My Trek in The Himalayan Mountains.

THE BUS RIDE THERE. I am going to write in more detail about my trek. Now this is more for me to remember names of people and places I went to, so maybe not so interesting for you, but here we go...... My trip started out at 6:00 am March 1^st I was picked up by my guide Bachan, who was going to lead me through the trails of the pristine valley of Langtang, home to the Langtang river where I would be spending my time trekking through the rough terrain on the mountain slopes for the next many long and exhausting days, how wonderful, at that moment I was actually going on one of my life's dreams, to hike in the Himalayan Mountains, that was music to my ears, what could possible beat that, a defeat that turned out to be every bit as challenging as anticipated in the many months leading up to this amazing day, and then my dedicated, polite porter Nabaraj who carried all my gear through it all, never left my side and was always just 2 steps behind me through the whole journey, walking and stopping whenever I did. I was taken to a taxi, first one the trunk couldn't close properly which resulted in my backpack falling out, the taxi's here are very small, so we had to hail another one, which is no problem they are everywhere. We arrived at the bus station, where we were to leave at 7:00, half an hour early but left half an hour late so one hour in the bus already, we had to sit at the very back. My Guide told me it was going to be a 10 hour drive, when I was expecting 7, which turned out to be and my fellow trekkers can attest to this, the most difficult mental and physical part of the whole trip. Off we went, after one hour I was feeling quite carsick from sitting in the back and it felt like we very bounced all over, the seats were really old, hard and lumpy, my legs couldn't fit for the seat in front, so all I could think was how am I going to handle 10 hours of this, next I just kept telling myself I am fine I am fine I am fine over and over to try to make myself feel better, and miraculously it worked. After 3 hours we stopped for lunch, and after that I felt even better, thank goodness. We drove through the mountains the whole way so a lot of turning sharp corners and the road were only wide enough for one car so the bus driver constantly honked his horn to warn oncoming traffic around the bend that he was coming, so when we met other traffic one of the vehicles usually had to back up before they could squeeze by each other, and looking straight down on one side and right against the cliff on the other side at times, I was just hoping for the best and didn't worry about it too much. I was informed that there were no more restroom stops the remainder of the way, so I was starving myself,as you could probably imagine knowing me I had my back full of snacks:-)but no food or water in fear of needing a washroom, even though the bus stopped about every 5 to 10 min to pick up and drop off passengers and goods on the way, the top of the bus was full of people and inside in the isle was a lot of people and bags of rice and potatoes. The last four hours the road was just dirt and big rocks, so we drove snail speed at times, but pure hell, the drive was only 145km, so 10 hours for that was not what we had expected. With every bump on the road which was constant my knees hit the seat in front and if turned to the side there was a metal thing sticking out of the wall that was even more painful to deal with. The dust on the road was flying everywhere, the poor people that were walking or standing along the road got the brunt of it every time a vehicle went by. My teeth were covered in dust at one point and decided to put my nose hair to good use since all they appear to be is a pain in you know what, my guide told me not to smile so much.... but who was I to complain, there were only 6 of us trekkers in the bus who were all on our separate trips with each our guides, the rest local people who were all getting on and off along the way, either on top of the bus, or inside standing in the isle, young and old and with kids and didn't seem to mind, even though they were like sardines in a can.. At the very end the roads were very steep down and the rain had set in so a little more scary I must admit. I just read in the paper 2 days ago that a bus went over the edge and into a river and 32 was killed. Finally at 6:00 we arrived at Syabrubesi, all exhausted from just sitting all day, but the feeling of having just had the biggest workout and with quite a sigh of relieve ,every part of our body either shook into place or out.We ran to our lodge since it was raining quite hard, but it was nice and close, settled into a room and unpacked a few things. The washroom facilities was 2 floors down, but I managed to get a nice hot shower. I ordered my dinner Dal Bhat with chicken since I figured that would be the fastest to make since it is their national food. Half an hour later I happened to look inside the kitchen and there on the floor they were plucking the chicken, so dinner wasn't to be enjoyed for a while yet, but at least very fresh. The most interesting ride I have had so far and very glad that it is behind me, and the thought that I at some point had to go through it all again soon was put in the back of my mind so I could really enjoy the fact that I was one nights sleep away from the beginning of my trek.... to be continued.......