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Day 4 Dharapani (1,900 m)- Chame (2,700m)
By the end of day four we reached Chame, stopping in Timang for lunch; quite a nice village. Along the way I'd met a really nice German girl who had actually had a guide and porter, something many agents had tried to get me to do and right now I was very glad I hadn't opted for. Chame is a pretty big village with internet and everything! Up until this point I'd let Tek pick the accommodation as everything is pretty basic and I had no particular preference, so was happy to go to places he got commission or was treated well by the owners, however at Chame I drew the line. The place he brought me was very basic and to get to the rooms you had to walk through the kitchen were they were in the process of beheading a chicken on the floor- I decided to pass, I didn't need to be so closely involved in kitchen life. So I chose a place that was pretty modern- with its own internet café attached! It wasn't until I was all settled in that I realized it was also Israeli central- there was about 15 Israelis in this small guesthouse all shouting Hebrew at 6am! I decided to make use of one of their luxury hot showers as I wasn't sure if I would see one these again on the trek- unfortunately the water ran out half way through my shower luckily just after I got the shampoo out of hair- but this was lesson- if it seems too good to be true- it probably is! So after drying the soap off I decided to explore the big smoke of Chame, which also had a bakery so I headed there so sample what ended up being almost toxic masala tea and a cinnamon roll that may have been baked a week ago, but it was all worth it for the music supplied by the lovely Tibetan girl working there. She played me all the western music she had on her phone ranging from Westlife to hip hop. I also met up with some guys from the UK who were travelling with a group from Exodus who were lovely- not sure they appreciated the music so much.
Day 5 Chame (2,710 m)- Pisang (3,310 m)
This was one of the most beautiful days of the trek for me- stunning green scenery. I had my I-pod on just soaking it all in. I met the Exodus group again at our tea stop in Bhratang and had a really good chat with Emily and the guys. And then met a group of Ausssies I would meet numerous times on the trek in Dhikur for lunch. By early afternoon we made it to Lower Pisang where I stayed in a gorgeous, all carved wood new lodge. After settling in we headed up to Upper Pisang, which was really beautiful but where you could also really start to feel the altitude (3,310m). We were lucky to catch the final day of a five day local festival, which involved a big group of men with bits of traditional dress tied over modern clothes and some pretty cool hats, getting pissed on local alcohol and playing archery. Obviously their aim was pretty rubbish so any time someone hit the target this was cause for great celebration!
Day 6 Pisang (3,310m) - Bragha (3,450m)
So for today I had two options to reach Manang- the easy way, or the hard way and of my own free will I chose the harder, 3 hours longer and much steeper option. But the views were so worth it, the mountains along the narrow ridge felt so close you could almost touch them. At the viewpoint I met Tali (Israel) and Karen (Belgium) who were lovely and we ended up finishing the trek together. They had just a porter between them no guide, but they were still having issues. Their porter didn't fancy the harder option so let the girls go it alone while he took the easy option- nice. Along the ridge was pretty windy and by the time we stopped for lunch Karen was not feeling well, she was afraid it was altitude sickness. Tek told her all the traditional remedies including eating whole cloves of garlic, drinking ginger tea and keeping her hat on which seemed to work and she was set to hit the road again after lunch. We had planned to make it to Manang but by the time we reached the small village of Bragha just 30 minutes outside of Manang Karen was exhausted and so we decided to crash for the night. Bragha was actually one of the most picturesque villages on the trek so I was pretty glad we got to spend some time there. We stayed in a nice lodge for 100rs after some negotiations by Tali (which Tek was pretty pissed off at) where I tried my first bucket shower- definitely the best (or at least most predictable) way to shower in the mountains. That night we had a great time huddled round the fire in the guesthouse and tried to decide what to do tomorrow as you have to stay in the Manang area for at least one more day to help acclimatise. One option was to take a trip to Ice Lake, which is a really tough 10 hour day ascending and then descending 1,000m but is supposed to be beautiful and great for acclimatisation. But after a pretty tough day I thought I should just do some short treks in the area, which Tek was all for so I went to bed intending to give myself a lie in and just take it easy the next day...
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