Okay, so it’s not REALLY 3 million mud mules. And they’re not REALLY mud. They just MAKE the mud. A lot. Plus poop. A lot. Just had to get the alliteration going for the title!
But first, a few random observations. We are Stairmasters! Yes, we are getting back into shape after a month of sloth. After our summer of Wilderness rangering in the North Cascades we were ready for anything! Actually, we were tired. But we’re back. Climbing the stairs of the Himalayas! And descending. And climbling. And descending. You get the picture. The trails are mostly rocks, stairs – some a foot tall, some neat and tidy, some all a jumble, some covered in mud. The rest of the trail is angular embedded rocks. Or just erosion gullies. Or jeep roads. Or frontyards of people’s homes.
Here in the foothills (where the passes are at 10-11,000 feet), it’s STEEP. And it’s FARMLAND. Some of the terraces are a mere four feet wide! They mostly grow barley (I think), and we’ve seen kiwi trees (yes, kiwi, we ARE at the latitude of Miami), bananas, beans, amazing vegetable gardens, bamboo, giant poinsettia bushes, tall rhododendron TREES (50 feet tall? At least!) though not in bloom, marigolds and more marigolds. It’s chilly though, and we’ve had a lot of clouds, and one thunderstorm (during which we were happily ensconced at a tea house).
It's been quite peaceful.
Except for all the new roadbuilding.
And thus the big lineup of jeeps and loud music as we came around a peaceful corner.
And there was the teahouse that had a TV on in the dining area (a TV!). They channel surfed, so we saw bits of everything from Nepali music videos, soccer (Bangladesh vs. Sri Lanka), World of Wrestling Smackdown, to a Nepali horror movie. Part of our cultural education!
Porters on telephones. Mule drivers on telephones. Kids on telephones. Our own phone has been exceptionally handy for helping us navigate through all the mishmash of roads and trails!
Okay, enough bits. On to mud mules.
So, one day, we’re exhausted. Yep. It's the stairs! And then more stairs. And WHAT? MORE STAIRS? Finally on the last stretch. The Nepalis ahead of us suddenly turn and head straight up the hill. Huh? Turns out it’s a “detour.” There’s a washout ahead and we can hear machinery. There’s no sign for this “detour,” but we clamber up, and meet a porter coming down who motions that yes, this is the right way. It’s a STEEP “trail” of mud and rocks, DEEP mud. We can see a mule train above us, heading up. We go up and up and up, and suddenly another mule train is coming down. We climb through mud to get out of the way, hanging on trees, while the mud mules pass. This happens at least 15 times in the next few hours. We, the Stairmasters, are ready to keel over. We went very slowly, so as not to fall and injure ourselves, or WORSE, get our clothes and packs muddy! We did finally make it to a lovely, if not all that clean, teahouse, and really enjoyed our evening dal bhat! Whew! The mud mules deserve a lot for all their hard labor. I hope they got extra special treats at the end!
We’ve been invited into two gompas (Tibetan Buddhist monasteries). One was empty (no services at the time) and we could wander and take pictures, and sit and absorb the beauty. The nun who showed us in placed a knotted maroon string thing around our necks. It was an absolutely spectacular place, so detailed, ornate, beautiful, clean, lovely, peaceful. Butter lamps, intricate designs and paintings, brass horns and bells and pots, all with carved designs. Outside there were beautiful water powered prayer wheels, lots of prayer flags, a fabulous view (we were over 10,000 ft.), and barley drying on tarps and cheese drying on woven trays.
The other gompa was having a service. We were invited to sit up front. There were chants and horns and cymbals (just like in “Seven Years in Tibet”!), readings, and about 40 monks sitting in their maroon and yellow robes. It felt like we had stepped back a thousand years, except for the monk with a high tech camera, and the multicolored LED string lights that flashed in rhythm with the chanting. We were served milk tea, and when a monk came around with the big tea kettle, we got MORE! And there we met the mother of a Nepali who had climbed Everest 10 times, and set a record in 1999 of 21 hours on the summit. Don’t know the story behind that, but will look it up when we have better connections.
And finally, the earthquake. Last Friday night, November 3. We were the only guests at a little tea house in Ringmu, run by a woman with a 15 month old on her back. She didn’t speak much English, but she did teach us the Nepali word for snow leopard (since we had our little stuffed animal that goes everywhere with us). It’s “him-chit-u-wa.” To bed early, but we awoke just before midnight to creaking and shaking. I first thought it was a wind blast, but then we’re, like, YIKES, an EARTHQUAKE! It didn’t go on for long, but it was enough to make us a bit worried. The next morning the woman said her kid fell out of bed. You could tell she was somewhat shaken by the whole thing (and no, the pun is not intended, but I couldn’t think of a better way to put it). It was a bit scary for everyone, and I’m sure it reminded people of the devastating quakes in 2015. We had a bit of internet later, and learned the epicenter was maybe 300 miles west of Kathmandu. We are to the east, 10 hours by jeep to where we started hiking. Or course, the jeep was crawling along much of the time over the worst roads ever, except for the high speed exit from Kathmandu in the dark, wee hours, and the ensuing winding road corners taken at lightspeed, all the while blasting Nepali music at high decibels. No seatbelts.
So we are happy to have survived thus far! We have seen amazing sights, met amazing people, eaten amazing food, learned an amazing amount. We are the lucky ones. Truly grateful to the universe.
A few monastery pics:
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