rkkwan

First trip report in a while, and this will again be long. Photos are posted slowly as well on my photo site. Main folder is at: http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/nepal1409 So far, one complete album posted (for first day in Kathmandu): http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/kathmandu140903

All comments and questions welcomed!

Who & Why

Three years ago, my then GF (and now wife) Bonny and I made it to the top of Mt Kinabalu (4,095m/13,435ft) in Sabah. Tough trip, but we thought we would climb another mountain some time. Talked to my good friend Daphne about hiking up Yushan (3,952m/12,966ft) in Taiwan, but somehow we switched to Nepal along the way. Trip was originally planned for May of 2014, but just weeks prior, I had emergency vitrectomy surgery, and couldn't fly or go to high places for 2+ months.

Our initial plan for our 12-day trip was Kathmandu 2 nights, Pokhara 1 night, Trekking 3 nights, Pokhara 2 more nights, Chitwan 2 nights and Kathmandu 1 final night. Would hit the most popular spots in Nepal as well as some light trekking up to Poon Hill (3,210m/10,531ft).

Medicinal Preparations

Daphne is a marathoner and has also done 100km of trekking in under 48hs in Hong Kong, so she's much fitter than Bonny and I. I have also travelled with her to Tibet, and altitude sickness is generally not an issue for any of us three. Still, we got ourself diamox for our trek to Poon Hill; plus vaccinations for Hep A, cholera, and typhoid. We were planning to go to Chitwan, so also brought doxycycline - which we ended up not taking, as that part of the trip was cancelled.

Pre-booked flights and hotels

We decided to take Nepal Airlines' non-stop HKG-KTM (about US$600 r/t per person). For the first two nights in Kathmandu, I booked the highly-rated (on Tripadvisor) Hotel Mums Home in Thamel for US$78 (triple) via Agoda. Turned out I should have booked through the hotel directly, as the cheaper rate from Agoda doesn't include airport transfer. I also booked the first night in Pokhara at the (again highly-rated) Hotel Dream via booking.com for US$40 for triple room. [For Chitwan, I booked the Sapana Village Lodge via Agoda, which I later cancelled for free.]

I considered getting the domestic air ticket to Pokhara after getting to Kathmandu, but decided to get it about a week prior, so that we would certainly fly Buddha Air (with its larger planes than Simrik or Yeti) at the times we want. Instead of shopping around agents (some advertising 10% off the US$109 fare), I just had Mums Home do it for us for US$105 each.

The only other part we considered pre-booking was a guide for our trek. For whatever reason, we didn't get much response from the few companies we contacted, and one offered expensive all-inclusive packages only. We decided to just get to Pokhara first, then look for guide and possibly just do it on our own with guide and porter.

Visa and money

I know we could get visas on arrival, but since our flight arrives fairly late, we decided to get them at the HK consulate for HK$200 (15-day visa, multiple entries within 6 months), a little more than the US$25 rate. 3 business days.

For money, since I can exchange HK dollars to US$ with basically no penalty, I just got several thousands of USD in fresh $100 notes for the three of us. Did not bother with credit card or ATMs throughout our trip.

Trekking preparations

Because it's still monsoon season, we correctly prepared for rain. Gore-tex shells, pants and boots (I love my LOWA Renegade GTXs). All packs have rain-cover. I love my pair of Black Diamond ultra-distance poles for the Kinabalu hike, so we bought another pair for the trip. Head lamps are useful for our pre-dawn hike to Poon Hill for sunrise, as well as when the power cuts out in our guesthouses. Things we brought but were not used include salt for leeches (either our guide took care of them, or we just "flicked" them off) and wet wipes (as showers are available every place we stayed).

Cameras and electronics

Bonny took her Canon 600D with Canon 18-200 and my Sigma 8-16. I only brought my Canon S95 to reduce weight. Daphne has her Fuji X-E1. Got a new 11" MacBook Air just prior to this trip to replace my decade-old Dell netbook. Also got a higher-capacity SD card for Bonny's 600D as they are so cheap now, as well as a new 1TB hard drive for photo storages. Needed a lot of adapters and cables for all those as well as our phones, and my Monster Cable traveler's extension cord is great as often we found only one power outlet in our room.

