Trekking, Day 6, Kalopani to Marpha – We woke up late like 8 o’clock and sat around the lodge because it was rainy and windy outside and I did not particularly feel like walking to our next stop in the rain. After about an hour, the rain just turned to drizzle, so we decided to brave the element and start our walking. We were not going that far today, only about 5 hours to Marpha, our next stop.
We walked through the drizzle and both Ram’s and mine down jackets rented were sopping wet by the time we had reached Tukche at 2590 meters for a tea break. The wind was picking up and making the walk at touch tres unpleasant but we still had not reached our final destination. We sat drinking chai until at least the rain stopped and then braved the wind for our final hour. We left the chai shop and made our way through the yaks carrying supplies of the mountains finally arriving in Marpha at 2665 meters later.
Marpha is another quaint town and as we passed through the village gates, a huge herd of mountain goats came running through the tunnel, so we had to stand aside to let them pass. The higher and higher we got into the mountains, the more Tibetan influence there was. In Marpha, there were many curio shops with signs like Tibetan refugee craft shops and things like that. Our lodge in Marpha had a ubiquitous coals under the table and even had a glass solarium on the roof, so you could look at the mountains where you are eating. Too bad, it was overcast. I sat in the solarium, writing, warming my feet as more and more Trekkers arrived at the lodge. Ram and I had some apple brandy, which tasted like Everclear 100 proof and I guessed Ram was not used to hard liquor because two hours later, he went to bed complaining of a headache and stomachache. I thought it was nausea. I taught him the word hangover the next morning as he had a rather bad one.
I sat around chatting to people and met these two girls from Monterey and another from Vancouver, so the four of us pissed the evening away playing hearts while the power kept going on and off. The power went off so frequently that we resigned ourselves to having a lit candle on the table even though there was electricity. You never knew when the lights were going to go off.