I once made the mistake of saying to an Englishman that I really enjoyed walking. He asked what was my favorite walk--the Cotswald Way? or the walk from Devon to Scotland? or the Scottish highlands walk? I said I was thinking more of a walk to a nearby village, or around the town square. He said "Oh, you mean you like to stroll."
A trek seems to involve 6-15 days, guides, maybe porters, staying at "teahouses" along the way, going up/down/around the mountains. I'm taking a 2-day trek that involves walking, eating at restaurants, back to the hotel, out the next day, back to the hotel. So I guess this is more like a "trekette."
Bus took us up from Pokhara this morning, up from the river, along some mountain ridges. Wonderful view of Fishtail Mountain, which is 21,000 ft. high (we were at about 3,500, so this baby really soars.) Then started our walk, alternating between gradual uphill and fairly flat, for about 2 hours. Stop for tea/coffee ("last rest stop for 2 hours", which turned out to be a lie, unless you were going the way we'd come from), then another 1+ hour to Sarangkot (5,500 ft. altitude.) Along the way, wonderful views of the mountain and valley, the lake and city below, homes of "real" people living their lives. Occasional water buffalo, a pond with people doing their laundry and swimming along with the buffalo, past a little gathering of people under a tree whose kids were getting polio vaccine and Vitamin A shot courtesy of a UN program.
Basic local building material is the stone of the mountains. Readily available for the taking. So everything's made of stone--houses, stalls, sheds, stairways leading to the houses, stairways leading to the field, outdoor toilets, etc. etc. I love stone, so I found it beautiful.
Hillsides all beautifully terraced for agriculture. Hard to imagine doing all that without mechanization--just a draught animal and a human. But do it for centuries and you get an absolutely beautiful mosaic of fertile fields.
Up at Sarangkot, have lunch at Beautiful View Restaurant, up from the outpost, overlooking the mountains, valley and lake. Lunch cooked to order, so plenty of time to enjoy the place, and the pace. Then about another 30-45 minute walk, this time totally down, so much easier in some ways. Then back to the hotel. While this may not qualify as a "trek" in the Sherpa sense, it met my needs perfectly--a stroll in the mountains, seeing people and incredible scenery, then back to the comforts of our hotel.
On the way home from dinner, began to rain. Then a downpour. Flashing lightening much of the night, heavy rain. Loved being in my hotel rather than a teahouse, with a bathroom/shower rather than an outdoor toilet. I'm a treketter, not a trekker.
At dawn this morning, a symphony of thunder crashes and heavy, gray skies. Thinking "there goes day 2." Guides show up, tell us the weather "up there" is good, roads aren't too slippery, so the trek is on. Short bus ride, then a 1-hour climb up to the World Peace Pagoda. And I do mean "climb." A beautiful stone stairway all the way. I'm thinking 1-hour on the stairmaster, plus an altitude climb thrown in.
Beautiful scenes along the way. The pagoda's on the top of a hill, overlooking the lake, with the mountain range in the background. I asked whether it was new. "Oh no, it was built in 1995 I think." Counts as new to me.
While we were there, we ordered our lunch so it might be closer to ready when we got down to the restaurant. I ordered sukuti (dried mountain goat--"traditional Nepali dish"), banana lassie (Indian), and Coke. Felt very global.
The menu listed a banana split. Several wanted to order one. One said "does it have very cold ice cream? It must have very cold ice cream." "The banana split doesn't have ice cream--we don't have sufficient electricity." "But a banana split isn't a banana split without ice cream? I want one with ice cream." etc. So here they are, standing at the World Peace Pagoda, arguing about the "true" banana split. The irony was lost on them.
About a 30 minute walk down (it's always quicker, though the knees complain rather than heart/lungs) to a wonderful restaurant along the lake, looking across. Dried mountain goat is very chewy. Very, very chewy. Sort of like tough beef jerky I think. And it seems to get tougher the longer it sits on your plate.
Then row across to an island visit the temple on the island back in the boat across to Lakeside of Pokhara into the bus drive to Devi's Falls (named after a Swiss couple who fell to their death in the falls) down long flight of stairs into the first cave past another temple into a second narrower and lower cave to the base of the falls look up admire the falls and retrace your steps. If this sound like a blur, it's because it is. Fortunately, some expressed a desire to cancel the remaining stop at a Tibetan refugee village demonstrating rug-making and rug-selling. Some didn't want to go, others were indifferent, no one was strongly positive, all were tired I think.
And so ends my trek experience. It was wonderful, in many ways, and I don't feel the need to do more.
And so ends the weekend. With the trek, it was a very "group" weekend, complete with herding. My groupiness tolerance has been exceeded. Happily back to work tomorrow.
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