Day 24 Mukthinath – Jomsom 22nd July 09

Today marks the end of our trekking in Nepal, at least for this time. We started a bit later today as the trek is an easy flat one. We set out at about 9am after breakfast and while having breakfast we saw the French ladies walking by.

Anyway we walked pass Jharkot and after that it was just bare and dusty desert area. But we still can see mountainssurrounding us. But it got a bit boring as most part of the trail is a road which vehicles

can pass thru.

When we were almost at our lunch stop area, there was a caravan carrying loads of cement and building materials. I can imagine how heavy the load was by the creaking sound that comes off the rope that’s holding the load to the body of the mules when they sway side to side when they move.

The way to the lunch place was also quite bad having to go down down down down… Sigh our knees yet to recover from the day before and today again.. Rahul told us is about 100m only down slope.. But I think is more than that…. Hate it hate it hate it!!

Finally arrive at the lunch place, this place is like a desert … all barren land with no trees or bushes…. When the wind blows you could see the sand being blown up just like a mini sand storm… I ordered fried macaroni and Ramli had egg curry with tomato sauce and rice…Cause his was quite tasteless…. We met the Spanish tourists there waiting for a jeep… Hmmm so they only walked half the way and the other half by jeep. Envy but we thought it’s the last day so what the heck lets just do it….

Same old rested for 1 hour then headed our way… Woa the road to Jomsom was a real difference from the rest of our trekking routes…. As mentioned just now it is all barren with no greens… And the wind kept blowing up the sand that I had to wear my sunglasses with my head band as a nose and mouth cover…. It is real bad and I’m not exaggerating… Ramli said I looked like a “terrorists” … kekekke

The road was all flat and we tried our bests to walk as fasts to get thru the mini “sand storm”… One part the wind was strong it was so difficult for us to walk against it and the wind kept blowing my hat downwards that I couldn’t see the road.. Ramli could lean forward almost 45degree and still being hold up by the wind.. You can imagine how strong it was… We thought we were the only crazy ones walking in the “storm” but we saw a few more other tourists heading the other way too.. Seems to be going for the Mustang trek….

We “chiong” all the way and finally saw Jomsom from far.. By that time I was already quite tired… Ramli cheered me on and said come one just 5 mins more… We are reaching already.. And I told him I doubt so… everytime when we see the village doesn’t mean we arrived should be further in… So I was right when we step foot into the village on concrete floor, Rahul said another 20mins to the hotel… Alamak!! Bang wall

The 2 BFF

So we continued walking and saw 2 little girls with hands on each others shoulders walking around… Seems to be really good friends… We couldn’t miss the chance so we went and got 10 lollipops cause each only case 5NPR… We gave one each and another girl came and join in.. Took some pictures with them outside the store and carried on…

When we are arriving the bridge which we need to cross to the hotel.. We saw a European backpacker… All dressed in yellow with a scarf tied on his head…We said hi and he asked where we were from and he decided to walk with us to the place which we will be staying as he is also looking for a place to stay…

We introduced ourselves and got to know him as Marte or Martin from Finland… He is 26 yrs old and has been travelling in India for 6 mths already ..He hitchhiked and stayed at temples and villages house.. Brave man… Continued chatting and what he told me next was a real shocker… He said he left home as about 1yrs 3 mths before he and 17 of his friends “hijackecd” or took over a University in Finland and it was quite a spectacular news back home. The police is on this case and he told us that he fled his country as he didn’t want to face the charges… Ohh so is he a “fugitive”? When I heard I got afraid…cause I don’t know what he could or would do.. He said his friends should be still in Finland awaiting to face charges, he might be the only one who fled the country…Woooh..

I asked him how he finance himself for this trip, he said he had some savings doing some part time work in the pass and also selling “weeds” when he was younger.. Alamak what are we getting ourselves into walking with him…

Finally arrived at the hotel and knew he also checked in the same hotel as us and was at the room next door… Creepy for us… We went out to take a walk and then saw him standing at a nearby provision store, we walked towards him to asked what he was buying… Happened that the owner wasn’t in, and he climbed in to take a look at what they have and wanted to buy some… We tried calling out for the owner but no answer. He said to us normally in the west back home he favourite pass time is shoplifting… and he has a sudden urge to do the same… but seems he couldn’t do it as now he is on a spiritual path and he could not allow himself to do it… Phew…. Relief for us I guess… but weird thing is after talking so much he asked if we met earlier… Ermmmm we said ya.. He said he couldn’t recognize us… hmmmm is he really physco…

Anyway we left him to figure out on his provision shopping and continued strolling around the village… While walking pass a provison store we heard someone calling us… We turned and it was Hari… Lars guide… we were so happy to see them… Cause we knew we could be able to see Lars tooo.. we chatted with him and knew that Lars suffered altitude sickness when he was up …Woa hope he is feeling well now…

After about 5 mins we saw Lars walking towards us.. we were happy to see a familiar face again… Chatted with him about his adventure and his altitude sickness... Was asking him why he didn’t take the pill he gave to us… He said he didn’t expect to be sick.. What?? His fav word…. We parted ways a while later to head back to the hotel to take a shower and also settle our transport from Jomsom to Pokhara with Rahul..

Rahul told us due to land slide we might have to change the jeep a few times before we could arrive in Pokhara and he could not confirm how much the total costs will be and told us the journey might take more then 10hrs…What!! Then we decided to take the flight instead USD79 each and 20mins only… So he went on his way to try get the tickets for us…

Dinner time came and we still have not had confirmation from him yet… We were anxious… While awaiting for dinner, we heard familiar voices coming from downstairs and saw Wendy and Dawa heading up for dinner also… Wow they took a long long time to come from Muktinath… But still they arrived.

view from the hotel roof

Chatted with them and knew they had already booked they tickets when they were at Muktinath the night before but only issue is payment. They went and tried to pay with Wendy’s credit card but seems they could not accept as the office is close or something… They didn’t have cash with them, so we thought since they are a really nice couple and we trust them we will loan them the money and they promise to return when they arrive in Pokhara… They were very grateful and we chatted till about 10plus before we went to bed… And still we have no confirmation on the flight… sigh …