Day 2 of my trek to Mt. Manaslu, Nepal

Journey begin

We arrived in Kathmandu on 10^th Sept. That day we spent shopping some gears which I wanted to take along with me. Had to by trekking shoes as my last pair was in bad condition. Met my sherpas Mingma and Nima. Met up with some of my friends in Nepal also had a gud time with them. Next day had to get my satellite phone, and got it checked for its compatibility with my computer. With my final packing done, I was all SET. 

Could not sleep that night…just imagining the path I may be walking for the next 1 month….

Left  Kathmandu on 12^th Sept 2011 at 7 am. We took a bus ride from Kathmandu.  Shortly after the road reaches trishuli river a bifurkation leads to the road. Till now it is still a normal road and we reached the little town of Dhading bazar.

No one could tell us, when the bus would start to Arughat so we just hired a complete truck. Since the roads are so bad …infact I don’t know if they should be called roads…the road clearance is better for trucks.

In Dhading Bazar there was a clear presence of soldiers but later we did not see them anymore.

Driving on the track from Dhading to Arughat Bazar

The next 5 hours we were shaken on a bumpy track and it was often difficult to get hold on something of the truck.

But the scenery was awesome 

The best place was definitively on the cabin roof, but one had to be very cautious not to be thrown down.

I sat there the last 3 hours, but it was more like an rodeo on a furious bull.

The first Daal Bhat. A small restaurant served our first and delicious daal bhat. My friend William Cross looks still a bit skeptical.

I LOVED IT!

We drove down to the valley of the Buddhi Gandaki. We had to cross an interesting bridge

Not only our bones were shaken hard, but also our truck had suffered.

Arughat Bazar (576m – 1893ft) Time taken 10hrs

Finally we arrived in Arughat bazar, a little town on the bank of Buddhi Gandaki.

We stayed in the only lodge one the east side of buddhi Gandaki. 

The lodge Didi made a excellent daal but soon we were all tired and went to bed. I also called home and updated my fb account through my satellite phone.            

13^th Sept 2011

From Arughat Bazar to Khursanibari

Started at 7am

During the first days the trek is leading through a very narrow valley. We started to go along the Buddhi Gandaki river, which we will follow the next 10 days. Fortunately the weather was bright and sunny.
In Arughat bazar you can find many shops selling daily goods. Being the last village on the road it is the spot for whole- and retail salers. Families from the upper valley will come a few times in the year to Arughat to buy what ever they can not get in their village. A shopping tour which can take up to 10 days! WOW!!! Imagine going to GIP Mall for so many days!!!!!! After crossing the bridge we were on the western side of Buddhi Gandaki.But we were not the only on, crossing this bridge.

The west part is the older part of Arughat, and at the end there was the first Nepali staircase. No wonder that the road did not continue here.

So after Arughat we were walking in luxurious green on a large trail. Lining on the trail many little huts offer a tea, drinks or some goods. But progress is obvious as you can see on the picture every hut has its own solar panel and in most of them a little television was showing our Hindi films!!!

The valley in the beginning still large, but as every house we passed it was getting more and more narrow.

A Tipical litte village on the way with the “chauthara” . There porters can deposit their load for a little break or people can sit in the shadow of the big pipal and banyan tree to have a little chat.

Many of the houses were decorated with little pictures.

Sometimes we passed bigger villages which were nearly shopping malls!!!! One could buy clothes , musik and all household goods. So people can spare a half day walking to Arughat on their shopping tour.

There were many small tributaries we needed to cross so we rolled up our pants and put our luggage over our heads and crossed the water..its fun, since we were sweating a lot, so going through the water was not bad. Wish we could swim
As soon as we were on the river, children came down to look how we are doing.

In the afternoon we arrived at the first very long suspension bridge. Armala

The little village of Armala is build on top of a huge rock wall, surely higher than 100 m. So it is pretty dangerous to go out in the night

There are lodges for travelers. At the first glance, the lodge was just a normal private house with no sign at all. But they use to feed travellers and in the first floor they had a room with a few beds in it. The kitchen is situated in the little annex. 

We continued our trek to Khursanibari….we reached this little settlement at 2pm today. Was sweating like hell and acyually felt like taking a bath!!!!!Which I did!!!!:))

Had some good lunch …ofcourse dal bath…good for the stomach and healthy too….today I am pretty clean and well shaved. Wonder when will I get water next!!!After having a tasty daal bhat we started to joke and sing some songs along with the locals. The didi asked us, if we would like to hear some local music, the village woman group would like to come sing in the evening expecting a little donation. Sure that we agreed on the spot!!!

I will try my FB account again today…we will move to Macha Khola (1300m – 4265ft) tomorrow morning. Love breathing this air............the virgin beauty…..wondering how it will be to see the first glimps of Mt. Manaslu….and then what challenge it will throw…Will I be 3^rd time lucky??!! I need all the blessings…. Bye for now….love u all…