Saturday night in Chisapani

After breakfast we are picked up at a very civilised 9am when we meet our guide and porter and drive for about an hour to where we were going to start our trek. Our guide, Mr Nobu is very funny and our young porter, Rajesh, seems very nice and I think he's glad he hasn't got too much to carry for us. We are also joined by another guy, Prakesh, who is coming on the walk with us. He is also a guide but hasn't been on this particular trek before so wants to know the route.

We begin in Sundarual and enter the Nagarjun Shivapuri National Park. Its a Saturday and there are loads of Nepali tourists at the beginning of the trek as this is a popular picnic spot. We climb many stairs and trek up and up and up until stopping for lunch in a tiny village in the National Park. After this we trek up and up and up some more until reaching our final destination for the day at about 4pm - the village of Chisapani. During the day we have trekked up to 2500m above sea level and Chisapani is at 2200m. From here there are spectacular Himalayan views of the Langtang Range. We can see a little but unfortunately its slight hazy so don't get the full benefit. We are staying in a hilltop trekkers hotel which is very basic but there is a nice atmosphere. There are many Nepali trekkers here as well as some Western. Its been a great day and Mr Nobu is a fun and knowledgeable guide.

We have a dinner of Dal Bhat (which is going to become our staple diet of the next few days) enjoy some of the local home-brew millet wine and then go and join the Nepali tourists outside where they are having a fire and are singing traditional folk songs. The girls sing to the boys and then the boys sing back. We meet a guy, Raz, who we had met on the trek earlier today and who has lived in England (Kingsbury where Farida was born to be precise). He asks Andy to get his violin and we join in. Andy playing violin, everyone singing and the dancing begins as more millet wine is consumed. This pic shows Mr Nobu on the left and Andy of course on the right with the dancing going on behind. A brilliant evening after a great day but it all finishes pretty early at about 10.30pm then we are off to bed, pretty tired.

Haiku
Drums, violin, voices, dance
Round orange fire pools
In high Chisapani night