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| Nani's Teahouse in Tolka, Nepal |
My friend and fellow
children’s book author Caroline Hatton went trekking in the Annapurna region of
the Nepal Himalaya in November 2018. She took all but one of the photos in this
post. For info about her books, visit www.carolinehattonauthor.com.
For the
grand finale of a spectacular hiking trek in the Annapurna region of the
Himalaya, our Nepali guide, Gyanendra, gave our group the option of staying at
a small teahouse instead of a big tourist lodge. My husband and I and the other
couple in our group all jumped at the chance.
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Our guide,
Gyanendra
(Selfie
courtesy of Gyanendra)
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When we
arrived at the teahouse in Tolka, the hostess, Nani, welcomed us warmly. Our
duffle bag was already in our room. It contained our night stuff (sleeping
bags, towels, toiletries…). Our porter, Vishnu, carried it on his back all day
every day, then delivered it to our room every afternoon.
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| Our hostess,
Nani |
We dropped
our two daypacks in our room. These contained
what we needed hiking all day: water, snacks, sunscreen, jacket,
first-aid kit… same as when day hiking at home in California. We never carried
lunch food, because every day, we ate lunch at a restaurant on the way.
Everything
at Nani’s teahouse was basic but impeccably clean: rooms, beds, one shared
toilet, and one shared shower. The shower water temperature was exquisitely hot
at 42o C (~108 o F).
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| Room for two |
“Would you
like to see Nani’s goats and buffalo?” Gyanendra asked, bravely—he knew, after guiding
our group for a week, that I love animals and can make him wait forever while I
take photos. Two of us followed him up steep stone steps to visit terraced
fields where Nani grows different crops (spinach, millet, chilies…). Above the
chicken coop level, steps carved in the brown soil led up a slope that felt
nearly vertical.
I’ll never be able to go
down this, I thought. But I didn’t say a word because I really wanted to
see the animals.
I made it to
the shelter where a baby goat and mama goat were busy sharing a meal of fresh
greens with a buffalo. I took tons of photos. I would have taken more, but the
buffalo kept giving me concerned stares, so I backed away, afraid I’d give it
indigestion.
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| Nani’s goat
and buffalo shelter |
The sun was
going down. It was time for me to go down too. But how? Slide down on my
bottom? Instead, I turned to face the slope and climbed down, as if on a
ladder. On the way, Gyanendra picked tree tomatoes and different chilies for
dinner.
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| Front to
back: tree tomatoes, balsam apples, chilies, egg |
In the cozy
kitchen, lit only by the wood fire under the wok and one electric light, Nani offered
to teach us how to make
momos, the popular, quintessential Himalayan dumplings.
Filled with seasoned, minced vegetables or ground meat, they are steamed or
deep fried, then served with chutney. One member of our group was thrilled to sink
her hands in wheat flour and water to knead dough and roll it out to make momo
wrappers. She minced vegetables for the stuffing and made momos, some balls,
some crescents.
Gyanendra
cut up buffalo meat and used a stone to grind seasonings for his secret curry
recipe. As for me, my favorite part of cooking is inventing excuses to avoid
doing it, such as the need to take photos. The two husbands peeked in from the
open doorway.
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| Gyanendra
cuts buffalo meat. Nani cooks vegetables. |
Before
dinner, Nani put away her goats to protect them from potential attacks by a tiger
(
bagh in Nepali) or leopard (
chituwa in Nepali). Tolka is within the range of both
wild cats, although it would be rare for either one show up. It would be more
likely at night when there is no human activity.
When dinner
was ready, the four of us guests were invited to sit at the kitchen table. The
steamed vegetable momos had the finest stuffing of all those I’ve ever tried
between Los Angeles and Kathmandu—tasty, rich with mixed, balanced flavors. And
darn, now I’ll never know Nani’s recipe, since I was too lazy to help make
dinner. The buffalo stew was delicious with rice, but too spicy for two of us
with timid stomachs. Our two hardworking porters gladly helped eat it all up.
Up at 6
o’clock the next morning, we found Nani working quietly in the kitchen. “Go see
the mountain,” she said, pointing up the trail, back the way we had arrived the
day before. Two minutes away, from the top of the slope, where I’d seen nothing
but clouds the day before, rose a snowcap gleaming in the rising sun: Annapurna
South.
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| Sunrise on Annapurna
South as seen from Tolka, Nepal |
For breakfast,
we sat at the outdoor table, facing the trail and the hills beyond. Our porters
brought coffee, tea, eggs to order, big fluffy pancakes made by Gyanendra, jam,
and honey.
I asked Gyanendra whether Nani grows enough vegetables for her needs.
He said yes, and much more to sell. He and the porters bought from her, at
prices lower than at home, soy beans, kidney beans, tree tomatoes, dried
chilies, and buffalo ghee. They had ample room to carry extra weight back home,
because all of us guests had minimized our overnight duffles. Each couple was allowed
two duffles weighing a maximum total of 22 kilos (~ 48 pounds), but we had only
one 10-kilo duffle for two.
At Nani’s teahouse, we found the differences with larger lodges to be
fewer rooms, so our group had the whole place to ourselves. We saw how a local person
lives, grows food, and cares for her animals. She welcomed us into her kitchen
for a hands-on experience. But everyone ate the same starter and main dish for
dinner that night, not like at bigger lodges where we could each order from a
menu of a dozen starters and two dozen main dishes.
We are glad we chose Adventure Treks Nepal, from the list recommended by
Lonely Planet, to organize our trip. It included only the guests of our choice,
one guide, and one porter/couple of guests. Before the trip, manager Gyan Karki
always answered e-mails within minutes. During the trip, everything went
smoothly. We had a Plan A, but the itinerary was adjustable day by day, with
Gyanendra contacting all the lodging places by phone in advance of our arrival.
After coming home two months ago, I still wake up
every day eager to relive my adventures, reread my trip notes, review my
photos, and share the experience of a lifetime.
For more
info
Visiting
Nepal: the essential
All text and photos copyright Caroline Arnold
