Laetitia and Fabien NEPAL from October 30 to November 21, 2010

21 Mar, 2022 Himalaya Thunder Treks

Nepal here we are finally, for months and months that we speak about it, our fabulous trip is finally arrived. It is from our hotel room in Kathmandu that we begin this story. We do not want be late, because we know that we will have a lot to talk about and that it would be shame to forget. Besides, we will start at the beginning, and even the old one with a anecdote and not the least. So Friday, October 29, in the evening the hour for packing the suitcases has sounded. We make one last point to check that we haven't forgotten anything. It's OK. We close the zippers ... and there ... disaster! The closure cracks on 10 cm !! A brand new bag bought for this trip! It is 8:30 p.m. stores are all closed, we are trying to sew it up, but the canvas is thick, it is not obvious, and then if it has cracked here, it may crack elsewhere. We then decide to fall back on a suitcase more old, heavier and smaller but surely more solid! 9 p.m .: we are redoing our bags, we are removing only 2 sweaters. 9:30 p.m .: bags packed, we check that nothing is cracking, phew, we can go to bed peacefully. 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30: Departure from the house around 8:35 am to walk to the station. Then we take the train to
Montparnasse, then the metro and finally the RER to Roissy airport. We get there around 10:30 am. When we speak of a journey, it is not for nothing and it is not over. At the airport, after registering our two suitcases and passing the various controls, we land in the
terminal hall. When boarding we still have to fill in a paper for correspondence. We take off from Paris at 13:40 and arrive safely in Moscow at 19:25 (hf: 17:25) with the company Aeroflot.Arrived in Moscow, the obstacle course resumes, we must collect a paper for the transit in order to
to take a special bus that will take us directly to the boarding lounges. Between the arrival of first flight and the departure of the second, we will go through three checks (empty the bags from the electronic, (just for the record we brought two digital cameras, 1 iPhone, and brought back a laptop that Ajaya ordered us to take off the shoes, clothes (fleeces and windbreakers) and empty our pockets. All this in less than 2 hours, at the end it gets boring We take off again from Moscow at 10:20 p.m., after a dinner served on board, we try to sleep a few hours on the plane, as the landing is scheduled fo 5:45 am in Delhi.

SUNDAY 31 OCTOBER: We're 20 minutes late. Getting off the plane it's a race against time that starts, in fact we have less than an hour and a half have our luggage collected by a person from airport, check in on the flight and join the plane. Good surprise, when leaving the plane, a person greets people in the same situation as us. We go win time. On reaching the check-in desk, Fabien explains to the person that two suitcases must follow us, then she notes the registration numbers of the suitcases and calls immediately someone else who has to do it. Seeing the responsiveness of the lady, we are rather confident.In the group of about 30, we were the only ones to board the Air India flight at 7:30 am. The others took either another company or a flight later. And there to our greatest despair, our escort asks us to check in with a very (very very) slow lady. She goes take time to compare passports, the we wait for her to issue us a ticket boarding, but for that she wants to be sure that we have found our luggage. So she gives a sticker to our companion who runs to suitcases so that they can be put in our airplane. While waiting for her to return, the other in front of us quietly goes to the bathroom. It is then 7:10 a.m. when our guide comes back saying "it's ok for your bags". Relief, except that it takes let the other get our registration tickets. She always wants to see on her monitor if our bags have been registered. At first, she takes out Laetitia's. It is 7.15 am, we are watching constantly clock and screen indicating whether passenger boarding is starting. Apparently they are slow to announce it, a little respite. Except that at 7.20 am, is written on the "gate open" screen which means that the recording will be able to start and Fabien still does not have his ticket! After yet another phone call, she finally manages to get the ticket out for Fabien, it is 7:25 am. We run away (we do not repeat that we have the bags on the back with laptop and ...) until a new one control where it should again show white paws. This slows us down but we leave just as dry. It is necessarycross the entire terminal, large signs indicate our boarding gate: 17B, we can see it basically. Hard to keep up ... Arriving near the door, all the passengers are still present. We utter a big ouf of relief. Finally, the plane was 30 minutes late. Is this to wait for us and our luggage, we will never know. Still, we go up in the planned plane and take off at 8:10 am towards Katmandu, our final destination. Planned landing 55 minutes later. But not everything can be ended so easily, due to the fog above Kathmandu, we cannot land. The plane then makes 15/20 minute loops above the city: 4 in total. We lose over an hour and land at 10:20 am in Kathmandu. At the airport we fill out a form to obtain a Visa for our stay: document essential ! Then we will collect our two suitcases with a touch of apprehension, will they be the? No problem, they are there, the little lady was very efficient we have a big thought for her. We leave the airport and see Ajaya waiting for us, we are happy to find him after his short stint in Paris this summer. He booked us a taxi that takes us directly to our hotel, where he also reserved a room. First impression on the city: the buildings are dilapidated, there are a lot of people, on foot, by bike, by motorbike, car or even by bus! As a road campaign asks so well, "the road is all, let's share the ", here they apply it completely. Moreover, on several occasions, we have tightened the butt, because we didn't think it would pass. A real jungle. In the middle of some crossroads, a poor policeman tries to make his law. The only thing in the rules of the road here is the horn (tut tut tuuut) we hear it in all directions and all sounds ...After about twenty minutes of driving and some scares, we arrive at the hotel, located in the district de Thamel, well known for its many shops and restaurants. We have a Nepalese tea with milk with Ajaya, who offers to let us rest a little before picking us up around 2 p.m. to go to his place and get to know his family. While waiting Fabien takes a nap and Laetitia begins the story. As agreed, Ajaya is waiting for us in the hotel lobby at 2 p.m., we cross the neighborhood on foot, at our laughed risks and dangers. For somewhat civilized people like us, the contrast is stark. No sidewalk, no pedestrian crossing, here everything is at the law of the strongest. So cross in the middle of cars and motorcycles pouring down everywhere, it's quite an art! We follow Ajaya as best we can to the taxi which take him straight home. We meet there his wife, his sons, an aunt, .... We let's visit the family house where one floor is reserved for Ajaya. We offer our presents to Ajaya (an album photo in memory of his weekend in Paris) and his son, a remote-controlled car, he was crazy with! Her woman has prepared a noodle soup for us that we cannot refuse, it is 3pm. They invite us to dinner with them. We discuss his weekend in Paris, our trek, the last practical details. He shows us
