Annapurna trekking

Narayan had to wake up early that morning. The 23-year old guide was taking three people from Kathmandu to Pokhara, the second biggest city in Nepal. The tourists – two girls from Holland and an American guy – were going on a trekking in the Annapurna region, part of the Himalaya. Narayan took them to the bus. If everything went well they would be in Pokhara within seven hours. It was a warm day and there was no air conditioning on the bus so everybody was hot and sweaty when they got there. The guide asked the tourists whether they wanted to walk to the hotel or take a taxi. They preferred the latter since they had a lot of walking ahead of them, they said. If only they knew, thought Narayan.
The alarm clock went off at six o’clock the next morning. After taking a shower and having breakfast, the taxi was waiting to take the three tourists and their guide to Nayapul, where the trekking would start. The weather was perfect; not too sunny and no rain either. The monsoon season was coming and soon days would get wetter.
Tikhedunga was their first destination and they reached it before they knew it. They only climbed from 900 to 1540 meters. Tomorrow would be harder, Narayan warned.
At night, after a hot shower and a warm meal, he told the tourists about his family and life in Nepal. Narayan grew up in a small village in the mountains (to get there it takes him 5 hours by bus and 5 hours of walking). He had been given the opportunity to study, a chance his two oldest sisters never had – they couldn’t read or write. They also got married at an early age (around 16), which was normal in Nepal. Then the American guy asked a strange question about gay people. Narayan didn’t understand. ‘Homosexuality? Men falling in love with men, girls that are in love with girls?’, the guy tried. ‘I’ve heard about it, but I don’t know’, said Narayan. ‘In Holland, guys can marry guys and women get married to women’, one of the Dutch girls said. ‘Yes’, said Narayan, ‘I read about it in the newspaper but I don’t believe it.’
The next day was again an early wake up. Today they had to climb up to 2750 meters. It was not easy for the tourists, who were not used to climb at all. It didn’t take long for them to be drowning in sweat. Even after hours of climbing Narayan didn’t show the slightest sign of tiredness and his face didn’t show one single drop of sweat. He could do today’s trail to Gorepani in 2,5 hours. It took the girls and guy 7,5 hours. But maybe that's not so much if you consider they climbed 3200 stairs.
That night the American guy got sick and the next morning all three tourists felt bad. But they were determined to make it to the end of the trekking. Still it was a long walk to Ghandrung and it had started to rain. Narayan could see the girls and guy were having a hard time and he offered to carry their bags and camera. They took it slow. Narayan didn’t think they were going to make it to Ghandrung when after seven hours of walking they were taking a rest and one of the girls had a tired look on her face. She seemed too exhausted to continue and together they decided to stay in the village and walk an extra two hours on day four. Luckily, everybody felt fit enough to walk that last day. It was nice and sunny. Narayan’s group saw the snowcapped mountains of Annapurna South and Fishtail, walked through forests with small waterfalls and passed groups of monkeys and mules. Narayan couldn’t imagine the Dutch girls had never seen mountains like this before. He asked them about their lifes in Holland and wondered if they had little villages too where there was no electricity or water. At a certain point, a group of Nepali people passed with one the men carrying a woman in a basket on his back. She had to go to a hospital. The group had to walk for hours to get to a village where they could get a taxi to the hospital. Many times people didn’t make it in time and died on the way, Narayan said. ‘What about taking a helicopter?’, the girls asked. Narayan laughed about their ignorance. ‘The helicopter is only used for tourists. For us it’s too expensive.’ The sun was getting hot. Necks, faces and arms were turning red. Muscles were aching. Legs showed signs of mosquito bites. But then they finally reached Nayapul. Narayan was proud of them.