Fly, Nepal
comments 15

Nepal – Poon Hill Trek 1 (Tikhedhunga; Nepal Travel Review Series)

This is the blog entry I am most excited to write about Nepal, because the trek has been a life changing experience for me:

1)     All through my life, when things get difficult, I sometimes give myself excuses to stop going. But on this trek, no excuses are allowed and I cannot give up because if I stop, I will have no tea-house to stay at for the night and I will be stranded in the mountains, so the only option is to keep going no matter how exhausted I was or how much my leg muscles were crying. Despite having mild food poisoning and a cold at some point on the trek, God helped me to keep going, one step at the time, to complete the step.

2)     I tend to limit myself in my thinking especially in relation to physical fitness, for example, I can never do a marathon or a vertical marathon (~climb 90 stories in Singapore Raffles City). But without realizing it, on day 2 of the trek, we had to ascend at least 3000 steps in the morning, which is like at least 150 floors climb!! And this was only for the trek before lunch, and I still had 3 hours to go AFTER lunch. Again, without knowing that the trek on day 3 would be so long, we ended up trekking for 9 hours and 15 minutes starting at 5am. Even if I did a stroll at 5km/hour for 9 hours, we would have more than finished a marathon. Without even realizing it, I had finished 2 physical tasks I always thought was impossible for myself in 2 days back to back (with screaming muscles of course :P)

Because 1) I had no choice but to climb, 2) I didn’t know there were SO many steps, I didn’t even have a chance to form a limit on my thinking, and I managed to achieve so much more without having to deal with a negative inner voice telling me I couldn’t do it . I did not how what I was physically and mentally capable of but this trip proved to myself how much I could stretch myself.

3)     Finally, this trip is life-changing because it opened my mind how resilient God created humans to be, and how much tougher I can become. It was so humbling that there are so many insanely fit and health people, who may be twice my age, but physically more able than me. But instead of mocking us, all the guides, porters from our group and others were encouraging and helpful, with one 57 year old porter dropping us load to come help us get through the snow and ice safely. It reminded me to stop occasionally in the busyness of the city to look at others who may not be able to move as quickly up this meritocracy society.

Enough of the self-improving yogi talk. There are at least some 600 treks in Nepal, and here is the Poon Hill trek journey.

Day 1: Nayapul to Tikhedhunga

This is probably the easiest climb of the trek. As our amazing guide, Puskar, puts it, the first day is a warmup only. Our 20 year old young porter, Ganesh, strapped with our 35kg of luggage, walks ahead of us the entire time!

image

Ganesh, our porter strapped with 35kg of our luggage, walks ahead of us the entire time!

Poon Hill Trek P1-1

Clear green waters at Nayapul, where we start our trek

Poon Hill Trek P1-2

Loving the scenery already

Poon Hill Trek P1-3

Shops at the start of the trek to stock up on winter wear if you forgot anything!

Poon Hill Trek P1-4

Super cute kids asking for chocolate!

Poon Hill Trek P1-5

The first of many bridges ahead

The trek starts relatively flat, with stunningly beautiful views, with some scenes reminding us of Norway and Japan.

wpid-storageemulated0Snapseed20140206_130002_RichtoneHDR_1.jpg.jpg

Poon Hill Trek P1-6Poon Hill Trek P1-8 Poon Hill Trek P1-9

By lunch, we had completed 5km, and we stopped for good mountain chicken Dal Bhat! Dal bhat (Nepali: दालभात) is a traditional meal they have for all 2-3 meals, comprising steamed rice, cooked lentil soup called dal, fresh vegetables and I love my dal bhat with chicken though there are other meats. 

Poon Hill Trek P1-10

How our porter takes a break

Poon Hill Trek P1-11

Lunch stop!

Poon Hill Trek P1-12

Chicken Dal Bhat

More climb continues after lunch!

Poon Hill Trek P1-13

Steps upon steps upon steps..

Poon Hill Trek P1-15

Houses – building in progress

Poon Hill Trek P1-14

Beautiful homes, beautiful views

Poon Hill Trek P1-16

Fresh vegetables plucking in process

Poon Hill Trek P1-17

Terraces in the farms

Poon Hill Trek P1-18

Sharing the paths with horsies; he looks frightened of us…

Poon Hill Trek P1-19

Did I say more steps already?

Poon Hill Trek P1-20

Locals chilling out and enjoying the sun

Poon Hill Trek P1-21

Streams of sunlight and water..

We finally end at Tikhedhunga Teahouse, clocking total of 10km for the day. Love the rustic local village, fresh mountain air, and endless vastness that never seems to end.

Poon Hill Trek P1-24

Finally reached our first night accomodation – Thikedunga

Poon Hill Trek P1-25

Tikhedhunga guesthouse

Poon Hill Trek P1-22

View from our room

Poon Hill Trek P1-23

Very simple, no frills, USD$2/night room

The trek continues to Ghorepani the next day!

For the entire Nepal Travel Review series by EatPrayFlying, please refer to the list below:

15 Comments

  1. Pingback: Nepal – Poon Hill Trek 2 (Ghorepani, Poon Hill; Nepal Travel Review Series) | "Eat. Pray. Fly."-ing

  2. Pingback: Nepal – Pokhara City Tour and Paragliding (Nepal Travel Review Series) | "Eat. Pray. Fly."-ing

  3. Pingback: Nepal – Pokhara Hotel – Waterfront Resort (Nepal Travel Review Series) | "Eat. Pray. Fly."-ing

  4. Pingback: Nepal – Kathmandu Hotel – Dwarika Hotel (Nepal Travel Review Series) | "Eat. Pray. Fly."-ing

  5. Pingback: Nepal – Kathmandu Hotel – Shanker Hotel (Nepal Travel Review Series) | "Eat. Pray. Fly."-ing

  6. Pingback: River Cruise (Central Europe) – a new luxury way to travel | Eat | Pray | Fly -ing

Leave a Reply to Beatrice Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *