The Five Day Trek to Poon Hill

I am back from an exhilarating, exhausting five day trek to Poon Hill. It will be difficult to describe the five days and do it justice. I took a lot of pictures, but I was trying to keep up with two tall 25 year olds, so I missed out on a lot of photo opps.

Day 1

Our trek started with a windy 1 ½ hour ride from Pokhara to the start point of our trek. First let me say that I was definitely not the only trekker there. Tourists flock into Nepal to trek and this particular trek is one of the most popular. Our team consisted of Geta, our guide, three girl porters , who carried our luggage, and two other trekkers: Jeannine, a young Swiss girl, and Florentine, a young girl from Holland. Thank goodness that the porters were young and new because they were keeping my pace, rather than trying to keep up with the young trekkers.

We had to go through two checkpoints before starting out for our four hour walk on the first day. Although there were some difficult up hills, it was a relatively easy day; although I did not know this because I had nothing to compare it against until day 2. Most of the time we were walking from one rural village to another in some beautiful farmland.

That evening our tea house was perched on the side of the mountain with breathtaking views. We had a lot of people from the other tea houses come up just to have a drink and take in the farmlands and villages and mountains. The tea house had hot showers; I learned how much I appreciated that when I arrived at the other tea houses with only cold showers. Our food was either rice or noodles every night; so we always rotated. No one attempted any type of meat.

The bathrooms were always outside. Most of the time the toilets were the ones you stand over a hole and I try and aim for that small hole. I don’t think I ever totally made the hole. This night I had to try and hold my torch and go the bathroom. When I was done and trying to get my pants back on without touching the floor, my torch slipped from my hand and was in the hole; wouldn’t you know that would make the hole!! Now this is really gross. I had to get my torch back by picking it up out of the hole. I never told my fellow trekkers; I was too embarrassed and grossed out. From then on I figured a way to keep the torch in my hand.

The routine every day was: up to breakfast (except the day to Pooh Hill), tea break at 10:30am at one of the tea houses along the way, lunch at one of the tea houses, arrive at the overnight tea house, tea and cookies at 4pm, and dinner at 6:30pm. Some days I was watching the clock to get a break… especially day 2 and 3.

Day 2

I was told that we would be climbing 3200 steps on this day… they forgot to mention the other 4000 steps afterwards. The excuse was that no one had counted them… I think they just were afraid to tell me. Yes, I was a whiner.

The steps are not your standard steps. Many times I had to use my walking stick to pull me up they were so high. My calves and thighs were calling to me… As we moved up in altitude it was even harder to breath and I had to stop every 10 minutes to catch my breath. It was at this point I was wondering why I was doing this. Was I nuts!! I was not in shape for this type of climb (I hadn’t been to boot camp in over 2 months).

Once we completed the 3200 steps I felt I had really accomplished something; thank goodness it was lunch time. So I was very specific in asking Geta again, if we had any more steps after lunch. She said we had one more set and then down, down, down. Well, that was not the truth… her comment later was” she was sparing me”.

After lunch we had to walk up another 2000 steps (no one counted these steps, but I am confident in my number). Again I felt exhilarated that I had made it to find out we had another 2000 steps.

You are going to ask how I liked the scenery… Who looked!! I was so focused on getting up the steps I didn’t have time to look. It was a grueling experience. You can imagine how wonderful it was to reach our tea house that evening and we were very excited because the sign said chocolate cake (unfortunately there was no chocolate cake. We had to wait until we reached the German Bakery on Day 4 to get our cake.. it kept us going).

All three of us sat like zombies that evening and didn’t even talk, while we drank our tea. We bought some cards and I taught them crazy eights. I could barely keep my eyes open waiting for dinner at 6:30pm. After dinner I left the table and never returned… I was exhausted and slept over 10 hours.

