Monday, December 11, 2017

Columbia Expedition 100 - Annapurna Base Camp (Part 2)


Day 5 (Dec 2, 2017): ABC (4130m) to Bamboo (2340m)


One of the reasons I love hiking is the chance to recentre and recalibrate my life. Though I hike in groups, I often like to slow/quicken my pace so that I will be alone with my thoughts. After some time, I can feel my troubles unraveling while I gain some clarity.



Throughout this 7-day hike, the moment I felt most at peace was the morning of Day 5. I woke up at 5.30 a.m. for the dawn prayer but didn't get out of bed immediately as I didn't have a spot to pray. I sat on my bed, contemplating for quite some time:

  1. The cramped room didn't have enough space. 
  2. Last night, I prayed at the boys' room but Faizal, Hadi & Umar had since moved to another room and I didn't know where they were that morning. 
  3. At the previous guesthouses, I had prayed in their dining halls but this lodge's dining hall was still dark, indicating that the porters were probably still asleep inside. 


As the sun was about to rise, I had to make a decision quickly. Left with no other options, I unfurled my prayer mat in the open space beside my room and proceeded to pray even though it was very cold and windy. But as I was praying the wind quietened down to a pleasant breeze and I felt a sense of calm wash over me. When I finished praying, I looked up into the sky - the snow on the mountains seemed to glow in the moonlight - and expressed my gratitude. It was a special moment and I was humbled to have experienced it.



After taking the group photo (We did it! We created a new World Record!), we started our descent. Instead of returning to Deurali or Dovan (our previous stops), the plan was to shoot straight for Bamboo. I didn't realise just how far Bamboo was and didn't anticipate that I would end up hiking for 9 hours that day. Thus, the stage was set for: The Most Mental Day on the Trek.

The Most Mental Day on the Trek is a familiar notion to most hikers. It's pretty self-explanatory; The day you reached your physical and mental limits and the day you have a breakdown of sorts.

I was doing fine when I reached Himalaya for lunch. Tired, but fine. I even told Hadi & Faizal to go ahead without me as they had finished eating and praying while I hadn't. Shirley, Afifza & I departed from Himalaya at 3.00PM. By then, I had done the math and realised (rather belatedly) that I would be reaching Bamboo past sunset. I started panicking as: 1) I had lost my headlamp a day earlier, and 2) I had bad experiences hiking in the dark.

I came across a few hikers from Group 1 who were concerned that I was hiking alone. I tried to assure them that I was fine, though internally I was anything but. I guessed they saw through me as they repeated their concerns and lent me a headlamp. Their stop was Dovan but I had to walk another 1.5 hours to Bamboo. At Dovan, I was relieved to find Adrian waiting for me. We waited for Shirley & Afifza while drinking hot chocolate. When they arrived, we swiftly resumed our journey.

When I looked back on the incident, nothing major happened. Crisis was averted because 1) I met the kind souls from Group 1, and 2) Adrian, our group leader was there to make sure all of us arrived safely. But while walking in the woods that was growing darker and was assuming a more sinister vibe, I grew resentful towards my 3 travelling companions. Yes, I had told them that they should walk ahead but shouldn't they have waited for me once they realised I wouldn't make it to Bamboo before sunset?
Why weren't they more concerned?
Why did people, whom I barely knew, care more about me than my friends?

Further, as a person who prides herself on being independent, I was mad at myself  for getting worked up over the perceived desertion. I could take care of myself just fine, couldn't I?

Tiredness (9 hours of hiking remember?) breeds irrationality. I needed to blame My Most Mental Day on the Trek on something and my friends were convenient targets. That night, at dinner, I didn't sit next to them as per usual and when they tried to converse with me, "Kau okay tak Syada?", I gave them a monosyllabic reply, without making eye contact.

The mature and rational thing to do was to communicate how I felt they had let me down. But deep in each woman's psyche is the (illogical) belief that men should just know. So my friends were left scratching their heads while I grew madder that they were so clueless.

The only good thing about that night was the instant noodles we had for dinner. After eating dhalbat, fried rice and pasta for days (they were quite bland for Malaysian taste buds), the instant noodles were heaven-sent. Everyone had a second helping, some even a third. When we ordered a third pot, our guide looked surprised. He must have thought that Malaysians have an unnatural obsession with instant noodles 😆

Day 6 (Dec 3, 2017): Bamboo to Jhinudanda (1760m)


That morning, my friends and I made up. I admitted to myself that I would probably have done the same if I were in their place. They still didn't know what they did wrong but that day, all four of us walked together. They didn't leave me out of their sight and I no longer said, "Korang jalan la dulu".



We walked for 4 hours to Chhomrong. The stairs were merciless on our knees but we pushed on because we were aiming for some decadent chocolate cakes and coffee. The cake is made famous by an article published in the TIME magazine so we had to give it a try. The jury is still out on this one; some of us thought that the cake lived up to its hype, while others did not.

Afterwards, we hike for one more hour to reach our stop for the day, Jhinudanda. The air at Jhinudanda was festive. Now that the hard hiking days were behind us, everyone was in celebratory mood. That night, the porters, guides and hikers danced to the Nepali folk song, Resham Firiri.

Day 7 (Dec 4, 2017): Jhinudanda - Siwai - Pokhara




It only took us 3 hours to reach Siwai where we would board a bus to take us back to Pokhara. Seven days went by in a blur. Trekking the ABC had been an awesome experience but I had had my fill of adventure and was looking forward to enjoying modern conveniences again (e.g. hot shower and WiFi).

Besides, I needed to recuperate from my achy feet, sore muscles, dry skin and sunburnt face. Further, like other major life experiences, I needed to do some introspection, to make sense of what had just transpired.

[Part 3: Reflections on the journey, coming up next]

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