limwhow
Senior Member
T R A V E L O G U E
Day 6: From Toktok to Bengkar...
The drop from Toktok village to the next village at Bengkar was another 140m descend. But though it appeared to be a general descend, the mountains never made life easy for us, for they made sure we would always do a steep ascend before we get a chance to bang our knees really stupidly painful while doing the descend.
I remembered this particular uphill climb very well. Because when I arrived at the foot of this steep ascend, I told myself:
Yah. As much as JohnnyLCP and Goose Goi were enjoying themselves flying all over the rocks, SereneXMM, myself and Judith, being the last few in the team, were enjoying ourselves torturing our thigh muscles. Looking closely at SereneXMM in the photo, one could make out how difficult it was for her trying to look for a rock as a stepping platform before hauling herself further up to another rocky platform.
Of course all these hardships don't apply to the fit members of the team, like acpical, who just happened to be accompanying us at the tail end of the team, so enjoy the nice leisurely stroll to him.
During one of the rest station, I remembered talking to vngks who reassuringly said:
As we neared the village of Bangkar, I remember seeing Dinosour intently shooting at a far-away location. I peered towards that direction and saw this interesting scene - a rock that resembled a sitting Buddha high up in the mountains. Well, I am very sure many of us remembered this scene, or have the shot in their memory cards. Quite a view, I must say...
At this point, we were close enough to see Bengkar, another small little village just across the valley, across Dudh Koshi the mainstream river way below, and over the gorge. It was one thing about being able to see a destination from afar, it was a totally different thing about walking to that destination over the mountain tracks. From what the guides told us, if you could see your destination village, it would mean that you could be at least a good one hour walk away from that point. Sigh...
Anyway, we were walking along a narrow track with the cliff to our left side... quite a steep drop there, when a group of porters came walking in good pace in the opposite direction. I think quite a few of us quickly made way for them by moving to the right side which was on the mountain side. We dare not risk a wrong step downwards... hahaha...
This is a Google Eye picture of that exact spot we were shooting the porters high up in the track. As we could see, across the Dudh Koshi River one could already began to see the small town of Bengkar not far in horizontal distance.
... and here, I would like to draw everyone's attention to that tiny little spot of human being right on the right upper quadrant of the photo. Who was that? It was Melvin. By the time I sighted him, he was already way off the steep downward slope of the cliff and seemingly deeply engrossed in most likely viewing Bengkar from that angle and giving him the shot of a lifetime! What a brave man he was!!!
Day 6: From Toktok to Bengkar...
The drop from Toktok village to the next village at Bengkar was another 140m descend. But though it appeared to be a general descend, the mountains never made life easy for us, for they made sure we would always do a steep ascend before we get a chance to bang our knees really stupidly painful while doing the descend.
I remembered this particular uphill climb very well. Because when I arrived at the foot of this steep ascend, I told myself:
"Wah lau eh... this is going to be another long, hard climb. Look at JohnnyLCP and Goose Goi who are right ahead of us - they are having a great time jumping from stone to stone and rock to rock..."
Yah. As much as JohnnyLCP and Goose Goi were enjoying themselves flying all over the rocks, SereneXMM, myself and Judith, being the last few in the team, were enjoying ourselves torturing our thigh muscles. Looking closely at SereneXMM in the photo, one could make out how difficult it was for her trying to look for a rock as a stepping platform before hauling herself further up to another rocky platform.
Of course all these hardships don't apply to the fit members of the team, like acpical, who just happened to be accompanying us at the tail end of the team, so enjoy the nice leisurely stroll to him.
During one of the rest station, I remembered talking to vngks who reassuringly said:
"It is really good to have two trekking poles because with these two both your arms can help push you strongly upwards and while you walk down, help cushion your impact. It makes trekking so much more easier."
Yah. Now I know. To anyone who is thinking of doing some trekking, either you buy an expensive trekking pole and transport that through all the trouble to Nepal, or buy a cheap S$5.40 (300 rupee) trekking pole in Kathmandu and bring it up. They are worth every rupee you spend!As we neared the village of Bangkar, I remember seeing Dinosour intently shooting at a far-away location. I peered towards that direction and saw this interesting scene - a rock that resembled a sitting Buddha high up in the mountains. Well, I am very sure many of us remembered this scene, or have the shot in their memory cards. Quite a view, I must say...
At this point, we were close enough to see Bengkar, another small little village just across the valley, across Dudh Koshi the mainstream river way below, and over the gorge. It was one thing about being able to see a destination from afar, it was a totally different thing about walking to that destination over the mountain tracks. From what the guides told us, if you could see your destination village, it would mean that you could be at least a good one hour walk away from that point. Sigh...
Anyway, we were walking along a narrow track with the cliff to our left side... quite a steep drop there, when a group of porters came walking in good pace in the opposite direction. I think quite a few of us quickly made way for them by moving to the right side which was on the mountain side. We dare not risk a wrong step downwards... hahaha...
This is a Google Eye picture of that exact spot we were shooting the porters high up in the track. As we could see, across the Dudh Koshi River one could already began to see the small town of Bengkar not far in horizontal distance.
... and here, I would like to draw everyone's attention to that tiny little spot of human being right on the right upper quadrant of the photo. Who was that? It was Melvin. By the time I sighted him, he was already way off the steep downward slope of the cliff and seemingly deeply engrossed in most likely viewing Bengkar from that angle and giving him the shot of a lifetime! What a brave man he was!!!