also a photo album of his family and a guestbook in which Fabien wrote in 2007: "I hope tocome back soon to do an other trek with my girlfriend "that is to say" I hope to come back one day to do another trek with my girlfriend "; that day has arrived! At 6 p.m., it is dark, his brother Jaya joins us, who will be our porter during the trek. Ajaya serves us dinner, a typical Nepalese dish: dhal bhaat (rice, spinach, potatoes, cauliflower and chicken). It is
Laetitia and Fabien very good but there is a lot of rice (70% of the dish) and the equivalent of 3 parts on our plate. We do not manage to finish. For dessert, his wife gives us white buffalo cheese that she made.a brother-in-law (who arrived during the meal) cuts an apple into quarters for us. We just have time to eat the last quarter when the electricity was cut. In Nepal, electricity only lasts a few hours a day and never at the same times, so many are equipped with candles or lamps electric. Ajaya escorts us back to our hotel. We set off on foot to find a taxi. We find one that will take 30 minutes to cover the 10km that separate us from the hotel, so much traffic is dense, it's amazing. Ajaya meets us at 8 am for breakfast. After a good, hot bath, all we have to do is get a good night's sleep to recover. The shift schedule does not weigh too much on us, we go to bed around 9:30 p.m.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1: Wake up at 7:30 a.m., lunch at 8 a.m. with Ajaya and Jaya. Then we make the bag for the carrier (about 20kg) and leave our suitcases in storage at the hotel. We will come back to this at the end of our stay. We take a taxi, direction the bus station. Indeed today we go to Besisahar, 200km from here by bus. We take a van of 20 people, there are 5 Spaniards, 2 French (us) and the rest of Nepalese. We travel to the rhythm of Nepalese and Indian music. Around 12 noon, i.e. after 2h30 of road, we stop for lunch, maximum 20 minutes. We eat a dhal bhaat again but without chicken. And we leave. From time to time, the driver stops to pick up an extra person, and if the bus is full, well it's his clerk who goes up to the roof with the bags! Along the way there are several road checks. If there were 3 at the front (driver, clerk and 1 customer) while only 2 people are authorized, the clerk gets off the bus a little before the control, walks along the road and is recovers a little further. Neither seen nor known ! Ditto if he was upstairs. We cross different villages, the more road we travel and the more dented it is. To give you a idea, we drive at an average of 40km / h. The last 20 kilometers are a real slapstick and when we pass a car, the bus has to get into the embankment for it to pass .... We arrive in Besisahar around 3:20 p.m. We will have taken almost 5 hours to cover only 200km! Ajaya has already booked the hotel for us, we go there immediately, we drop our things and return in the city center where many stores are open, they sell everything. Ajaya wants to make us taste the momos. We taste a dozen beef, it is only 5 pm yet. Fabien thinks it's good whereas it is a little too spicy for Laetitia. We then return to the hotel where we choose the meal evening: soup - main course (pasta for Fabien, rice for Laetitia) - dessert. Dinner is scheduled for 6.30 p.m. In the meantime we return to our room where we prepare our bed (sleeping bag) and we let's rest. While we dine Ajaya and Jaya give us a mini lesson in Nepali. Guides and porters eat after tourists. Around 7.15 p.m., we both go back to our room where we let's talk and get our business ready for tomorrow. We have an appointment at 7:30 am for breakfast.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2: Contrary to what we thought, the jet lag weighs on us, we had a lot of trouble we fell asleep and it was very hot in the room. And during the night it is the dogs who have us awakened, the dogs of the whole village start barking for hours! And the day they sleep, grrr !! We wake up as planned at 7am to meet Ajaya at 7:30 am for breakfast. And at 8 a.m. it is departure. Finally ! We therefore start from Besisahar located at 820m altitude at 8am, direction Bahundanda located at 1280m. We cross multiple villages (Khudi, Bhulbhule, Ngadi, Lampata) where each time many children call us "hello" and as soon as we answer them, they are happy. Some us ask to take their picture and then they ask for money, others ask for sweets ... Our path will cross several times that of the Marsyangdi river so we have to take suspension bridges. The first one was the most impressive for Laetitia, although it was short, it was in bamboo and unstable, but Ajaya reassured her by giving her a hand. The others made of cables, look more Laetitia and Fabien solid therefore reassuring. Around 11:30 am, i.e. after 3:30 hours of walking, we stop for lunch in the village of Ngadi. The meal being prepared after the order by the hostess, you have to wait more than an hour to be served. We taste various Nepalese preparations (pasta with eggs, tomatoes, spinach, beans, ...). Ajaya and Jaya only eat dhal bhaat (midday and evening) but at least 2 plates at each meal, the rest is too expensive for them. And they eat that in less than 10 minutes, it's impressive! We resume our way around 12:30 pm. The heat is strong and we continue to go up or down. As Ajaya says so well, Nepal is never flat, either it goes down or it climbs. Our last hour of walking was the most trying, especially because of the heat (it is 2 p.m.) and the slope becomes more and more steep. We arrive at the lodge in Bahundanda at 3 p.m. Our room is quite small and rustic, made of wood. Here we can take a nice hot shower. A little anecdote: the shower is located in the toilet, luckily the soap changes the smell of the room ...
While waiting for the meal, we rest and prepare our bed. Tonight's menu: tomato soup (spicy), rice with omelet (very spicy). Then we go back to our room to read a little and go to bed early to get a good night's sleep after that first day of walking. Tomorrow the wake-up call is
scheduled for 7 a.m.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3: We slept very well, which shows that accommodation is not everything, Fabien had a little more trouble fall asleep but afterwards the night was good. As expected, we get up at 7am we get ready and let's redo the bags. Then we go to breakfast, we take it with a superb view of the sunny valley. We leave around 8 a.m. We start with a long descent made of steps of different Heights. Fabien feels a slight pain in his left knee, so we slow down a bit cadence. We still cross many villages with a lot of rice fields. We meet more and more herds, especially donkeys which carry everything (luggage, food, gas bottle, ...). We we still take very large bridges right next to very beautiful waterfalls. We always go along the
Marsyangdi river. In the village of Ghermu, we stop after the bridge in a small restaurant to cool off a bit and eat a fruit. From here we have a very nice view of the bridge and the river. We then leave for Chamje, our village this evening. On the way, Ajaya makes us take 2 shortcuts. The first is quite steep climbing in a dirt hill which is very dusty. Difficult climb, Laetitia found herself on her knees several times to climb, moreover it was very dusty, we came out of there, brown dust. The second shortcut we took allowed us to save 30 minutes. In fact instead of taking the new road that leads to the village of Chamje, we take the old path in the middle of the forest, the climb is a little steeper (many steps) but more pleasant. Many streams cross our path.
