Day 5 - Nearly a cold

Bagarchlap to Chame

I wake up and look through the window. There seems to be this bright white cloud in the distance, high above the distant ridges. I reach for my glasses and put them on and... Yuppeee! There it is, glittering like a crystal Annapurna II against the deep blue sky.
Yet another gorgeous morning. After taking some pictures and a hearty breakfast (Tibetan bread, omelette, lemon tea) we head off - finally! It is 8 am.

The trail traverses the whole village - or whatever is left of it - a few stone houses, a few guest houses, a memorial to one of the British who died in the landslide in 1995. Annapurna II is disappearing from the horizon behind the closest ridges.

The trail leads through a forest steeply uphill to the hamlet of Timang. It consists of no more than a dozen buildings, houses and guesthouses altogether. A new big guesthouse is under construction. Looking back I can admire Manaslu Peak in the far distance. It is hazy and very far but the 8000+ peak overtowers everything.
The trail continues as a pleasant walk through the heavily logged pine forest.This is a very bad thing as the trail is extremely prone to landslides. For a whiler it seems that we're running away from the Marsyangdi river, but it's still there collecting all the garbage, dirt and sewage spills in the deep narrow valley.

An hour later we reach a suspension bridge at the entrance to the village of Thonchok. To me this looks like the prettiest village so far.

A narrow clean slab paved lane goes through the village consisting of stone-built or wooden houses built in a very traditional style. It is much bigger than the villages encountered so far. People are busy with the daily chores: laundry, dishwashing, gardening, drying beans and vegetables on the flat rooftops. The gardens and rooftops alike are wonderful displays of colourful flowers.From time to time porters, heavily loaded and invisible under their burdens are passing by. A black cow slowly walks by looking for food. An old woman spreads out the beans to dry on the roof of her home.
And there are many orchards, apple trees and vegetable gardens with cabbage, beans, carrots, cauliflower and more. This is "living in the country" at its best.
We stop for lunch somewhere in a garden and I get to wander around exploring the lanes and gardens and taking pictures until our lunch gets ready. Daalbhat, as usual. I have learned that it tastes different every time. So, although I eat the same day after day it always is different.
On my exploratory walk I reach the "end" of the village marked also by 2 chorten (little Tibetan temple-shaped construction of stones). From here I can see Annapurna II in the distance. The houses that sit higher on the hilly lane have a gorgeous view of the peak day after day after day. I'm envious :-) And excited, of course. On the flat roof of the nearest house there are lots of pots of marigolds. What a great contrast between the orange flowers, the blue sky and the white ridge of Annapurna II.

In spite of all this excitement I do not ignore the barns and stables. The doors are, unlike in all other places seen so far, in pairs and rounded at the top. Th wooden ladders leaning against walls and roofs are nicely carved out from logs - something really unusual I find. I can gt excited for every such detail, and I think I'm smiling and talking to myself a lot.

After enjoying lunch we continue our way towards Chame. We traverse Thanchok and reach the first open meadows. There are also apple orchards here and potato fields. I can see the people harvesting the tiny potatoes. Nearby the potato fields, much lower than our vantage point I notice a school. It is a long flat building with a array of black doors and no windows. It looks depressing. No windows? Pipi says that they are on the other side of the building. Hopefully.

The trail continues as a pleasant walk along the right bank of the Marsyangdi river passing by piles of wood and pine needles. Pipi tells me that the pine needles are used for roofs. Indeed, I notice that some shacks are covered with some sort of a woven rug, made of needles.

We reach Koto in about an hour, a small village where the checkpost is and I get my Annapurna Conservation Area permit checked. I see women selling apples, but I don't get to pursue that. I hope to find apples in Chame as well.
We continue on the nice flat trail to Chame and reach the village in about half an hour. The village entrance is marked by a long mani wall with many prayer wheels. The village is more important as it is the capital of the Manang district. It has a post office, a volleyball ground where a game is on, some shops geared to trekkers selling everything from Pond's cream to gore-tex jackets. There's supposed to be a broadband internet cafe here, but extremely expensive - 200 Rs for 10 minutes. Apparently it's not working, though.
We go by the Shangri-La hotel which looks nice and clean. Everybody else I met along the trek is staying here. Pipi does not want to stop here. He's destination is the Himalayan Hotel, a dark place where nobody else except us stays. There's no garden, no patio and the whole place doesn't inspire me at all. The room is bigger then the ones I had before and Pipi leaves his stuff in the room. Of course he's going to share it with me.
I feel anger growing in me. I'm pissed off and don';t understand how come this is happening, what I'm doing so wrong. Should I have expected or clarified this from the beginning? Does team-work involve sharing the same room implicitly? There's no other guest in this dark place and so all other rooms are free.

He's been having trouble with his eyes today; based on the limy stuff he's collecting from his eyes it looks like a bad infection. I need to insist for him to go to the health post across the "street" to get some advise. First he argues it's too late, then he goes.

I copy the pictures from the flash-card onto the harddisk and change the flashcard in the camera. I always do that as an extra measure of precaution. I need to save and keep all pictures until I'll find a place to burn the pictures on DVDs. Probably only in Kathmandu.

After dealing with the camera details I go for a walk to explore the village. There's another mani wall with prayr wheels and a monastery, which is locked.
I feel cold and my throat is sore, not a good sign. I've always had these symptoms when it was very hot and I sweated a lot. A lurking cold. I'd like to take a shower and go to bed. Pipi is still out watching the volley game. He's having a good time.

The shower experience is no fun. The water is cold and there's no shower head but merely a pipe. The water jet just whips you down. So I use the lower tap and wash myself. The door also hardly closes and there's not even a nail to hang your clothes or towel. This is the worst place so far.
My anger is only growing - but it's maybe more frustration than anger. I'm going to tell Pipi that from now on I decide where we stay, sincve I'm paying. Again I'm thinking intensely about letting him go.
After the shower I take my foampad and sit outside on the concrete roof studying my maps and papers. I think I'll go to Tibet.But I'll need to see after this trek.
For the day after tomorrow I'd like to follow the upper trail through Gyaru rather than the flat lower trail everybody takes. It's supposed to be more scenic and very beautiful. Pipi has never been on the upper trail and doesn't seem enthusiastic about it. He actually dislikes any kind of deviation from what he knows. However, I'm determined.
The blackout starts while I'm trying to read in my sleeping bag. It is still early (maybe 6 pm or so) but my feet are cold and I feel totally uncomfortable. I can also skip the hot water I have asked for. Pipi is still out. I'm trying to get my feet warm again.

When Pipi returns from the village he wakes me up asking about dinner. He has to physically shake me to wake up. I say I'm passing it and even the hot water I had asked for. Please, leave me alone. Minutes later he's back and waking me up again. He brought me hot water. I don't even have the strength to get mad. But I get pissed off before falling back to sleep.