Oct 11 Philim to Ghap. Manaslu trek, Nepal.

We had to leave early as this was to be a long, hard day of 10 hours. We all had egg and noodle soup and left at 7:30am. The day again featured deep river gorges. There were more caravans of pack animals, as this was the only way to supply villages further on in both the Manaslu and Tsum valley routes.
Wherever there is arable land, it is utilized. It is a wonder at times to see a cultivated plot in what seems to be an inaccessible location high in the valley.
A lot of work goes into making inscriptions on rocks around the stupas. I have no idea what they  say, presumably some sort of philosophical Bhuddist teaching.
Along the path there was some water driven machinery designed to grind the grain, simple but effective.
Beer o'clock is getting more expensive at 450 rupees a bottle. Time to finish drinking anyway as the altitude is getting too high.  The dehydration or lack the effects of drinking alcohol is not a good mix with altitude.
For lunch I had a vegetable curry and chapati. For dinner I had an excellent dahl blat with fresh green beans and potatoes. For dessert a delicious pumpkin pie.
The kitchen was of a design common to all kitchens on this trail. It is has a central oven that is an open ended steel box with a chimney, on top is a cooking plate. Simple, but effective to to cater for the masses, and provide much needed warmth on the chill alpine days.
Buddhist religion more prevalent with many chorten and prayer flags. Chorten or stupa are stone structures of differing sizes or shapes. During construction they contain relics, offerings and prayers. There are also mani stones which are tablets with prayer inscriptions. We also see stone gateways to mark entrances - nothing unusual in our western fenced society except there are no fences here.
I had a kid chase me down a hill demanding a pen. It gets a bit tiresome at times with the demands to supply pens. Something I think other tourists are to blame and  have built an expectation. I reckon it is a better move to donate to the community school, or pure water / sanitation scheme. 
 Minor irritations, there is lots to look at. From flowers to flowing rivers or religious artifacts it doesn't stop.


I lost a basket off one of my trekking poles, I must remember to either stick them on, carry spares or don't have them at all. These are light Gossamer gear poles weighing 120g each, they are holding up well and are great being so light. I only brought them for my tent, but they have proven useful especially on keeping balance on descents.
Water is available in many places, people wash and collect water for drinks there.Supposedly it is of good quality, but I always filtered it to be sure.
The mountains are exposing themselves more and look quite majestic, dwarfing us within the narrow walls of the valley.
Upward we go, there were a few hundred metres elevation gain today.
A short cold dip in a cascade was very refreshing during the day to relieve my  muscles and fatigue.
We stayed in a very pleasant tea house. A new building, food was excellent, with another even better pumpkin pie than yesterday for dessert.
When eating with us Rajesh would use the cutlery, however the Nepalese generally would use their fingers. It doesn't bother me either way, but from a hygiene point of view and the convenience I prefer cutlery. The lights were quite dim as solar power is used to provide electricity.  
I soon discovered the porters and our guide love playing cards. My deck proved to be very handy, and I gifted them to the porters at the end of the walk. 
 
Almost every night we play cards together, today we are playing whilst waiting for lunch. Rajesh taught me Dhumbal, a popular Nepalese game that has similarity to Yaniv played in Israel. I taught him and the porters my favourite games of 500, switch and hearts. 
 
I like the game of dhumbal and hope to carry on playing it when I get home. 
  • The objective is to diminish the overall sum of the point value of the cards in your hand to 5 or below, then call and hope that you have the lowest value at that time. 
  • The game starts with 5 cards, discard one or more cards in a straight in the same suit or a set of 2 or more of the same value. 
  • Take a single replenishment card from the discard to the left (game is anti-clockwise)  or from the undealt pile.  eg. you have 2 lots of 7, discard them and pick up one from the deck or from the last discard of the person on your left.
  • Ace is the lowest card at one point.
  • If you call dhumbal instead of discarding and someone else has the same or lower total than you then you  lose and you add 25 to the total of your cards. eg if you call dhumbal on a total of 4 and I have a total of 3, then you score 25 + 4 = 29. 
  • The first person to score over 100 loses. If you score 100 then you have a reprieve and go back to 50.

Each day on this trek has been special. We started with the warm agricultural valley at 520 metres, now we are ascending at altitudes over 3000 metres and the mountains are looming high in the sky. As the saying goes; "it's the journey that counts".

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Location: Ghap, Prok, Nepal

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