Day 1 Kathmandu -> Dunche (jeep)
I had a shaky start for the first day of our trek today. I felt terrible and was sick a few times last night. Just perfect for a day in a jeep! After a quick trip to the local pharmacy for antibiotics and imodium we secured all our luggage to the top of the jeep and bundled in with our guide, Santa and his elves (porters) Tilock, Robindrah and Baburam.
I was bitterly disappointed as Santa had decided not to wear his traditional costume. No shiny black shoes or sack in sight. He has opted instead for t-shirt, trousers and small backpack. The porters (elves) were not in costume either; no green felt in sight. I was tempted to just call the whole thing off.
We were in for an 8 hour bumpy drive to the start of the trek and we were a little concerned as Eva is not the best when the ride gets bumpy. Sometime during the journey we broke out the biscuits we had brought with us and offered them around. 'No, your fat' said Santa when he was offered one. Well, NO NEED FOR THAT I thought. We later worked out that he had said 'No, Dhal Bhat' - this was just after our lunch stop. A few hairy rockslides later we reached Dunche, a small town where we would be staying tonight and starting our walk from tomorrow..
Day 2
8.30am start with me on antibiotics we hiked along the road out of Dunche for about 40 minutes before turning off into the bush by the local school. There were bars on the windows, which was lucky because otherwise Eva would have been mobbed.
After the school the track continued steeply upwards through scented pine forest with flowering rhododendron, crickets, birds and 'mum can I have a polo' from Eva. Last night Santa and one of the elves fashioned what can only be described as a 'Hannah basket' from, well, a basket and some rope. Tilock drew the short straw and has been carrying the Hannah basket on his back, secured, as is done here in Nepal across his forehead.
We arrived at Thulo Syabru around 4.30pm and got shown our room in the 'Hotel Llama'. 160r for a bottle of water here. This morning a bottle cost 40! After buying one we discovered that the same water round the corner was on sale for 100. hmmm. Last time we were here we filtered all our drinking water. This time we didn't have room for the filter and so are currently at the sellers mercy. Not to mention that someone has to carry it all up the mountain, mineral water here is a terrible waste of plastic - it either gets burned or left on the mountain. They only sell 1l bottles and we need about 8 a day! I have asked Santa to look in the local 'shops' for water 'medicine' (purification tablets) but nothing yet. Our room tonight cost 600 - about $6US. We got a hot shower. bliss.
Day 3
Bit of a disastrous day. Eva started throwing up at breakfast while I was off looking for a wifi signal (we are in the middle of having a house built in the UK - lots to sort out!). I came back to find her mid flow. The day just got worse from there as she just couldn't keep anything down at all. The flies here are very annoying and are doing nothing to lighten our mood. We moved room as the wooden cell we originally had was just a fly trap. The 2nd, slightly higher one was not much better. Between clearing up bouts of diarrhoea and vomit I took solace in my book ('Daddy, why is there a sleeping man on the cover of your book? He's not sleeping Hannah, he's erm.. doing what Morrissey does..). Hannah's home schooling today consisted of her being the score keeper in the fly swatting competition. I won, 11 to 7.
We didn't get much sleep, even though we turned in at 8pm as Eva was still throwing up every few hours. It was not nice.
Day 4
Lazy day today watching Sponge Bob Square Pants on the iPhone, eating lots of the food we bought with us and generally praying that Eva gets better soon. Our contingency plan is to walk down to the nearest town tomorrow as apparently there is a doctor there.
By mid afternoon Eva was bouncing back (like Partridge). She has memorised most of the Spongebob movie and is annoying everyone with quotes. We have invented a great trekking recipe for strawberry milkshake - milk powder, water and strawberry tang. This morning our host here suggested she bring her father down to look at Eva. He is the local llama (doctor) - he can give her something to stop the vomit. We'll see how she is tomorrow.
Day 5 (12/05/14)
Everyone is in high spirits this morning - Eva making so much noise that she wakes everyone in the guesthouse up at 6.30am). We head off, very relieved at 8.30am down to the start of the Langtang valley proper!
We trekked down through bamboo forests and across the first of a few suspension bridges across the river. We are both on constant lookout for wild flowers to pick for the girls - they both seem happy in their respective carriers chatting and singing to themselves. We see the national bird and eat yummy orange coloured raspberry things (present from Santa, unwrapped).
