Nangi Is Going Places

As a Town it is Innovative and Growing by Leaps

The town has the very best school of all the villages we visited. Most schools are  just first grade thru fifth or sixth.  Nangi's school celebrated graduating seniors this year, many have gone on to college. The school has hopes of offering college glasses soon and developing in to a community college. Their students come from 100s of miles away.  Before they stayed in these small wooden cottages with an old wooden fence separating the boys from the girls. Today they have a recently constructed male and female dorms. And here is a pic of their library.  They have a very large computer lab with excellent wifi, allowing for a global education.

Spenser found the English section.  It had a great selection.

Organic mushroom hut (just harvested)

Then we have the fast growing women's industries.

Paper making building

Paper dryer rackd

Unfortunately we did not get to see 
the women in action.  It was still holiday there.  Even the school was closed.

Finished Paper  Products
The small item in the middle is a journal.  Debbie gifted each of us with one.

Purses straight off the loam. 

Yes the women have become independent since most of the men leave the village to join the army or work in other countries.  Besides most of these women are also the farmers and many are mothers. 

And with their community lodge and dining hall, this tiny village will grow as does the tourism and trekking business.  We, as a group, wanted to give back to Nangi in some way. Chandra suggested funding the development of a litter and recycling program. It was thought a good place to start is with the school. 
They could reward students for picking up litter and also "not to litter" in the first place. He will bring up the idea with the village council men and women.
A pledge from each of us for a dollar a day would fund this program. I look forward to aiding this project. 

We Are Back

And All One Big Happy Group Again!

It was wonderful to re-unite with the rest of our fellow trekkers, Luna, Debbie and Prem.  And to return to Chandra's home and family. We had hundreds of tales and pictures to share. After a great feast on daal bhaat with a fresh cucumber, tomato and onion salad with squeezed lime over the top ( I really loved the Kaji's Nepali food) we had a group meeting.  We discussed our trek and praised Chandra and Deb for the amazing job they did. They made it all work without any hiccups. Trekking Nepal has always been on my bucket list, but never, ever did I expect this awesome experience of seeing the country from these ancestral trails and learning their customs and being so enriched by their culture. For the last two weeks, Chandra was constantly asked; "How much longer?", "Are we almost there?", "How many hours before we arrive?", "Do you think we are half way?"  And he was always noncommittal with "maybe an hour, maybe four" or "just five more hills or turns".  This frustrated a few at first, then we all expected one of these answers and it became comical.  This night he brought this up and simply said, "Now that we are here did the time it took us each day from start to finish really matter? Did you enjoy the trek any less or did you enjoy it more for staying in the moment?" 

        "It is not the destination, but the journey."

 I tell you, Debbie is one lucky woman!  And Luna will be an amazing woman when is grows up.

Holiday swing

We are still celebrating Dasain. Along our hike every village had one of these swings put up for just the month long duration of the festival, no longer. The loops at the top to hold the swing on the poles are water buffalo neck rings.  They still had hair on them. Carrie got pretty high standing up on her turn.

Luna and Debbie

While mom and child took it easy.

An afternoon walk to old town Nangi. 

Couldn't you just live here? 

This is the oldest house in the village, probably 150 years old.

It was easier to built round house then to make right corners. Notice the smoke on the far mountain. We saw smoke high in the mountains it usually meant trekkers were signaling for a helicopter rescue. But not here in the low lands. A farmer was just burning trash.

Okay, I could live here.  It looks like it is big enough for all my books!

Old Town Square

Relaxing on great-grandpa's porch.  Chandra's grandfather bought this house for $60 after coming back from WWII. 

A family gathers millet to grind.

Headed Back to Nangi

It is All Downhill from Here

Starting at 11,000' and ending back in Nangi at 7200' was classified as a difficult 4 to 5 hour hike.  No problem for me.  It was like what I am used to here in the Rockies. We started above tree line so the first part was rolling grassy fields.  Yes, steep with narrow paths. But a stroll just the same. We even walked through a small area where there once was a forrest fire.  That is a very rare sight here in Nepal. And I do not have any pictures of it.  I suppose all my friends are right when they claim all I see is the beauty in the world.

