Ghorepani Hiking Day 3: Rain ruined the day

16th October 2007, Tuesday

We were to wake up early as we'd to go to Ghorepani to see the magnificent sunrise over the Annapurna range. But when the 4am alarm struck, we realized it was raining. Damn! rain totally ruined our day. We walked so hard to see the himalayas, n it rained the day we were going to see it.

No question of moving, we slept again. Woke up at 8.

Had breakfast and moved towards Ghorepani. Jus took one hour. If it wasn't raining, we'd have gone to Pune Hill, but rain ruined it all. We went to a hotel and had the lunch. One interesting thing about that place was that there was television with major Nepali Channels. Cool!

At Ghorepani. It was raining, else it would have been a wonderful shot from here.. From Ghorepani Hiking

We decided to split. The guys from Pokhara – Rajendra, Sanish and Ravindra were taking the same path we took to reach Ghorepani. The rest of us had no intention of goin back to Pokhara sooner. So as per the advice given by the local policeman, we decided to go to Beni through Myagdi. He'd told us that we can reach Tiplang in around 6 hours. From there we can take a bus to Beni. And from Beni there's bus to Kathmandu.

We started at 12. The first place we reached was Chitrey. We stayed there for a while at a local Mela. We'd been hearing about this Mela since Ulleri, but didn't find anything special. Maybe the fun was beginning, but we'd no time to spare.

Annapurna Range began to appear as we left for Beni! From Ghorepani Hiking

Reached another village called Shikha. From there we took a scary road towards Tiplang. The whole journey was much better than before. It was in a true sense hiking. There were villages on the way, n there always was beautiful himalayas as we walked. We felt like we did a great job not taking same path we'd come from to return back.

At Sikha. From Ghorepani Hiking

Top of the world :) From Ghorepani Hiking

Nepal is indeed beautiful.. From Ghorepani Hiking

Beautiful waterfalls were all around. From Ghorepani Hiking

The final road was really scary. It was down the hill and the path was really steep. I felt like i lost my knee cap as i walked down the road n had to take a rest on every turn. Really tiring. We were supposed to reach Tiplang by 4 or 5 but it was already 6 when we reached there.

It was already dark when we reached Tiplang. From Ghorepani Hiking

Prajwal, Mahesh and Babins were really ahead and had reached Tiplang around half an hour earlier. And had also taken a hotel room. Interestingly the hotel was run by two young gals. You can tell why they chose that hotel. Guys r guys!

Lots of flirting with those gals but clearly no sign of anything 'special' happening. In that hotel too, jus two rooms for 8 of us. No, we weren't miser this time, but that hotel jus had two rooms left.

Things were goin ok. Some of the guys were playing cards (call-break). I was jus the spectator coz i didn't have enough member to form a team (of four). Mahesh were still in the kitchen 'flirting' with the younger of two gals. Prajwal joined soon and both of them were drinking local wine. I went there too, but returned back soon coz 'something else' was goin on there n didn't want to interfere..

But not for too long. Prajwal started shouting. Holy cow, he was totally drunk! Mahesh returned back n he was kinda upset but i donno why.

We brought Prajwal back to room and we tried to sleep. Me, Prajwal and Umang. N by da way, Umang was already sick – he'd tried the wine and vomited too. Prajwal was totally drunk and still shouting. I tried to make him sleep and myself tried to sleep. Other guys were in another room playing cards.

A few minutes later, Prajwal started to spit on the floor. Soon i realized he was goin to vomit. I got up n tried to pull him out of room, but holy mother of all craps, he vomited in the room!!!

Goddamnit. I got totally numb for a while. Didn't know what to do. Called other guys in next room. Threw Prajwal out of house but had no idea what to do with the mess. It was getting smelly already n the guys in next room (guests) were spraying air-freshener. Narendra n other guys got buckets of water n tried to clean the room, but it wasn't goin away.

I was really really mad at Prajwal n didn't care if he stays outside the whole night. But other guys called Prajwal back n made him sleep in the same room. He was into sleep instantly.

There was no way any of us sleeping in that smelly room. Five of us shared a double bed. Rest two slept outside of room (kinda lobby). Later on i also went outside coz five in a double bed was really gross. I'd to literally sleep on floor with almost no blanket!! Darn u Prajwal..