Phones and SIMS

We considered getting local SIMS, but we ended up getting none. I still carried my iPhone 5s with me all the time, to use its camera as well as the GPS function. I used the maps.me app for off-line use - it was great for our trip to Austria a year ago, and is still great for this trip. Otherwise, we would just rely on wi-fi at hotels and restaurants.

Final thoughts

Funny thing is that despite all I've mentioned, I have done the least homework for this trip than most I've done in the past. We wanted to be more "free", and in a country like Nepal, you don't really need to have everything pre-planned and pre-booked. Not my normal style of traveling, but at the end it worked just as well.

Day 1 to follow...

rkkwan

Day 1 - Sept 2, 2014

Nepal Airlines (used to be Royal Nepal) only has two medium-haul aircraft left, 757-200s ordered new in the late 80's for Doha, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. Our aircraft, 9N-ACA is in pretty good shape and we were only about 20 minutes late departing HKG. The over-wing exit rows, 16 & 17, were blocked and we got Row 18. No IFE of any type, and they don't serve alcoholic drinks. And for some reason, they ban cellphones throughout flight outright, and their FAs are strict in enforcing it.

Dinner choices were a Chinese-style fish and rice, and a Nepali style chicken and rice. The fish was horrible, while the chicken was delicious.

The flight took 4:14 and was uneventful. We cleared immigration and customs and everything within 50 minutes of touch down, and were met by the driver of Mums Home with my name on a sign. [I actually worried about this, but we found that Nepalis simply don't reply to emails for confirmation. They would just do it and show up!!!]

At night (10:40p to be exact), the drive from airport to Thamel only took 10 minutes as there was no traffic. First impression of Kathmandu was that it's very dusty, as the roadway pavements are often broken up. Street lights not very strong and most shops already closed by that time. Reminded me of secondary or tertiary Chinese cities from about 10 years ago. The numerous Chinese signs in Thamel also added to that feeling. Mums Home charged US$12 for the airport pickup at night time (US$8 by day), which I think is fair. Though if I had booked directly through them, that would be included.

Our room was on the 4th and top floor. No elevators, for good reason. Service was good with welcome drinks (tea/coffee/coke), and Everest Beer there was cheapest throughout our trip (RS290 for 650mL bottle). Front desk gave us RS9,530 for US$100, inline with currency exchanges outside, and less than 2% under official rate (around 97 during our trip). Clean, hot water pot provided, good A/C, fast wi-fi, hot shower, plenty of electric outlets. What else could one ask for?

rkkwan

Day 2 - Sept 3, 2014

We had buffet breakfast at our hotel. Eggs are cooked to order, and we sat at their table outside. The whole staff very attentive and courteous, which we would find to be typical of all Nepalese. We also went up to the roof top for a view of the city and the whole Kathmandu Valley with hills surrounding it. Most of the new buildings are 4-5 stories tall with brick walls, and the roof top seems to be an important part of each building - many with stylish staircase to get up there.

Mums Home sits in an alley behind the busy Amrit Marg with its many Chinese restaurants and guesthouses, in the south end of Thamel. After breakfast, we ventured out by foot towards the south and then to the East to the Rani Pokhari (Queen's Pool), then continue south to get to the Nepal Tourism Board on Durbar Marg for our trekking permits. We wanted to do this in Kathmandu to save our time in Pokhara, and that we would have the option of trekking without a guide.

We'd get the TIMS (Trekkers' Information Management System) cards for RS1950 each (the official price is US$20) and the ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area Project) permits for RS2000 each. Two passport photos for each one, and the TIMS office can take your pictures if you don't have photos. Not too bad. The offices weren't that busy, but having to fill the forms and have them make the card, the whole thing still took over an hour to finish at the two offices.

