Man vs. Mule

Stubbornness and sustainable trekking in Nepal

Quite a heavy load in that basket...

There's a dark side to the beauty, enchantment and amazement of Nepal's Himalaya Mountains. Some of the treks in Nepal can be easily done without assistance from a guide, porter, or sherpa. 

You can just show up with your backpack, have almost nothing planned and do a week-long trek such as the "ABC" one without any hassle. The trekking infrastructure in Nepal is actually quite good, the trails are in good shape and there are plenty of guesthouses offering accommodation and food for as much as $5 a night (food included).  

For longer treks, camping trips or treks in restricted areas, however, at least one guide is often required and a crew of sherpas, porters and/or mules might be needed. Camping trips, especially, require many supplies as there is no food, water or shelter readily available.

I noted in one of my earlier posts that trekking agencies need to be looked at closely but I decided to write this post to really focus on the issue. The problem with "staffed" treks in Nepal is that they can result in gross abuse of the porters who carry all the supplies. Porters are Nepalese men (typically) who go on trekking trips and bring all the supplies on their backs. If done right, mules are also employed to share the load. Neither men nor mules are not supposed to carry more than 40 kilos or so.

The problem is that many trekking agencies promise their trekker clients that they pay fair and don't overload their staff. In reality, many of these agencies charge for, let's say, 10 porters, only hire six and keep the difference in their pockets. Not only do they underpay their porters but they also force them to carry as many as 100 kilos on their backs. 

A backbreaking 100 kg/220lb 28-day journey

These treks can last as many as four weeks and porters have to carry these loads up and down insanely steep and difficult terrain. That's basically lugging around 220 pounds every day for a month at more than 13,000 feet in altitude! 

Unfortunately, many porters have low income and families to support so they're willing to put up with the heavy loads in exchange for a few dollars a day of pay.

 

One of the best ways to go about trekking in Nepal to ensure these hard working people are not abused, is to work with an independent guide who hires his own staff and ideally has his own mules. This guide should go with you on your trek and you should get to know him quite well prior to your departure. Get to know your crew and ensure that they are well paid and carrying appropriate weight. Trekkers should support a wholesome and sustainable trekking industry in Nepal where human rights are respected, not abused. 

And what about the mules? Well, mules are known for their stubbornness so if they're overloaded with more than 40 kilos, they simply won't move. No matter what. Regardless of any beating, yelling or screaming, these stubborn animals won't move an inch with so much weight on their back. Why should anybody else? 

If you're interested in going on a sustainable trek in Nepal, contact our fantastic guide, Karma Mustangi. 

Too much weight on their backs: one of the packs constantly leaked kerosene all over the porter

Our porter Manoz was stoked we packed so little, asking us "and the rollie bags"? There were none of course.

A more reasonable load

Just about right for what a mule will handle

High on Ceylon tea

It was hard to leave Arugam Bay. The warm ocean water, the chill surfer vibe, excellent food at Ram's and delicious breakfasts at Happy Panda kept us there for as long as we could push it. Eventually though, we knew we needed to start heading inland because we had spent nearly three weeks on Sri Lanka's north and eastern coastline.

Home made okra, eggplant and, oh, papad fried in ghee!

With one more week to go, we had little time to see one of the highlights of this awesome little country: the tea country!

Both of us are really into tea and we wanted to go tea tasting and hike around all the tea estates we had heard about. We had to take a series of small buses to get to Ella from Arugam Bay, which naturally ended up taking all day. Upon arriving, there was a cool little guesthouse tucked away in the hilly portion of the town. We were greeted by a nice pot of home-grown ceylon tea while the owner made us a delicious home-cooked vegetarian meal consisting of okra and eggplant curries, dal (lentil) and rice. For about $2.50 each, we ate all we could, still had left-overs and went to bed happily stuffed.

The train tracks that lead to Ella Rock

Ella has a chill vibe and is a great little place for outdoor activities. There's a great half-day hike that starts by following train tracks carved into the hillside. Half-way through, you can climb down to see a waterfall that flows underneath the tracks all the way down to meet one of the rivers in the valley several hundred feet below.

After the waterfall break, we continued our trek and a very nice local barefoot man asked us if we needed help getting to Ella Rock - our final destination. Feeling a bit cocky we politely declined his offer and kept on walking. We missed our left turn and the very same man caught up to us and recommended we follow him. We walked through beautiful tea plantations and rice paddies and our friend signaled that he'd be happy to take us to the top.

