Three of us went for a summit of Island peak in April, 2011. There were quite a few things which stood apart from journey & the people who we met on the way. This post is dedicated to those things/incidents/thoughts etc. Even after completing the summit & coming back to our daily routines, these incidents are still vivid in my memory.
Masala Tea- I am a big tea lover & given an option would always stick to it instead of any other beverage. While trying the same on multiple occasions in the mountains, I saw the concept of 'masala tea' being taken to a different level. Generally it means tea with combo of masala like cardamom, cloves, saffron, etc. But in Nepal it differs according to altitude plus whims & fancies of people who make it. At Thyangboche it was milk tea with black pepper, which he actually added in front of me for more effect. Even before i could say what the heck are you doing he did what he wanted to do hand over the cup to me with a winning smile on his face. Guess he added a new item on him menu that day, improvisation some would call it. At Dingboche, it was a concoction of milk tea and garlic soup, yes you read it right. Had never tasted anything as weird as that in my life. But the people there were so accommodating & nice, that before leaving not only did i finish it but also gave compliment for the same. If you are into weird combination's, you must give this a shot. At most of the places they would just bring the regular tea, when asked for 'masala tea'. The variation would be sometimes it would be with milk & sometimes it wouldn't.
But at some place u do get awesome masala tea, and it would be injustice if I do not mention about them here. Everest bakery in Namche bazaar would be a place where you can get a good 'Masala Tea' but the best of the lot would be lodge above helipad in namche bazaar where we went for acclimatisation. Do not remember the name, but I had the best Masala tea of the trip here. Also it was the only place I know of which if requested, would prepare & serve 'Masala Coffee'. For uninitiated masala coffee is something which Jap is extremely fond of. Look at his face just as they accepted his order, never seen him happier.
Bridges- There are umpteen number of bridges which would come en-route, as you would approach your destination. Primary reason being you would keep going up & coming down as you would have to shift from one town to another. And most of the towns are separated by water bodies. At times its frustrating to go up reach a town, again come down cross a bridge & start walking up again. Now on all those occasions of crossing a bridge, which is nothing short of a joy ride as it moves up, down & sideways, I felt like spending more time on the bridge. Not only it's fun to balance without support but also the views are always awesome. You can look down at the water flowing at incredible speed with greenery all around.
Or you can look at all the beautiful mountains which are visible, mostly through mist.
Random thoughts occupies the mind while looking at water flowing below. Like what would happen if someone falls down, what would combination of rocks & fast flowing water do to his/her body. Or how easy it would be to reach the destination if we go by water, more so as our guide was supposedly one of the best rafter before he started trekking. It was always good just to stand there in midst of nice breeze & great views and just relax.
Snooker- Never thought my first game of snooker would be played at 4000 mts. At quite a few towns there were snooker/pool tables on the way. Jap & daniel did play at Dingboche cafe, but i had to wait till Pangboche to play my first snooker game.
To say I suck at it, would be an understatement but thankfully Jap reduced my embarrassment just by being there. Before playing any shot he would check at what angle the ball needs to be hit to be pocketed, more often than not ball would go in all possible real & imaginary angles barring the one which was calculated by our trigonometry expert. While we were playing there was a decent crowd who were there having time of their life at our expense. And i was not ready to leave the game mid way. In the end we were so embarrassed that we asked couple of local stud player to finish the game for us, and within couple of minutes they emptied the board. Though I lost the game, it was one of the memorable moments from the trip :)
Dzopko/Yaks- They would come out of nowhere when you would be least expecting them. You would be trying to cross a bridge, wide enough for one human being to cross, and you will find a Dzopko(a yak-cow crossbreed) or Yak coming from the other side.
Since we are supposed to be smarter than animals & normally we don't have horns, naturally we would have to accept defeat and move back. At all the difficult stretches & all thin paths, you are bound to have encounters with a group of Yaks/dzopkos. But than there are times when you are so tired that you are happy to see them, as they pass while giving you ample time to rest.
29 ROCKS- We were taught lot of card based games on the way, like briskcola, shithead, etc but none of these games could match the charm of 29.
Everyone who got a lesson on this game, got hooked on to it. We taught the game to a number of foreigner tourists, our guide & guide's friend, hence at no point on the trip were we short of 4 people to play the game. Because of twenty-nine, our late afternoon & evenings were always fun.