Trying to escape Central Kathmandu with its traffic and dust, we took a taxi to Durbar Square of Patan. Nice thing we found about Kathmandu is that the white Maruti Suzuki 800 taxis are everywhere. And it's well known that it's RS300 to go anywhere within Kathmandu, which makes bartering rates easy with the drivers. "300". "600". "300". "500". "300". "400". "300". "Okay, 300".

To our pleasant surprise, traffic eases up a bit south of central Kathmandu, and we arrived Durbar Sq of Patan in about 15 minutes, with our first experience of day-time driving in Nepal, which is to say, quite "interesting". But pretty much what one might seen in movies of 3rd world countries. Hungry, we decided to eat first and sightsee later. We were attracted by the "roof top dining" signs of Cafe de Patan, and decided to give it a try. Turned out it's listed in plenty of tourist guides. We ordered two Nepali set meals, which is enough for the 3 of us. At RS800 with curry chicken and RS750 vegetarian, it's cheap by western and Hong Kong standard, but we would find that to be the most expensive we've seen in our trip. But it does include raksi, the rice liquor.

We stayed there for a very very long time, and the roof top area was really an oasis, with view of some of the buildings of Durbar Sq and more. Finally, refreshed, we ventured down into the actual square (RS500 fee for foreigners). Not THAT interested in the fine details of Hinduism or Nepalese history at that time, we ignored the guides who wanted our business and we skipped the Royal Palace Museum. Instead, we just walked around, sat around, took photos, and that was good enough. Finally, we walked north a bit to the Golden Temple, but again didn't go in. Satisfied with Patan, we took another taxi (RS300 of cousse) back to hotel to freshen up.

Just around the corner of our hotel, we found a restaurant in an empty courtyard called Fren's Kitchen. Turned out it's been opened only since Sept 1. Prices were low to start with, and they were offering 20% for grand opening. Food was generally okay but with some issues. We pointed out to them, and they gave us dessert for free! So, we had an Everest Beer, banana momo (momo is Chinese/Tibetan-style dumplings), fried chicken wings, grilled fish (similar to catfish), and the complimentary fried bananas. Total cost? RS910! That's under US$10!!! Incredible.

Kristina

Nice job so far! Look forward to hearing more since we were last there in 1998 and did part of the same trek you did.

Lolazahra

Enjoying your report immensely. This is not a trip that I have ever thought of going on so I'm living vicariously thyough you! More please!

rkkwan

Day 3 - Sept 4, 2014

Pictures for this day just posted, at http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/pokhara140904

As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to fly to Pokhara rather on spending 6 hours on a coach, and we wanted to take Buddha Air, with its (slightly) better reputation and safety; and bigger ATRs (48 seats), compared to the B1900 flown by Simrik or BAe 748 by Yeti. Mums Home charged us US$105/ticket, just $4 off the rack rate, but they also didn't ask us to pay them in advance.

They charged us $8 for the transfer to airport after breakfast, and we got there in about 25 minutes (vs 10 on the night coming) due to serious traffic. The domestic terminal is a really nondescript building to the north of the international terminal, and there were some construction going on at the supposedly "baggage claim" area. Check-in was no problem, and security was at the same time lax and tight. Our passports and BPs were checked many times, and we went though multiple screening, but the screeners themselves seemed very nonchalant.

Our flight was delayed (no surprise, as weather is always a problem SOMEWHERE in Nepal) for 20 minutes. We boarded an old bus for the short ride to our ATR 42-320, 9N-AIM. Delivered new to Brazil in late 1990s, it's in decent shape. We forgot to ask for seats on the right hand side, but since the flight wasn't full, Daphne quickly moved to a right-side window seat after boarding and Bonny followed afterwards.

Even though the ATR only seats 48, there were two flight attendants (in the US, there would be only one for up to 50 passengers). Yet, there was little for them to do during the 25-minute flight besides passing a candy and then a cup of water. No safety instruction demonstrated.

We flew up to only 12,500ft, much lower than the ragged 8,156m/26,759ft Manaslu (8th tallest peak in the world) we saw on the right. Lush green Trishuli Valley could be seen down the left side. Before arriving Pokhara, Annapurna II and IV were seen.