With the very nice local barefoot man at the top of Ella Rock!

It turned out we did not really know what the hell we were doing so we welcomed our new guide. We thought it would be a slow hike up the steep slopes all the way to the top but we couldn't have been more wrong. Our friend practically ran up these very, very steep slopes and we got our asses kicked. We were huffing and puffing and trying really try to keep up with him. The terrain was rocky, uneven and very steep and the fact that our friend had no shoes, didn't bother him or slow him down one bit. It actually reminded us a lot of the incredibly fit sherpas and porters in Nepal.

Ella Rock view on the way to Little Adam's Peak

The final destination at Ella Rock was magnificent. The top of the hill overlooks the entire little town of Ella, all the tea estates, the hills rolling away towards the east coast. Plus, we could see several waterfalls flowing down the mountains. We thanked our guide and gave him a tip for his excellent services. He smiled, thanked us and went sprinting down the hill.

Directly across from the top of Ella Rock, we saw Little Adam's peak, our next hiking destination. It's nothing like the real Adam's Peak (or so we hear) but fun nonetheless. The 360 degree views from the top of Little Adam's peak was a treat although it is much lower than the top of Ella Rock.

Fresh pressed Ceylon tea with custom hourglass

From Little Adam's peak, we saw the beautiful tea estates of 98 acres, a fancy-pants resort with a swimming pool, restaurant, bungalows and, well, 98 acres of tea. We took a break and sat on their outdoor deck, nested in the midst of thousands of tea plants with excellent views of Little Adam's peak and more rolling hills of tea. They served delicious Ceylon tea in individual french presses with an hourglass that got the steeping time just right.

To Eliot's delight, the restaurant boasted its use of fresh and locally sourced milk for the ceylon tea so he decided to order a full glass of it. Drea had to try a little and we both agreed that it was the damn finest milk we had had in a long while!

The glass is always fuller... with fresh milk!

The tea adventures continued as we did a short little hike to one of the only green tea factories in Sri Lanka, conveniently located close to 98 acres. The tour of the factory was fascinating and the smell of green tea was amazing! We got a great deal by getting a quarter of a kilo of Sri Lanka's finest Gun Powder 3 (GP3) for less than $5 bucks.

Although there is not a whole lot more to do in Ella, it's definitely worth a one or two night stop. Plus, you are really close to Haputale, another magnificent little town where you can watch the sunrise and enjoy some of the best 360 degree views in all of Sri Lanka (if you're lucky and don't' get fogged in!) at the famous Lipton's Seat. If you do decide to go, we recommend heading out there early and hiking the 6 kilometers of tea paths all the way to the top instead of cheating and driving up in a tuk-tuk.

"Unfortunately" for us we had to leave Sri Lanka because our visas ran out and we had to hop on a short plane ride to this little country you may have heard of... the Maldives!

Co-posted on www.eliotpeper.com

The amazing tea country views from Lipton's Seat in Haputale

The waterfall break at Ella

Tea paths throughout Ella

Nile blues and mountain highs

The source of the Blue Nile

It was a bitch getting out of Addis Ababa. Because it was the week of [Coptic] Easter all the buses were booked in literally every direction.

"Want to take a bus to Bahir Dar? Not til next Thursday."
"How about Harar?"
"Sorry, booked til Friday."
"Do you have buses that go anywhere in the country for tomorrow?"
"No." [smile]

Travel infrastructure in Ethiopia is... limited. In a country of 80 million people, there are literally only TWO private bus companies. In spite of the high demand for private transportation, these companies refuse to buy more buses, hence our problems finding a way out of the city.

Anyway, we opted to take a cheap domestic flight on Ethiopian Airlines (the only domestic airline in the nation) to ensure we actually got to our destination. We were on a mission to explore the northern highlands.

We started out in Bahir Dar, perched on the banks of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. Bahir Dar was a laid back beach town and we really enjoyed the one night we stayed there. We took a boat out onto the lake and into the mouth of the Blue Nile, wondering at the prolific number of wetland bird species and water buffalo. We visited one of the ancient Coptic Christian churches that sit on the many islands scattered around the lake and we even had a dance battle, which we obviously lost, at a local wedding.

