ABC Trek :My First Blog
I live in small yet very beautiful city Pokhara. Being surrounded by majestic mountains and valley, Pokhara is very famous destination for trekkers. Trekking is very famous among local as well as international travelers. I do not consider myself as very adventurous person as I haven’t travel too much beside Pokhara valley. I am extrovert but not much travelling has happened in my life yet. This trek to ABC has been the most adventurous thing, I have ever done. I always have been wanting to go on a long trek but this and that always came in middle as excuse.
It was the time around end of October in 2017. Days were hectic because of my pressure to choose college for my bachelors degree. I was tired of giving exams in almost every other colleges, I wanted to join. The next day was my entrance for Pokhara University. I just woke up and was about to have breakfast. Then a sudden call from my cousin brother came saying there is free ride in helicopter for two people going to ABC but we had to return by walking. Damn! I was very excited to hear that and so was my sister, I didn’t even thought twice for that. Yes we are going was my very first instinct. My brother said I have sent cab for you guys, get ready in 20 minutes. Hell Yeah! I have never been ready so fast in my entire life. I don’t know what we were thinking, we pretty much had zero knowledge about what was going to happen to us and what does it takes to go on long trekking. We were way too excited for our first heli ride and our first trek. And my entrance exam fuck that. I didn’t even give second thought about that. My parents were confused what was happening and pretty nervous that we were going alone but we were so determined to go. They just had to let us go. We packed pretty much all our warmest clothes, and by warmest clothes being hoodies because you know we live in Pokhara and it is never that cold here. Now I remember that and laugh, what was I thinking. My hair was braided last night and was like okay for me not to comb this morning. Uncombed hair, ripped jeans, hoodie, 8 thousand rupee, some snacks my parents bought and I was ready to go for trek in mountain.
Cab came for us and we reached airport in 10 minutes. We waited for helicopter for some more minutes and while we were waiting we met two older aunts who were also going with us. They were from Chhomrong the beautiful village in middle of ABC trek circuit. They also got free ride arranged by our brother. So they were planning to hike down from ABC to their village. My parents were also with us to see us off, they were still quite nervous about us going alone. They introduced themselves with those two aunts and found out they were from village down the way. We were in our own world very excited not quite interested about them. Our parents took us and introduced us to them saying they will help us down the way and not to leave them. We said okay and our journey begun.
It was only 18 minutes ride from Pokhara to ABC. We reached there and a sudden realization hit us very soon that we needed more warmer clothes, it was way too cold than we expected. Anyways we were kind of expecting we would be on like bottom of mountain with snow all around but it was sunny day with cold breeze from mountain. We were kind of disappointed because we were expecting too much. But little did we know how lucky we were to have that weather and a clear view of mountain so up close. But that majestic view of mountain and the reflection of sun in it was just unutterably pleasing to our eyes. We clicked many photos and also clicked photos with those aunts. They were as excited as we were. There was like 3–4 hotels nearby where we landed. Now cold breeze was starting to hit us real hard. We went inside those hotels for warm places and had pizza. Damn! pizza in morning was never this appetizing. The most delicious pizza I have ever had. The thickest, the most cheesy and the most delicious pizza. I still can’t forget the taste of it. And also we didn’t need to pay for it because those aunts knew the owner of that place.
Until now we were very happy and completely unaware of the things we were about to face. One of the older aunt suddenly started having breathing problem because it was low oxygen environment. The hotel owner suggested to start moving downhill as soon as possible. But we just came and we didn’t want to start moving this soon. But they were very understanding about it. They told us to explore as much as we wanted and come down, they will be in MBC(Machhapuchre Base Camp), which was only 45 minute downhill from ABC. They went down and we started exploring the area. We clicked many photos and we also met one famous actor of Nepal. They were there for shooting. After 2 hours of exploring beautiful scene we headed down to MBC.