For our night at Pokhara, I booked Hotel Dream through booking.com for $40 for a triple room, but I started to have doubts as repeated emails asking for hotel transfer received no replies. But again, a nice driver with my name on a sign was right there waiting for us. We were driven in a tiny Kia Picanto (hatchback about same size as the Maruti Suzuki 800) for the 5-minute drive, with my Delsey suitcase sitting unstrapped on the roof rack. It arrived safely.

Hotel Dream sits on a quiet residential street in the Lakeside area, but it's actually a 15-minute walk to the main tourist area with all the restaurants and shops, and further than most other hotels. Not the most convenient, but it was a nice walk when it wasn't too hot. We got a room on the 2nd floor, and the staff there were nice as well. Our main problem was that power cuts out in Pokhara very often, and the back-up generator at Hotel Dream is only for emergency lightings and not for the ceiling fan. That'd be a problem that night.

We spent quite a bit of time discussing with the hotel people about the need of a guide and porter for our trek, and at the end, we decided to hire one based on the hotel's recommendation. The rate was US$20/day for the guide and US$15/day for the porter. We paid the hotel, and the guide by the name of Ramchandra Subedi (Ram for short) would meet us later in the day. We also paid Hotel Dream $40 for the transportation to/from Naya Pul.

Somewhat settled, we ventured down to lake side for lunch. Found the Fewa Paradise, and ended up spending all afternoon there for pizza, curry, beer, lassi and cocktails. All for RS2300. It IS paradise. [See pictures in my linked album.]

Back in the hotel, our guide Ram arrived and he counter-offered us an inclusive rate for US$25 per person per day, but we figured out that things are cheap and we don't eat much, so we declined and would just pay as we go. Interestingly, the 2012 Rough Guide which I brought said US$30/day for a guide is fair. So, maybe it's because it's not peak-season yet, so we got a good rate of US$20/day for his service.

And for dinner after the meeting with our guide, we went down to another part of lake side and found Aankhi Jhyal. It has a wide-ranging menu, from Indian to Chinese to steaks; and food quality was excellent. We dined on the patio, and our bill (with beer) came to only RS1320.

Some may say Pokhara is touristy. Sure it is, but at least in early September, it was also quiet and sleepy and nice. Bonny and I had seen more beautiful lakes (in Canada, Austria, etc), but there's a kind of "leisure" or "laid-back" quality about Phewa, with its no-motorised vessel policy. It is the opposite of most popular lakes you find in China, for example.

And the contrast between Kathmandu and Pokhara is huge. Air is much cleaner, with not much vehicular traffic in Lake Side. Houses (including many hotels, new or being built) have styles, whether you agree to or not; rather than just the red brick walls we saw in Kathmandu. It's a place we certainly wouldn't mind staying for a few days doing nothing, while we couldn't wait to get out of Kathmandu.

As for power outage, it was warm that night, and our ceiling fan was out when we were trying to sleep. Very very unpleasant until power came back at around midnight. I seriously thought about switching to a hotel with bigger back-up generators after we got back from our trek.

[Exchange rate was worse in Pokhara than Kathmandu. Everywhere offered 94.05 on this day, compared to over 95 in the capital.]

Kathie

Enjoying your report. I was surprised you took US dollars to exchange rather than just using ATMs.

tripplanner001

Following along too.

rkkwan

Thanks for all your comments so far. Next part will hopefully come later today.

Kathie - We found using USD simply much simpler. In fact, I cannot remember seeing a single bank or ATM (not that we were looking for one) while in Kathmandu, and in Pokhara I only remember seeing a Standard Chartered Bank.

In Thamel near our hotel in Kathmandu, there are tonnes of money exchanges offering the same rate. Same in Pokhara. With just 2% or so under the official rate and no fees, it's cheaper than using an ATM. And with three of us traveling together, we didn't feel any issue splitting a few thousand USDs among us when traveling.

rkkwan

Day 4 - Sept 5, 2014
Starting the hike to Poon Hill

[Photos to follow. Not ready yet.]