Blue Nile Falls

As we plied the waters out onto the lake we heard a scream from a passing boat. Our captain turned the boat around and we pulled up alongside. Turns out it was a happy scream! One of the passengers on the boat was a an absolutely wonderful woman we had met at a fruit juice place in Addis Ababa. She was in Bahir Dar for the weekend with her boyfriend and they insisted we join them that night for a traditional Ethiopian meal.

It turns out that the couple was actually staying in our very same guest house! They took us out to a local Ethiopian night club, beating back the tuk-tuk drivers who are always on the lookout to cheat foreigners on fares. The night club was a huge open space the size of a small warehouse. We arrived around seven and were a bit worried because it was nearly empty. We ordered food and waited. Before long, hundreds of people started to trickle in until the entire building was standing room only. As the food arrived, a troupe of music performers came up on stage and started belting out some traditional Ethiopian folk music. They were soon joined by a team of professional dancers. Ethiopian dancing is as unique as it is impressive. They move their shoulders in the way that salsa dancers move their hips. It's a sight to be seen and you can check it out here on Youtube.

The Simien Mountains

The next day we explored the Blue Nile Falls outside of Bahir Dar. It's a beautiful place and the water was impressive even in dry season. Then we piled onto a local minibus (a police officer was transporting a shackled prisoner on it too!) and made our way to Gondar, site of an ancient Ethiopian castle and jumping off point for our four-day trek in the Simien Mountains.

The mountains were absolutely fantastic. They were 110% different than the Himalayas. The Simiens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and they look like a raised plateau that towers thousands of meters above the surrounding foothills. The sides of the plateau are sheer cliffs but the top is undulating hills. Our trek took us along the edge of the cliffs, circumnavigating the plateau. It felt like another world. We were always on the edge of a multi-thousand-meter drop and the views were mind-blowing. We spotted rare endemic species like Ethiopian wolves, ibexes, cliffspringers and tons of baboons.

Ibex vs. Baboon

The only downside of the Simiens are that they're quite expensive to visit and we feel that we got ripped off big time. You're required to hire a guide and a scout through a local operator in addition to all the camping equipment etc. The upshot is that they are well protected and that we got a truly luxury camping experience. Our tents were already set up for us when we arrived at the campsite and there was hot coffee/tea waiting for us. Not a bad way to experience the outdoors. We summited the third highest peak in Ethiopia and then moved on to our next trekking destination: Lalibela.

Lalibela is one of the most touristy places in Ethiopia. It's famous for its surfeit of ancient churches carved from solid rock. These feats of engineering rival Petra and are a big draw in a country with little tourism. The only problem is that the local priesthood who manages the churches charges criminally high entrance fees and pockets the cash, none of it goes to the community and there's a lot of local tension because of it (what would Jesus do, right?).

Shepherd kids hard at work

Anyway, we weren't interested in the churches, we were interested in the mountains. Lalibela lies in a deep valley and is surrounded by a semicircular mountain range. We had arranged to trek these mountains with a unique organization called Tesfa Tours. Tesfa means 'hope' in Amharic and the organization works with remote local villages in the mountains to host trekkers who want to traverse the terrain. It's a fantastic system that generates local employment, promotes positive interaction and provides an amazing experience at the same time.

We stayed in local-style cliff top huts, munched injera and sipped fresh roasted coffee at the end of every day of trekking. There was no running water and no electricity -- we were definitely in the middle of nowhere. The mountains are gorgeous, alternating between village farmland, rocky wilderness and wide open views of the entire Lalibela valley.

The Lalibela range

The experience was amazing but, after nine days of it, Eliot was sick and we were both completely exhausted (although Drea took an awesome local cooking class in town). We realized we had been burning the midnight oil a bit too fast in Ethiopia. We had planned back-to-back excursions across the Northern Highlands with no room for rest in between. And this was in a country with the worst transportation infrastructure we had encountered.

We had plans to visit the south and explore the Bale Mountains as well but we realized we needed to switch it up before we burnt out. Beware of the over-crowded itinerary in any long-term travel plans you may have. This was our mistake and we were determined to fix it. So we made a game-time decision to escape to Zanzibar for ten days...

Time to go exploring

co-posted on www.eliotpeper.com 

The Himalayan weightloss plan

Rhododendron madness

After a two-week journey through the ancient Kingdom of Lo, we returned to the relative civilization (i.e.hot showers and non-instant coffee) of Kagbeni, a small town in the Lower Mustang region. Although civilized, we practically evacuated out of our room that night because there a kerosene leak that had been going on for hours and we were getting dizzy, headaches and our throats burned. Apparently, the guesthouse owner couldn't even tell that there was something wrong (!!!!!).