We arrive at the village of Chamje around 2:30 p.m. Our hotel is located at the top of the village just in front of a big waterfall. We put our bags down, take a shower and go for a walk in the center of the village 10 minutes walk. Ajaya explains to us the education of children in Nepal. We meet a Nepalese guide who wears an old ESF Courchevel suit, we explain to Ajaya who then explains to him that it is about the outfit of a ski teacher. They burst into a fit of laughter. We then go back to our hotel. We play cards with Ajaya and Jaya who explain the Dhambal, a Nepalese card game. We have a good laugh. Then we eat, Fabien a pumpkin soup then momos, Laetitia a plate of chicken land (local dishes). We end the meal with mint tea. The freshness being felt, we return to our room to rest, read, discuss ... From here we hear the waterfall sunk afloat but it shouldn't prevent us from sleeping.Tomorrow, breakfast is scheduled for 7:30 am.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4: For our third day of walking, we leave at 8am like the previous days after a good little local lunch (omelet, Tibetan bread or chapati with jam and milk tea). We go back down towards the center of the village then towards the river which we cross thanks to a long suspension bridge. We then go back up everything that we have just descended. During the first hour of walking we do not do not see any tourists, then we will see a lot, and moreover a lot of French. After a fairly steep climb among the pebbles, we stop for a break. We have tea, it is 10 a.m. We have 1 hour 30 minutes before arriving in Tal for lunch. We follow the valley to a lake dried up. Here we are walking on sand which is used to make cement for the construction of houses. A few hundred meters further on, we stop for lunch in a very small restaurant. flowery. Fabien has mushroom pasta and Laetitia vegetarian pasta. Surprise for Fabien, they are deceived, they put more melted cheese: yak cheese. He tastes and finds that it has no real taste, like Gruyère in France. We are invaded by Germans so from our plate finished, we push each other and discuss with a group of French people. Their guide is a very good friend
with ours. Ajaya tells us that we meet in the evening at the hotel. Around 12:30 p.m., we leave. We continue to walk along the river. We come across more and more herds of donkeys and we follow. Besides, they slow down our pace a bit because we can't double them. We therefore follow 3 groups of 6 or 7 donkeys each. At times we make ourselves water by small waterfalls, but the path passes at this place, we cannot avoid them. We arrive at Dharapani (1870m) village of our night around 2:30 pm. We go to our lodge. We are the first to arrive, so Ajaya was able to take us a very good room with WC and shower in the bedroom. It’s a good surprise. We put our things down and take a shower at last we wanted to take a shower. Only downside, the water is cold. The sun has not warmed enough. So no shower we use wipes. Then we drink a tea by finishing the card game started the day before, then we go to each other. walk both in the village which is very extensive. In this village there are two bakeries which sell croissants and pains au chocolat, but certainly not the day like with us! We come back to our room around 5 p.m. and rest. But as he begins to do cold, we go into the dining room, hoping it will be warmer. It's a little warmer. We So let's wait for dinner (scheduled for 7pm) playing cards and chatting with Ajaya and Jaya. At dinner tonight, chicken and chips for Fabien and chicken pasta for Laetitia. Only concern is that the boss not being there, the clerks put very little chicken in our dishes and bring us dessert while we're only halfway through. Ajaya groans! But it's too late. The food is still good. Small anecdote: it was the first time that Ajaya comes to this lodge, he came here on the recommendations from his guide friend. But it's also the last time because he was really disappointed with the quality of service and quantity. Besides, his brother also points out to him, he does not want to come back here. After dinner we talked about Nepalese daily life. Then we go to bed around 9:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5: As every day we get up at 7am after a good night's sleep, we start to feel the freshness (14ºC in the bedroom) but we are comfortable in our duvets. After our famous Nepalese breakfast,we leave for our fourth day of walking at 8am.A few hundred meters further Ajaya stops at the Dharapani Check post. At each check post (in the largest villages) Ajaya must present our trekking permits on which an officer affixes a buffer. In fact, the Annapurna area is a protected area. Meanwhile, we, we continue our way, Ajaya wastes time because two groups of 10 and 5 people must pass before him. We waits for him before a fork, and fortunately because he makes us take a shortcut. From here we see for the first time the Annapurna 3 which culminates at 7937m. We will see it throughout our day of market. We cross the village of Bagarchhap. In the village of Danaque, we will see our first mill prayer that we rotate. Just after this village, there is a very big climb where we climb 500m vertical drop. Upstairs, a lady is making flattened rice fritters, we buy one to taste. It is very hot but it's good. We go back to the village of Timang where we land and drink a tea in the company of a Frenchman who is waiting for his friends. We resume our walk to the village of Tanchowk where we stop around 12 noon for egg pasta lunch. While eating we have a superb view of the Manaslu. We only have 2 hours left before reaching the village of Chame where we will spend the night. After we have stopped at the Koto check post, we arrive at our hotel. Only problem, Jaya isn't arriving at the same time as us. We are waiting for him, Ajaya calls him on his cell phone and tells him the name of our hotel. Only he walks past without seeing it, and continues on his way for 15 minutes until he realizes there is a problem. Finally, he turns around and arrives 40 minutes after U.S. We hope there is still hot water for a good shower. The water is still lukewarm but the shower, being outside, is very quick because the hardest part is getting dressed because it is cold. After the shower and a good hot tea, we go for a walk in Chame. Ajaya shows us heat sources near the river. Then we go to an internet café to send a message to the family. Then we return to our hotel, opposite there is a large Mani wall with many prayer wheels. We sit down in the dining room where the heating is on, all of a sudden
power cut, we end the evening by candlelight. Guides and porters help the cooker preparing dinner, Ajaya notably makes the momos that Fabien has ordered. And it's Jaya who serves us. We eat tomato soup, vegetable momos and potatoes with vegetables and eggs. We finish the meal with a tea, then we discuss with Ajaya on the life of the porters. We  go to bed around 9:30 p.m.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 6: The night was difficult because children came to sing in front of the rooms so that people gave them money or treats. They only do this during the festival. We wake up at 7:00 am, it is 6 ° C in the room. After having our breakfast we leave at 8:10 am. As we leave, we turn the 143 prayer wheels. We climb through the pine forest, we put more than 2 hours before crossing the first village of the day, usually we see more regularly. This is the village of Bhratang, we stop there for tea. A crowd impressive number of tourists arrives behind us. We leave and continue to climb through the
Forest. In the forest there are street vendors of jewelry. Laetitia surpasses her altitude record, which stood at 2900m in the Alps. We will indeed reach the
3400m today. We eat dhal bhaat in Dhukur Pokari village and wait for Jaya before leaving. We wouldn't want him to do it again for us from the day before. We only have one hour of walk before arriving at the village of Pisang where we sleep this evening. The route is easy enough for end the day. The region we are crossing is much less green and drier. We arrive at our hotel at 2 p.m., we take a hot shower and do some laundry. We have tea before leaving to visit the city and in particular Pisang Upper (Pisang le haut). There is a wall over there with 155 prayer wheels, we visit a Buddhist temple and watch the sunset over Annapurna 2. Then we go back down to our lodge where we wait until dinner. We are served at 7 p.m. On the menu tonight, tomato soup, rice and curried potatoes, apple pie and finally tea. After dinner and while waiting for the dhal bhaat to be ready for Ajaya and Jaya, Ajaya does magic tricks with the cards, then the 4 of us play Dhambal. A group of adults come singing and dancing in front of the restaurant, asking for the money. We're in the middle of a festival, that's why. Ajaya tells us it's for a good cause since it is to help the daily life of carriers. So we make a move, just like the other group