As mentioned, we weren't sure if we would have a guide and porter, so Bonny bought me a new 38L Osprey backpack for the trip to go with her slightly smaller Vaude and her big 65L. But with a porter, we decided put all the heavy stuff into the 65L for him to carry; and the three of us would just carry small backpacks and camera bags. My new Osprey and other suitcases were left behind at our hotel.

Weather was better than expected in the morning, and we climbed to the roof to see the majestic Annapurna IV (7,525m/24,688ft) and Annapurna II (7,937m/26,040ft). Turned out that would be the only time during our stay inside Pokhara city to see them clearly. Breakfast was included in our room rate, and it was very nice made to order full breakfast with juice, eggs, meat, fruits, toast.

Ram arrived and we left our hotel at around 8:30a in the hotel Kia, and we picked up our porter Raju near his home 15 minutes north of Lake Side. The cramped 45km/28mi drive with 6 adults in a little hatchback to Naya Pul took another hour and went over a 1,700m pass (Pokhara is at 800m, while Naya Pul is around 1,000m). After using the bathroom and Raju buying a rope for harnessing our backpack around his forehead, we started at exactly 10a. Very soon after a flat walk, we arrived at Birethanti where we had our TIMS and ACAP permits registered and where we crossed the big Modi Khola River. We were officially inside the Annapurna conservation area, and climbing began.

Let me pause and explain a little about the typical Poon Hill Trek. It's generally done in 4-5 days with the first two days climbing directly from Naya Pul (1,070m) to Ghorepani (2,875m), overnighting at Tikhedhunga, Ulleri or somewhere else. Third morning, one will wake up early for the 45-minute hike to Poon Hill (3,210m) for sunrise. After breakfast, one returns to Naya Pul directly (two easy days); or make clockwise loop via Ghandruk (2,000m) in 2 hard or 3 easy days. Our plan was to finish in 4 days, hopefully via Ghandruk on our way down.

Most guide books or blogs from avid hikers recommended staying at Ulleri for the first night, but this is where we were glad to have a guide. We restarted at 10:45a from Birethanti, hiked at a leisure pace under strong sun on this first day, took an hour-long lunch break at the Green Land Guesthouse (RS810 for noodles and cokes), and arrived the small village of Tikhedhunga (1,540m) at 3:15p. Without a guide, we would have pushed on for Ulleri for its numerous guesthouses and good views. But Ulleri is another tough 500m up, and it'd take us two gruesome hours at the end of a hot day to get there, totally exhausted.

Instead, we rested early at the quaint Laxmi Guesthouse in Tikhedhunga and relaxed there. Nice clean place, but hot water was unavailable at that time. Fortunately, on this hot day, it wasn't too big a deal. Each village in the area has a set price for all lodgings and food, and the price is cheap, even before our guide got us another small discount for the room. Our triple room with shared bath costs only RS400 (just over US$4!). And food wasn't expensive either, as our final bill for board, dinner (including beer), breakfast next morning, bottled water and charging a camera battery came to only RS4090. No wi-fi available, unfortuantely.

Total hiking time on Day 1 (excluding long breaks): 4hr. Elevation gained: 500m.

rkkwan

Pictures from first day of trekking, Sept 4, uploaded:

http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/trekone140905

Do want to add a few things about that day. The first 2.5 hours of hiking was along a jeep path, and there's jeep service available for RS1500 back to Naya Pul. Not unreasonable. Second, about the food. Most of the "tea houses" offer similar food - Nepali rice set with lentil soup, chicken or vegetarian fried rice or noodles, and momo - the dumplings. Food comes slowly as they're prepared fresh. For dinner, there's often pizza, pasta, roast/fried chicken, etc.

Everest beer is available everywhere, but we also drank a lot of Coke. Diet/Zeros are not available on the mountain (and expensive otherwise, as the Nepali bottler only makes regular Coke. Still, a 500mL bottle of Coke can cost up to RS170, or about US$1.8.

