Nepal

70+ Entries and 60,000 Words: Nepal One Year On

Daniel 11 Comments

Wow. Today is Feb. 25, 2017 (ed. note: this piece got pushed a week b/c I wanted to publish my Iceland essay, ‘Travel in the Age of Trump‘). Exactly one year since I was left alone and heartbroken in the Hong Kong airport. I won’t lie, it was a painful anniversary for me, personally. I’ve been writing the story of my subsequent travels in Nepal for more than six months now—much, much longer than I spent in the country, in real time.
In that time, I’ve seen the audience on thisisyouth explode— and I can’t thank you all enough for that. It’s a huge motivation for myself to keep writing when I know there are people reading it.

To be honest, if I hadn’t taken the step of publishing these entries, I would have given up on the story long ago.

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Nepal 70: Sol

Daniel 7 Comments
Inside Hotel Snowland Ghorepani Nepal

[ed. note: I’m going to experiment by posting Nepal entries on Tuesday and Thursday instead of MWF. This is a way to let the weekend content breathe a little more, and for me to see if switching up the posting schedule affects traffic in a meaningful way. Thanks for your understanding!]

It was even colder in the teahouse when I woke up from my nap. I would have stayed in my sleeping bag, except I needed to use the bathroom.  This lodge, luckily, had western-style toilets. I could not have been more happy to see them after my debacle with the squat toilets the night before.

In my trekking journal, I write: “It is a cold dormitory, plywood thin and relatively unfriendly. But it has a Western toilet, which may as well be the Four Seasons up here.”

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Nepal 69: Ghorepani

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Ghorepani Entrance Trekking Gate

Ghorepani was more of a true village than Ulleri had been. There was a general store, which sold touristy things like postcards alongside more useful necessities, like food and hygiene products. There was more than one main path through the village, and buildings which had no clear purpose. The settlement sprawled out for a fair distance on the hillside.

We walked straight through to our guesthouse, the Hotel Snowland. Hotel Snowland was perched pretty high on the hill, affording a great view of some of the far-off peaks. Another benefit of traveling with a guide—they knew which teahouses had the bets views. If I’d been trekking independently, I undoubtedly would have chosen to stay in one of the lodges in town, which had no view of the peaks.

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Nepal 68: On the Road to Ghorepani

Daniel 4 Comments
Trekking Poon Hill

Anker promised us a leisurely day of trekking—a welcome respite after the never-ending stairs on day 1.

Several other trekking parties set off ahead of us; we lingered and enjoyed the  early morning sun for a while. If we left too early, we would have nothing to do in the afternoon, Anker said.

I was able to get some service on my NCell SIM card outside the lodge, so I exchanged a few messages with Holly. She asked what it was like, and how far we’d walked. I told her considerably less than I’ve told you.

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