We stopped at the river and had a paddle. The cold water was fantastic. We saw some monkeys playing in the trees as we left - we are in sub tropical forest now. We have a steep climb ahead of us.
We reached 'Bamboo' situated right on the roaring river for lunch and ordered ourselves omelettes and hot lemon.
We can see bees nests stuck to the side of a sheer cliff across the river from here. Some modifications to Hannah's basket were made by Santa and Robindra - she has almost slipped out a few times today. While we were eating lunch the girls go off in search of flowers and come back with lovely star leaves. I didn't tell them they were marijuana leaves. At Bamboo we met an American guy walking with his son (4.5) and grandmother. Apparently the son walks about 50% of the time. Hannah is at about 10% so a way to go yet. I managed to scrounge 10 water purifying tablets from some French trekkers coming down. Thanks French trekkers!
A hard uphill slog awaited us next. At about 3.30pm at a tea stop we met a crazy looking guy who had come all the way down from the top that day. I bought 20 water tablets from him for 400. That should save us (and the environment) a small fortune. We stopped at Rimche at 4pm. After checking into our cell we relaxed with some backgammon (thanks Carol!). The girls watched Spongebob for the 85th time on the phone. On the menu here they have Seabuckthorn juice! We loved this juice on the Annapurna circuit 7 years ago and was hoping it would be available here.
After a few questions it turns out that it is the crushed orange berries we ate earlier! Tilock carried Eva today and he is very good with her - he counts with her as they go up steps and every time she complains (which is a lot) he just copies the noises she makes. Momos, boiled eggs (Eva) and seabuckthorn for dinner. In the room afterwards Hannah managed to painfully kick herself in the eye. Room tonight was basically a wooden cell - it reminded me of the huts in New Zealand on the many treks we have done there.
Day 6 (13/05/14) Rimche -> Langtang
Seabuckthorn juice, porridge and honey bread for breakfast and then we left at 9am in good spirits. The valley has opened up and is full of wild flowers which keeps us busy on side missions to pick the best ones for the girls. Eva seems to be enjoying herself in her Kathmandu (the Australian outdoor shop) carrier and sings to us to keep us all motivated. At the first stop of the day we bought the girls some locally made jewellery and then at lunch Eva managed to drop hers between the floorboards. The friendly owner fished it out with a piece of bamboo. Hurrah
Jewellery retrieved we plodded on in search of the Yaks that were promised today (they are only really kept above 3000m). Lunch was at the 'Hotel Tibetan' in Ghodatabela, which is either at 3008m or 2972m, depending on which sign you read. After this we passed through some park security where Santa flashed our trekking permits.
We crossed 2 suspension bridges and then up, up, up. We could see Langtag village from quite a long way away and the distance was deceiving. Hannah walked for 40 minutes today - this came to an end when she stabbed herself in the stomach with her bamboo walking stick. A couple of local girls joined us the the last hour or so and finally we reached Langtang village. There were lots of nice looking places to stay but Santa keeps going until we reach the top of the village and the 'Village View Hotel' who's rooms were much the same as last night - small, wooden and unheated. They quoted a price of 500 for the room and I contemplated moving somewhere else - if not just to find out what the nicer looking places were like. The room price dropped to 200 and we suddenly notice the 2 girls that had walked up with us. They were obviously touts. word.
The dining room here is very nice once the fire is lit and we settle down to dinner, spongebob and backgammon. We have a western style toilet here which is pretty novel for the mountains (although the flush is non-functional). It is a special skill to be able to hold a small child over a squat toilet and wipe their bottom. Later in the trek we perfected a technique where by the child stands on the adults feet and holds their legs.
Day 7 (14/05/14) Langtang -> Kyanjin Gompa
We had a 460m ascent today upto 3870m.
We set off at 9am and were quickly met with an amazing mountain vista. The valley is opening up and it is very beautiful. There are wild flowers everywhere, much to the delight of the girls. We arrived at Kyanjin Gompa after 3 hours of up and we are shepherded through to a guesthouse of Santa's choosing. The room we were shown was just too small so I headed off by myself and soon found the 'Lovely Guesthouse' where Penzom, the landlord's wife showed us one of her two rooms. This place had carpet, a tiled toilet (with air freshener) and hooks on the walls (a pet gripe of mine - why would you not put hooks on the back of the door?) - it's the little things. Also the room itself was completely free (a first) and we had the place to ourselves. Couldn't be better. Santa didn't seem too happy about the move but heyho. It's our trek and we can choose where we want to stay.