We spent the next few days hiking through dramatic river valleys circumnavigating the west side Annapurna mountain range. The scenery looked a lot like Switzerland: burbling brooks, alpine vistas, temperate pine forests, moss covered rocks, etc. Idyllic villages dotted the landscape, famous for their locally brewed apple cider. Afternoon thunderstorms chased us to our daily destinations and, aside from a horrific bout of food poisoning  (the salad was so tempting!), we made it through relatively unscathed. Finally we arrived at the final stop of the Annapurna Circuit, a town called Tatopani famous for its natural hot springs.

Purest water on Earth

Ironically many trekkers now skip this last leg of the Annapurna Circuit route because a new road was recently built to short-circuit the journey. Although there are numerous alternate trekking routes, most tourists opt to take a Jeep and skip the last section. This is a damn shame. We found the west side of the Annapurnas more beautiful and dramatic than the traditional east side of the Circuit and we highly recommend anyone considering the trek to walk the whole way.

We had finished both Upper Mustang and the Annapurna Circuit sections of our 33-day trek and the finale was almost in view: Annapurna Base Camp (ABC).

I thought I knew what stairs were. Seriously, there are stairs in San Diego, hills even. But nothing compares to the stairs leading up to Annapurna Base Camp, aka ABC. If you ever want to train for the Stairmaster World Championships this is the place to do it. The trail consists of thousands upon thousands of vertical meters of rocky stairs that go up as well as down, eventually leading up into the sanctuary in the middle of the Annapurna range.

View of Fishtail peak from ABC

When you stop for air the scenery is absolutely spectacular. The humidity is much higher on this side of the range and everything was green. Bamboo groves danced in the mountain breeze and blooming rhododendron trees turned entire hillsides bright pink. Farmers urged on their water buffalo to turn over tiny rice patties alongside the path. At higher altitudes monkeys swung from tree to tree and vultures soared through the sky. Glacier-fed waterfalls showered the valley that leads up into the mountains. For most of the journey the humidity kept it relatively warm but on the second to last day we were rudely ambushed by a heavy hailstorm. Eliot bravely made it through the 2-hour storm wearing just a t-shirt while Andrea quickly put on her windbreaker, gloves and hat for protection.

We finally reached ABC after a long slog of a climb. The camp itself is surrounded by Annapurna's most scenic peaks. We sipped hot cocoa, crunched our way through the snow and watched the sunset turn the mountains rosy. Although a few of our fellow climbers fell victim to altitude sickness we had no problems, probably because we were already fully acclimated and the altitude was a mere 4,100 meters. The next morning we got up before dawn and watched the sunrise. It was gloriously clear and we had dazzling views of the different peaks.

The final few days of the trek were surprisingly challenging. We trudged our way through the hilly regional homeland of the famous Gurkha warriors to make it to the nearest road. At the end of our 33rd day we hopped into the first motorized vehicle we'd used in over a month and headed off to the lake town of Pokhara. No scales were available to test the effectiveness of the Himalayan weight loss plan but you can look at our pictures below and decide for yourselves.

Our tour of the Annapurnas was complete and our feet were ready for a well-earned rest...

co-posted on www.eliotpeper.com

Before

After

Damn pretty

Valley the path follows

Rural village

Keep that energy level up!

River valley

Waterfall

Almost there

ABC

Sunrise on Annapurna I

Annapurna South (I think)

Cool, right?

Local buckwheat

Surprise! Unexpected food items while trekking in Nepal

Top 10 Awesome Food-finds during our Nepal Trek

Although the food is not too shabby in Nepal, there is a severe lack of variety and it gets old very quickly when you are trekking. The staple items on a trekking guesthouse menu are variations of: potatoes, pasta, rice and bread. 

For example, you can get noodles (pasta) with egg, noodles with veg and egg, noodles plain or noodles with chicken (if you're lucky). Same goes for the other carbs. 

Since we were on a 33-day trek, these options got boring rather quickly so we'd get really excited about new items. 

Here are the top 10 awesome finds:

1. Mustard! 

We only found it ONCE at a restaurant so we ordered burgers to go with the mustard. 

Most condiments are basically constrained to ketchup, salt perhaps some pepper and that was really it, unless honey counts. 

I normally would not have yellow mustard- opting instead for a more proper stone ground or at least a dijon. But, haveing seen no mustard in more than a month, it was a great find! 

