Nov 26 Thurs - Trek to Ghandruk (1970M) (3hours) This is the most pleasant day of our trek and we took an easy time taking lots of photos on the way. We started shooting at 6am to catch the sunrise as we can see the Machapuchare very clearly from our lodge. There are so many flowers everywhere we go – on the trail, in the villages, in every tea house – flaming red poinsettias, colourful bougainvilleas, hedges of bright orange marigolds, huge roses, chrysanthemums - they are all over the Annapurna treks and you can so easily take so many beautiful photos with the flowers, the mountains, the blue sky, the clouds and of course the Nepali people, old and young. Especially the look on the children’s faces – they are so sweet. On our treks, we keep running into children on their way to school. They will greet us with their cheerful laughing voices: "Namaste!" and will very obligingly stop to pose for a photo.
This morning we found frosts on the table tops, on the grass, the roof tops – everywhere it was frosted. In fact, when we went up Poon Hill it was close to zero degree Celsius. As soon as the sun sets, the temperature drops very quickly from 20 to 13 and then at night it drops lower and lower – around 3 to 5 degrees C.
We started to trek around 9am and reached Hotel Milan around 1.30pm. The village along the trek is so picturesque. After 3 days of 5 or 6 hours trekking, today’s journey was like a breeze. Lunch will usually be Dal Bat and at 3pm we went to see the Gurung Museum for Rs50 and then took a short tour in the village around the Hotel. It gets dark soon after 5.30pm as the sun sets around that time. Later we gathered in the garden with Jangbu and the porters and Jangbu started to teach us the song: Resam Feriri. Very soon I have to turn on my torch light to continue writing down the lyrics and translating the meaning of the song and singing it several times together with Jangbu and the porters. As I looked up in the circle of light, I found myself surrounded with delighted faces. It was a happy moment and have kept us warm in the garden which is getting cold as dusk sets in. Dinner time each of us ordered something different from the menu but always the same soup to make life easy for the cook. We had to make our order around 5pm so that it gives the much challenged cook ample time to prepare each and every dish. Salute to the cook! Hotel Milan topped all other guesthouse we have visited in serving the best food on the menu, and I mean all the food in their menu was yummy! Even before dinner finishes, we heard voices of singing and partying from the guesthouse nearby. There was a cultural troupe performing around the circuit and the singing and clapping and partying cheers went on until 10pm which is about time we all go to sleep.
see next day...Ghandruk to Chomrong
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