To the Hot Springs

From the itinerary: Bamboo to Jhinu hot spring (1760m/5770 ft – 5 1⁄2 - 6 hours hike

From Bamboo, we head for a steep ascent to the Kuldi Ghar and then to Sinuwa following the stone steps that lead to Lower Chhomrong. Then, we ascend on the thousand stone steps taking us to Upper Chhomrong. From Chhomrong, we descend to Jhinu Danda. Today we will have an opportunity to enjoy hot springs just 20-min walk from Jhinu Danda

I forgot to say that the last few days I was taking Diamox -half pill in the morning and a half in the evening. I'm off them now, but was interesting to be sitting at a rest stop higher up and having something akin to "champagne legs" while I was resting - my legs felt like I was in a pool with tiny bubbles around them - rather enjoyable. According to Dev, this was a side-effect of the Diamox.

A short day of 3.69 miles with 1,121 feet elevation gain. We counted the "up" stairs and came with an average stair count of 2078, so am not sure where the "1000 stair" monicker came from.... The weather was sunny and about 75 with a light breeze.

Got maybe 2 hours sleep last night- between dogs and my coughing and itching (no bathing for 4 days) and Spanish neighbors slamming their door. The dogs went on all night long.... I have an audio file of the dogs, but I can't add it to a blog....

Each morning for the past several mornings I've been having two boiled eggs which have felt very good on my stomach, and, they make great hand warmers. This morning I tried something different - a rice crepe. It was very tasty.

Before we left, a colorful local horseman road by. That horse did not want to go up the stairs either...

This was my favorite sign for the day on the way out. At this point, 5 days since my last shower, I would have been happy for any shower.

We started by having to go down stairs to the river - we didn't count the stairs going down, but I remember walking up the stairs on the way out:)

The weather was amazing which helped enormously. Here are some examples of photos of the way out vs. today.

Here are some more examples

and more nice views on the way up

and here is the shrine (today and before)

We stopped for coffee at the same hotel where we stayed after the hail storm on the way out. I felt so sick that day that I didn't remember it until I remembered the fellows singing in the evening. Along the trail you see people as you pass, or as they pass you. A man stopped at the same place for tea and we introduced ourselves - turns out Dillan was an Australian who was trekking for four months through Nepal. He lives in Cranleigh in the UK when he's not trekking and works at a pub there called the Richard Onslow. I'll plan to go there with some friends and let them know we met:). Small world.

Here are some shots after we got to the top of the ridge (at 11:07) before our turn off to Jhinu...

and started down

There were a few donkey trains...

at one point Dev and Shekkar had to haul me up on a ledge to get out of the way so I didn't get run over.

We had a pit stop where we saw corn drying in the sun and a place for chickens, but no one was home. This corn will be part of my corn bread I have in the morning for breakfast!

We got to the hotel at 11:45. A very early stop to our day and the hotel was quite deluxe by recent standards - perfect weather, light breeze, ensuite bathroom, lovely view....

I was in heaven

We met for lunch and my stomach finally felt well enough to try local food. I had the local noodles which tasted delicious and started a week of eating everything available.

Remember the monks and nuns? We met up with them again and I spoke with their high monk - left side standing (never did get his name). He is originally from Minnesota and he told me a bit about the pilgrimage they do. According to him, they do more trekking on this route than pilgrimage. He was/is the high lama at Dhamma Earth Himalayan (Tusita Hermitage)

At lunch we also met Dustin and Adam from Greenville, South Carolina. We all tried yak milk which tasted like buttermilk

We went off for a rest after lunch and then on to the hot spring. I was so excited because this was where I was going to get a shower and a hot bath. It was underwhelming. The way down was a broken, steep road, but we did see some blooming orchids. The "shower" was water from the hot spring coming out of a pipe and I couldn't quite get enough soap to get my hair clean. The spring itself was warm, but there were a lot of gnats, so not very nice. I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel (which was all uphill again). That said, we heard more than saw a group of macaques across the river and heard a barking deer on the way up. In one of the shots below you can see a lot of tadpoles in a small pool.

We got up just in time as a storm was coming in, and as a large group of people were coming down. The storm was quite a thunderstorm and I was very glad not to be hiking (or bathing) in it.

We saw Dillan and Adam for dinner and tried several local favorites - Yak jerky, chicken chilli and rice wine (several of them).