Annapurna Circuit XVIII, Jharkot (Hotel Tri-Ratna) to Kagbeni скачать в хорошем качестве

Annapurna Circuit XVIII, Jharkot (Hotel Tri-Ratna) to Kagbeni

Monday, 5 May 2025 Patsy and I slept really well last night at Hotel Tri-Ratna. Ken didn’t fare so well. He looked as though he got a wonky tika (the red dot in the middle of the forehead). "What happened to you?", I asked him. He said he woke up coughing, leaned over, and cracked his forehead on the bedside table. The owner, Tsewang Norbu (a Tibetan name), and his wife, Dolma, took really good care of us, including cleaning up the wound on Ken's head. Their food was really good. The total cost of our stay was only 11,250 NPR. As we were leaving, Tsewang, who is Buddhist, presented us each with a Khatak, a pure-white scarf as a symbol of friendship, he said. Reading our guidebook last night, Patsy said there was a better route to Kagbeni rather than simply following the tarmac road. Unfortunately, this meant we had to retrace our path a mile back to Jharkot, where we got a little lost just like yesterday. We eventually found the path down to the Jhong Khola (river), but a Nepali construction crew was working on building a new bridge to replace the old bridge that had been washed out. We managed to ford the river without getting our feet wet, but there was no easy way up the far bank. The only way up was on a makeshift ladder built of tree limbs lashed together. We made it up safely, and the construction workers on this side of the river pointed out the correct path leading to the village of Jhong. Jhong looked like an interesting, very old village, but we soon left it to follow a dirt road to Kagbeni. We had to follow this road about 4 miles, but the wind really picked up along the way. The wind was horrendous. Fighting the wind, we finally reached Kagbeni. Just as we entered the town, we met the French guy who we'd met on the descent from Thorong La Pass. He said he was going to look for ammonite fossils in the Kali Gandaki River. These fossils, called Shaligrams in Nepal, are believed by Hindus to be a concrete manifestation of Vishnu. Thus, they are prized by Hindus. We checked into the Red House Lodge, a 500-year-old building that was originally a nunnery. After eating lunch and enjoying cappuccinos, we explored Kagbeni. The wind was still horrendous, blowing dust everywhere. We checked out several small stores until we came to the town's only real grocery store, which was tiny but fairly well-stocked. Back at the Red House, we sat drinking beers outside the meditation, yoga, and sound bath room. First, a guy inside played a calypso drum and then a didgeridoo. For dinner. I had Yak Steak, Patsy had Dhendo (Dal bhat but with a buckwheat mash instead of rice). Ken had mushroom soup.