Holy Himalaya

Our trek in the Himalaya mountains was awesome! When we left our lakeside cottage in Pokhara with our guide K.B. and our porter, who happens to be K.B.’s dad, it was fogged in and hard to see the mountains.

Our first day was relatively easy. We trekked about 4 hours among rice terraces and little villages. We ended our day in the pretty mountain town of Hille and checked in to our first teahouse, Mamta’s. The sun was shining. We rested and started talking with some great ladies from Portugal. Then we enjoyed a nice dinner of Dal Bhat, a traditional Nepalese dish with rice, lentil soup and vegetables. The Nepalis believe it will give them 24 hour power.

We were warned that day two was very tough, and when we started climbing
the endless hours of steps I realized they were right. 3300 long steps
later we finished the trek with a beautiful walk through the jungle. As
we took our final step in to Ghorepani, we stood in awe at the beautiful
Annapurna South peak. It looked so close that we could almost touch it.
We ducked into Snow Land Teahouse, where we were warmed by a wonderful
fire and spent the night. Believe it or not we also found popcorn on the
menu here.

The next day we woke up at 4:30 to summit Poon Hill
which is over 10,000 feet. We reached the top at sunrise for the best
view of the Annapurna mountain range. My personal favorite of this range
is Fish Tail Mountain, which actually looks like a fish’s tail. We
started off to the village of Tadapani for the next 5 hours. When we got
there we realize my dad had lost his wallet. The only place it could be
was a 2 hour trek back to where we had lunch. Dad decided to go back,
but half way there a Nepali woman greeted him and pulled out his wallet.
She was our angel!!! My dad came back dripping with sweat, but he had a
smile on his face which meant he had good news. We were all so
relieved.

We finished the night having a cup of tea with new
friends from France and looking at the sunset. All of us were feeling
the pain, but also a sense of accomplishment. On our fourth night we
picked the Hotel Milan in Gandruk, it had great views and a big patio.
The owner reminded me of my Grandpa. We finish the night with a family
card game of War. (I won!) Our final day was just 4 hours and all of us
wished for more because we were sad to see it come to an end.