Supro's treat- On the way back, at Namche bazaar we had a pre-decided treat at the expense of supro. Even though he started paying tax back in UK, we still do not miss on any opportunity to get treats from him and this one was for his b'day which just passed a few days back. After putting up with no appetite, sad food, less options, nausea, etc, this just opened the flood gates and we went for the kill. We ordered black forest pastry, cheese cake, apple pie, cheese sticks & needless to mention I ordered masala tea along with it. We also took coconut cookies for the road. Incidentally the place was the same cafe where me & jap had bought the cake for supro's b'day last time after convincing the chef for a good 15 mins. They were now making b'day cakes at a notice period of 30 mins.
Discussions on India- Most of the people who come to Nepal, either come via India or plan to visit India next. All of them had lots of question to ask & lots of POVs/experiences to share. Many asked about caste, regionalism, religion, places to visit, places of worship, etc. But there was one conversation which is still stuck in my head. We met a danish girl at Dingboche on the way down, and she was coming via India. They were traveling in small groups, and the experiences were nothing to write home about. She was so pissed & so was I after she narrated what all she went through during her visit to North India. It was understandable why she was so annoyed while talking about her experiences in India, as it comprises of harassment, molestation attempts, etc. There were a few more who shared bad experiences in Agra, Delhi, Mumbai, etc. Guess we can learn a lot from our small neighboring country. People in Nepal are just too good, especially in the mountains. Long way to go before we become a great tourist destination, till then we need to continue the 'atithi deo bhava' campaigns.
Amazing 'youngsters'- It was amazing to see young high school pass outs traveling on their own while being on a year long break. And we met quite a few of them, some in their early twenties & some below twenty. Cant remember even crossing state on my own when I was below twenty. As if this was not enough, we also met quite a few sherpa's who were a good 4-5 yrs younger to us & had already summitted Everest multiple times. It was really nice to meet all these youngsters, even though they made me feel slightly old.
Seabuckthorn Juice-
For some reason coming across seabuckthron juice at Pangboche gave us lots of happiness. And jap celebrated this happiness by ordering 3 back-2-back glasses. I was pretty contented with one glass & supro maintained his sulky mood in the 2nd half of the journey as he decided to give it a miss.
Squatting toilets- I don't know what is the reason behind it, but beyond certain altitude the WCs are not to be found. And all that you have is squatting toilets. Squatting anyways is not an easy thing for people who are out of practice, but with sub-zero temperature & 3-4 layers of clothing it becomes a nightmarish task to perform. Invariably people kept on mentioning each other that whole day of trek in difficult terrains is still easier than 5 minutes spend inside the toilet. As quite a few things are changing very fast in Nepal for good, this is one change I want to happen before my next visit.
New & improved Nepal- The place has changed from last time we were around there was connectivity almost everywhere below Dingboche. It helped as Jap had to make lots of calls to 'foreigners' back home & had to receive lots of calls from work. At Chukkung the lights just outside the lodge had motion sensors, at that height last time we didn't even found electricity but this time it was all changed.
Jap had to finish some official work on the way, and throughout he had pretty decent access to internet. He actually spend more than couple of hours working in Namche Bazaar with uninterrupted internet. Connectivity was no longer an issue in new & improved Nepal.
Masala Tea- I am a big tea lover & given an option would always stick to it instead of any other beverage. While trying the same on multiple occasions in the mountains, I saw the concept of 'masala tea' being taken to a different level. Generally it means tea with combo of masala like cardamom, cloves, saffron, etc. But in Nepal it differs according to altitude plus whims & fancies of people who make it. At Thyangboche it was milk tea with black pepper, which he actually added in front of me for more effect. Even before i could say what the heck are you doing he did what he wanted to do hand over the cup to me with a winning smile on his face. Guess he added a new item on him menu that day, improvisation some would call it. At Dingboche, it was a concoction of milk tea and garlic soup, yes you read it right. Had never tasted anything as weird as that in my life. But the people there were so accommodating & nice, that before leaving not only did i finish it but also gave compliment for the same. If you are into weird combination's, you must give this a shot. At most of the places they would just bring the regular tea, when asked for 'masala tea'. The variation would be sometimes it would be with milk & sometimes it wouldn't.
