24,800ft), and
Annapurna I (8091m/ 26,550ft) - or maybe it was Khangsar Kang (7485m/ 24,900ft)
– I could not be sure. We were speechless.
The route was not tough, a little up and down, but Wendy’s
hip hurt a bit and that worried us, so we went slowly. She refused to give me
any weight, so I slowly took it – first the sunscreen, then the water bottle. I
think it helped.
In Manji, we passed shops advertising yak cheese, yak yogurt
& seabuckthorn juice. We passed them up but could not walk past the one
with cinnamon rolls in the window. The guy asked us if we wanted them heated. I
hesitated & looked around, but then saw the microwave! Yes, at 3500m and
5days walk from a big town, we had a fresh baked cinnamon roll heated in a
microwave!
We got to visit an amazing 500-600yr old gompa in Braka
Village. We found the caretaker after 5 min of waiting and he let us in and
pointed us around a bit in his jilted English. We got to see all 3 levels,
including: the big prayer hall, the big Buddha room, and the little Buddha in a
steeple. It was a private tour as we followed him on his round of twice-daily
prayers and ceremony. He blessed us after our donation in a giant metal safe
(which I am glad I didn’t carry up the mountain!). It was a very cool
experience!
With dinner, I tasted seabuckthorn juice, a local specialty
that apparently has a higher vitamin C content than any other berry. It tasted
ever-so-slightly fermented, but was not bad. We also had pan-fried
potato-veggie burgers smothered in a mushroom garlic sauce with fries – wow!
You could definitely taste the tourists’ influence in Braka. There were too
many other hikers bragging about their exploits around the fire, so we retired
to our room for hot toddies and quiet time.
We woke up early to watch the first rays of sun falling on Annapurna II. After breakfast we packed our chapatti and omelet lunch and took off. On the way out of town, we saw a snow avalanche on the high face of the mountain
There is something
very freeing to wake up in the morning, decide where you want to walk that day,
put what you need on your back, and not worry about where you will sleep until
you get there.
Cultural
over-sensitivity - We’ve read in several places that you should always walk
clockwise around any of these monuments, even if it means walking off the
trail. We’d also been warned that people eat strictly with their right hand.
Left hand is for the ambiguous ‘ablutions’, which is a euphemism for toilet
paper. Not only eating with the
left hand should be avoided, but also you should never hand something to
another person with your left hand. So we’ve been carefully walking clockwise
around stupas and sitting on our left hands while we eat. Yesterday we saw a
lady mixing her rice and lentils with her left hand – when I say mixing I mean
running the rice and lentils through her fingers as if she was sifting for
something. Today we watched two guys and a sheep between them going the wrong
way round a prayer wall.
My hip was very sore
today so that slowed us down a bit. I am now a strong believer in trekking
poles. After lunch, Patrick tied the empty plastic bags onto his waist strap
and we started to pick up trash (this is apparently genetic). Trash was mostly
red bull cans.
As we go up, the trees
get shorter, the animals get shorter and shaggier – cows, goats, dogs – all
squat and very shaggy at 3600 meters. We walked into a tiny village just before
Braga where a restaurant offered filter coffee and cinnamon rolls. We went in
and got a cinnamon roll to go, warmed in the microwave. We are really roughing
it!!
All day long as we
followed the valley, we had sweeping views of Annapurna II, III and IV.
We arrived in Braga
and picked the Hotel New Yak. The shower was hot as advertised. View was
awesome. Near sunset, we walked up the hill to a 500 year old Buddhist
monastery (locals date it as 900 years old). The main prayer room was guarded
by a fierce protector god statue. We walked past 2 prayer wheels larger than a
man and into a hall with after row and row and dozens of shelves lined with
statues of Buddha in different representations and different poses. All were
brightly painted, but many were more than 600 years old under the fresh coat of
paint. The influence of the Hindu pantheon and representation of gods was
evidence by the many-armed statue representations of Buddha and fierce
paintings. Seeing those Buddha statues – dozens lined up in the same pose but
with different human features – certainly made me think about why God forbids
images of himself. If you create a statue of God, you may make him look like
someone you admire or love, then that person becomes the object of your
worship. You may make the statue look like you and indulge in self-worship or
deliberately make it NOT look like you because you don’t like yourself and
actually deny the image of God in you.
Patrick asked if we
could get yak meat or yogurt for dinner. The hotel owner told us that the local
yak herders make butter and sell the butter in Katmandu. People believe it has
healing powers and you rub it on your skin as well as eat it. Yak cheese is
made in Letdar and comes back to the region via Katmandu.
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