Elevation gain: 7600’ to 8760’ (+1160’)
Estimated miles: 10km
Time: 9am-3:30pm
Today was easier hiking than yesterday, although the bruises being caused by my bag on my hip and collar bones are almost impossible to ignore now. Every movement results in pain, very deep pain. I think by bones might even be bruised. Our packs are heavy, and it is possible I am carrying too much weight. But oh well, off we were to climb higher into the mountains.
For much of the trek thus far we have marveled at how far we are from a road, especially a paved road, and yet homes and rice paddies are dotting the hillsides. To us in America this would be pristine wilderness, in maybe a scary way to some - more than 2 full days walk to a road. Yet here, this is where the Nepali live. They are not here like our national park rangers in their cute cottages or huts waiting to help out tourists; rather, they would be here with or without us. They have been farming these hillsides in a sustainable manner for what could be 100s of generations, and will probably continue to do so long after the rest of the world has transformed yet again into whatever it shall become. None of that matters here.
After hiking for a few days along little villages scattered into the hillsides, one can imagine our surprise at finding a HUGE village high up in the mountains. Not only was Chame bustling with children running around, people gambling and playing in the streets, but there was also a bank (where yes, one can withdraw money from their foreign accounts), an elementary school, a health clinic, and every type of knock-off NorthFace gear one can envision.
One the way to Chame, we saw some amusing events. A mile or so before Chame we were walking up a rather long yet wide path of stone steps, and down from the top comes a local man. We see quickly that he is drunk and stumbling around a bit, but no big deal. Well, then he stumbles off the side of the steps and falls into the bushes. He looks at us with a sheepish grin, slowly pulls himself out, decides descending on his feet would be too dangerous, so we starts to slide down on his rear end. I wish we had a photograph, but like all great moments it was over too quickly.
About half a mile after that two men riding ponies came trotting quickly down the trail towards us. As we moved aside to let them pass we saw that the second rider was being led by the first rider - he was so drunk it appeared all he could do was hold on tight and grin widely as he rode by. It was so silly.
Once we got to Chame we realized this was the last day of a week long festival, and everyone had been drinking, a lot. Hehe.
That night several amazing things occurred (as if the two drunks from earlier we not entertaining enough). First were the sunset views on the mountains, above. This was our first view of Annapurna II. Truly incredible.
But perhaps even more amazing was what was on TV. Seeing that Chame was a large town, and despite our staying at a tea house at the far end off the path, there was electricity, hot showers, and yes, a TV. The locals were watching a movie. All I could do was let my jaw drop and laugh. It was men dressed in Nepali Army fatigues, with guns and helmets and the whole military get up, but they were singing. Like in a musical. All in chorus. Using the guns as props, and hanging off each other.
Apparently, the plot of the movie was such: The government had not allowed these soldiers to take the national holiday off (very important in Nepal; when asked how many holidays there were each year, one Nepali smiled and said, “365 of course!”). Since the soliders were forced to stay in their camp, they decided to celebrate the holiday themselves. By singing and cajoling each other.
Our amusement was simple: if American soldiers ever did this, they’d surely get they asses kicked. (videos have been removed for better page loading)
A few minutes after the video ended, we went back to our meals. Almost immediately we noticed a rat up on the rafters, running along the edge, and then, like a skilled acrobat who had done a jump so many times before, the rat made a jump from one rafter to the other, only, it didn’t make it, and tumbled all the way to the ground. We all were rolling in laughter.
It had been one of those days.
The next morning, Griffin noticed something fun: the plastic chairs in the courtyard had the Statue of Liberty engraved on them. We amused that we did not think the chairs could physically be further from their image.