of French, they thank us by saying that the French are very nice! After we finished our leaving card we are going to bed, it is 9 p.m.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 7: The night was not quiet for Fabien, in fact he was disturbed perhaps because of the food, but he only got up twice despite everything. Last night, it froze, this morning it was 4 ° C in the room. We return to breakfast at 7:30 am where we witness the landing of a medical helicopter on the village from Pisang Upper. Around 8 am, we leave, we cross the village of Pisang and make a long climb in the pines of one hour. At the top we have a view of the town of Hangde, known for its airport which isclosest to Manang. We continue our journey, paying attention to the patches of ice, in fact at 9am it is still frozen. Laetitia will pay the price. On the last plate that she did not see, she goes with 2 feet forward and falls on the buttocks. As soon as she got up, she began to feel uncomfortable in the vagina. Ajaya gets scared but Fabien reassures him to afterwards, telling him that it's okay and that this has happened to him a few times before. the discomfort lasts only a few seconds. Laetitia only gets by with a few scratches on her hand left and a bruise on the buttocks! We resume our journey to Manang, our destination for the day. We cross a desert area (very dry) very few trees, pines but we can see Annapurna 3 very well. On the way we will see our first yak of the trip. We have lunch at Braghaun dhal bhaat, quick to prepare. We only have 30 minutes left before to reach Manang (3540m). This is where we do our acclimatization for 2 days before to begin the final ascent to the Thorong Pass at 5416m. Our hotel, located at the entrance to the village, is very large and quite comfortable (compared to the previous ones, Besides, we have the toilet in our room. We give Jaya some laundry to wash, this to him allows you to earn a little more money during the trek. After a good hot shower and a good tea, we attend a daily conference (in English) on altitude sickness and the importance of acclimatization in the city. Then we walk in the village where there are many shops (bakeries, jewelry stores, bazaar, ..) two cinemas, a museum and a post office. We do some shopping there then come back to our hotel for ourselves rest while waiting for the meal. We still play at the Dhambal. The meal is served at 6.30 p.m., on the menu: vegetable soups (Laetitia) and onion soup (Fabien) followed by spaghetti with carbonara and a rice cake. After dinner, a concert takes place in the courtyard of the hotel, again due to the festival, today we let's celebrate siblings. Jaya pushes us to go to the courtyard to dance, so we leave the restaurant and join Ajaya who explains to us that we can choose the song that the group plays. We ask them "Resham firiri", song Ajaya sings all day long. They play it, we are then forced to join the Nepalese dancers. It's a real fun time with Jaya, Ajaya and all their guide and carrier friends. Because ultimately we are few foreigners (4-5) to participate at the party, too bad for the others ... They stop after 1 hour of music and we go to bed around 9 p.m. Tomorrow we can sleep in mat ’, breakfast is scheduled for 8:30 am, because we will walk a few hours for the acclimatization day but we will climb at least 200m in altitude.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8: After a good night's sleep, less fresh than the previous ones, we wake up at 8am. Breakfast, we taste Seabucktorn juice made from sea buckthorn berries. Then we prepare for go on a hike in order to acclimatize to the altitude. We go to Gangapurna Lake first, then we let's go up in order to have a great view of the Gangapurna glacier, we are then at 3700m. We let's continue to climb. At 3800m, we see 5 chamois that we try to approach discreetly but they are faster than us. At 3900m, we decide to continue our ascent until 4000m, in order to acclimatize as well as possible. During the climb, we are short of breath, but as we do recommend Ajaya, we go up slowly and we stop often to take breaks. We we arrive at 4000m at 12 noon, that is to say 2 hours after our departure, without too many difficulties all the same. From up there we have a great view over the whole valley, the city of Manang, the Manaslu and we see for the first time the Thorong La which we will pass at the pass in 3 days. After admiring the landscape for about thirty minutes, we descend to the village of Manang. We only eat around 1:30 p.m. at our hotel. Fabien tries the yak steak burger while Laetitia only takes a veggie burger. Fabien tries because we saw several people take this burger, which seems to be the house specialty. Taste good, we'll see later if he had reason to try. After lunch, we rest, take a shower and again go for a walk in the village, we go to the information center. In the village we attend a strange parade, porters carry chopped yak meat on their backs. So we hope that Fabien will not be sick. Then we return for tea at the hotel before heading to the cinema at 5:00 pm to see the movie "Into the thin air". the cinema can hold about 30 people with a large stove in the middle to maintain the room hot. Admission is only 2.5 € and they also have an intermission to offer a bag of popcorn and tea! After the film, around 6.30 p.m., we come back warm to the hotel, outside it is dark and cold. While waiting to be served, we play cards, it has become a habit with Ajaya and Jaya. On the menu tonight soup of vegetables and spaghetti in tomato sauce for Laetitia, coleslaw salad and vegetarian lasagna for Fabien. Tomorrow's breakfast is scheduled for 7:30 am, we are resuming good habits for our 7th day of trek. We go to bed at 9 p.m.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9: After a good night's sleep, we have our breakfast at 7:30 am with a brownie (mmm du chocolate). We leave at 8 am under a beautiful sun. In the distance we see a large group of walkers, about 20 people. Ajaya is warning us that we will be sending more and more, and some times we will be in single file, there will be so many of us! We walk slowly because the breath is short, after a short time we join the group and the pass because they take a break in the village of Gunoung Further on, we see ibex, then others, there are dozens of them. Time to observe them, a herd of yaks arrives on the path. They are impressive with their huge horns. We will send more and more because tonight we sleep in Yak Kharka (the city of yaks). On each side of the path, yaks are grazing in the fields. A little further on, we see an outdoor butcher's shop. 2 men are cutting up a carcass (of yak surely). Not sure if we eat more yak afterwards having seen that, although Fabien was not sick ...We arrive at Yak Kharka village, but Ajaya prefers that we sleep at Yak Kharka Upper (the top) so we continue for another 15 minutes to arrive at our lodge which is located at 4080m. It is 12 o'clock. We
put our things down and order food. Onion soup followed by curried potatoes for Fabien, tomato soup then rice with vegetables for Laetitia. After lunch, we will acclimatize on the hill in front of the lodge. We let's go up very slowly for 30 minutes, in the end we will be at 4250m, which is pretty good for our acclimatization. From above we observe an eagle flying above our heads, and we have a very nice view on Yak Kharka. Then we go back down to the lodge where we can rest until dinner since it's only 3pm. There is no electricity or hot water here. So we do our toilet with wipes and use our headlamps as a light source. Around 5 p.m., we go in the dining room where it is supposed to be warmer, only the stove is not on yet. Tampis. We play cards, as usual, with Ajaya and Jaya. Another guide joins us for player. The meal is served at 6.30 p.m .: on the menu: tomato soup followed by macaroni in tomato sauce for every 2. During the meal, Ajaya tells us about the day of the passage of the pass (that is to say in 2 days), it will be necessary to get up at 3:30 am to leave at 4:30 am. Fabien disagrees by telling him that if we leave early, it will be cold and dark. In addition, in the guide we have, it is written that there is no point in leaving before 5am. Ajaya gets annoyed little and tells us that if we have taken a guide, we must trust him and also tells us that if we leave too late it will be very windy at the top. His guide friend confirms his words. Not wanting the annoyed, we agree to leave at 4:30 am. As it is cold, we get into our sleeping bags at 8 p.m., but cannot sleep much following.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 10: After a night when we slept moderately (little tired, cold) we wake up in a room at 5 ° C! We have breakfast and leave at 8am. Today is our last day before crossing the pass, tomorrow. Tonight we sleep in Thorong Phedi, located at 4540m. We let's start slowly, after crossing a first 85m long bridge, we arrive at the village of Letdar. We go up slowly to avoid a headache, and also because we quickly get out of breath. In road we still see many chamois and yaks. After 2 hours of walking, we cross the river and a short but steep climb follows. We must have climbed it too quickly, because we arrived in high we have a headache so we rest for a few minutes, eat a candy bar and let's drink. We only have 40 minutes left before arriving at the lodge. We take it slow and often stop because the headache is felt with every effort but as soon as we stop, that feel better. We arrive at our room at 10:50 am. Jaya, having arrived before us, booked us a bedroom with attached toilet and double bed, the first since we arrived in Nepal. Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., we rest, eat, prepare our sleeping bags for the evening and our things for the the following day. At 2 p.m., we leave for 1 hour to acclimatize, we climb 250m, which will allow us to sleep better tonight On the way back, we freshen up with wipes because there is no water here either. Then we go in the dining room to rest and play cards. This evening, the meal is served at 6 p.m. because we We have to go to bed early, we will wake up at 3:30 a.m., breakfast at 4 a.m. for a departure at 4:30 a.m. Tonight, we eat onion soup, vegetable burger (Laetitia) and cheese burger (Fabien). We're going in our room at 6.30 p.m., hoping to fall asleep quickly to get a good night's sleep before the final ascent.

