I actually slept later today for some reason and did not wake up until almost 6:45. But there was no hurry as we only had a short walk, maybe three hours, to our overnight stop. Today is mainly a rest day. I was pleasantly surprised when I crawled out of my sleeping bag to find that the temperature was manageable. I did not have to immediately dive into my down jacket as was necessary every other morning. We had a leisurely morning and it was not until around 8:30 that we started walking. By that time most everyone had already departed, but they were headed up the valley, not down, and had a long trek ahead of them (mostly up!). Our path for the day continued back the way we had originally came three days ago, but instead of crossing the river as we did on day two, we were going to continue straight, winding around the mountain to a small village for our evening stop.

I wasn’t kidding when I stated that the trail hugged the mountain. In this one area it had washed out. Check out the repair. Sporty!

Similar to yesterday the trail was rather busy. It is definitely a highway as I have mentioned previously! Even when the path split, where many trekkers made the turn to cross the river, we still came across quite a few trekking along the side of the mountain with us. And the path literally was the side of the mountain. A path, almost like a ledge, jutted out from the steep slope of the hill, leading upwards while hugging the slope, following the contour of the terrain. The story of the day was again, up, but I think I have acclimatized and my body has adjusted. I was breathing heavy but not at the level of huffing and puffing five days ago; thankfully my cardio has improved. As I was climbing, being careful where to place my feet still, as the path mainly consisted of the familiar roughly hewn, uneven, rock stairway, the refrain from the song “stairway to heaven” was playing in my mind. I decided that should be the name of the route today- the stairway to heaven. It made total sense to me as it was essentially a stairway I was climbing and it would be a version of heaven when we reached the top!

I’m standing on the side of the hill (carefully) as these ponies go by.

There were many pony packs on the trail today and we had to be careful to be out of the way when they passed as the path was narrow and the drop-off steep and unforgiving. The rules of the road in the Himalyas are clearly “pedestrians yield to larger animals”! Prem mentioned that last October, as four Canadians were hiking this same trail, one was pushed off the edge by a passing pony and perished. It is a good thing that the animals all come with bells around their necks!

In the distance on the lighter green area, is the village we started out from on Day 2.

As we hiked along, off in the distance through the opening of the valley, perched on an opposite hill, I could see the village where we started our adventure five days ago. Today we were climbing quite a bit higher than it. Instead of three hours it only took about two plus hours before reaching our rest stop for the day, a very small village dug into the slope with a beautiful view out of the valley. As far as tea houses went, this was a luxury hotel. I had a toilet and shower attached to my room with HOT WATER! Clearly a shower was called for and I took the opportunity to do some laundry at the same time. I mentioned that the “bathroom” was attached to my room, but it was an outdoor room, even though it was roofed. Although, quite frankly I am not sure what the difference is between outdoor and indoor when there is no heating anyway. I did not notice that the bathroom was essentially “outdoor” until I looked at the roof line and noticed the large, four inch gap between where the wall stopped and where the roof was attached. Plenty of wall for privacy though, which was the important point. The hot water was great and the ambient temperature was not too bad, so overall it was a pleasant, unique experience.

This is what a luxury bathroom looks like. It is tiled, has hot water (clearly marked) and is inside.

After sorting through that and getting my stuff settled in, I went outside to sit at the picnic table, which is really an outside dining table, and soak in the sun, which was still shining. I went into full up “lizard” mode and just sat there, soaking in heat, lazily watching the world go by. Which in our case, as isolated was were, meant mainly watching the clouds drift in and around the peaks. It doesn’t get more relaxing than that! I probably sat there for two hours until it was time for lunch (vegetable and cheese momos) and went inside to eat. The sun was disappearing fast as the afternoon rain clouds arrived so eating outside was not really an option. Having eaten lunch I am now, sitting in the dining room (which again is the host family living room), writing this and waiting for the daily lighting of the wood burning stove. I had been hoping that I might get a decent cell phone signal so I could upload the past few days blogs, but it is not meant to be yet. I suspect all the Langtang blogs will go up at the same time….

A little bit about the people I have met along the way. There is a large group of Koreans that we keep running into although they took the fork that crossed the river this morning so I doubt I will see them again. I met a nice couple from Germany two days ago who were paralleling our pace. Also at the top of the valley spent some time with a very free spirited girl from Belgium. Last night I met two women from Alice Springs, Australia. Interestingly enough, both are doing what I am doing- basically taking advantage of a break between jobs to get some serious travel completed. We all agreed it was an excellent idea! Also staying at the Lama Hotel last night was a young woman from Slovakia, who is traveling for five months. Amazingly enough there was also a young man from Slovakia but they were not traveling together. As they were speaking to each other during the evening I was trying to figure out what language they were using as it was close enough to Russian that I could understand bits and pieces. (I later asked.) So far there is a French couple and a woman from Australia staying here tonight. Earlier, when we arrived there was a gentleman and his daughter, both from Singapore, who were having tea. We had met them three days earlier, so we spent a pleasant half an hour talking before they departed. It’s fun meeting such a broad cross section of people!

View from the patio of our evening stop.That is my guide Prem, on the right.