Kerry went off for an explore (I stayed with Hannah as she had a headache) and came back with Yak cheese! This is another thing we remember from our previous time trekking in Nepal. Tastes great, but stinks. Soon everything stank of Yak. We found the Dorje bakery and managed to mask the yak smell by eating delicious chocolate cake. Eva was in her element and ate the majority of it.
We learned from Penzom that today is the Tibetan new year. Our landlord is the local llama (also seems to be the local barber) and is away today at some Buddhist ceremony. Their 2 boys live in Kathmandu so they can go to school there.
We are surrounded by mountains here. We can see the tops of glaciers from Langtang Himal, Langtang Lirung (7246m) and on our right is Kinshung.
Day 8 (15/05/14)
I was up at 4.40am this morning to head up the nearest 'ri' (viewpoint) with Santa. I thought this would be a fun thing to do and get me away from the seemingly endless task of wiping children's bottoms (over pony squatter toilets) for a few hours. The name of the viewpoint is Kyanjin Ri. After a bit of a shakey start with Kerry and a torch (I woke her up and wrongly accused her of having my torch), I got kitted up and headed outside. No Santa. I bashed on the door and shouted a bit and he appeared bleary eyed. I think he has forgotten to set his alarm. At 5am we start and I realised I was going to have to shift it to get up there before sunrise, but 40 minutes later this was obviously not going to happen.
We were heading up the saddle between 2 hillsides and I was confused as to exactly which high point we were heading for (there were a few visible) - An hour later, exhausted and scaling a slippery hillside I see Santa at the bottom of the valley to my left and I realise we are heading for completely different peaks! Given Santa is the guide I descended and made it to the (correct) ridge after about 2.5 hours, and the high point soon after.
The views up there were fantastic, as the morning sun on Himalayan peaks usually are. Prayer flags everywhere. Sanat told us yesterday what the 5 colours in the flags represented - Blue for sky, white for mountains, red for fire, yellow for mud and green for forest.
Santa and I hung around for at bit at the top and then headed down the ridge (a different way back) to a lower viewpoint that most people reach first (this viewpoint can be seen from the town). The views from here were equally as breathtaking and I could look down on what looked like a lego model of Kyanjin Gompa. I compared this photo to the one in our 2007 guidebook later, and it's amazing to see just how much the town has and is grown - it has doubled in size in 7 years and they are still very busy building here.
I got back at 8.30am to find the girls eating breakfast. After that we all went for a wander in the Yak meadow (horses bonking - Why is that horse trying to have a ride on that other horse? - Hannah) and then over to the bakery for some more chocolate cake action. Our new favourite lunch is garlic soup with cheese (yak) momo. The kids spent the rest of the day covering themselves in tiger balm (to prevent headaches - we think caused by the woodsmoke) and watching Spongebob.
Later we realised that we had both actually wanted to scale a different ri - Tsergo Ri at 4984m. Kerry decided that she would make the trip in the morning. When she asked Santa if he would accompany her he went straight to bed! Poor guy. Later I gave him our inflatable walking stick as a joke. He didn't see the funny side.
Cheese Momos
flour and water dough
lots of grated cheese inside
seal with water (like a cornish pasty)
shallow fry in soyabean oil
Garlic Soup
pre-chopped garlic (kept in a jam jar) - fry with little flour
veg stock cube
water and salt
boil.
Day 9 (16/05/14)
In Eva's dream last night we were all eaten by a giant ant. We managed to escape by swimming through the germs and out via the mouth.
Kerry headed off at 5am with Santa and Robindrah, leaving me to sort the girls. New technique for toileting them in a squat toilet is for them to stand on my feet - works well. We breakfasted (boiled egg, bread and honey) and then went horse riding! I negotiated a 60 minute ride with the guy in the opposite lodge for 1000r. They gave 'Karma' the horse a bowl of porridge and tea and then we were, well the girls were off! We did a few circuits of the town, the first few with the guide and then the rest with me guiding the horse. Occasionally Karma decided he wanted a rest and wouldn't shift until he was ready. That was fine, we had plenty of time.
Kerry arrived back just after midday, almost spot on the 7h that our host told us it would take. She said she was blown away by how beautiful it was up there. Santa even brought back some snow/ice for the girls and they had great fun throwing it at me and putting it down each other's backs.
