Trekking Langtang Valley, Nepal

The stair stepper at the gym has nothing on the Himalayas. Our butts and legs are toned and in shape. We'd like to thank nearly every hotel in Southeast Asia for putting us on the top floor with no elevator. The training regimen of continually going up and down the stairs multiple times a day really paid off. We can't promise many pictures or any at all in the blog because we are posting this one via the cell phone. The tablets are struggling with the Internet power at this hotel. Here is our adventure day by day. We will have many pictures to share when we get home.

Sunday
We met our guide to discuss where we were going and to establish a knowledge of each other. Upon meeting our guide, he told us that we were signed up for the Helambu trek. We told him that was incorrect and that we paid to do the Langtang Valley trek. He called the boss and the boss said that's ok for us to do the Langtang Valley trek. We also told him that we changed hotels because when we arrived back from Chitwan, our previous hotel was full. Our guide said the bus leaves early so be ready by 7am.

Day 1 Monday
We were ready by 7am and no guide showed up. Around 7:20ish, we called the boss and asked him where is our guide. He said the first guide had a problem so he sent another. Within 10 minutes "Sam" showed up. Sam was sent by the boss man to our previous hotel and was waiting for us there. Clearly, our message with the first guide was never translated to the right person. Plus, Sam showed up thinking we were doing the Helambu trek also. What a mess! Sam called the boss man and we went to the bus park to go to Syaphrubesi (pronounced "See-a-pru-besi") where the trek begins. Sam was so nice and we felt instantly comfortable with Sam for the first moment we met him. We missed the tourist buses to Syaphrubesi and the only bus left was the local bus to a town called Dhunche (pronounced "Dune-chay").  Sam did all he could and we got on the bus. We even got seats! There were people sitting and standing everywhere, including on top of the bus. We stopped at all the little towns to transport people.  The ride also included various police and military check points along the way. Army personnel would board the bus and slither their way through the people touching various bags and looking for anything suspicious. However, their process wasn't very thorough. That something they were looking for could have bit them on the nose and they wouldn't have found it. We stopped for lunch at a road side place and Dal Bhat was served. Dal Bhat is a Nepali set meal that includes rice, curry with potatoes and cauliflower, lentil soup and sometimes green cabbage almost spinach type leaves. It is good and comes with refills for free. Sam told us "Dal Baht power for 24 hour". After lunch, we took a nap and woke up with three huge drums of gasoline next to us. We thought a farmer brought the drums on to take home, but we found out it was for the bus to go back to Kathmandu. The bus ride took a long time, like usual, but this time the road was only dirt for sections. The road is washed away every year in June and July from heavy rain on the cliff side so that meant a really bumpy ride. The music consisted of Indian and Nepali music, but we did get "Baby" from Justin Beiber and "Waka Waka" from Shakira thrown in the mix. We made it to Dhunche and had to spend the night there because we couldn't hitch a ride to Syaphrubesi with a truck or jeep.

Day 2 Tuesday
We slept really good. The blankets were super thick and warm. We had Tibetan bread with and omelette for breakfast. We started walking on the road and made it to the next town in an hour and a half. Our time was already short on the trail so we needed to get on the trail today, but still had about 2 hours of walking to get to Syaphrubesi. We paid a guy $13 to drive us on his motorcycle to Syaphrubesi so we could get there sooner. We all made it and started on the trail. We passed through beautiful scenery and saw cows, monkeys, and lengurs. We made it to Lama Hotel for the night. Dhunche was around 2000 meters in elevation. Syaphrubesi was around 1600 meters and we climbed up to 2400 meters to Lama Hotel. We walked through the bamboo forest and saw many porters. One porter was 60 years old and carrying more than 35 kgs of potatoes. Sam told us that many porters hike this trail multiple times a week.

