“It’s day 9 and it’s getting real. Tomorrow we’ll be going over Thorong La Pass” – I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. I woke up at 5:45 am and it was a cold morning. At 4,050m, as soon as I opened my eyes I realised that my nose was ice cold, my feet were freezing and the thought of getting out of bed, dreading how much colder it’d be outside, was making my whole body stiff. The room I had was basic, yet cosy. By that point, I had already become sufficiently comfortable with having just a bed in there but the need to go outside to use the bathroom wasn’t making me all smiley and positive that morning. Despite that, I rushed out quickly and got the day going!
I brushed my teeth in the bathroom over a bucket not to waste any water (talk about going basic for real), I sort of took a shower but not really and I wasn’t loving it. There was hot water, surprisingly this early in the morning, but it was so cold that if I had taken a full-body shower I would have probably had to down all the anti-cold pills I had in my first aid just to make sure I wouldn’t get sick. So I sucked up my Western cry for a nice hot full-on shower and joined Dyana and Andrew for breakfast.
By the time I joined them, they were already getting their fingers stuck in Tibetan bread (pretty much the same as the Bulgarian “mekitsa”), Champa porridge (you must try this, it’s delish), eggs and God knows what else was on that table 😀 For a person who doesn’t have breakfast most days (and especially so during the trek) I was pretty amazed by the amount of food they had ordered. In comparison, I seemed like a total lunatic when I ordered only my tea and 2 boiled eggs to take away 😀 but hey, we all stand out from the crowd with something.
It was another day I couldn’t charge my phone. Luckily, I wasn’t using it much anyway so my battery was still holding up. The only thing I was actually using my phone for was Maps.me. On day 9 though, the trail was so clear that I didn’t even need to check the navigation. Just follow the yaks and you’ll get there eventually LOL
Contents
Yak Kharka (4050m) to Churi Ledar (4200m)
Churi Ledar is the alternative village to Yak Kharka where a lot of trekkers opt to stay overnight. It’s 150m higher up on the trail and it’s supposedly better to sleep there for acclimatization purposes but there really isn’t much to it at all, only a couple of guesthouses which looked anything but cosy. The trail was pretty steep so we were finding ourselves stopping quite frequently not because we were running out of breath but because we were just getting tired. If someone tries to argue that altitude isn’t A THING, tell him to bugger off 😀
I, Dyana and Andrew, the three musketeers 😀 , were bonding quickly so the breaks were starting to frequent not so much to rest but to have a nice little chat. We sure were taking our time. Still, we were able to go the 1 km to Ledar in about 40 min.
Churi Ledar (4200m) to Thorong Phedi (4450m)
Once at Ledar, the trek quickly flattened out and opened up to glorious misty views. We didn’t meet many people on the trek to Phedi that day but we sure met a lot of yaks. There were big herds grazing around and taking a break right in the middle of the trail. They sure had all our attention. It was the first time we got so close to this amount of yaks – lazy and rough, these huge animals were super chilled out and cool to stare at.
Having taken dozens of photos of the yaks, we soon found ourselves at a suspension bridge which was marking two different trails – once going over the bridge and on the other side of the river and one going down to the valley floor. Maps.me and the trail signs were both pointing to the trail going down so we continued on, skipping on the suspension bridge. The few people we saw on the other side of the river all seemed to have gone over the suspension bridge but we kept going down anyway. Once at the bottom of the valley, we had to cross a small wooden bridge and then climb a steep path which, at the top, was gonna meet with the other trail.
To be honest, we chose the path going down mainly because it was going down 😀 but Gosh, what a poor decision. Crossing the bridge was easy but the stretch going up was so steep it quickly make us regret not going over the suspension bridge. Luckily, it wasn’t a long path so after a few breaks, we got to the top where a local lady owning a tiny tea shop welcomed us with a tempting offer to buy some tea and treats. We passed on the kind offer but eagerly jumped with joy by the sight of the perfect spot for a break.
From here on, we knew there was a landslide area to go through, some narrow paths to cross and we were gonna be at Phedi in a couple of hours tops. At the tea shop, we met the coolest group of Nepali guys (about my age) who were hiking from Manang to Muktinath and then over to the Upper Mustang region. Little did we know back then that we’d have such a fun time with these guys but more on that later …
We followed the path to the side of the mountain but kept turning around to take in the views. It was beautiful but we had to keep our eyes on the trail because it was actually pretty dangerous. It was narrow, covered in little stones, with landslides appearing out of nowhere. We were approaching the landslide section so we were cautious. When we eventually got to it, it made perfect sense why it was marked up in Maps.me with an attention sign and why the locals thought it was necessary to put on a big sign to designate the start of the landslide zone.
