Day 26: Bhulbule to Chamje
Trip Start
Sep 21, 2006
1
27
228
Trip End
Jun 01, 2007
Bhulbule,
Nepal
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
The hills are terraced with crops of rice and millet, almost ready for harvesting. Corn cobs and chillies dry on the village roofs. A goat is butchered and cooked fresh for Nar's second daal bhat of the tour. A dog takes a leg bone and follows us on the trail for a while.
The trail includes a few hard slogs upwards, testing the balance and flexibility of one's ankles on the rocks. The mountains are soon out of view but there are cliffs felted with grass, moss and dried remains of spring's wild orchids enclosing the route and the roaring river as our companion. Bells ring as mules, hauling sacks of salt pass us. There are no yak trains on the Annapurna Circuit, alas
01 Waiting for the mule train
.My vision of an encounter with the Maoists (currently in political rather than armed struggle with Nepal's government) was to bump into a trio of agitated boy soldiers in red bandanas, sharing a rifle and demanding money with menaces. When we do the Maoists this afternoon (just before Chamje), it's not much different to the Annapurna Conservation Post that checks your permit - three officious-looking men in non-descript clothes, stamping and handing out receipts from a teahouse balcony. I'm now 1,200 rupees (about nine pounds) worse off for the pleasure of entering 'their territory'. The neat receipt I receive says, "Warm wel-come our international guests to Tamuwan Republic". The fee is regarded as a trekking fee, and apparently goes towards orphans and families caught in the previous years' war.
Our Maoist 'hosts' then turn up to eat (daal bhat) and stay at the same guesthouse in Chamje (1385m) as me, where Nar engages them in debate for hours.
