I managed to sleep to the late late hour of 3:15am this morning. But, I was rested. Jenny, Makaela, and I went in search of a bookstore for some postcard stamps. Fortunately, we didn’t find them, because they would not have sent anyway (still closed due to COVID). Speaking of COVID, one of our party has tested positive. Hopefully they’ll be feeling better soon (Paxlovid is on board).
Today we met our porters. We have 4 in addition to Bhola. They will carry the stuff we don’t need on the daily treks. They got all the bags loaded onto two SUVs.
Bags go on top. We are 14 people with the porters and Bhola.
We set off for a 7 hour drive to Syabrubesi, a village at about 4400 feet. It wasn’t that far away from Kathmandu, but the road (and traffic getting out of Kathmandu) made for pretty slow going.
Probably the biggest road we’ve been on.
Interesting fact…only the driver of the motorcycle has to wear a helmet.
A little temple
Little one headed to school.
Slowly leaving the city behind.
As we left Kathmandu behind, we started climbing. We would spend the day going up up up, then down down down. We had to stop at numerous military checkpoints.
The first checkpoint.
Ah…starting to see some mountains.
This was our first break at the top of the first long climb.
Three school boys heading off to school at the top of the long climb. Have no idea where the school was.
We came down down down to the Langtang river. Back up for a bit to where we stopped at a village to have lunch.
Our lunch restaurant.
Dal Baht for lunch. Much of it was too spicy for me, but the rice was good.
The view from the restaurant.
Marigolds are everywhere
Jenny enjoying the view and the sun
Sean wasn’t feeling well. He gets pretty bad motion sickness.
After lunch we continued to climb again. The road was very twisty turny, with quite a few vehicles. It’s also not a very wide road, which makes for some pretty tight squeezes.
Lots of these big trucks.
Coming into another small village.
Nice green house there.
At one point Bawa (for sure not spelled right), our driver, stops the car. Turns out we were where his mother lives! He gave her some fruit.
Bawa and his mom.
Jenny and John brought a bunch of markers and coloring books for the kids.
John taking a photo of a kid who just got a coloring book and a colored marker.
As we continued, the road was really deteriorated in many spots and almost always not much wider than one lane. We had a few moments where we would encounter vehicles coming the other direction with not enough room for the both of us. Sometimes with little room to back up. Yet, thanks to the driving talents of Bawa, we managed to squeak by every time.
Yep, that truck is very very close!
Meanwhile, the scenery is unbelievable! Here’s a few photos…
This is mustard seed.
So far down. The Langtang river is way down in the valley.
We would pass through small villages with Nepali people walking around, working, or just seeming to be enjoying the day.
Langtang Peak?
Woman herding cows.
Also saw goats.
Often saw women carrying large bundles.
Grass for cows.
This little dude…so cute!
Firewood
And the kids… We were stopped at a checkpoint at the entrance to Langtang National Park. They had to check all the bags, and we had to go with our bags into the building. One by one, they went through each bag. The only thing they seemed to be looking for were drones (interestingly, they didn’t search our daypacks). While I was taking a photo, after my bags were done, a group of school kids were coming up the road. They asked me to take their photo. Then they asked my name. They were having fun saying our names, and speaking English.
This is Samil. He was the most outgoing of the group. His English was pretty good!
From the checkpoint, we had about another hour to go to get to Syabrubesi. We had to go all the way down to the river via numerous switchbacks.
See the switchbacks?
Getting closer!
We crossed the river, then not long after, arrived at the village. Whew…we made it! First thing Jeff said when we got out of the SUVs was, “That was harder than any of the trekking we’ll be doing!”
Our hotel (apparently, there are several different spellings of the village name).
Me and Makaela’s room. We have a bathroom with a shower, but no hot water.
The view from the hotel.
Our hotel (apparently, there are several different spellings of the village name).
Me and Makaela’s room. We have a bathroom with a shower, but no hot water.
The view from the hotel.
We settled in, then went for a little walk to check out the village. At least it’s not possible to get lost here! Back at the hotel, we ordered our dinners with Bhola. I was going to have Momos and fried rice, but Bhola said it would be too much food, so I just got the momos (Veg and potato). They were good. John had ordered some noodle soup, but wasn’t feeling good after the bumpy 7 hours. I tried his soup and found it to be not spicy, so I ate some of that too. Bhola brought us a plate of apple slices and pomegranate seeds.
Makaela had Dal Baht
It was a good meal.
After dinner, we headed to bed. Even though this is an actual hotel, we are sleeping in our sleeping bags/quilts. Tomorrow we begin trekking.
Across from the hotel.
Goodnight from Nepal.
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