Day  3 Wednesday
It rained during night which meant it snowed up higher. It was fun to walk through the snow sprinkled forest as we climbed higher. All of the people who occupy the little villages we passed through are Tibetan. The Tibet border was only around 20km from where we were. The farther we walked, the better the views got. We had lunch in a small village called Thangshyap (Pronounced "Tong-Shep"). As we passed through each village, Sam would be haggled by the women of each tea house and restaurant because we wouldn't stop to buy something or to stay.  We made it to Langtang Village around 3pm. It was somewhat surreal because Langtang Village sat at 3500 meters which is nearly the same as King's Peak, but there was still mountains above us. At our tea house, we taught the Nepali guides and hotel owners how to play spoons.

Day 4 Thursday
We woke up early, left our bags in Langtang and went up the trail to Kyanjin Ghomba. Kyanjin Ghomba sits at around 3800 meters. It took about 2 hours, but we made it. It was so beautiful! At the village of Kyanjin Ghomba, there are two cheese factories where Yak cheese is produced. Production wasn't in progress, but we were able to buy a little bit. Yak cheese tastes somewhat like Parmesan cheese. Salty and brittle, but good. We wished we could have spent more time up there. It was amazing. On the way up, we passed a group of nearly 30 Chinese people going down the trail. Chinese people are possibly the rudest and loudest people on earth.
We finished and went back down to Langtang Village, grabbed our bags, and continued down to go back to Lama Hotel. On our way down, we caught back up to the Chinese eating lunch. When we stopped for lunch a few of the Chinese passed us. It became a race to reach the best hotel at Lama Hotel.  When we arrived at Lama Hotel, we found that the Chinese won the race. Every room was full at the good hotel. We stayed at another hotel near by and still survived.
We are super pleased with what we were able to accomplish with the short time we have in Nepal. Our friend from Nepal we met in Vietnam said the fist time we visit Nepal is magical and he was correct. What a beautiful place! On trail, we passed the oldest porter we had seen on trail. She was carrying a small load in a basket tied around her head and began begging us for eye medicine. We felt terrible because we had nothing to give her. After hearing her plea, Sam told us to just keep walking. It broke our hearts that she wanted something we couldn't help her with.

Day 5 Friday
We had a slower start today because we had the big segment done with and were just needing to get back to Syaphrubesi. The Chinese beat us again as they were gone before we even woke up. We never saw them on trail, but we did cross paths with some other people we had previously met earlier in the week. We reached Syaphrubesi at 3pm and let's just say that both of us were smelling super fresh, Shelley taking the trophy on that one. She was smelling terrible while Spike smelt like rose blooming in Spring. Spike finally showered and we tried to help Sam open his Yahoo account. Sam forgot his password and all his friend and contacts he has for work are in his Yahoo account. We couldn't help him, but we are going to order him some business cards when we arrive back in the US so he can get more business.
Shelley was hungry so she ordered an apple pie and to her surprise an entire pie came out about 25 minutes made from scratch. She are the entire pie which was the size of a plate. The normal routine after dinner is to write down what you want for breakfast and what time you want it for the kitchen to make it. We watched a Nepali guide try to speak in his broken English to two Chinese men who don't speak English , asking them what they want for breakfast. They pointed at the menu at Dal Bhat. The guide said, "Dal Bhat for breakfast." Sam busted up laughing. The Chinese men then used their phone to translate chowmein. The guide eventually just ordered them apple pancakes, fried eggs and tea.

After another long and bumpy bus ride, we have made it back to Kathmandu.

A little about Sam...

Sam's real name is Gobinda Dhakal. He was given the nickname Sam by tourists. He grew up in a hilltop village that is a two day walk from the nearest point the bus reaches. His family was poor and couldn't afford to send him to secondary school so he became a porter at the age of 17. Seven years later he became a licensed guide by the Nepal Government. Sam is 32 now and was so much fun to talk to.  We learned much about the culture and the people from him. He is so good to his family, as he sends home all his extra money to them instead of buying nicer equipment or clothes. Sam wore the same clothes the entire time he was with us. We fell in love with Sam and hope these business cards can help him in the future.