DAY 1
Our trek finally started we started walking and on the half way it started drizzling and the fog filled whole way making it difficult for us to see the way. We were tired only after walking 15 minutes, the intense change in weather made us more cold and my hoodie started getting wet. It was freezing cold and very difficult to walk. The small and never ending trails, we started to get nervous. What if we are in wrong trail. But after sometime we begin to see some houses which motivated us to walk fast. We reached there and asked for those two aunts and realized because of shortage of room they were sleeping in tent. Damn! tent in this weather. I was about to cry thinking what’s going to happen. We had some warm water and went in tent it was freezing cold and also water started pouring heavily. We were tired after that cold walk, we had some warm food and scooped inside our blanket for warmth. We fell asleep pretty fast, we didn’t even realize that.
After some hours we woke up, it was evening. Rain has stopped but it was still freezing cold. We heard people outside playing with snow. SNOW! We got very excited, we went outside quickly and saw snow all over. It was a dream come true. I saw snow for the first time. Snow pilling up in drift, it was 100 times more beautiful than what I expected. The street looked like an unfinished painting. So much of the canvas was still perfectly white, as if waiting for the artists hand to return. We even made a snowman or attempted I guess. After long time of playing in snow with not so thick layers of clothes, we were shivering in cold. It was almost dark. We sure couldn’t sleep in tent tonight. But lucky us we got room because of those aunts, they were like god for us then. We got so much help because of those aunts. We got free food everywhere and also room was free. We talked with them a lot that night, they told how it was their first experience in helicopter and how was life in cold weather. They were very cool. We also told them how thankful we were for them for helping us. We would have never got room without them. We had our dinner which was so delicious and slept peacefully that night.
The most exciting, nerve- racking and beautiful day of my life.
DAY 2
We slept so well. We woke up around 8 am and I couldn’t believe the view we saw. We started with a perfect blue sky and beautiful views of Fishtail behind us and Annapurna 1. It was sunny and the view was somethings I can’t explain. The sun was so beautifully shining and it’s reflection on snow was making it more alluring. We did our morning routine and warm tea was never so calming and spiritually awaking. After breakfast we started our journey again. We started walking, although the view of snow all around was eye pleasing walking downhill on it was kind of hard and cold. We walked almost whole day. It was pretty intense uphill and downhill walking. It was more difficult for us because we never walked such a long distance before. Our final destination for today was Chhomrong village. The trail we waked that day followed from MBC to Deurali(3231m), Deurali to Dovan(2505m), Dovan to Bamboo(2335m) which was filled with intermittent bamboo forest and finally from Bamboo to Chhomrong(2340m). At the end of the day we were literally crawling. The good thing that day was we didn’t need to find hotel to stay because it was the village of those two aunts and we could stay in their home. They treated us like a family, I can’t image what would have happened to us if they were not with us. They motivated us to walk through all those hard paths saying it’s only 15 mintues from now, whenever we asked about time to reach village.HAHA!(Aba 15 mintues ma aayo ba aayo) was their dialogue. After reaching home and laying in warm bed, I felt like that day was the biggest achievement of my life. I really salute every trekkers and the potters who complete trek to ABC and back. Again delicious food and warm blankets was end of our day.
All though the journey was really intense and hopelessly long, at the end of the day the most greatest thing ever happened in my life.
DAY 3
How lucky are these people who wake up to the view of this eye pleasing mountain and hills everyday. The weather was just perfect, the warm sun with cold breeze in it, every touch of it was giving me goosebumps. I was immensely happy that, I was lucky enough to see those views that day. Although I didn’t want to leave that place at all, we had to reach Pokhara that day. We had our breakfast and said our goodbyes to those god like aunts and their family, who were so friendly and welcoming. Lucky us we got accompanied by one of the aunt’s younger son, who was also going to Pokhara. We laughed and shared our experience with him on the way back to Pokhara, he was such a kind and funny man. He made us laugh so much. That day we didn’t feel like we walked a lot. I guess our legs got used to with the difficult paths. And finally after 4 hours of walk and 2 hours of bus ride we came back to Pokhara.
My most unexpected, longest and adventurous journey in ripped jeans, fancy boots and hoodies. From this phase of my life, I learned that there is warm weather after every storm, so be patience through everything life gives cause everything really happens for our own good and warm days are sure to come.
As you probably already read, this is my first blog. I’m trying something new, for sure there are mistakes and places to be corrected. Your suggestions and feedback are highly appreciated.