Hannah and Eva made some perfume out of some water, pine foliage and some dried twigs that smelt like cinnamon. At lunch I found our host cleaning what looked like tubers with a toothbrush. Each one turned out to be a mummified caterpillar with a fungus growing out of the top of it's head! This was possibly the strangest thing we had ever seen. In Tibetan this is called something like 'Yatsa Gumbo' (meaning literally 'summer mushroom, winter insect'). I googled this later and it is actually a thing. He laboriously finds these in the mountains above 4300m and sells these to Chinese business men for about 400r a pop. They eat them - natural viagra or something..
In the afternoon we ate chocolate cake and marvelled at how the balloons I had brought with us drop like stones at this altitude. For the past few evenings Robindrah has been playing and chatting with Eva. Tonight we discovered that he has a baby of his own. He showed Kerry some photos of his family on his 1980's phone with Eva saying 'Is his family dead?' Luckily Robindrah's english isn't that good.
One of the problems with trekking with kids is that we never get any time to ourselves. We have a kindle with us stuffed with kids books but getting Hannah to actually read it by herself is hard. Eva is even more demanding - understandably so, of course; we have taken them from a world of gadgets, toys, flat screens and disney on demand to somewhere where the only things to play with are stones, horse hair and dead flies. One escape I have discovered is that I can (using a head scarf) attach earphones to Eva's head and pipe the wiggles in (her favourite track '5 little joeys' on repeat) - she dances for a considerable length of time before getting bored.
Tomorrow we have decided to leave this high place of wonder and return down the valley to where the normal people live.
Day 10 (17/05/14) Kyanjin Gompa - Llama Hotel
First thing we paid up (11,200, about $130US!) and had breakfast (last one here so we treated ourselves to a chocolate pancake - the most expensive thing on the menu at 400). We set off at 9am and said goodbye to our hosts. Penzom had expressed an interest in some of our sunscreen (for when she has to cross the pass) - we left her with a half full bottle as a leaving pressy.
We made much faster progress today as it was mainly downhill. Robindrah was lagging behind a little and we learnt that dried rhododendron flowers made into a tea is good for diarrhoea - he has been collecting them today. We had lunch at Chamki (more boiled eggs for Eva, veg momo, cheese mono and tomato omelette for Hannah). It was a long afternoon mostly downhill to Llama Hotel where we negotiated a free room at the Jungle View Guesthouse. After seeing the prices on the menu we were glad we did. A couple of hot lemons later we were relaxed. We defended over 1000m today!
I am finally able to crack a smile again. For the last few days (after my early morning adventure) my lips have been very chapped and bleeding and smiling was painful. I look pretty miserable in all the photos :) The lip salve we have has a picture of Ariel the mermaid on and is made by disney - it's not the best.
Day 11 (18/05/14) Llama Hotel - Syabrubesi
We set off at 8.30am and in an hour we were back at Bamboo. We had a Nepali lesson from Santa over a cuppa. We gave him words and he translated them for us. It took about 10 minutes to get the translation for 'unicorn'.
At 12.30 we stopped at Pairo (1800m). At one point Santa climbed a tree and came down with a handful of red berries which were very tasty - if you remembered to spit out the large stone in the centre - he called these 'Karpol'. We have decided to cut out trek short and head back to Kathmandu instead of carrying on with the trek for another 9 days. We knew there was a high pass and then a few days of low, hot walking in store and we thought the kids might enjoy getting back to their creature comforts. By about 4 we reached Surabese where we found a nice hotel and stayed the night. The next day we took a jeep back to Kathmandu
Back in Kathmandu
We stayed just under another week in Kathmandu (at the Tasi Dhargy Inn in Thamel), before it all got too much. We learnt to deal with the power blackouts, started eating some meals in the hotel (we feel like the major from Faulty Towers) and bought fresh lychees from the street vendors ($4US for 1kg)
Money - We haven't come across any coins yet, and the lowest denomination note we have come across is 5 rupees (about 5 cents) - these get disgusting and some stink. I find myself using hand sanitiser on my hands each time I have to dig through these nasty notes.
Trekking in Nepal with young kids is a fantastic, rewarding experience... until they get sick that is... then is becomes incredibly stressful. Mandatory items to bring are water purification tablets, toilet roll, wet wipes, hand sanitiser, a few toys, chocolate, sweets and nappies. Also, know the signs of altitude sickenss. A headache is not necessarily anything to worry about - you just have to be very careful.
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