Mardi Himal

As we all know, gathering with friends is awesome. If you have friends and can share everything with them then this is astounding. Having friends only is not great but getting together in a certain interval of time and sharing the best and worst moments, you experienced, is the best thing. Coming to my friend circle there always occurs some problem while organizing a get-together. Some of my friends say that they are busy. It's always very hard to convince the one who says is busy. The group is well managed when one person makes a plan and all say 'ok'. We all have that one friend who can convince all in the group.

It is a diary of my gathering with my school friends. This time the togetherness was going up to Mardi Himal. A hike or a trek to the mountain with friends is always a great moment which I've experienced before during our previous meet's also. But this time it was a little challenging trip as we were making it to the highest till date i.e. Mardi Base Camp at 4500m from the sea level. It was the day just after Vijaya Dashami(the main day of the festival Dashain) we started our trip.

Firstly, we the team of 8 people gathered at Prithvi Chowk, Pokhara. We bought the food and other stuff needed for the trip. We travel by bus from Prithvi Chowk to Kande. And we started to travel on foot from Kande. There are too many stairs to travel uphill from Kande. We reached Dhampus after more than an hour of traveling uphill. We took some rest, had some food, and had fun there. Then we got ready to move towards our destination though it was far from there. While traveling uphill from Dhampus our team scattered. Some moved too faster and some slower. All of us were yattering with each other as well as with the strangers who also had the same route to travel. As Pokhara and the surrounding mountains are very famous worldwide, we encountered tourists from different countries and become their mates during the travel. They had their destinations; some are going to ABC, Some to Ghandruk, Some to other places, and some to Mardi Base camp. All are here to feel nature and make their vacation glorious. The area between Dhampus and the next stop i.e. Pothana is a green lane with the cool natural tonic.

After having Lunch at Pothana we moved forward with new energy. Moving uphill we took rest on a 'Chautari', where there are two people already taking rest. We sit and did some talk, He was a foreigner from Ireland and came to Nepal 3 times already. We were having some fun chats. The chat continued till our low pace friends arrive. Then we continue again. Moving uphill we met a lady who was with her porter.  I talked with the porter as well as the lady. The lady said that she was from Thailand and she were alone. The lady was moving to Landruk this day and want to reach ABC coming days. The shocking thing is her age; I thought she was 25-30 but during the conversation I found her age to be 55. After that our route separated from Landruk, we moved towards Forest camp and she headed to Tadapani.

It was becoming darker now, while we were at Forest camp the sun was out of our vision and there was coming a night. We decided to move towards the rest camp that day which was somehow a good decision for the next day. We reached the rest camp which was our first night of the trip. All of us were tired and are ready to take rest but some of us wanted to have some sip of 'Rum' before we sleep. We took 3 rooms in the rest camp. One room for the ladies and the other two for boys. We got drunk before having dinner. It was necessary to drink because we were facing the maximum cold temperature in our life. And it was raining. We were on a huge stress that day because it was raining and the route might be disturbed due to rain the next day. We had our dinner and then some conversations about our childhood memories, recent activities. This type of conversation makes us updated about ourselves. After some time we took rest/nap.

The second day starts with a good sunny morning which motivated us to move forward. We started our trip as soon as possible. We moved forward and took rest only after reaching low camp where we had breakfast but two of our friends had moved forward without waiting. We, the team of 6, had our breakfast and followed the route again. Moving further uphill we left all the big trees behind and following the route to the white peak of Machhapuchhre whose peak only is seen from Bhanjyang due to huge fog. The route was like giving us some courage that we worked hard in the woods which lead us to this beautiful destination and if we work harder in these beautiful hills we can get even better destinations.

The peak of Machhapuchhre seen from Bhanjyang was like the aircraft of fog is carrying the beautiful piece of the Snow to Heaven. We followed the fog but the fog already ate the beautiful piece of snow. We started singing and dancing and having fun with different funny chats. We were talking about the teachers and some friends from school which recalled school moments. We took photographs in many places. Photoshoots made our travel a little slower. Though we know that it was taking the time we did not want to leave the scenes without capturing in our cameras too. This day was totally enjoyable, we reached the high camp on time and searched for rooms. Two of our friends reached the high camp two hours before we reached and booked the one only available room. We decided to the ladies will live in that room and we five live in the dining room.  

The night at High camp was just wonderful, we came outside the room in the night to watch the beautiful shining mountains reflecting the light of the moon. This is what made our trip worth it. It was full moon night.

After some conversation with each other, we went for a nap. We were informed that the next morning we have to start the trip at 3 AM in the very early morning. We were confused why are they doing this. We got the answer during the return.

We woke up at 2:30 AM and started the trip at 3:00 AM. It was very cold to even walk. More than 100 people were climbing the steep mountain at once. We were also following them. We reached some point where we can have tea, the most expensive tea i.e. 100 Rs per cup of black tea. At this point, we waited for the sun and observed the sunrise through the highest place we have ever been to. 

After some time, we will provide more detailed accounts of our experiences at the peak, including the refreshments we enjoyed there. Stay tuned for a comprehensive update on our adventures and the delightful treats we had.