Bridges- There are umpteen number of bridges which would come en-route, as you would approach your destination. Primary reason being you would keep going up & coming down as you would have to shift from one town to another. And most of the towns are separated by water bodies. At times its frustrating to go up reach a town, again come down cross a bridge & start walking up again. Now on all those occasions of crossing a bridge, which is nothing short of a joy ride as it moves up, down & sideways, I felt like spending more time on the bridge. Not only it's fun to balance without support but also the views are always awesome. You can look down at the water flowing at incredible speed with greenery all around.
Random thoughts occupies the mind while looking at water flowing below. Like what would happen if someone falls down, what would combination of rocks & fast flowing water do to his/her body. Or how easy it would be to reach the destination if we go by water, more so as our guide was supposedly one of the best rafter before he started trekking. It was always good just to stand there in midst of nice breeze & great views and just relax.
Snooker- Never thought my first game of snooker would be played at 4000 mts. At quite a few towns there were snooker/pool tables on the way. Jap & daniel did play at Dingboche cafe, but i had to wait till Pangboche to play my first snooker game.
Dzopko/Yaks- They would come out of nowhere when you would be least expecting them. You would be trying to cross a bridge, wide enough for one human being to cross, and you will find a Dzopko(a yak-cow crossbreed) or Yak coming from the other side.
29 ROCKS- We were taught lot of card based games on the way, like briskcola, shithead, etc but none of these games could match the charm of 29.
Supro's treat- On the way back, at Namche bazaar we had a pre-decided treat at the expense of supro. Even though he started paying tax back in UK, we still do not miss on any opportunity to get treats from him and this one was for his b'day which just passed a few days back. After putting up with no appetite, sad food, less options, nausea, etc, this just opened the flood gates and we went for the kill. We ordered black forest pastry, cheese cake, apple pie, cheese sticks & needless to mention I ordered masala tea along with it. We also took coconut cookies for the road. Incidentally the place was the same cafe where me & jap had bought the cake for supro's b'day last time after convincing the chef for a good 15 mins. They were now making b'day cakes at a notice period of 30 mins.
Discussions on India- Most of the people who come to Nepal, either come via India or plan to visit India next. All of them had lots of question to ask & lots of POVs/experiences to share. Many asked about caste, regionalism, religion, places to visit, places of worship, etc. But there was one conversation which is still stuck in my head. We met a danish girl at Dingboche on the way down, and she was coming via India. They were traveling in small groups, and the experiences were nothing to write home about. She was so pissed & so was I after she narrated what all she went through during her visit to North India. It was understandable why she was so annoyed while talking about her experiences in India, as it comprises of harassment, molestation attempts, etc. There were a few more who shared bad experiences in Agra, Delhi, Mumbai, etc. Guess we can learn a lot from our small neighboring country. People in Nepal are just too good, especially in the mountains. Long way to go before we become a great tourist destination, till then we need to continue the 'atithi deo bhava' campaigns.
Amazing 'youngsters'- It was amazing to see young high school pass outs traveling on their own while being on a year long break. And we met quite a few of them, some in their early twenties & some below twenty. Cant remember even crossing state on my own when I was below twenty. As if this was not enough, we also met quite a few sherpa's who were a good 4-5 yrs younger to us & had already summitted Everest multiple times. It was really nice to meet all these youngsters, even though they made me feel slightly old.
Seabuckthorn Juice-
Squatting toilets- I don't know what is the reason behind it, but beyond certain altitude the WCs are not to be found. And all that you have is squatting toilets. Squatting anyways is not an easy thing for people who are out of practice, but with sub-zero temperature & 3-4 layers of clothing it becomes a nightmarish task to perform. Invariably people kept on mentioning each other that whole day of trek in difficult terrains is still easier than 5 minutes spend inside the toilet. As quite a few things are changing very fast in Nepal for good, this is one change I want to happen before my next visit.
New & improved Nepal- The place has changed from last time we were around there was connectivity almost everywhere below Dingboche. It helped as Jap had to make lots of calls to 'foreigners' back home & had to receive lots of calls from work. At Chukkung the lights just outside the lodge had motion sensors, at that height last time we didn't even found electricity but this time it was all changed.
