Langtang Finished

Well, back at sealevel 1300m I am HIGH on oxygen! WEEEHAA ;)

Even if I wanted to, it is impossible to write down everything of interest that happened. I will now consult my diary (Tagebuch) to give a short and compact review.

18th April

We survived the 10 hours bus tour to Syaphru Besi. The road - ok, let`s say "road" ... hmm, no, field path (Feldweg) is much better - so the "road" which consisted of about 1/3 asphalt with road holes (Schlagloecher) and 2/3 stones and dust. On one side of the "road" there was the mountain like a wall, on the other it went downhill that steep as if there was nothing. So I felt very safe the whole time :)
We needed the 10 hours to cover a distance of about 200 km. Think about the average speed...

Well, we arrived at approximately 1800 in Syaphru Besi. It is a small village in the mountains with electricity and even internet, i think.

Our guide, his name is Bashu, is a very nice Hindu of the same cast as the Nepal Maoist leader (hihi). He is 22 years old, married since 1 year and will become father in a few days.

19th April

Bashu, carrying a rucksack of about 2,5 kg, started the trek quite fast. We, both armed with 15 kg rucksacks, got exhausted quite fast. But there would have been no challenge without the extra weight! Manliness rules!
Roughly 7 hours, 1 chicken and some liters of water later we arrived in Lama Hotel (a village, not a hotel) at 2340m. Lama is also a cast like Sherpa and Dahal (Bashus and Maoist Leaders cast). There are about 15 different casts.
I was astonished to have a very warm shower in Lama Hotel, a village without electricity and mobile phone reception. The Hotel we stayed at was more like a mountain shelter (Berghuette). Of course it was like this, we WERE in the mountains.
During the trek we saw a lot of porters - people (men and women) carrying 50 kg rice bags all the way up with only sandals on their feet. We heared that they get about 300 Rupees per day.

Night temperature outside: ~10 degree Celsius.

20th April

The trek was again quite exhausting, probably because of the thin air. We arrived in Langtang village, which is at approximately 3300m above sea level. Because of the nearby Langtang river there is some kind of hydroelectric power plant, so we got a light bulb in our hotel room.

21st April

Kyanjing or maybe Kiyangjing, I am not sure, something like K... Gumba (3700m). Since Lama Hotel a very nice and very small Nepalese is waiting for us at every village we want to stay and leads us to a hotel. We are not sure if he owns all those hotels or "just" gets provision.
Anyway, it is getting colder. Room temperature about 5 degree Celsius. Outside it was raining, a few hundred meters higher snowing.
We were getting problems with the little oxygen. Headache, loss of appetite and fatigue, although we did only 400 altitude difference during 2,5 hours trekking.

We were almost sleeping when Bashu knocked at the door. I thought there must have something very important happend. NO! Bashu flounced into the room, holding a small piece of meat in one hand, and asked excited: "LANGTANG PORK! LANGTANG PORK! You wanna try?" A little bit confused I took one half and ate it. It was really good! Johannes was still sleeping at that moment. So Bashu woke him up and held the rest of the Langtang pork just under his nose.
After Bashu left our room and the confusion was gone, we started roaring with laugher. This crazy man woke us up to let us try a small piece of meat.

22nd April

We walked up the Cherko Ri and reached the peak at 5001 meters (in fact the peak is at 4984 m, but if there were 16 meters more, we would have done them!). It was very, very exhausting. we both got headache and could not eat anything for lunch. Anyway, we did it! HOOOORAAAAAAY!
In the morning the outside temperature in K... Gomba was below 0 degree Celsius, and there was snow! The sunshine melted most of it away during the day, but at some places there has been snow before in greater amount which resisted the sun. So I could live my snow-fanaticism and I was happy.

23rd April

What we walked up in 2 days we were then walking down in one. We stayed in a hotel near Lama Hotel at about 2019 m. We tried to phone the Thai Airways (we did before in Langtang), but it did not work.
Although trekking downhill is not exhausting, I hated it. Its only advantage is the increasing oxygen level. Headache had gone, appetite came back.
When we had lunch in Langtang, we were a bit grumpy (schlecht drauf). Johannes felt sick, I hated walking downhill. We had no success with the phonecall to the Thai Airways. Sitting there and waiting for lunch, a bird placed its shit that accurate that it hit both Johannes AND me, but NOT the ground!

24th April

Thulo Syaphru, 2210 m. Splendid oxygen! We are feeling even better. Only our stomaches did not care, but we were starting to get used to that.

25th April

Chyolangpati, again very high at 3584 m. That time we had no more problems with the height. Again we had a chicken for dinner, but this time we killed it ourselves, with a Khukuri knife! That is not as easy as you see in fantasy films.
In the late afternoon it started snowing heavily...

26th April

... so the whole path to Gosainkund (4380 m) and its lakes was covered with SNOW! I made up (nachholen) the winter I missed in Austria.

27th April - some hours walk to Dhunche (2180 m)
28th April - again a crazy bus ride. Maoists called a one day strike so we had to walk to the hotel. Not a big problem after 11 days trekking.

That was the Trek. Today we went to the Thai Airways, and it was CLOSED! There was just a plate with something written on it that we cannot read. The nearby Lufthansa (also Star Alliance) told us, there is no other possibility than to go to the Thai Airways, which MAY open tomorrow. So nobody could help us, and we still do not know if we get the flight on the 4th of May. THANK YOU, SUCKERS!

On 30th of April and 1st of May we will do a Rafting, challenge 4+ (whatever that means). So we will report again on 2nd May and kick the Thai Airways in their a****.