360 Degree Wow (Pt. 3)

Khangsar from Old Khangsar

Link to current photos

Trekking evokes hiking in mountains through nice terrain and, with luck, interesting cultures. What we found out around Annapurna was an experience so dense with variation, so large in scale and still so fundamentally and sincerely different than our normal lives back home that Walt Disney or a Vegas impresario would be lost at how to wake people from their somnolent lives so effectively. Who're the lucky duo yet again? By the grace of the good heavens above, Tami and I.

We were lucky that, for the length of our trek, the work of fall harvest filled the valleys. Every day below treeline people swarmed over the terraced fields cutting, threshing, winnowing, drying and storing their provender for winter. By the latter stages, villages were starting to celebrate the succesful harvest with ritual festivals. In Marfa, the local monastery held a traditional dance. For a few days, buddhist monks wearing elaborate masks and costumes acted out scenes from ancient stories as villagers from up and down the valley came to watch. The excitement was like a local rock concert. The monasteries themselves could fill a traveller's description of the trek.

Buddhist iconography littered the valleys for most of our way. Long walls piled with carved 'mane' (mah-nay) stones, chortens, gates, prayer wheels, prayer flags and more added a reverant salute in celebration of the awesome beauty of these peoples' abode.

One morning, in Marpha, we awoke well before dawn to the sound of horns then drums coming from the monastery up the hill. The commotion continued until we were fully awake so we decided to roll with it and go see what was happening. We put on almost every piece of clothing and trundled out into the dark chill. Up at the gompa, three local lay women were performing what looked like the morning puja or ceremony. They walked around the perimeter of the building spinning prayer wheels, muttering "om mane padme hum" (hail to the jewel of the lotus within), and lighting the juniper smudge pot in the center of the courtyard. Three stories above, the tops of the four walls and, to the west, the mountains behind, framed the dawn stars. A huge spar rose up forty or so feet from the smudge and streamers of prayer flags stretched from its top to the surrounding walls. A monk in his red robes arrived to towel the wooden floor inside. None of them took even passing notice of two westerners standing quietly. The setting of this place of worship, similar to so many others we've seen in these mountains, makes me wonder if a spiritual practice or cosmology is possible without a tangible connection if not outright integration with nature.

I could go on but who has time to read so much? If you're curious, talk with us when we meet. Our excitement will be easy to tap. Those friends who do love to spend time in the mountains, put Annapurna, or at least Nepal, on your list. Sure, it's not like it "used to be" and I wouldn't say it's without faults. If done right, it sure as hell can be wonderful. Moreover, with 'development' working its own dark magic, it's not likely to get any better over time.

I'd kind of thought that I was starting to get saturated with travel experiences. This trek erased any ennui. Time seems to have slowed on this part of our trip. The month on the trail felt like a month. It didn't rush by in a flurry of discordant activities and logistical encumbrances. Many people we met on the trail, as I might have expected from outdoor enthusiasts, were people who'd I'd likely befriend at home. As time passed out there, I, for the first time in a while, worried less about politics, money and problems outside my control. For better or worse, the trip obliged me to live in the Present. At the very least, it's probably not unrealistic to guess that I may never be in this good of shape again.



Or have this much facial fuzz.

No, I did not drink all that beer.