Bottled water is available up about halfway. Further up the mountain, guesthouses sell "safe drinking water" by the liter (usually RS60-70, compared to bottled water for RS80-120 where available). The "safe drinking water" are purified at certain point and packaged in 5-gallon tanks. They taste perfect, and is much more environmentally friendly than bottled ones.

For the dinner at Laxmi, we had Everest Beer (RS370 per 650mL bottle), chicken fried rice (RS370), potato momo (RS400), and Nepali curry chicken set (RS600). They also charged us RS100 for a liter of boiling water (to make our own coffee).

LancasterLad

rkkwan. Really enjoying your v.detailed report, and great photos.

Bokhara2

Hi Ray
I'm enjoying your notes & pics - as I enjoyed the Poon Hill trek 2 years ago. Nice to see all the wonderful green post-monsoon fields & crops.

Glad I'm not alone in liking Pokhara, despite it being popular with trekkers.

The Fewa Paradise is a good spot to chill out & watch the boats on the lake - and the hang gliders above.

Did you go up to the Peace Pagoda? It's a nice trip across the lake, past the Temple & the walk up is a good warm up for the trek. The Peace Pagoda is lovely & the views are terrific.

We stayed in Tikehdungha too - Dal Bhat, Momos & a cold Everest!

Looking forward to following along with you

rkkwan

Bokhara2 - thanks for the comments. We considered going up to the World Peace Stupa, but didn't at the end.

tripplanner001

Beautiful photos. Didn't realize how green Nepal is.

rhkkmk

Great reporting ray

Kathie

As always, your photos are wonderful!

(BTW, there are ATMs all over Kathmandu, especially in Thamel. But I understand completely if you have a bank account that charges of foreign withdrawals and likely a foreign currency exchange fee as well, it's cheaper just to exchange cash.)

rkkwan

Continuing on our trip. Pictures of this day will be posted after, as Zenfolio is down for scheduled maintenance for the next several hours.

Day 5 – Sept 6, 2014
Tikhedhunga to Ghorepani

Since we stopped earlier the previous day, we had a fairly early start for this longer trekking day. Got up around 6:30a, had breakfast and started around 7:15a to tackle the steep 500m rise to Ulleri. Breakfast set at the Laxmi includes a Tibetan fried dough, which we liked a lot.

At around 8:35a, we stopped briefly for a great view of Annapurna South (7,219m/23,684ft) and finally arrived Ulleri (2,000m) around 9:30a for a 35-minute long morning break. Chatted with an elderly Indian who knows Hong Kong well and was trekking on his own, fairly slowly. The path became less steep thereafter, and we picked up speed and arrived our very nice lunch spot past Banthanti around 11:25a, after passing the only church we'd seen in our trip an hour prior with lots of kids singing inside. We took our time with our nice lunch at the Fishtail View and played with their cats. It's a very clean guesthouse which we would recommend for food and board.

We resumed our trek at around 12:40p and it took us 4 long hours, with a few short breaks, mostly through the forest to get to our guesthouse in Ghorepani (2,875m). It was a tough afternoon as the weather turned poor and there was periodic rain. We had to cover everything and wear our Gore-tex jackets. And during the last 90 minutes or so, we were trekking through areas with leeches, so we couldn't stop for breaks. I stopped for a short moment to fix my Gore-tex shell, and I got a leech bit on my arm. Daphne and Bonny also got leeches on them.

The leeches in this area and at this high altitude (over 2,500m) are much smaller than I'd expected, resembling tiny earthworms. We brought some salt with us to Pokhara, as we've read that it's one of the better ways to get rid of them; but since we had a guide, we decided not to carry them. My Rough Guide says just let it suck your blood as it probably causes more harm trying to get rid of them. The way Ram and Raju did was to pick it off with their fingers, and THEN flicked them off. But my natural instinct told me to just flick it off directly, which was NOT the best way to do it, as the leech would release more enzymes and toxins at that brief moment. Anyhow, it's been over 2 weeks now, and there's still a tiny scar on my arm.