This one was from Florida, USA out of all places.

2. Salad [that doesn't give you diarrhea]. 

Fresh vegetables are almost unheard of so finding a salad is like hitting the jackpot. Once you find it, it won't be that amazing though, as it will be mostly cabbage, onions, some carrots and tomatoes. 

Israeli salad: the best during the trek

The best salad I ever had was an 'israeli' salad that had actual oil and vinegar; this was in Muktinath. 

It's best not to eat raw vegetables though. I found out the hard way when I ordered my third salad during the trek and had severe food poisoning. 

The reason? 

Fresh vegetables should be washed with iodine water and it's not always done. 

The result, of course, is ingesting various sorts of contaminants that will get you sick in no time. 

3. Fresh Fruit! 

Even canned fruit was extremely difficult to find. Coming across fresh fruit only happened once to us in the town of Tatopani (tato is hot and pani is water in Nepali; Tatopani has natural hot springs, quite naturally!). 

Sometimes they would store apples and serve the with our breakfast porridge or fry them up as apple fritters (or in the unfortunate apple salad which consisted of chopped up apples completely smothered in mayonnaise [note: I hate mayo]). 

We were so excited about the fresh fruit that we had it for dinner and we also bought 10 bananas to bring along with us for the next few days. 

4. Yoghurt.

Most of the yoghurt is home made and was very hard to find. We found it once in the eastern region of Upper Mustang and it was delicious! 

We had it for dessert after dinner and then pre-ordered it for breakfast with muesli the following morning. 

We make out own yoghurt at home and we were really missing it so this was a real treat!

Homemade with honey, delicious!

... and topping it off w/muesli, yes!

5. Dark Chocolate Swirl Croissant.

What? Hells yes! We found this delicious pastry at a quirky cool place called Yac Donald's in Kagbeni.  

Every bite was ... heaven

They have an extensive menu and offer all kinds of fresh yak meat. Fresh yak meat is not always available. Even though there are a lot of free range, grass eating yak, many areas (such as Manang) do not kill yak for consumption, they only eat the meat if the yak has died (e.g. old, dead meat). 

Anyway, back to the croissant: it was actually a legit croissant and I savored every single bite. The dark chocolate in lieu of crappy milk chocolate was a complete but welcoming surprise. 

6. Organic fresh brewed coffee.

NOT instant coffee. That's a great start. Organic, freshly ground and brewed coffee was proudly brought to us by Yac Donald's in Kagbeni which was a nice break of the tea routine even though tea in Nepal was absolutely delicious. 

Major score! Thanks again, Yac Donald's!

We also had fresh seabuck thorn juice, yak cheese and organic toast to go along w/the coffee!

7. Ice-cold Coca-Cola. Everywhere.  

I never drink soda because I have a really hard time stomaching the insanely unhealthy amount of sugar in it. 

However, Nepal was a huge exception (I think we were burning plenty of calories each day to justify it). 

My stomach was unhappy for at least 30% of the trek and those ice cold bubbles and the rush of caffeine and the slight sugar high was just an amazing feeling when I was feeling so crappy. 

Coca-Cola has Pepsi beat in Nepal!

8. Apple cider.

Marpha is a cute little town full of apple orchards and there are tons of home-made apple cider. Marpha was the first town we walked to after we finished our Upper Mustang portion of the trek -- and it marked the beginning of our ABC portion. Apparently, a group of Germans helped to teach the locals how to make cider from apples. 

We bought a few bottles that we carried with us in our Nalgene to our next stop.  

Thanks, Germans!

9. Wild orange raspberries!

I had never seen these before! We picked them off a bush and they tasted delicious! 

The taste was actually more like a raspberry/blackberry hybrid - not too sweet or tart, just right. Whatever it was, it was so refreshing to just have something raw and fresh. 

[ps: please let me know if you know the actual name of this great berry if you happen to know it]

10. Apple pie dumpling.

We didn't technically find it, we suggested the chef at our guesthouse in Lower Pisang make it. And she did! 

Although she refused to try our strange concoction, the chef agreed to make it. She stuffed a dumpling with minced apple and spices. She steamed the dumplings and then we ate them with honey - what a delicious treat! 

Honorable Mention: Marijuana.

No, we didn't smoke it or eat it but we were actually surprised to find so much marijuana growing everywhere. 

After all, it's a weed!