Annapurna Day 8-
Today is our 'rest day' the day when everybody who arrives in Manang (the tourist hub of the circuit) stays for a day or two to pretty much.. Rest. Because of the altitude we will be reaching in the next few days -5416m at Thorong La pass, it is necessary for us to acclimatise and Manang is the place to do it! I decided to spend the day doing exactly that, as opposed to doing some side treks from here like a few of the other groups. I wanted to rest and so I did! I chilled out in the guest house lounge for a good few hours chatting with others before heading to a movie 'Seven years in Tibet' which was showing at the local 'movie theatre'. By this I mean, a small cold stone room with a few wooden benches covered in Yak hyde and a projector screen to show the movie on.
En route to the screening, I stopped at the local shop to stock up on chocolate for the next few days (as a lot of us had been doing) of intense hiking. I spent a fortune -$8, on chocolate but before this, I got talking to a guy who was also buying chocolate and heading to the cinema with his students. When he found out my name was Jade he replied 'Wow you're the Jade who wrote in the snow on the way here', which I had indeed done. I didn't think anyone would pay attention to my 'Jade was here 2014', amongst the other Nepali writing in the snow but this guy had. It wasn't long before we were all in the small room watching the movie, which cost 250rps/$2.50 and included a cup of hot chai and some popcorn. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, me in my sandals, wading trough the snow and ice with no headlamp.
Back at the hostel there were tonnes of people in the lounge drying their boots and socks, huddled around the burning stove. This was a common occurrence in most of the lodges. We all are some dinner and some of the groups chatted and planned for the next days departure. We on the other handy figured we would stay one more day, considering we were waiting for our friend Om from Kathmandu to join us here anyway. At least I had another rest day to look forward to.
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