The Big Down

The big down was thousands of steps, winding down past terracing and small stone houses and ended at a beautiful tea house covered in flowers by a watermill.  Across the river was a small dark cliff that had bee hives hanging from its crevices.  We were told that they have a honey hunting festival where people scale down the cliff to pick up the honey combs – there was a huge comb hanging from the rafters of the tea house about half a metre in length.

After crossing the river, which comes straight from Annapurna we then wound our way up more terracing to the village of Landruk and were able to look across the valley to the route we’d done the previous day – to Gandruk (notice a theme!).  I spend a large part of the day thinking about how I could organise a fundraising trek for Children Unite, who would be interested in doing one.  After Landruk we lost Kailash – he had rather a long break we think, smoking and resting!  Prem drew a big arrow on the path at a point where it forked and eventually caught up with us at the next tea stop.  The afternoon walk was beautiful, through forest teaming with birds, rhododendron trees (yes trees  not bushes), all sorts of gorgeous ferns and moss filled crevices.  Of course it reminded dad and I of Scotland (a regular haunt) – but on a grand scale.  As we walked up and you had to concentrate on each step you noticed tiny blue flowers, pink ball shaped flowers and white daisies – all miniature, like little gems in between the stone pavement. 

We reached Puthara in the afternoon and in the shower after our walk, I could hear a guitar and flute playing.  It was Prem and Kailash!  They were sitting on a kind of grassy knoll surrounded by pines and rhododendron trees with prayer flags strung up in between.  It had a lovely panorama of the foothills and villages.  At the time we didn’t know the secret beauty of this place.  It was enough to be sitting listening to Kailash and Prem play Nepali love songs.

Dad and I had had a physically tough day so we were tired in the evening.  Over dinner we spoke to a Malaysian man who had been trekking solo for 22 days.  The restaurant we were eating in had only been open 6 days.  The son of the owner had recently returned to take over managing the place, he’d installed a full drum kit, Nepali and African drums, a guitar and flutes.  He told us he’s been learning guitar and during the meal, in the kitchen, he started playing ‘Heaven’s Door’ and ‘Hotel California’, two songs that always remind me of Indonesia and my time with the street boys of Yogyakarta.  The boys all seem to know how to play those two songs and I could never remember the lyrics! 

The kitchen had two big glass windows separating it from the dining hall which meant we could see the porters and family chatting and eating. Prem told us that guides and porters usually want nothing to do with the trekkers once the reach the tea house but he likes talking too much so ends up spending more time with trekkers.  While walking during the day Prem, dad and I had a long chat about the holocaust, Israel and US motivation for joining WWII.  He remembers so many facts I’m astounded.  He’s studying cultural trauma, which I’ve never heard of before – not your typical guide that’s for sure!  I do like the way Prem talks to the people we meet at our tea stops.  At one place, we could hear a shrill American voice for about five minutes before we saw a couple of young women walking along, their porter on his mobile, who passed us without acknowledgement and were deep in conversation about which books and films they’d seen.  Prem seemed to make a snap judgment about them being the kind of people who don’t really appreciate where they are and he made some disparaging remarks them to dad and I.  But then he appeared to say the same thing to the tea stop woman as she made a face and laughed at his remarks – just as dad and I had done.  I liked this equal treatment. It has helped dad and I to feel part of these little conversations that take place between Prem, Kailash and all the people we’ve met along the way.  Sometimes they’ve been about the farming techniques or plants and trees in the vicinity.  I love the fact that dad knows about farming – it’s broken the ice with a number of people and brings a small part of their world (actually a large and important part) to life for me.