THURSDAY 11 NOVEMBER: As hoped, we fell asleep quickly, and the weather was quite good in the room, we thought I was colder at 4540m. Woke up at 3.30am, it is 5 ° C in the bedroom, it is still not easy to get dressed and do the bags. Ajaya comes to check that we are wide awake, no problem, we are ready! Then Jaya comes to pick up his bag like every morning. At 4 am, we go to breakfast: fried egg (Laetitia) or omelet (Fabien), toast with jam, juice of seabucktorn and milk tea. A good breakfast is important before the day ahead. 4:30 am: Departure of our famous day. Headlamp fixed on the forehead, ski gloves on the hands and hat on the head, we go in the cold (the water freezes in our water bags) and in the dark. Fabien leads the way, Laetitia follows him and Ajaya closes the trio. Jaya left before us. In the light of his headlamp, Fabien walks slowly so that Laetitia can follow along without losing too much breath. After 1 hour of walk, we climbed only 200m, in the distance we see that the day begins to rise, we can turn off our lights. Around 6 a.m. we reach the high camp (last lodge before the pass) located at 4850m. A herd of 40 donkeys overtakes us, this allows us to take a break in our ascent. The landscape we cross is desert, no trees, only the snow puts a little color in this stony and earthy landscape. The sun is coming out. Seeing the bridge that spans the Marsyangdi River, we reach the At the 5000m altitude mark, it is 6.30am. We continue slowly, because Laetitia is quickly out of breath, and a headache is felt regularly. We take paracetamol to calm the pain. Around 7 a.m., we arrive at a Tea Shop, it's a hut where a man sells very hot tea. This makes us good to warm up and rest. We continue our slow ascent towards the passage of the Thorong La, each step is slow, each breath corresponds to a step. We each find our own rhythm. Fabien walks a little faster than Laetitia. The cold wind whips our faces. On either side we are surrounded by mountains and in particular Thorong La which culminates at 6140 m. We see in the distance the Tibetan flags which flutter at the passage of the pass. It is 9:30 am when we finally arrive at the pass. We are at 5416m. We are happy to have achieved our goal together, as we wishes. We do a photoshoot to immortalize this moment. We admire the mountains around. We don’t really realize the personal feat we just achieved. Here too there is a Tea Shop, we then take a tea to warm up and rest. Then due to the cold and the headache, we soon descend to Muktinath where we will spend the night. The descent is long and steep at times. In total, we descend 1700m since the village is located 3740m. The surrounding landscape is desert, only earth. We see again many ibex on the hill next to the path. Around noon, we stop at a small restaurant in Chhabru to eat. Since 4 a.m. this morning, we We only ate two candy bars, drank two teas and the water from our water bags. We eat a daal baat and an apple, then resume our descent. We arrive in our lodge at 2 p.m. where we can take a good hot shower. Three days that we expected this. Then we drink a cold drink, a little fed up with tea every hour. We take advantage of the end of the afternoon to walk around the small town and connect to Internet in order to email our family. We then return to our room and rest while waiting for the meal. Ajaya tells us about program for the next few days. Tomorrow we will visit the well-known Muktinath temple. Then we will have 3 hours of walking towards Kagbeni, located at 2700m. Then he wishes, as well as Jaya, that we go to their family house which is located near chitwan (30 minutes by motorbike) for a day so that one can soak up the culture and life Nepali. We accept their invitation. They're happy. [Later we will realize that we we don't have time, we are all disappointed but we can't help it. Ajaya offers us a beer. It is a custom of the guides. When their group of trekkers crossed a pass, Thorong La in this case, the guide offers a beer. The beer is called Everest, and on it is the photo of the 1st man who climbed on the roof of the world. Tonight's meal, Chinese-style pasta (with vegetables and chicken) is served at 7 p.m. We go to bed with our heads full around 9 p.m. The wake-up call is scheduled for 7 a.m.