Day 3 Elevation 3200

It was up at 4:45AM to start out at 5am with all the other trekkers to reach Poon Hill at sunrise. There was a line of trekkers with their torches (flashlights) in a line heading up the hill. Yes, it is a trekker must and no one wanted to miss it. The problem came when we are in a line like cattle moving up and one cow couldn’t make it and had to stop.. I was the cow… For some reason I was really light headed and kept on having to stop. Of course all the porters stopped with me to make sure I was ok… I tried not to have a traffic jam on Poon Hill.

When I finally made it I had a huge cup of tea with sugar and was revived. I was rewarded with a spectacular clear day at sunrise. You are always at risk that it is a cloudy day and your efforts to climb the hill are for not. We could see the Annapurna range and the Holy Mountain. The sunrise was beautiful. I took a video (see below) of the mountain range.

Back at the tea house for breakfast and another day of STEPS… who makes these steps?? We climbed up and down and up again… I am not sure the steps down are any easier because sometimes I had to crawl down them they were so high. Again, my tall young fellow trekkers had no problems.

We ended up at 2900 elevation and reached the tea house shortly after the rain started. Just so you know that no one stops, if it rains. The steps are very slippery and everyone had their backpack rain covers and a rain jacket. If the donkeys could do it, we can do it.

I was definitely sweating all day, but the thought of an outside cold shower in the cold rain was not appealing. It was very cold. The restaurant consisted of a very long table with a fire burning under it. It really kept your feet warm. We just had to yell at everyone going out and in to shut the door.

There was some partying at the tea house with a World Expeditions group… they had a short ½ day and were drinking through the afternoon. I would have loved to see them the next morning for their 6 hour trek.

I purposely did not drink anything, even water, because I did not want to go outside to go the bathroom in the middle of the night; it was very cold at this elevation. I was rewarded that evening with a spectacular view of Holy Mountain. It was probably the highlight of the trip; even compared to Poon Hill. It was so spectacular; I just wished I had a better camera.

I felt I was getting a little stronger because I didn’t go to bed until after 7pm that evening. One of the families on the road taught us a new card game and we played until the lights went out. From then on, when we had a moment, the cards came out for a game. I can’t wait to teach the ladies in Erie.

Day 4

It was a half day trek today and we were lucky because it poured all day. Most of the trek was in the beautiful forest with lovely waterfalls. We were trying to find the large monkeys. Of course, the Nepali girls never stopped laughing and talking, so the monkeys definitely knew we were coming. I didn’t get to see a monkey!!

We spent the afternoon at the tea house playing cards and touring the village. Again no hot water and I was really starting to smell. We finally had reached the village with the German Bakery for our cake. So we brought our cards and went down the restaurant and we were ready to eat delicious rich chocolate cake.. my imagination was going wild. Well, it was a GERMAN chocolate.. I think they forgot to put in the chocolate or any liquids. It was so dry and terrible.

We actually stayed up until 9pm, can you believe it, playing cards. Our room had three small beds that were almost touching each other, no blankets, and no real light. We never understood how every other room was larger and with blankets… we didn’t even bother to ask. We slept in layers in our sleeping bags.

Day 5

Our last day and I had to catch a flight back to Kathmandu so everyone had to get up early and start our walk through the forest and along the river and ALL downhill. It was a beautiful walk. We passed many rural villages and waterfalls. The farmland was breathtaking. I even stopped to take pictures.

Many times we had to stop and move over to let the mules and donkeys pass as they carried supplies up the hill. It really upset me when the boys would whip the donkey even if he/she was already moving. I would tell the boys to stop hitting them; unfortunately they did not speak English.

We reached our destination in record time. It should have taken 5 hours and we made it in 4…wow am I amazing or what!! Although all downhill, it was so slippery and Florentine fell twice and I fell once. It was as difficult on the thighs and knees downhill as uphill, but at least I could breath.

We arrived in plenty of time to catch my plane, although I almost missed it because I did not hear them call and it left a ½ hour early. I was so tired that I went to bed very early. It was so nice to have a warm bed and a hot shower. I even dyed my hair so I was ready for work tomorrow. This has been an experience of a lifetime. I can’t believe I am saying this, but I am already planning my next trek.

Namaste