The journey to Tatopani was the toughest of the trip. After the battle of going uphill to Poon Hill earlier, we then faced the battle of steep, ‘knee-cracking’ descent. From 2,750m at Ghorepani, we descended to 1,190m with uphill climb and occasional flat tracks in between. From the steep flagstone steps, we went through muddy and at times rocky trail. From the beautiful terraced fields, we marched passed quaint villages, occasionally meeting the friendly local villagers who would greet us with ‘namaste’. We also crossed several suspension bridges as the trails cross path with Ghar Khola (Khola means river or stream in Nepali.) and Kali Gandaki. (Gandaki also means river in Nepali.) It was a strenuous, tiring day.
During the earlier part of the day, we were full of zest and we would stop by for snap shots and to enjoy the beautiful scenery. As the day wore on, with our energy almost depleted, and the steep descent took a toll on our knees, the beautiful scenery suddenly seemed so ordinary. We would stop only to catch a breather. Even the chatty ones had become silent!
Somewhere down the trail, I missed the sign that indicates the direction to Tatopani, which was to cross the suspension bridge on our right. I went straight ahead. Leow, Alice and Cheok Siew were in front of me. I could hear their voices yet I could not locate them. When I turned around, I could not see the rest who were behind me. I went further, then I realised something was amiss. I started to panic. I found myself walking through a narrow alley of a village where a religious procession was taking place.
I remembered reading in a guidebook which says that ‘Nepalis are very polite and courteous people. They find it hard to say “no”.’ The advice was to ask questions which require definite answers and not just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ which would invite trouble. With that in mind, instead of asking, ‘Is this the way to Tatopani?’, I asked the villagers, ‘Which way to Tatopani?’
I retraced my footsteps and saw the bridge. After crossing it, I saw the rest of the team members waiting for me on the other side, with anxiety written all over their faces. I was happy to be reunited with them but I did not know at that time what was in store for us. Krishna said that we had to go through a landslide area as there was no alternate route! By then, the sky had turned dark. As we did not anticipate to trek in the dark, none of us, except for perhaps two, actually had torchlights with us in the backpack. We could hardly see a thing. All I knew was the terrain was very steep and sandy. We had to walk on ‘all four’. We were struggling and fortunately it was a short distance. We did not realise that worse was to come. After the steep trek up, we were then on the edge of a cliff with very narrow ledge to walk on. It was pitch dark, save for the occasional flickering from someone’s torchlight behind me. My legs were wobbling frantically; my heart, throbbing erratically. The sound of the roaring river (which I imagined was easily more than 15m below) added more fear and drama to the whole episode. It took us more than an hour (from the bridge) before we reached the destination. By then, it was 7.00 o’clock.
By the time we reached the hotel, we were drained of energy and worse, we found out that our rooms were on the first floor. By then, even to take a step up the staircase seemed a daunting task. We were on the ‘road’ for ten hours with short breaks for lunch and rest in between. The consolation was, the hotel was good and the food was excellent. In fact much to our surprise some of the rooms came with attached bathrooms with ‘sitting’ toilet bowls (instead of the usual squatting type) and nice hot showers.
As I entered the room, I sighed out loud, ‘Oh! What a day? What have I got myself into?’ Excitement! Challenge! Yes, that was what all of us wanted. That was ‘what we are here for’. But what we experienced on that day was more than what we had bargained for!
After settling ourselves down, we headed for the dining room which was located on the ground floor, which meant more of walking up and down!
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