1st day Caroline (Holland) and I met up with our guide Pradip, he's the most adorable Nepali guy ever, he's about 5 ft and the biggest smile ever. We took a short bus to Phedi and started our trek. It was a steep staircase uphill that took us an hour to reach Dhampus. From Dhampus there is a view point of the Annapurna mountain. Caroline and I knew that it was going to be tough. But we made a goal, that when we reach the Base Camp, we will have a beer.
Behind those clouds is the Annapurna mountain.We trekked 6 hours that day to the village Tolka. I ran out of bottled water and bought a chlorine filter water droplets. I took 2 swigs and felt my stomach stir. I ignored it and went to bed. About an hour later during my sleep I felt there was something wrong. I walked out for fresh air and that's when my fried noodles decided to come out for fresh air too. I vomited ALL NIGHT. I ran to the bathroom (located outside of our bedroom) more than 10 times during the night, a few times I just stayed outside. The next day was hell, I couldn't move, I couldn't eat, if I did, I would throw it back out again. Found out that the chlorine filter water droplets makes some people sick, luckily there was a health clinic near Tolka, Caroline went to get me medicine. I tried to walk for 5 minutes to keep my blood circulating, but that just made my body worse. I slept the entire day and was paralyzed. I couldn't even move my arm over if I wanted to sleep on my side.
Third day, I had to start walking. I didn't want to waste another day. I couldn't believe that I climbed 7 hours in the mountains, UP HILL, that day with no nutrients (other than water) in my body. I only ate 1 apple and drank 1 bottle of flat coke. That day, confirmed that trekking to Annapurna is the most physically challenged activity I ever done in my life.
That night...Caroline got sick. She had food poisoning. We knew then not to eat anything fried. She wasn't as sick as I was the night before, but she was weak. We had to split our schedule and make our destinations each day shorter, I wish they did that for me! Anyways, it's in the past, glad I did it, not going to complain.
6th day, the day we reached Annapurna Base Camp. Probably the best feeling ever. It was snowing really hard and it took us 4.5 hours to get to. It was so cloudy that you couldn't see 20 ft ahead of you and the back of you. Everytime I thought I saw the Base Camp I would get excited, but then I realized that it's just a huge rock. But when I really did see the Base Camp Lodge, I started yelling "I think I see it!! I think I seeeeee IT!" so Caroline (20 ft back of me) would know. I started walking faster and was just too excited. I even did a little victory dance when I got to the lodge.
Base CampIt was fucking freezing. -5 degrees. Caroline and I stayed in the dining hall with layers of blankets, our cold beers, and our books. Awaiting for tomorrow morning. We woke up at the scheduled sunrise, at 5:23 am. CLOUDY! We couldn't see a thing. We accepted the fact that it's the weather and there's nothing we can do about it, we would have to go back down without seeing the mountains, but still proud. About 10 minutes later we heard squeeling that the sky was clearing. Our guide Pradip is knocking on our door telling us to come outside and that the sun was coming out. We ran out in our flipflops, 30 in. of snow, and starting taking pictures.
It was beautiful. I never thought I would get to a place like this. To be in the center of the top ten highest mountains in the world. It was a beautiful day and we were so lucky that the sky cleared up. It took 2 days to get back down. I think it's cause we were so happy, we were practically running down the mountains. The trek is over, we got to our lodge, and I laid my torn up body down, like a pancake.
sooooooooooooooo jealous!!!
ReplyDelete