Final Assault

After a good night rest in MBC, we were ready for our final assault up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC), at 4,095m. We were all very excited about the last leg of our mission. We arose early with great expectation. We left at seven. It was a 2-hour pleasant, gentle stroll along the river through the tranquil meadows. The weather was superb – clear sky, breezy and not too cold. Snow could be seen sporadically along the way. Yes, we made it after six days of hard trekking. We gazed in awe at the surrounding peaks standing majestically over 7,000m high. I felt dwarfed and insignificant standing in front of these peaks which appeared to be so near yet so far. I was speechless. I was glad that I was not swayed by the ‘discouraging look’ from my friend few months ago; otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing at where I was standing.

I was happy that we had all made it. At that moment, another ABC came to my mind, Ais Batu Campor. (Shredded ice mixed with ingredients such as red beans, nuts, sweet corns, jelly, etc. with syrup added.) I thought it would be refreshing to have a bowl of ABC complementing our achievement. Oh! What a wishful thinking?

After a short stay at ABC, we started to head back to MBC to pick up our luggage before heading for Dovan. We arrived in Dovan at 5.00pm. Descending dominated most part of the trek and it was extremely taxing on our legs, especially the knees. That day, we trekked for about eight hours.

‘Oh! Another day of downhill-dominated, knee-cracking trek!’ I exclaimed as we left Dovan Guest House at 7.30. What made it even worse was that the track was either stony or sandy which impeded the walk. We stopped over at Sinuwa for lunch before proceeding to Chhomrong, stepping on thousands of cobblestone-steps. The last stretch towards Chhomrong was a punishing uphill battle. At the end of the day, our legs were really painful, and the muscles were aching all over.

The weather had been really good to us. All these days, it had always been sunny with clear blue sky except today. It was drizzling, fortunately only slightly. Whatever, the slight drizzle was not going to dampen our mood as we looked forward to going back to civilisation.

We arrived in Chhomrong at 1.50pm. By then, the drizzle had stopped. We went after our favourite place at the terrace area. The porters were busy helping to serve us tea while we took out our snacks. At the far distance in the direction where we had just come from, I saw some tiny dots which resemble houses and asked Krishna where the place was. ‘You came from there this morning,’ Krishna replied. My eyes went wide, my jaw almost dropped! ‘Are you kidding, Krishna? We could not have possibly walked that far,’ I asked in total disbelief. As we trekked, indeed we did not realise the distance we actually covered, how we traversed from mountain ridges down to river valleys, from one hill crossed over to another and how the terrain looked like. As the true picture ‘unfolded’ in front of me, I could only gasp with, ‘Wow! This is unbelievable!’

From Chhomrong, instead of going to Tadapani, we took a left turn heading towards Landruk (at 1,650m). On the way, we stopped at Jhinu Danda. There is a hot spring nearby. We were told that it would be a 15-minute walk down and it would take half an hour to walk back up. While some of us decided to venture for a ‘hot dip’, to relax and relieve the pains and the aches, others felt that the cozy teahouse nearby was just too tempting and inviting to give it a miss. The thought of more steps up and down put me off as we were told that more steep steps were awaiting us ahead, and so I decided to join the second group.

After almost four hours of downhill trek, we finally arrived in Landruk at 3.00pm.

That evening, Krishna and Leow went to the village to buy two chickens. Leow was the chief cook for the evening. The dish was delicious. We asked him, ‘How did you manage to come up with such nice, delicious dish without all the familiar seasoning and at an unfamiliar kitchen?’ ‘Well, I added a little bit of everything that I could see and are within my reach,’ Leow replied. The kitchen was very dim and I was glad that we had asked the question only at the end of the dinner. Anyway, whatever ‘a little bit of everything’ constituted, it was definitely a sumptuous dinner and all of us enjoyed it very much. It was like a ‘long overdue’ reward to us. As the journey was nearing the end, we took the opportunity to have a simple bash.

The following day, we headed for Phedi.