It was nerve-racking. It was a flat section, with the side of the mountain to our left covered all over with a wire net to prevent rocks from falling down on the path. People had thought about safety and that was pretty amazing to see actually! It took us about 20 min to get out of the landslide zone, you’ll definitely know it when you’re out of it. From there, not too long afterwards, we could finally see the gate to Thorong Phedi.
We were excited! We were just a few hours from tackling the pass and we could feel the tension and impatience building up.
At Thorong Phedi we met the Nepali guys again. By the time we got there, they had already taken out the guitar, opened the bottles of rum and whiskey, lit up the weed and at 2 pm they had properly kicked off the party, before continuing (quite tipsy 😀 ) to High camp where they were gonna spend the night. At the offer to join in, we of course did! We were so cold that we happily said yes to a glass of Nepali rum with hot water. You could instantly see Dyana and Andrew’s eyes light up when one of the guys offered them some hash 😀 Like they used to say “we’re big stoners” so they sure had their fun smoking on this tiny joint that they would all pass among each other. I’m pretty lame when it comes to all that fancy weed stuff and actually had never tried any of it until then. I mean .. when again would I be able to try hash at 4,450m above sea level? It brought me back to Day 7. It was the “Israeli coffee with water from the Ice Lake at 4,600m” sort of experience all over again and I was IN. Unlike the coffee though, I sure didn’t like the hash 😀
What I did like though were all the fun new things we learnt from the guys. Turned out that all the flags we had seen all over the mountains were put up by the locals for the wind to blow away the bad spirits. What a nice symbolism! At many places along the trek, we had seen the religious cylinders which locals would roll every time they pass by them and I’ve been wondering what the significance of this ritual was and I finally had my answer. If we look closer at the cylinders, apparently we’d be able to read (if of course, we can read Nepali) the message saying “Life is a circle”. The meaning behind it is that good and bad happens in life and by rolling the cylinders the locals remind themselves of that so the whole process is used as an enlightenment ritual. Honestly, the meaning and symbolism of all the little daily ceremonies the locals do as part of their religious routine are just remarkable. Learning about it on that day and fully appreciating it was equally so.
After the guys left, it was starting to get even colder. A very dense mist was making it impossible to see even the guesthouse next door. Luckily we had arrived just after lunchtime so we could see the amazing landscape we were surrounded by. A couple of hours later we could see literally only about a meter ahead of us. The place we stayed at (there were only two, we stayed at the one slightly higher up) wasn’t that cosy and they wanted to charge us RS 200 for WiFi so we headed to the common room of Thorong Base Camp Hotel to have some tea, free wifi and to beg them to turn on the heating.
Unfortunately, when I asked the Western girl who was referred to as “the boss” if we can get the heating on (how unusual to see a Western person working here), she firmly said that it’s not October yet so they can’t put on the fire. It clearly didn’t matter that it was freezing cold in there and we were shivering with our jackets and hoods on, it was no October so we weren’t getting warmed up 😀 Sounds logical!
We spent most of the night chatting, sipping on tea, writing up journals and planning for the next day. Round 5 pm we headed back to our guesthouse for dinner where we had the most expensive food so far, a truly delicious RS 800 worth of Dal Bhat. Sure it wasn’t cheap but we got our second round and it honestly was so yummy and kept us warm. If someone tells you that the food on the trek isn’t decent, don’t take their word for it. Sure some places and food options aren’t the best but all the food is prepared fresh with local produce and most times it really tastes nice. Oh did I mention that I had brought the blanket from my bedroom over to the dining area to wrap myself in it because it genuinely was THAT cold haha
After a lovely conversation with the only other staying guests, a Russian guy (I still remember this guy and his choice of plain noodles and ketchup 😀 ) and his super fun guide, we headed to bed around 7:30 pm!! A bit of warming up under 2 blankets and in my sleeping bag which I used for the first time that night, some reading and I was gone. Early days and early nights was the Annapurna lifestyle.
Daily Costs
- Room – Free
- Boiled eggs – RS 350
- Veg egg fried rice – RS 450
- Dal Bhat – RS 800
Day 9 Tips
- Start the day early. The weather gets bad after lunchtime so you really wanna make it to Phedi as soon as possible.
- If any other day you were allowing yourself to be distracted, you gotta have your eyes and ears on the trek this day. It’s so easy to slide down so you gotta be present to avoid getting injured.
- My advice would be not to stay in Ledar like a lot of people would recommend you to. It’s not a nice place and you won’t be saving yourself too much time if you hike from Ledar to Phedi instead of starting the day from Yak Kharka.
- Do take the suspension bridge trail if going over the steep stretch I mentioned above isn’t making you too excited 😀
- Pack up warm clothes for this day and the next! If hiking in Sept you wouldn’t normally need a sleeping bag to keep warm but on that day I sure loved having mine. I did have to leave it behind the next morning though because it was huge and heavy and there was no way I was going over the pass with it.
- Enjoy it and stay present! Namaste 🙂
Day 9 Gallery
