Peeling Away the Outside Layer – Part 4
Chomrong – Tadapani, Nepal
By Keith Hearne
The trek, the height, monsoon, as well as the dose that people seem to be getting are taking their toll I think. During the morning hours we trekked along paths and trails and took in more of what we had taken in yesterday from rivers to waterfalls and some quaint teahouses perched precariously on the mountainsides, overlooking the rice fields.
The morning was absolutely gorgeous. Most of us awoke at 5:45am or there about to see if we could get the clear views of Annapaurna and Machhapuchhre in the dawn sky. It was a pretty special site, a blanket of broken, cotton-like cloud washed over the deep bluish/purple bruised sky, with the Fishtail of Machhapuchhre and the gargantuan Annapaurna South sitting in the foreground of what looked like an oil painting of some kind. Through tired eyes we could see these peaks in their full glory. Some photos were taken and some of the atmosphere soaked up before returning to the sleeping bag for another hour, happy in the knowledge that I had just witnessed a site that I wouldn’t be forgetting very quickly. How wrong I was!
When we awoke an hour later the sun was high in the morning sky and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen and the peaks were a lot more impressive in the warm sunlight and just looked so much brighter. There was a brilliant luminous white glare from Annapaurna in the beating sunshine. It was amazing because I remember seeing the very peak of the same mountain through the cloud a day or two before, but now it was here right in front of me in its full glory and in the sweltering sunshine. You could put your wet t-shirt out on the table and in about 5-10 minutes it was dry, that’s how hot it was. For breakfast we had pancakes with honey and muesli with hot nak’s milk and it was damn good. After breakfast and before setting out we took our warm up in the courtyard, taking in a little Yoga with a ’salutation to the sun’ which Sarah kindly demonstrated to us. It seemed rather apt to be trying our hand at yoga in these surrounds.
The monsoon weather showed its face today. Ying and Yang, from the sunshine and heat we experienced in the morning time, which lasted all the way to lunch time, where we stopped in what is known to be, Maoist territory, to rain, and rain, and more rain. During our trek to the lunch point we passed a primary school up the mountains perched dangerously near a hillside that some of the monsoons had washed away, the nearest houses a good walking distance away. It was very humble as well. I think it consisted of about 3 classes with a blackboard and maybe six 2-seater benches in the rooms. As we sat down to take lunch, drops of rain started to fall from the sky and we all sat in the shelter and ate well. When we set off into the thickness of the undergrowth we all had our wet gear on and it rained until we stopped I think. That is basically what its like, in the morning you could have sweltering heat and come lunch time it starts to pour down with the heat still sticky around you. You put on your wet weather items but they don’t breath very well with the heat and you just end up sweating more.
During the rain we made our way up through the forest, and there was talk of science fiction novels as the forest reminded us of something like you might see out of Lord of The Rings. Gnarled old roots take shape from the ground, making walking difficult at times, and a lot of the branches are like knotted old hands reaching out to touch you. We climbed up through the jungle for hours, some people having the uneasy feeling of being watched. It was hinted at that there may have been Maoist’s watching us but this was never confirmed and could have just been the wet and damp cloaked forest playing tricks on peoples tired minds. We came out at Chomrong to a modest but very welcome teahouse at 2860m. At this stage I think most people were very tired and maybe the height was getting to some of us. One of the group went to bed shortly after we arrived and was shaking and feverish and wasn’t in the best way. One of the girls started to get what can only be described as slightly hysterical. She seemed distracted, light-headed and at times wasn’t with it at all but it was quiet funny for all involved to watch. At times she’d be laughing to the point of crying. But when you think that we were twice the height of Ben Nevis and most of us had probably never been up that high before, then it wasn’t surprising really. Despite all that though, the group dynamics are really getting good now, spirits are high, moral is good and everyone is getting on.
It was here that we came across the ingenious tables with the coal buckets and hanging blankets underneath. You have a table like any other but you have blankets hanging down to the floor all the way round the edges. The trick is that they put some hot ash in the buckets under the table and you sit in and put your feet and legs under the blanket and its just divine when you come in from trekking in the rain all day. Everyone loved it. It’s the simplest of things up here that work and that give you pleasure.
We met 21 year-old Jodi at this guesthouse, one of the most liberated and better looking Nepalese women we have come across yet. She seemed to get a lot of attention from a few of the group. When I say that she is liberated, I mean this in a sense that she doesn’t really act like any other of the woman that we’ve come across yet, and I’d say she could give any of the girls at home a run for their money as well. Most of the women that we have come across here are very modest and shy in ways. Even the woman that danced for us, when in the company of the men and the sherpa’s they don’t really make eye contact that much and don’t use body language, or openly flirt with the guys. Jodi was slightly different. It was obvious when Rabi took off his top, gesturing that she didn’t mind in the slightest. She also acted more open and talked a lot more and interacted better with us all. She was really nice though. I think it might have been down to the fact that she had been outside of Nepal before and had seen some of the world outside. I think the story is that a brother and sister from Melbourne were trekking up around here and met Jodi. The two of them apparently paid for Jodi to come over and stay in Australia for a month and she did. I asked her at one point weather she would like to go away again or live somewhere else and she said quiet honestly and quickly that she would not leave Nepal. Personally I don’t know that I could blame her. Some of the things that go on in towns and cities of the countries around the world seems a million miles away from this, and from living off the land and being self sufficient, where the people spread their seed and corn on the corrugated tin roofs to dry in the sun so they can store it for the coming months, and their warm tables, naks milk and bread. Probably wouldn’t sound very appealing to most people but it’s a whole different way of living and it does have its charm and allure.
