Naturally, in our Nepal trek, a big part of what we do is walking through the mountains and valleys. But when we are hungry, or need to use the bathroom or any other would-be-simple things, we have some other interesting stories to tell. I'm writing up part one of an example of one of our trekking days and what we do when we're not hiking.
I wake up at five-thirty. For those who know me well, you know that I normally hate pretty much everything about getting up, but I've been really determined to work on that, especially on this trek. Luckily for me, I am sharing a room with Cannon, someone who wakes up at five-thirty naturally. I get him to make me emerge from my blissful cocoon of rest. I wake up in a small hotel room, with two small beds, huddled in my sleeping bag. Cannon is on the bed opposite me, already sitting up. There is a small table in between us, and above that a window with varying views almost everyday.
Once awake, I usually rest my eyes for five to fifteen minutes, trying not to fall back asleep. When I do rouse myself, I sit up and put on my glasses, and normally read on my kindle. I read until some time between six and six-thirty, and then I get out of my bag to do something actually productive. I pack up my sleeping bag (on all days save two, when we don't leave the town that day). I make sure all my stuff is packed well, but I don't have to change into new clothes because I changed last night. I then go to the bathroom, which can be a chore. I take toilet paper we brought up from Kathmandu (there is none in the bathroom itself) and use the public toilet, putting my used paper in the trash. Then I return to my room and grab my toothbrush and toothpaste. I brush my teeth in the public sink, but I can't use the tap water because it's not clean enough. So I use water that had been purified with iodine earlier, from Dad's large water bottle. After another trip to my room to make sure I'm packed, I zip up my bags and put my large bag outside, then take my backpack down to breakfast.
We eat at about seven-thirty. We order what we want to eat for breakfast the night before, so it's not a long wait before it arrives. We each have our own preferences for what to get. Mom and Dad generally get the same kind of food each day. Mom gets some variety of porridge, and Dad gets some meal of toast, eggs (over easy or fried) and hash browns. Cannon has so far had French toast and a chocolate pancake. Grace has gotten oatmeal and pancakes. As for me, I've gotten a lot of different things. I had a vegetable omelette, a pancake, and cheese toast (which was basically a grilled cheese sandwich, and I really liked it). So we eat, and people get water, hot chocolate, or mint tea. I vary between the last two.
After breakfast we set off, trekking in the main part of the day. In late morning, a little before noon, we normally stop to eat lunch. Cannon almost invariably gets French fries (something we've been able to find pretty much everywhere), but the rest of us vary. I've gotten tomato pizza, vegetable chowmein, a cheese sandwich, mashed potatoes with cheese, and boiled potatoes with cheese. One interesting thing about ordering food is that we don't get anything with meat in it, as we were warned that it might make us sick, a very undesirable quality in trekking.
During lunch, or at one of our short breaks in a town, we sometimes sue the bathroom. The quality of the bathroom varies a lot, from like the hotels we stay in (still not stellar, but good enough) to a literal hole in the ground. Using a bathroom can be an adventure in itself.
After lunch we continue until we reach the tea house where we're spending the night. When we get there there's usually still a lot of the day left. See part two to find out what we do next!
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