FRIDAY 12 NOVEMBER: When we wake up, despite the good night's recovery that we have just had, we have some aches, probably because of the physical efforts of the day before. We go down for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and leave at 8 a.m. to visit the Muktinath shrine. He understands a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, a temple dedicated to Vishnu and a temple dedicated to the goddess of fire. We can enter the latter, we do indeed see a small blue flame at the bottom of a cavity is an emission of natural gas. In the sanctuary, men of Hindu religions take ice-water showers! Finally, Ajaya gives us a tika. In fact it is a Hindu priest who affix the tika on the forehead, symbol of divine blessing. We then return to our hotel to collect our belongings and leave for Kagbeni (2900m), town of our next night. We leave at 9:30 am, with the group of 5 French people that we meet regularly since the beginning of our adventure. 30 minutes later, we arrive at the village of Jharkot. We visit the temple where children study there, and we walk through this 500-year-old village. Then we resume our path in the middle of the Himalayan desert. The wind blows gusty and sweeps away the dust that we take in full figure. Not very nice. We descend 700m in the end in 3 hours. We arrive in Kagbeni at 12:30 p.m. for lunch and go straight to our lodge. We take possession of our room. Very beautiful bedroom with toilet and bathroom. Outside the wind is blowing a lot, according to Ajaya it's all the days as well. We have lunch of a club sandwich (homemade) + fries / salads for Fabien, rice and potatoes with curry for Laetitia. We rest for 1 hour before going for a walk in the village of Kagbeni. In this village, there is a Buddhist temple that a monk is opening on purpose for us in order to that we can visit it. We make, with the wind, the tour of the village where the Kali Gandaki river passes. the village is very old, it is also 500 years old. We then return to our hotel where we take a good hot shower and we rest while waiting for dinner. Going down to the dining room, we have a good surprise, the heating is under the table, so it is very hot when we are let's sit down at the table. The meal is served at 7 p.m. Fabien eats a pizza with fresh mushrooms while Laetitia eats a curry of chicken. And we end the meal with apple momos. We go to bed around 9 p.m. Tomorrow the wake-up call is scheduled for 7:30 a.m.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13: We wake up as scheduled at 7:30 am and go to breakfast at 8:00 am. We taste the Kagbeni there bread, a very dry bread. We leave the lodge at 8:40 am, in the direction of Jomson then Marpha where we sleep tonight. Today we have the impression of walking in order to walk, the desert landscape is of little interest and we do not pass through any village until Jomson. We walk on pebbles in the dry river bed, which flows freely during the monsoon. The wind picks up around 10 a.m., which make more painful our walk on the dusty and desert path. We arrive at Jomson around 11 a.m. and let's go to the restaurant-hotel where we'll be back to sleep tomorrow. We eat chicken pasta there. We leave towards Marpha around 12:30 pm. We have it for 2 hours of walking. The wind is blowing very strong, like in a storm at the seaside. To this is also added the dust, we let's stop and turn around to avoid getting it in the face. The wind makes our progression. Finally we arrive at Marpha at 1:45 p.m., that is, only 1:15 after our departure ... We put our things in our room, beautiful with double bed and bathroom, only the door closes poorly, drafts pass. We will do with ... After having a good tea, we will walk in the village of Marpha, a traditional village with whitewashed stone houses with wooden roofs, a sign of wealth. In the street, the vendors accost us so that we can look at and buy their products (jewelry, pashmina, religious objects, etc.). One of them speaks to us in French, which he learns from a dictionary given to him. We do business with him. We continue our walk to a tea room where we eat an apple crumble and a chocolate cake. Marpha is famous for its apple crops. We then return to our room where we rest. While waiting for the meal to be served, we play Dhambal with Ajaya and Jaya. At dinner we eat a chicken burger an apple crumble. During the meal, Ajaya wants us to taste two apple-based alcohols. We start with the cider. It is acidic, for us it lacks sugar. To the at the end of the meal, we taste the apple brandy, a sort of calva that is less strong. After the meal we finish our card game and we will not go to bed until around 9 p.m. because tomorrow we wake up is scheduled for 8 a.m. We will visit Marpha Monastery and return to Jomsom.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14: After a good night of 11h (!) And a good breakfast, we leave at 9h, to visit the monastery of Marpha. It is located on the heights of the village, from above we have a beautiful view of the mountains and Marpha. Two young monks open the doors of the monastery we are visiting to us. At around 9:40 am, we hit the road again to return to Jomson. This one is more pleasant than the day before because no wind. He doesn't get up until 11 a.m. Like yesterday, it only takes 1h15 to get back while Ajaya thought it would take 2 hours. When we get to the hotel, and before lunch, we do some laundry. We also observe the small planes that land at the airport located next to the hotel. They leave immediately towards Kathmandu or Pokhara. Tomorrow we will take one, in the direction of Pokhara. This midday we eat a dhaal baat, very good. In the afternoon, we visit the Mustang eco-museum which is next to the hotel, then we let's take a walk in the city. Coming back to the hotel we write some postcards that will arrive surely after our return to France. While waiting for dinner, we play Dhambal again with Ajaya and Jaya. We have dinner at 6.30 p.m. Fabien had a club sandwich (the royal) and Laetitia curried potatoes with rice. For dessert Fabien eats an apple pie and Laetitia a rice cake. We go to bed around 8:30 p.m., because tomorrow the little one lunch is scheduled at 5:30 am to be at 6:00 am at the airport in order to catch the plane at 7:30 am.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15: We didn’t hear the alarm clock ringing, it is 5.20 am when Laetitia wakes up, luckily our business are ready, we arrive in the dining room at 5:40 am. We have lunch and leave at 6 a.m. at the airport, at 100m from the hotel. Jaya leaves by jeep to Pokhara, the cheapest transport. Officials The airport does not open until 6:20 am. We check in our luggage and go through the controls (very fast) then let's wait for our plane in the small departure lounge. 7am, we learn that no flight can leave Pokhara for the moment because of the weather: too much cloudy. We play cards with English people to pass the time. 8:00 am, we are told that we will have to wait at least another hour before the arrival of the first plane. They we then let out. We're going to have tea in a cafe across from the airport. Around 9 a.m. we back, still no news, we meet French people, who like us are waiting for their plane. 9:30 am, a plane should leave Pokhara. It takes 30 minutes to connect Pokhara to Jomson. 10am: no plane in sight. 10:15 am: a plane arrives, finally! But he comes from Kathmandu so he didn't have a problem. Only he does not can't go back. He must go to Pokhara. In the airport, no one is checking baggage anymore, travelers enter and leave as they wish seems. We are waiting behind the desks. We weigh ourselves on the luggage scales… We try to passing time. We will sunbathe on the lawn between the offices and the tarmac. 11:25 am: the plane from Kathmandu can leave, we evacuate the lawn. This is the excitement planes can finally take off from Pokhara. 11:35 am: the siren announcing the arrival of a plane sounds. We see a plane in the sky that is about to land. As long as it is ours. It's an Agni company plane. Bingo! It is for us. The passengers from Pokhara get off and we will run to get in. On the Ajaya's advice, we take the seats on the left to see Annapurna 1. 