After getting rid of all the leeches on us, we made it to our guesthouse, The Hungry Eye, a fairly large and new one just off the main intersection of the 3 trails leading to Ghorepani. We got a corner room with windows on three sides on the 2nd floor, where it was possible to view both the Annapurna peaks AND Dhaulagiri right from our beds. Unfortunately, all we could see were clouds at that time. We got our much-deserved “hot” showers (shared bath), and did some laundry. Rooms are very cheap in Ghorepani, as our triple only costs RS350 a night. There was supposed to be wi-fi, but Ram told us it wasn't working well that day, so we didn't bother. The one electrical plug in our room was working so we could recharge all our phones and camera batteries, for free.

Food was excellent and not expensive at The Hungry Eye. We had roast chicken (set with rice, potatoes and vegetables, RS700) and pizza (RS530, deep-dish, similar to Chicago-style). And we had apple fritters for dessert (okay, for RS250). Water wasn't expensive either, as they only charged us RS60 per liter of safe drinking water.

We went to bed fairly early, as we would need to get up just past 4 to make the trek to Poon Hill for sunrise. Weather was lousy, but we were hoping for the best.

Total hiking time on Day 2 (excluding long breaks): 7.5hr. Elevation gained: 900m.

rkkwan

Day 6 - Sept 7, 2014
Rest (& some decisions to make)

We woke up just past 4. Weather was lousy with some light rain. Still we got ourself ready and headed down to find Ram and other trekkers ready for Poon Hill. But weather actually got worse by 4:30a or so. In addition to rain, there was even some thunder and lightning in the distance. Not only would we not see sunrise, it wouldn't even be safe or worthwhile for the 330m (in elevation) hike to the top. Going back to bed was the easy decision to make, but then what? Quickly, we decided to stay at Ghorepani for another day and took our chance a second time the next morning. In the meantime, it's back to our beds!

Now, our original plan was to finish our hike in 4 days, have one full day in Pokhara for para-gliding, and then leave for Chitwan for two nights before back to Kathmandu. With an extra day in Ghorepani, something have to give. Ram mentioned that we could take the same route back down to Tikhedhunga, and then hire a jeep back to Naya Pul, so that we could get back to Pokhara within same day. Or we could add another day in the mountain and give up para-gliding. Or, as we finally decided - skip Chitwan altogether and add an extra day in Pokhara to relax.

And that turned out to be the absolutely correct choice. Hiking in the Himalayas and seeing the mountain was THE main objective of our whole trip. Other things came after it. AND, we were actually quite tired from the hiking the previous day. If we had stuck to the original schedule and did the whole loop back to Naya Pul via Ghandruk, we would be beyond exhaustion. So, this unplanned rest day up in Ghorepani was really great. We had a nice brunch at our guesthouse, walked around a bit, did more laundry, took a nap. It was great. And the weather started to improve a tiny bit, so our hopes remained.

Staying up at 2,875m for extra time was no problem for any of us. In fact, on this 2nd evening, we switched from beer to the local rum, Khukri. I drank it with my coke, but Bonny and Daphne drank it like the locals - with hot water. It was a good deal, as a 250mL bottle only costs RS400, same as a bottle of beer. I usually avoid alcohol at altitude, but didn't have any problem on this trek so far.

And here I wanted to mention about a family we've encountered since first day of trek. A Korean lady took with her two kids (girl around 7-8, and boy around 5) AND her own mom (60's). With a guide and a porter. The kids were phenomenon. They walked the whole way, and we haven't heard or seen them complain at all. While we started on the same day, they stopped earlier on Day 2, and they've made it to Ghorepani on Day 3. [And we would seen them the next day, again.]

Other trekkers came from all over the world. Europeans, Chinese, Americans, Indians.

Total hiking time on Day 3: 0. Elevation gain: nil.

rkkwan

Sorry for the delay in posting updates due to stuff going on in Hong Kong right now and other matters.

But here are the pictures for Sept 6 (hiking from Tikhedhunga to Ghoerpani) and Sept 7, our off day at Ghorepani.

http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/ghorepani140906