Note this unusual mount.  It is like a wave of dirt!

Where did the path go?  Who cares, just walk downhill!

Maggie Noodle lost her footing, but Chandra grabbed
her backpack and the puppet was saved.

Meeting up with the porters who were always way ahead.

A well deserved "lay down" after lunch.

Just before we arrived back in Nangi we came across this incredible tree just covered with purple flowers.

Chandra picked one off to show us up close.  This flower is a type of orchid
that attaches itself to a tree, any tree it picks,  just like a staghorn fern.  Then
he placed it back on the tree.

Mohare

Virtually Unknown but Oh the View!

So it was a great day for a hike.  We crossed fences on log ladders, share some water buffalo milk with a clever farmer, saw Nangi from way up high and shared an incredible night in Mohare and woke up early for an awesome sunrise. All in a day on the mountain!  

Easy going up, but here we had to climb down.

We could see Nangi from here.

The farmer built this fence around his property
to keep the tiger from killing his buffalo.  He thought
it was amusing since any tiger could get through this
fence, but he "knows" the farmer's wishes now.

Tiger poop, had to be, only animal known
to eat other animals.

Here they bred male yaks with cows to arrive at a hybrid that was strong,
 produced more milk and could live at lower altitudes.

Mohare
The 2 long buildings are the lodge.  The blue is storage and
the orange roof is the dining hall.

Never tire of a mountain view.

Yahtze!

Guides, Porters & Hosts!

You can see forever!  That small white dot close to the middle is
the lake at Pokhara.

Our gang likes high places!

I enjoyed this sunrise.

Don't you?

Poon Hill

Our Time on the Hill

The plans were to rise and shine at O'dark thirty so we could hike an hour straight up to Poon Hill to view the sunrise on the mountain range.  We took a vote to sleep in and view them later in the morning. I am an early riser so I was out walking the slates with Leesa and John.  As the trekkers were returning we overheard them talk about the fog, no view of the mountains at all. It was a bust. So by the time we got there at around 11, the mountains were out in full view and we had the whole hill to ourselves. 

Just us on the trail

Just us on Poon Hill

The mountain and prayer flags

We left Poon Hill for a difficult 5 hour trek to Mohare, another high community lodge at 11,000 feet.  

We Joined the Circuit

  Annapurna Circuit

But not for very long. If we wanted to go to Poon Hill we had to join the crowds of trekkers on this popular Napoli trek. But check out this map of the area.  Do you see any of the names of the villages I have written about?  For the first time in 10 days we saw other hikers from so many countries; Korea, France, China, Germany, UK, Canada and even the US. We entered the circuit at Chitre, where we stopped for lunch. Here started our up hill hike for the next 5 hours, passing most of the foreigners, to rest at the very touristy city of Ghorepani.  We stayed at the hotel at the very top of the city steps, a nice place with hot showers, rum hot chocolate and apple crisp with custard. 

Map of the Annapurna Circuit

Our group getting ready

Crossing a bridge built by the military.

Another built by villagers

A beautiful hand carved window 

Ghorepani 

I bought a fish lock for my boss.  He loved it.

Lots of steps in this town, but no roads.

Bakery

Annapurna South

Others used pack mules.  We used porters.  Our porters
played Yahtze with us.

Our Hotel


The plans were to rise and shine at O'dark thirty so we could hike an hour straight up to Poon Hill to view the sunrise on the mountain range.  We took a vote to sleep in and see them later in the morning. I am an early riser so I was out walking the slates with Leesa and John.  As the trekkers were returning we overheard them talk about the fog, no view of the mountains at all. It was a bust. So by the time we got there at around 11, the mountains were out in full view and we had the whole hill to ourselves.