This Is Hard Work

The Bhandar monastery and our lodge in the background

Lodge owner in Bhandar

Day 2 in Brook’s Journal:  Today we went from Shivalaya to Bhandar.  The first four hours were all steep uphill and very tiring.  At the top we had a really big lunch of dahl bhat, which we all ate way too much of.  The walk down was only about an hour and a half.  The owner of the hotel that we chose has a daughter who lives in Burlington, Vermont and she had been visiting her for the past seven months.  We figured this out because she was wearing Boggs boots and we asked where she had gotten them.  She proudly told us several times that the boots were a gift from her daughter and that they cost $100.  She liked talking about Vermont with us and showing us her pictures.  There was even a picture of her with Governor Shumlin!  For dessert we had apple pie, which turned out to be deep fried!  They were big personal pies.   It was great.

During our trek we are employing two Nepalese people, a porter and a guide.  Our guide Tanka has a tooth that sticks out of his mouth that he likes to make fun of.  Tanka speaks English quite well and is very funny.  Our porter Dilli doesn’t speak much English but he is always smiling even when carrying a huge load in the rain.  Tanka and Dilli are cousins and we run into a lot of their relatives along the way. Tanka often calls these relatives "brother cousins." 

- Brook

Tanka

Dilli

We learned that at 3 am last night, the lodge owner’s pregnant daughter went into labor and had to be carried by four men (including Tanka and Dilli) on a wood board to a hospital that was an hour away.  She had the baby at 6 am and Tanka and Dilli were smiling and ready to trek on very little sleep in the morning.
- Eydie

Day 3 in Brook’s Journal:  Today we were supposed to trek from Bhandar to Sete but Mom got constipated and it took all day to hike to Kinja, where we had planned to have lunch.  When we had about an hour of hiking left we decided that Tanka and I should go ahead and get a room for us.  When it was just me and Tanka we went a lot faster and got here in just over half an hour.  Choosing the hotel was kind of hard for me because I wasn’t sure what Mom would like. In the end we chose the second one that we looked at.  We were all happy with my decision.
- Brook