Nepal Journal — Tuesday, 11/26/96

Day 5: Rest day in Tatopani

We're all sore and exhausted from the previous day's descent, but our current progress at least allows us to take a rest day in Tatopani. Hiking would probably be out of the question anyway: our legs hurt so much that we can barely hobble down the few steps from the path outside our rooms to the main dining patio.

Poinsettias outside the Trekkers' Lodge in Tatopani

Tatopani literally means "hot water", and the town is named after some hot springs. We all go down to check them out after breakfast, hobbling carefully down the stairs from the hotel to the side of the Kali Gandaki river, where the springs are located. The springs are okay--nothing amazing--although the rugged outdoor setting is pretty nice. The most interesting part of the spring is that, before you go in, you have to wash off in a large, umm... well, hole in the ground. It's about waist-deep, and has some pipes sticking into it carrying run-off from the hot spring. When we arrive, there's about a dozen people in the hole, jostling for position near the pipes so they can wash off and get in the pool. About half of them are trying to do laundry, too.

We relax at the hot spring for an hour or so, chatting with some Australian guy we met on the trail. One humorous moment comes when an ancient-looking man in robes comes to the hot spring, carrying a walking staff but wearing no shoes. When he tries to get in, a number of local women start yelling at him in Nepali, but he keeps trying to get in anyway. He disappears after a while, but we see him again when we leave, sitting on the edge of another pool. This pool is only lukewarm, and not as popular as the hot one, so he's just sitting all to himself while he happily soaks his feet.

All day, we deliberate over whether or not we should hire porters for the next few days or so. Mom's unsure of whether she can carry her pack uphill from here, and I'm skeptical of whether I can make it myself. Given our inability to make it up the few steps to the dining patio, we're not sure of how quickly we'll be able to walk even if we do have porters. We start to doubt whether we'll be able to stick to our schedule: the airstrip at Jomsom is at least five days walk away from here, all uphill.