On to Chame, Again! (3/15)
Woke up to what looked like a clear day. Now the choice became hard. I put on my lucky bandana, which I usually start trips with. Clearly, that must have been the reason for the bad weather.  Seba headed out first, then Sandra, and then us.

We quickly caught Sandra on the first big rise and told her we were going to walk at my pace and would meet her in Chame. I took off up the hill, but Padam didn’t follow. As I walked I got more and more angry, because I had specifically asked him to walk with me so I wouldn’t take the wrong turn again. It was a pretty huge up stretch and when I came upon a nice Israeli couple from the guesthouse, I was ready to rant about my guide. But then I looked back and there was Padam catching up. He had struggled a little, but was doing his best to stay close to me.

With that stress gone, it was replaced with another. Hoards of people coming down, each with a different story: two meters of snow, one meter of snow, the police turning people around, four days sitting in Manang, white out blizzards, and waist deep snow. Pick your poison, they all sucked.

However, the cynic (or optimist depending on how you look at it) in me has always felt that when everyone thinks something is a great idea (take the late investors in the stock or real estate market before they crashed) that it’s usually about the point that something would change. With everyone giving up, I hoped it meant that when we got up it would work out OK for us. When we passed a guard post, Padam checked and 38 people had already come down by 10:30 AM. Compare that with all five people I saw on Gokyo in a given day.

As we walked, we hopped on and off the “new road” that they were building. At the time it was just pieces of dirt roads that they hope to connect into a single road to Manang. At first it sounds horrible that the trek would be ruined. However, I have to say that every time there was a choice between the old trail and the new road, we opted for the new road and I can’t say I was upset at the prospect of walking on a gently sloped path for a while. (This attitude would change.)

When we arrived at the town before Chame, there was a sign for phone service. As it was already really late, ehh early in the morning at home, I wanted to call my girlfriend before it got too late. It was the first phone I saw in days. I talked for about four minutes before it cut out. Apparently expensive does not equal reliable. They were unable to reconnect me.

Turns out the walk to Chame was only another twenty minutes, but I didn’t want to wake her again.  Although we were in Chame with plenty of time to continue to walk it didn’t make sense to press on. We needed time for the four days of snow to melt if we had any chance of going over the pass. As we waiting for lunch, people were coming by in both directions with hopeful expressions on the people going up and disgust on the people going down.

The guesthouse we chose turned out to be the best one so far in Annapurna. We were in the lap of luxury. First, we had nails in the walls. You would think all places would do this to hang your clothes, but none so far had them. Then get this, our room had two light bulbs, we would actually be able to see at night. To top this off, they brought burning ambers from the fire into the dining hall to heat it up. All of this cost just one dollar a person per night.

After a quick lunch, that a local dog was eying quite hungrily, I went out to watch a bunch of local kids playing a street cricket. I introduced them to Guinness beer via my Frisbee. They were amazing adept with it .

The Israelis rejoined the pack mentality, with about ten staying in the guesthouse they huddled together on one side of the table. Some of them took over the kitchen to cook, since they were Kosher. In a small Nepali kitchen, this is a big issue. It’s hard enough for them to cook for the guest without someone else trying to cook in the very limited space. I couldn’t imagine what the humble Nepalese thought.

I tried calling my girlfriend back, but the phone wasn’t being very cooperative. Padam had negotiated a much better rate, so if I could connect I could actually talk without it costing more than the entire day’s expenses. Finally, in mid dinner, they connected. Padam rocked, I didn’t even realize that he had shushed the room so I could talk.  Way to go Padam.

After dinner, we all watched Wallace and Grommit in the dining hall. The guesthouse owner’s kid watched as well. Seems they are quite universal characters. When the movie was over, we headed to our room to get some much needed sleep. The noise level from the room next to us was unbelievable. However, I wasn’t called the geek of sleep for nothing in college. I passed out until 6:00 AM the next day.

The story continues...