Trip to Nepal
October 2006
Days 9-10 - Pisang to Manang

Vendors setup shop in the most unexpected spots.  We've just finished a steep climb, and these entrepeneurs have lugged their stuff up to a spot which they've seen to be a natural resting area where people will have time to look at their wares.  Of course, there are no marked prices, so it's whatever the market will bear.
A nice spot for some pictures.
	<<I think this was the town of Hangde, which has an airport open on the weekends.  So, certain people who might like to avoid the lowlands, could fly into Hangde on the weekend, walk up for five days or so, then down for two days and fly out of the airport in Jomosom, which is open everyday before 10am (the winds force it to close at that time).
	Scenes on the way to Manang First view of Yaks, People working their fields,         Homes in town of Braga built into the mountains,  Gates of Manang coming up
	It was harvest time in Manang; it was a gloriously sunny day and such a pastoral scene of families working their crops, separating the wheat from the chaff by beating the hay repeatedly with threshing sticks.  So relaxing to watch this.
		^^^^^^ View of Manang from high up (above Gangapurna Glacier).
	Just outside of town is the Gangapurna Glacier, coming down from the Gangapurna Himal.
	The glacier feeds into this lake, which was much more turquoise than the picture makes it appear.

Close-up of Buddhist prayer flags	Myself, climbing up to see glacier	Manang museum guide, giving me a tour of the local gaat (crematorium) - beautiful spirit, laughed like bells tinkling
	I thought I'd gone to heaven in Manang - a beautiful room with my own bathroom.  And I needed it, getting sick that night from the Buckwheat daal bhat.  I think it was the pickle (achar) that did it to me.

Manang was the most beautiful city.  From it, you could go in several directions and see spectacular scnery.  The trail to Tilicho Peak starts from Manang and Tilicho Lake is the world's highest year round freshwater lake at over 6000M.  Manang shows movies every night (they were showing 'Seven Years in Tibet' when I was there).  It has a post office, which is a single dark room with rusty farm machinery lying on the floor (I ask 'How long until in the US?'  Postmaster says 'Three days to Kathmandu; Seven days to United States' - postcards in fact arrive about 30 days later..  It has internet service (expensive and slow).  It has attractive rooms, a German bakery, ozone-purified water for sale, pharmacies and a museum with tours.  It has a glacier outside of town where I sat and watched an eagle fly by slightly below and less than 50M from me.  It has a monastery up on a hill where you can pay 100Rs and be blessed. 

It's at 3350M, so it's often used as an acclimitization two day stop.  And it isn't all tourists - people live and work there so it's most comparable to a US town like Jackson, WY, but much more exotic.

Day 11 - Manang to Lattar