11:50 am: we take off !! Small disappointment, we will not see Annapurna 1 because of the clouds. There is some turbulence, it is more impressive than in an airbus!12:20 p.m .: we take a big turn to the right and land in Pokhara. On the way down, Ajaya us will admit that he's never been so scared on a plane, when he's used to taking cuckoos like this one ! By the time we get our bags, the plane takes off for Jomson. We, we go to our hotel booked by Ajaya. Very nice bedroom with double bed and en-suite shower room. Around 1 p.m., we go lunch in a Pokhara restaurant on the shores of Phewa Tal lake. For the 1st time in 15 days, we see fish on the map. Without hesitation, that's what we take. It's a sinful fish in Lake. He is very good. Ajaya tells us that the lodge he booked in Chitwan National Park is no longer available because a German group has arrived. And a group has priority over individual people. He us find another hotel located on an island in the park, the Island Jungle Resort. After lunch, we will go boating for 1 hour on Phewa Tal Lake. On the island in the center of the lake, there is a temple where the Hindus come to meditate. Ajaya then leaves us all alone and we walk around the very pretty and bustling town. There are Laetitia and Fabien lots of greenery, little dirt in the city unlike Kathmandu. At 7 p.m., we meet Ajaya and Jaya (who came by jeep (12h) from Jomson) to go to the restaurant together. We offer them dinner to thank them for the trek, it's the last evening we all spend the 4 together. We return to our hotel and go to bed around 10 p.m. It is very heavy in the room. tomorrow we go to Chitwan National Park. Our bus must leave at 7:30 am, so we have to get up at 6:00 am, tohave breakfast at 6.30 am and leave at the bus station around 7 am.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16.: We arrive at the bus station as planned at 7 a.m. Ajaya takes another bus to Kathmandu, we leave with Jaya. Our bus didn't leave until 8 a.m. It takes 4 hours to drive. Around 10 a.m., we let's have a breakfast break, then we take the road back to Chitwan. Jaya who has come the way with we go down to the beginning of Chitwan to go home. We get off in front of our hotel at 12:30 p.m. We are greeted there with tea. In fact, it is an annex to our lodge. When all tourists (ten) arrived (by different buses), they serve us lunch, the same thing for everyone. Then we take a mini-bus to get to our lodge. There is one for 1:15. Along the way, we change buses, the first is dead! The 2nd drops us off by the river, where we take a boat to cross the river that borders the island where our lodge is located. Then we have to walk another ten minutes before arriving at the lodge. It is 3:30 p.m. when we finally come. Here, a man dressed as a ranger gives us the keys to our room. He makes us a Quick briefing on the activities that await us for the end of the afternoon and the evening. After depositing our things in the room, we leave (with a group of 10 people) for a 1 hour hike in the jungle and row a boat on the river. In the jungle, our guide warns of the dangers of meeting a wild animal. We hope to see: Bengal tigers, especially crocodiles and rhinos. We walk in single file through the jungle. We don't see anything. Until Fabien sees a big snake next to the path. The guide comes to see us and tells us thatit's a python! It is very long, the guide gently drives it away, we observe it quietly going away. Then we resume our way to the shore where we get into a boat that brings us back to our lodge. We come back to our room to shower, change and rest before dinner. We hear little noises, like rodents running in the ceiling, we observe it (the ceiling) and let's see some cracks, we hope the mice don't get through tonight. We let the ranger know about our fear, who tells us not to worry and that it is normal for there to be rodents because we are in the jungle. Dinner is ready at 7 p.m., it is an all-you-can-eat buffet. After dinner, we attend a performance of dance given by young people living in the region. We go to bed around 9:30 p.m. Here is the program for tomorrow:5:45 am: Wake up; 6 a.m .: Tea; 6:15 am: activity; 8:30 am: Breakfast; 9:30 am: activity; 1 p.m .: lunch; 2 p.m .: bath elephants; 3 p.m .: activity; 7 p.m .: activity; 7:30 p.m .: dinner.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17: At 5.45 am, the staff wakes up tourists by knocking on each door. We get ready and go have tea before leaving for our first activity of the day: elephant back safari. We are the first to ride on the elephant's back, we are four tourists on its back + the mahout. We set off slowly through the jungle. Things are moving a lot, we are shaken. Unfortunately we don't see many animals because it is foggy. After crossing the river we see two fallow deer and roosters. On our return, the mahout offers Laetitia to take his make time for a photo, which she happily does. We then go to breakfast before the 2nd activity: Walk in the jungle. We leave at 9:30 am with Kanna, the same guide as yesterday in the jungle. Today we should see rhinos. Shortly after our departure, the guide spotted rhino tracks. He stops, observes ... nothing. One a little further on, we observe two pairs of cranes. We continue our progression in the jungle. We see deer. Fabien notices that he has a blood stain on his pants, we stop. He has one little leech on his pant leg. The guide takes him away, we leave. After an hour and a half of walking, we back to the camp without having seen neither rhino nor crocodile. While waiting for lunch, we read and rest by the river. Lunch in the form of buffet is ready at 1 p.m. At 2 p.m. we attend the elephant bath. Tourists can ride on their backs and take a shower thanks to the elephant's trunk! At 3.15pm, we leave for the jeep safari, our 3rd activity of the day. For this we walk to the pier, let's take the rowboat across the river and get into a jeep. This time we hope to see rhinos, the weather is favorable: not too hot, no rain ... The driver does not in the lace, every hole or tree root we feel and many branches we whip the face. We’re doing an hour and a half jeep, but we still haven’t seen a rhino. For us console we see fallow deer, monkeys, 1 wild boar and wild chickens! We are back at camp at 5:30 p.m. We take a good shower because it's hot here and we are sweaty. Then we rest while waiting for 7 p.m., time for a presentation of Chitwan Park in the form of PowerPoint. At 7:30 p.m., the buffet is ready, we eat and go to bed at 9:00 p.m. Tomorrow morning's program: 5:45 am: Wake up; 6 a.m .: Tea; 6:15 am: activity; 7:30 am: Breakfast; 8:15 am: Departure.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18: Like yesterday, the staff came to wake us up to have tea and do the activity of the day: bird watching. We leave again with Kanna, we observe different species, 4 to total, in the forest and by the river. After an hour of observation, we return to the camp for lunch and then leave. At 8.15am, our 3 day and 2 night stay ended as it started, that is to say that we take the boat and then a mini-bus to get to the annex of this complex. Here we take a tourist bus to Kathmandu. So we leave at 10:15 am from the annex, have lunch on the road at 1 p.m. and arrive in Kathmandu at 5:20 p.m., or 7 hours by bus later, luckily it was enough comfortable. At the bus stop, we find Ajaya waiting to take us to our hotel. Finally we change hotels because the first one (which we had at the start of our stay) is full!We are still in the Thamel district but at another end. After leaving our things in the room we will walk around the thamel area and then come back to our hotel to have dinner and go to bed. Tomorrow we have an appointment with Ajaya at 8:30 am to visit Kathmandu.