Traveling with children: Ghoton Tabala, Gumba, Langtang Chese Factory.

Up Day 4:

My hands were so cold when I went to wash Lukey nappy this morning!. We have been in the habit of getting up and out early to maximize walking time but this morning we struggled to warm up. It takes a long time for the sun to get into this part of the valley. Tara learnt that it is easy to cool down but hard to warm up, we discovered icy puddles and a fully frozen nappy fresh from the wash :-)

We are above 3000m now so keeping warm and altitude sickness are on my mind The walking has flattened off so no more drop offs - yeah!!! We stopped for lunch and ate tasty mak curd and fresh mak milk ( a mak is a female yak). In the same guest house was a lady suffering from altitude sickness, throbbing headache, peeing frequently, thumping heart. She had ascended very quickly and her guide was pushing her to go on , dosing her up with diamox, which admittedly made her look a heap better.

So now I'm on the alert for altitude sickness symptoms, Boyd has had a couple headaches that have cleared with electrolyes, I had a solid headache yesterday that cleared after a rest and some fluids. Just before we got to our guest house at Gumba. A small voice on my back said " mummy I don't feel well".. In an instant all packs were down, Boobies out, blankets arranged. It didn't take long for Lukey to be rushing around throwing rocks again, but my nerves are beginning to become spent!

We are staying at the Langtang view Guesthouse owned by a lovely couple Porpo and Pashan. They work hard to bring in trade as most folks with fixed itinerary's are pushing on for their target: Langtang village. But Lukey wasn't feeling so flash and the tiny village Gumba is so appealing in comparison to the blocks of concrete I could see way off in Langtang. Porpo is so sweet with the children. Lukey and Tara have got into grove of checking out new guest houses and the first stop to check out is always the cook house. Invariably ama ( the mother of the house) is there tending a toasty fire to cook on and Lukey especially loves to hop onto the low bench in front of the fire to watch the action. Occasionally a morsal of chapati or a tiny sweet baked potato finds its way into their hand and they sit enjoying the fire and the smells of the kitchen nibbling on their scores.

No children. There are no children up in this part of the valley. Hoteliers make good money from the trekkers that come through. And like all parents they want the best for their children. Porpoos children are 6 and 8 and they go to school in Kathmandu, a days walk and 10 hour bus ride away. They come back for the holidays. There is a primary school in Langtang, an easy half hour walk. The farming families send there children there. We have only met guest house owners. We have seen no farming families yet.

Apparently 25 years ago this whole valley was a farming community. Its easy to see how hosting trekkers has eroded that lifestyle. Carving out a living, feeding yourself and your family up here would be marginal. Trekkers pay good money to stay here but when looking after visitors, and building a guest house there is no time to grow crops, tend to animals. And trekkers from Europe like beer and chips and macaroni cheese. So all the food for all the trekkers that visit arrives on donkeys or porters caried by foot up from Syprubesi. But ironic that trekking has destroyed the lifestyle that people came here to see.

Day 6.

Walked to Langtang. Found a cheese factory and bakery that funds the community hydro electric station and celebrated with toasted cheese sandwiches and apple pie. We cracked open a precious pomegranate from Katmandu and shared it with Dowa and her husband who then offered us some buckwheat pancake and chili flavored mak curd. A precious window into local food not found amongst the fried rice and momos in the guest house menus.

Climbed the hill to admire the view and the decommissioned hydro plant 8kw ( there is a new hydro station elsewhere in the valley 16kw). And discussed our next move..... Go higher to the glacier or head down. A tough decision as Tara and I were keen to see a glacier but going higher and getting colder and Talking Tara up the hills is getting less appealing. So with a large round of cheese in our pack we jumped back down the hill, Lukey tired of jumping so hard that he had to become an aeroplane and Tara discussing cheese making and how to make living out of carving fairy houses.... " do you think I should sell them for 100 dollers mum?"