Annapurna Himal Warnings and Dangers

I’m quoting an entry I wrote for what I think is the same plant in the Indian Garwhali hills. At least, my guide described it as the same plant and I didn’t have the nerve to test it.

“Biting Grass. Also called ‘cutting grass,’ and it hurts. Brushing past it isn’t bad, but anything more than that and the welts and the sting last for hours, even after washing, Neosporin with pain relief, maximum strength cortisone cream, and some local and liberally-applied oil-based remedy. I inadvertently leaned a shin into some and when the shock-fog cleared I thought I’d been bitten by something fatal. (Apparently whilst in the fog I asked someone if I was going to die from it and he thought it was hilarious.)

Seriously, if you leave a beaten trail, and even alongside beaten trails, be on the lookout, and don’t touch it.”

I saw a lot of this on the edges of the trail until we got into the rain shadow of the east–west valley around Chame. Maybe I was just paranoid and was seeing it everywhere.

Remember that you're in the wilderness of the Himalayas so as anywhere in the world you will be surrounded by wild animals. We did encounter a few guest houses with rat problems. The one that came as a biggest surprise was at High Camp (over 5,000 Meters above sea level). At some point in the night, a sneaky mouse ate through one of my chocolate bars that I had left out in the open. Clever thing! Who would have thought they lived under this harsh conditions! Lucky for us, we always left the back packs open. NOTE: THE PICTURE DEPICTED IN THE TIP IS FROM A CLEAN GUESTHOUSE. I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THE NICE PIC.

Remember that you will be walking at high elevations so make sure you travel with at least one other person so that you can keep an eye on each other in case any symptoms can be noticed. Symptoms can include headaches, dizziness, lack of appetitive, lack of sleep, etc. Ask your doctor or read more about this from an expert. Most of the guidebooks recommend you take a day off once you climb above 3,500 meters above sea level (M.A.S.L.).

Do not do what these people did! The family was in a tight timeframe. When the daughter showed signs of Altitude sickness the father insited that she ride a horse to the top of the Thorong La. Stupid guy! I hope the girl is fine.

For those of you who do not know, Nepal is going thru a political turmoil that started in the earlier part of the decade when the entire royal family was killed, except of course for one prince, the current King. I won’t go into too much detail, but the events that unfold send the entire country to chaos. The King and Queen they loved were now dead, along with the rest of the victims. It is a full blown love story reminiscent to any of the plays by Shakespeare. The royal Prince had fallen in love with a girl the family didn’t approve off so in a loving rage he killed most of the royal family and himself. Lesson learned parents… do not cross the path of love as you can end up losing something more dearly to your heart. If only the Royal Family was more receptive of their son. If, that is something that to this date now one can remedy. We cannot change the past, not yet anyway. The years that followed saw a vacuum of power. The new King entered with conspiracy theories saying he had convinced his brother to do the killings, thus putting him in power. In the mean time, social hierarchies in Nepal had remained unchanged with a small upper class of Brahmins that still followed the old caste system that has since been abolished in India and the region. With no hope of rising beyond their current birthplace in society, a group of rebels created a guerilla movement and called themselves Maoists, which loosely follows the communist ideals. If only they had called themselves freedom fighters then things would have been different. They could have even learned from Fidel Castro who used the support from the US to fight Batista in 1959. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Instead, the US, Europe, and most of the world have sided with the Royal family on the issue to avoid another communist party taking over the region. I guess someone needs to tell the Maoist that the communist movement is long dead. Perhaps the biggest of all modern ironies is that even China condemns the Maoists rebels in Nepal!

Continued from my “First encounter with the Maoists rebels, part 1” tip… I’m not sure how I would have reacted with a gun on my face though as it happened to several trekkers. One thing is for sure, Nepal depends on tourism and consequently the Maoist depends on tourism. They are not stupid. Many of the Maoists have family members that own and ran guesthouses along the trek. Their movement is on a thin line as it is and so they cannot use any bad publicity. They will harm locals, but they know that if they harm/kill a tourist their movement is as good as dead. So you can rest assure that if you encounter them you won’t be harmed. Just smile, try to bargain the ransom down, and if you can’t pay it! A stubborn Israeli, whose wife and guide had gone ahead of him, ended up with a gun to his face as he refused to pay up saying his guide had already passed ahead of him. Needless to say, he ended up paying the 1,000 Nepalese Rupees they originally requested and was let go immediately after that. They will issue you a receipt that you can show to other Maoists so they don’t demand more money. Perhaps that is why we were let go. If they didn’t catch you at the start, surely they will catch you somewhere down the trek. As Garth Brook said though, that day never came. But let’s leave this matter for now as we will talk about it later.

Here is an excerpt from my journal from the day we met up to a group of maoist rebels in Chamje. We had a rough uphill climb at the start as we made our way to Chamje, where a Maoist (more on this movement on the next tip) tried to exhort money out of us. It was two rebels. They where waiting for us in one of the restaurants in the village. They wanted an exorbitant fee of 100 Nepalese Rupees per day trekking (that would have been 2,500 for each of us by our modest estimate)! Everything is negotiable in Asia so we tried to bargain down our ransom. After all, neither of them had a weapon on them (we were lucky as other travelers told us they did met rebels with weapons). We said we were willing to give them 200 Nepalese rupees each. They stare at us for a while with disbelief before refusing our offer. We waited patiently, telling them we were students with little funds. Next they handed us a brochure with information on their movement saying they really need the money. We were not going to pay them such a high ransom though. We up the offer to 300 Nepalese Rupees each. Once more then refuse the offer. Just before we were going to give them our final offer of 500 Nepalese Rupees, the chief came out and told us to continue on our way. They wouldn’t even take the 600 Nepalese Rupees we had offered between the two of us.

Mari and i went tricking at the latter stages of the rainy season so there were still plenty of leeches around. In the picture is one that noone could see because I was wearing by backpack. Out of sight out of mind. Un fortunately it destroyed my favorite shirt.

High Altitude Sickness is a realistic possibility when you are higher than 2500 m.

Symptoms are:
headache
feeling dizzy
heavy breathing
not feeling better after a rest
and some more

What can you do?
Get as much informations about high altitude Sickness as possible
Watch yourself in regard of symptoms
Drink a lot of water!!!

If you have high altitude sickness go down immideately!!!!!