Trekking in the Himalayas

I know it's been a while since I did a blog post but the Internet here is very slow and it takes such a long time. Since I'm into my last week in India I have been putting it off to spend more time enjoying it here before I leave. Last weekend I went on a two day, one night trek in the Himalayas! Aoife, Varun, and I started the trek at around 9:00 in the morning on Saturday. We had a trekking guide with us and we were hiking with a group of other people, also following the same guide. The trek was very nice! It was not too difficult and not too easy! The views along the way were incredible! There were huge cliffs that looked down on little towns and cities and there were bright, red and pink flowers on the trees everywhere! On the way up, we stopped a few times at little shacks that serve chai and sell snacks and drinks. There were a ton of bees at the little stops! But they never stung anyone. There was some snow at the top but only in patches and only a few inches deep. When we got to the top after about 4 hours of trekking, it was a little bit foggy but I could still see the huge mountains towering above us! They looked even more amazing up close than from the lower altitude in Sidwarri or even Mcleod! At the top, there are tiny shacks that are basically a combination of free standing aluminum strips, plastic tarps, and tree branches, held together with some string. On the inside, you can sit on Coca-Cola crates covered in dirty wool blankets and in the back, there is a little gas stove and counter where someone cooks food for the trekkers. There isn't much of a choice for food but I had instant noodles which tasted so bland after weeks of having spicy food. Luckily they had extra chili powder which I added by the spoonful to the instant package noodles. When it started getting dark, it got much colder and people were huddling in the shack and putting on all of their extra layers of clothes. It was really dark in the shack even though they had tiny candles and a few people (including me) had flashlights. It was really fun being at the top with people from all over the world. There were some people from France, Australia, Finland, Austria, Ireland, USA, and India, of course! It was fun talking to all of the people and learning about where they were from. For a while I thought that I was the only American there but there was a married couple from Atlanta that I met later on. I was definitely the only 16 year old though! We spent the night in a guest house that night and Aoife and I shared a room with two girls who had been traveling around India for a few months together. They were really nice and we had a good time talking with them and playing uno. Yes, we really brought the uno game with us! The guest house obviously wasn't a five star hotel like the Lalit, but it seemed as if some of the people up there were expecting it to be. Aside from the non-flushing toilet, missing window panes, and dirty bedding, it wasn't too bad, considering that you are 2,500 meters up in the mountains. I thought it was nice to stand outside the guest house and look down at the lights from the city and look up in the sky and look for constellations. When I was brushing my teeth outside, I was just looking around and enjoying the view when I noticed that I had been brushing my teeth for over six minutes! I guess I was just too distracted by the views to notice! My gums felt a bit sore after that! The next morning we packed up our things and took our backpacks back to the shack where we had pranthas and chai outside on a blanket. That morning, the fog was gone and the mountains looked even more clear and perfect than the day before! The way back down the mountain was much easier and quicker than the way up. That is usually how it is when you are hiking but it was especially nice this time because we had a different view going down. There were a lot of mules going up the mountain that morning. They were carrying things up the the shops most of the time but there were a few mules carrying foreigners that were too lazy to walk up the mountain themselves! When we got back down to Mcleod, we went out to lunch at another rooftop restaurant with Nina and Simone (the two girls and Aoife and I shared a room with in the guest house). Then we walked around Mcleod a bit longer and then took a taxi back to Sidwarri! I was really tired when we got back but we stayed up very late that night anyways! We were playing more uno of course!