Save this postDay 7: Kutumsang to Chisapani
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Nepal folk song “Holi Song“
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Painful morning…
Great muscle and knee pains tortured me in the morning… I nearly lost my balance for just a dozen steps down from the first floor where our rooms are located…
 Photo by: A-Ching |
We finally got a good look at the lodge and its surroundings in the morning… with my muscle and knee pain, I hope we can take a rest day here, sitting around on the roof top, enjoy village tranquility…
 Photo by: A-Ching |
Rolling downhill with knee pangs!
After eating my double omelet with vegetables and warm fresh buffalo milk, we started our trek…
| Easy start with an hour of flat land and uphill trekking…
My ordeal began in the next 45 mins when we trekked steeply down through a sandy and rocky trail… (the right pic show the long mountain trail we got through). My knee joints panged for each downward step I took… Prem walked in front to prevent me from rolling downhill… |
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Amazing body mechanism…
Amazingly, my body mechanism reacted efficiently to deal with this… in less than an hour, natural morphin was produced to ease my pain… Later, with 2 walking sticks my trekmates kindly provided me, I can trek mainly by myself downhill… haha, I feel like a robot exploring on Mars with 4 legs walking!
An unusual encounter…
After the downhill trek, we got to a village… encountering not just children… but also a dog which followed us in the next 5 hours!
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| Children photo by: A-Ching | < |
We first met him at this little monument…
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Photo by: A-Ching (Monument) and Shirley (dog)
Story of our faithful trekking dog!
When we entered another village, several dogs got very hostile, and attacked our dog. Fighting against 2, our poor dog got driven away with a painful wail… but in a few minutes, he ran behind us again… I comforted him with a chocolate bar, and he seemed happy again….
At around 11:30am, we had alfresco lunch outside a guesthouse near Chipling (see photo below). Here is definitely a romantic spot for our trekking dog where he met a girl friend!
 Photo by: A-Ching |
In less than a meal’s time, he suceeded to mate with his new acquaintance…hm, with a little bit of force, plus against rock-throwing from the master of the female dog… |
When we left after lunch, the 2 dogs still played together. But he caught up with us again, unbelievable! Nepalese considered it very lucky if a stranger dog follows you trekking…
We then began our 2nd steep down trekking… see if u can find our dog leading us down the terraced-fields in the photo below…
Photo by Shirley
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Most of the time, he followed Prem. Sometimes he ran faster in advance, scouting for us. We then saw him wagging his tail and waited for us…
We said to Prem, “If the dog followed us to the lodge we are staying tonight, maybe you should consider adopting and take him back to Kathmandu!” Prem smiled… |
The last village we passed by in the afternoon…
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Here, our dog met another friend… no… his twin brother — another dog with almost an identical look! They sniffed each other in a friendly way, and the village dog followed us too! Only after repeated yellings from his master, the village dog unwillingly returned home…
Our trekking dog continued his little adventure with us again…. Together, we passed by a lot of terraced fields during the last part of our journey…
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Reunion!
We then met a group of villagers, they chatted with Prem in an excited tone… we thought our guide has met his friends or family… Incredibly, the dog also looked excited; he even hesitated before following us again. We were so puzzled….
Prem then told us those people were the real masters of our dog!!!! What a dog, he even left his masters for us!
Heading towards Chisapani…
When we turned into a short-cut path towards our lodge at Chisapani, we finally lost our trekking dog… we didn’t notice that until much later… because we were too absorbed in looking for A-Ching, who missed the path trekking too far ahead! Prem finally “recovered” him and we arrived Chisapani at around 5pm…
Shirley was so excited seeing the beautiful lodge at the end of the trail and ran all the way there!
 Photo by Shirley |
The lodge on the left is the one we stayed that night… the last night of our trekking trip! To celebrate, Prem treated us with a whole chicken — meaty parts by deep frying and the rest in curry. Yummy! |
Janet Price says:
Really enjoyed your story. We are going to Gosainakund in October and are very much looking forward to it….do you have any helpful hints ?
March 31st, 2008 at 9:59 am
xina says:
Janet,
are you taking the same route? If you are not in a rush, I would highly recommend you to spend a few days more so that you can stay at some good places (e.g. Sing Gompa, lauribina and gosainkund lake) for longer time. You can then go for some short routes nearby, to explore both the beauty of the place and culture of the very nice people around the area.
As the guide will pre-arrange all the lodgings, it’s difficult to change itinerary once started. Besides, a good guide is really important. Our guide, Prem, is really a very reliable and caring person. My friend Shirley who has trekked in Nepal 4 times went with him every time. If you haven’t yet confirmed a guide, maybe you can contact him at prampanta@gmail.com.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:37 pm