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19: After a good night's sleep, we have lunch at 8 a.m. and meet Ajaya who will again serve as a guide for the day. We leave at 8:40 am. Ajaya has booked a taxi for the day. We leave in the direction of Bhaktapur, there It takes 50 minutes, so we get there at 9:30 am. Bhaktapur is famous for its 3 squares lined with temples. We contemplate them under a beautiful sun. We see the temples of Til Mahadou, erotic elephants, of Shiva, of Nyatapole, Bhairabnath, the Taleju bell and the many squares, pools, ... In the street, Nepalese are drying their rice, indeed the harvest is taking place at the moment. At 11:30 am, we take the taxi back to Pashupatinath, the most important Hindu temple in Nepal, located on the edge of the sacred waters of the Bagmati. On the spot we take a guide who makes us discover the places. We are witnessing the cremation of a person, we are surprised by the absence of ceremony at that time.Around 12:30 p.m., we take the taxi back to the Bodhnath Stupa. We have lunch in one of the many restaurants which have a beautiful view of the Stupa. We will then take a tour of the immense Stupa and let's get on the plinth to take some nice pictures. We go down and take the taxi that takes us to Swayambhunath better known as Monkey temple. Indeed many monkeys have taken possession of the place. You have to be wary, these are real thieves with incredible speed, we've seen them do it! On site, we go around the very large Stupa and visit the many monuments around. We are back at the hotel at 5:00 p.m. Ajaya leaves us 1 hour to rest before leaving for restaurant. We don't rest, but pack our bags. And yes it smells like the end of the holidays, tomorrow it's the start. We meet Ajaya at 6 p.m. in the hotel lobby and walk to the Nepali restaurant Chulo is a traditional Nepalese restaurant, with traditional dance performances. The manager is a childhood friend of Ajaya. Fabien knows the restaurant, he went there 3 years ago with his brother and Ajaya. Only the place has changed. We get there after 20 minutes of walking. We are the first. We let's visit the two floors of this restaurant, decorated with traditional objects and then order a beer For dinner. The waiters pour rice alcohol into a small container, very strong alcohol! We can have them at will. As an aperitif, they serve us fried potatoes, momos and pop corn. At 7 p.m., the dance show begins and the daal bhaat is served (rice, spinach, vegetables, chicken, sauce tomatoes and pork. This is the first time that we have had pork in a daal bhaat. It is very good, we let's start again a second time. And for dessert, they serve us white cheese embellished with apples and bananas. We find it good and fresh. Ajaya asks for a second for us! We let's pay the bill and take a cab back to the hotel. We will meet Ajaya tomorrow at 8:30 am for breakfast. We fall asleep around 10:30 p.m.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20: On our last day in Nepal, we wake up at 7.15am, take a shower and go to the small breakfast. Ajaya is there at 8 a.m. He brought his computer so that we could transfer all the photos that we have taken and are recovering Nepalese music. We leave at 9am on foot to Durbar Square. We walk there for 1h30. Then we come back in the Thamel district to do some souvenir shopping. We buy tea, coffee, tunics for Laetitia, a yak wool blanket and small gifts. It's 11:30 am when we are done. We have to leave our room at 12 noon. Ajaya is calling the hotel to see if we can return it a bit later. They leave us until 12:30 p.m. We decidethen to eat before returning to the hotel. Fabien wants to return to the Italian restaurant where he  had been with Thomas and Ajaya in 2007. It brings back some memories. We are at the hotel in 12:15 pm, let's wrap up the suitcases after packing up our morning shopping. Then we go down to the hotel lobby where Ajaya gives us 2 flower necklaces as on our arrival, like a wink at the end. While waiting for our taxi, we show some little things on his pc. At 1:30 p.m., we take the taxi to the airport, we pass in front of the Bodnath Stupa seen from the day before. 30 minutes later we say our farewells to Ajaya after these 3 weeks spent together. We the thank you for his kindness and the good organization of the stay. We have a pang in our hearts but we can't go on forever, we have to go. After 30 minutes of queue, we check our luggage and get our tickets for the flight Kathmandu - Delhi scheduled for 4:15 p.m. We then go through customs control, then a first baggage control at hand. Here the women pass on one side and the men on the other. Given the limited number of women to travel, Laetitia must wait 15 minutes for Fabien before he arrives. Then we go to the boarding lounge in order to wait before our departure. At 3.45 p.m., a man asks if there is still people for the Air India flight to Delhi. We wave to him and he takes us to our plane. In fact, boarding had already started but was not indicated on the control screens! Before get on the plane, they check our luggage again. Again, men and women are separated. Laetitia is the last in the queue. The men having passed much faster than the women, Laetitia asks to be missed, it is accepted, so she can get on the plane more quickly. We take off at 4.30 p.m. Snacks are served on the plane. We land in Delhi at 6.15pm. In Delhi begins a long wait of 12 hours! And yes our next flight to Moscow is just there7:15 am. We let the staff know that we are in transit and that as on the way out, they should collect our suitcases in order to transfer them to the flight of the company Aeroflot. But we have less stress than to go because we have so much more time. We land near the check-in to that we can be there if they need any information. Around 9 p.m., we look for a place a little more quiet so that you can get some sleep until 4:30 am check-in time. In the hallways immense we find a place to rest. Fabien quickly fell asleep on the hard floor of the airport. During this time, Laetitia is reading, hoping to find sleep. Between 10 p.m. and 3:30 a.m., we sleep intermittently, ranges from 30 to 40 minutes. But we rest, that's the main thing.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21: At 3:45 am, Fabien wakes up and needs to walk. It therefore goes to the control screens located in the recording area. And there, to his utter despair, the flight to Moscow is posted with a delay of 4h! It is now scheduled for 11am !! We try to explain to the staff, that in Moscow we have a correspondence for Paris, but there is nothing they can do. We then go back to our little corner to get back to sleep. We will sleep very well for 1 hour, until someone from Aeroflot comes to us search for registration. It is 5 o'clock. We check in, go through hand baggage checks. We then go to the shopping area in order to find something to eat for breakfast because since yesterday at 6 p.m., we have not ate only 2 mini-bananas each. Only problem is that we don't have Indian rupees, and they do not give change in euros. So give a 20 € bill to only pay for a hot chocolate and 2 pastries, it makes us feel a little sick so we don't buy anything and eat the only apple which remains to us from Nepal. At around 6:00 am, we head to the less noisy departure lounges than the shopping area to try to rest a little longer. We find armchairs there. We let's sleep again 1h30-2h. At 8 am we go to gate 10, our boarding gate, there are only 3 hours left before boarding. Shortly after our arrival, they offered us fruit juice and a mini-sandwich to replace the little one. already we should have had on the plane. It does us the greatest good! Then we continue to wait for boarding. This starts at 10:30 am. We get on the plane and take off at 11:15 am. AT they serve us lunch on board. Despite some turbulence, we manage to sleep a little longer. We land in Moscow at 4.30 p.m. in the snow. It's -2 ° C outside! It changes us from the 25 ° C that we had departed Delhi this morning. We now hope to have a flight to Paris since ours left 2 hours ago. We let us inform in the transit zone where two tickets in our names await us for the flight of 6:50 pm. Phew we will be back to Paris this evening! We have 2 hours ahead of us before boarding. We walk through the airport and reach our terminus and boarding gate. We go up in the planes at 6.30 p.m. and it does not take off until 7.20 p.m. On board, many passengers speak French, the return at home is felt. Dinner is served on board. We land at Paris Roissy at 9 p.m. We must now to collect our suitcases that we have not seen since the check-in in Kathmandu, that is to say the day before, 2 pm finally 8 am French time! We hope they have followed us well. After some minutes of waiting, we see them. Everything is fine. We then take a taxi back home faster than by public transport. We arrive at Fontenay le Fleury at 11 p.m. The holidays are over but we are still happy to find our little home! We had an excellent stay in Nepal, seen and discovered great things: Nepal, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan National Park, Himalayan mountains, Buddhist religionsand Hindu, Nepalese culture and gastronomy We got to know the family. Ajaya. And above all, we did the Annapurna tour, a superb trek and we are proud of our  achievement

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