Day 04. Finally on foot.

Only on the fourth day of the journey did the actual campaign begin. After endless sitting in airplanes and buses, I really wanted to walk. Out of habit, walking was not easy, shoulders ached from heavy backpacks. Very warm but not hot. There are many villages around, rice fields, almost jungle on the slopes. The valley is dominated by the river – noisy and full-flowing.Route: Bhulbhule – Bahundanda – SyanjTraveled 17 km in 8 hoursTotal ascent – 700 m, total descent – 350 mAltitude above sea level: 1100 mTerrain: tropical forest, rice fields

7:30. set off. Just five meters to the left of our hotel is the first checkpoint. We celebrate and go to the river. The road under construction goes along our left bank. A trail for tourists and other pedestrians on the other side of the river.I sense confusion. For another 10 days we will go towards the flow of the river, so the left orographic bank inevitably became right for us. In the future, simply “right bank” will mean right in the direction of our movement, and “op. right” – right along the river (orographic).For the first time we crossed over the suspension bridge, having missed the first caravan of mules. Today there will be a lot of “first”, get ready)))From the right bank you can see the very edge of the distant snow-capped peaks – the Manaslu massif. It’s hard to believe we’re going to crawl there. Not directly to Manaslu of course (this is a topic for another trip), but to its level and even further.The sun will not soon reach the bottom of the valley and we try to go faster to keep warm (I’m in a shirt and shorts). However, all morning we are overtaken by more nimble trekkers.9:00. We make a short halt in the village of Ngadi (930 m). The shop in front of the eatery is covered with dew – you can’t sit much. At the entrance to the village, we saw how two Nepalese people filled new liter bottles from a spring. Not otherwise, as sealed and put up for sale. I had already planned to avoid packaged water (for environmental reasons), and now I will definitely not buy a “cat in a bottle”.9:30. The sun reached the bottom of the valley. Microscopic quartz crystals sparkled on the bare feet of the Nepal women walking towards them. Actually, on my feet (shod in sandals) the crystals shone no worse, but, you see, it is more interesting to look at women’s legs.11:40. We’re pretty exhausted already. The trail seems to be easy, a little up, a little down, a little in the shade, a little in the sun. But the backpack is heavy, and the body has not yet adapted to the load and the new climate. As a result, to Bahundanda (1300 m) – the village scheduled for lunch, we crawled with a clear intention to relax in full. Bahundanda is located on the top of a tall hill. On the last meters of the ascent, our speed finally slowed down, and our senses became more acute. Something appetizing spicy and peppery was in the air. I became so engrossed in the analysis of olfactory impressions that I was almost taken aback by the auditory impressions.We were met by the orchestra! Ordinary school activities. Lure tourists to ask for financial support. All this I realized a little later. And for the first couple of moments we stood slightly dumbfounded and completely defenseless. Grab and drag (to school for an open lesson).They didn’t manage to catch us. We “pretended to be hoses” and slipped past smiling schoolchildren. We hid in a nearby cafe.12:00. A leisurely lunch. We combined eating with admiring the bamboo thickets, taking pictures and reading magazines.My wife took several glossy gossip books with her to read on the plane, but she never read it. I didn’t want to drag the extra 500 grams of waste paper further, so it was decided to immediately finish reading the magazines and leave them in the cafe. One reading was not limited. They began to discuss the nature and causes of popularity and attractiveness. Behind this innocent “discussion about nature” was a quiet but massive clash of two worlds. The female half of our team claimed that they could not stand the goatee of Boris Grebenshchikov. The men tried to draw attention to the facts that:

• BG doesn’t always wear a beard
• appearance, far from the main thing in creativity this musician
• goatee and voice did not prevent BG from singing “Golden City” (one of the favorite songs of the female half).

You understand, the answer to them was unequivocal – “So what?”.13:20. Enough lunch, let’s move on. At the exit from the village, the locals took turns offering us accommodation, porters, a guide, and weed. Hemp and other cacti really grew here a lot.I wonder if the significant number of the blessed (crazy) that we have met over the past two days (in almost every village) is connected with this.Water is pouring from everywhere. Brooks, rivulets and speeches murmur, seethe and roar everywhere. The most difficult thing is to understand which of the sources is clean enough to drink. My wife and I tried not to take risks, Taras, on the contrary, did not take a steam bath and drank from streams.15:00. We buy tangerines (10 rupees each) in the village of Lili Bhir (1100 m). Delicious, juicy, sour – a lot of pleasure. Cheered up, we quickly ran to the village of Syanzh – the end point of today’s route.Far below, on the left bank, there is an outpost of civilization – the base of the Nepalese highway. Nepalese are hardworking and persistent. It is quite possible that in a year buses will also run to Siange.And on the right bank are idyllic pictures of rural life. 16:00. Checking into Rainbow Guest House . This is in the first half of the village (on the right bank, before the bridge), opposite a huge waterfall. 100 rupees per person. There is no socket in the room, but there is a fan and huge gaps in the ceiling and one of the walls (God forbid it rains). A toilet and a hot shower with a geyser are in the yard.At the stage of preparation for the trip, I read a monumental work by Oleg Yanchevsky – an article mountains”. I didn’t understand a lot right away, I forgot a lot later, but I not only kept one thought, but also embodied it. Gotta take your pulse!And we measured:

• Kirill – 64
• Sveta – 72
• Taras – 72

At dinner, Taras confessed to us that he really liked Nepal and would not mind settling somewhere in the mountains with a pretty Nepal woman.The language barrier is not a problem for him, we have seen this more than once. So it’s up to you to buy a tailcoat for a wedding.20:40. Having fantasized about a new life in the Himalayas, we went to sleep.It was the 4th day of the trip to Nepal. Choose what to read next:

• Next, 5th day – Farewell to the palms.
• Previous, Day 3 – Buses only: Dumre, Besisaxar, Bhulbhule< /a>
• Table of contents with links to all travel days.

Kirill Yasko. February 15, 2010.