Annapurna -Day 15
So today, after a nice breakfast at our guest house New Asia Trekkers, we headed on our way towards Marpha which was a nice quaint village just passed Jomsom. Rik had left just before us and we said we would meet him along the trail. We had read about the crazy winds that come in between the valley here in the mid morning time and it was this that we ended up being caught in. We walked for about 3 hours though ever changing scenery until we reached Jomsom, which we had heard a lot about! Jomsom wad the 'big smoke' where they had a bank/ATM, army barracks, guesthouses, travel agents and even an airport. A lot of tourists, if they are short on time, jeep back to Pokhara from here or even fly if they want to fork out $90 for the flight. When we showed up, we made our way to the end of the town to find the bank (I needed an ATM because Id ran out of money) but unfortunately the ATM didn't work and I had flashbacks of a similar situation on a trek in Peru a few years prior. As luck would have it, Rik appeared from the bank and told me that he would lend me some US dollars until we got back to pokhara. I was so thankful! I exchanged the dollars in the bank and was relieved that I had enough money for the next few days.
With hungry bellies we went to the closest eatery and ordered momos (stuffed dumplings) which took forever to come out. But they were delicious! After we ate, we got up and headed an hour South to Marpha through the wind once again. We had our hoods up to protect us from the desert dust blowing into our faces. At this point I felt my left Achilles' tendon acting up and I knew that I could feel swelling. My Achilles' tendon had been hurting since the beginning but on the right foot and now that it was ok, the left one was causing me pain. I hoped we would arrived quickly. When we got there, with a cute doggy we named Barry in toe, we walked through this beautiful cobbled village and chose our hotel carefully (the one with chocolate apple pie in the window). Dave went on one of his little expeditions up the mountain while Rik and I took the opportunity to browse in some of the local shops. We then headed back and together with an Austrian and a Chinese guy (and a cute doggy named Willy) we sat around the table and ate dinner. We chatted about everything from Buddhism to Chinese way of life and eventually we all headed off to bed. That evening I had a really great sleep and even had to take a layer off which was a first since coming down from the pass! It was nice not to be freezing cold and shivering all night. Tomorrow we would head further South towards Ghasa or however close we could get.
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