Trekking in the Himalayas

Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/MarkSNewell/DarjeelingTrek#

One of the things I love the most about traveling is having no agenda, and deciding things on a whim, just because. We had one of those moments on our third day in Darjeeling. We had met some nice travelers in the café the previous day, and ran into them again the following morning in the market. They mentioned they were leaving for a trek in the nearby mountains the following morning, and invited us to join. Why not? So we shuffled our plans around and decided to join them on the 5 day walk through the Himalayas along the Singalila ridge bordering Nepal – offering stunning views of two the three highest mountains in the world; Mt. Everest and Kanchenjunga, both over 28,000 feet high.
After renting a down jacket (for me) and a raincoat (for Mark) – both for the whopping cost of $0.75 a day - we headed out on our adventure with Nick (Scottish) and Kate (Aussie), our new found friends from Glenary’s coffee shop. Our trip started out with a cramped, bouncy 2 hour jeep ride to Maneybhanjang, where we were required to hire a local guide to walk with us along our trek. After a bit of negotiating, we hired Umess, a local Nepalese man, and headed off on the trail.

Having just come from the Italian Dolomites, I had in my mind that our hike would be similarly barren and rocky, given the elevation. Boy was I wrong. Even though our trail kept us somewhere between 9,000 and almost 11,000 feet elevation, we hiked through lush, dense forests of pine trees, bamboo, enormous rhododendrons that covered entire mountainsides, and greenery and ferns that make the Olympic Peninsula seem average. About every two hours or so we would happen upon a small village or collection of houses, and occasionally we’d stop for a cup of hot, sweet chai or a hearty lunch. Our trailed weaved in and out of Nepal, and most of the villages we came upon were Tibetan.
Each night we would stay in a rustic mountain lodge, where we would find hard beds, blankets, and warm hearty meals for dinner and breakfast, but not much else in terms of amenities – some didn’t have electricity or heat. Our first night we stayed in a cute family run lodge that had lots of bright flowers in the garden, and nice touches of coziness inside, but our following two nights were spent in “government trekker huts” which were pretty dismal – cold, dirty, and uninviting – which made going to bed at 8pm seem pretty appealing. The food, however, was delicious – rice, dal, fried mixed vegetables, chapatti (little flat breads) and tea. Most of the cooking in these smaller village homes is done over open fire, inside the home, so it is really smoky and the ceilings are black with soot.

All in all it was a wonderful 5 days, and the views of the mountains from the highest point of our trek, Phalut, just under 11,000 feet, made the hard beds, skanky squat toilets, and frigid nights well worth it in the end. Our first two days were spent hiking in clouds, so on the third and fourth mornings, when we woke at first light to see the mountains, we were stunned with the views. I think we all underestimated how powerful it would be to see two of the three highest mountains in the world. Our views of Kanchenjunga, just shy of Mt. Everest in height by a few hundred meters, were heart-stopping.
It was also fun to make two new friends, and get a glimpse of what life is like for them. Right before our adventure together, Nick and Kate had spontaneously decided to get married in Thailand in two weeks time, so our days with them had a celebratory buzz of anticipation, excitement, and sharing of wedding tales (we have a few of our own…as you know!) J