By Bear Falugo
I took a bus from Jiri instead of flying to Lukla, because it's about $200 round trip to Lukla and back to Kathmandua, and I'm supposed to be trekking not flying to Sagumatha National Park! Even though it added a lot of extra walking and it's all straight up and straight down everyday pretty much till you hit Sagurmatha National Park, it was well worth it!
On the bus ride to Jir, I met "the almighty German" (Dirk) as I liked to call him. He was a conceited guy that was very rude to the locals, but somehow I got along with him. He trekked the whole Annapurna circuit in 7 days and it's a 21 day trek, so he's a good walker.
We ate lunch when the bus stopped for 15 minutes and then the same dinner at our guest house in Jiri. When I woke up, "Dirk almighty" was wrecked! He had been up all night running back and forth to the bathroom and could hardly talk. He decided to stay the day to recover and I gave him some re-hydration mix and some medicine to hold him over in case he needed a doctor. I offered to get him some real medicine from the pharmacy, but he said no thanks and I took off. I left by 7 am and arrived at Deurali Pass by 2:00 pm, I made good time, so I was just chillin in the Tea house for a few hours before I got hit by the same thing as Dirk Almighty. That was it for me. My room was on the second floor and the toilet (out house) was outside in the back of the Tea house - no good could come of that!
After running down stairs and sliding in the mud or hitting my head on the doorway of the toilet for a few hours straight, I decided I'd only wear my boxers, that would save me a few seconds and I would take that course of action for the good of the land, And so, I, in all my foolishness, entertained the local village of Deurali for the rest of the day, on through the night and all morning long - running up and down the stairs outside into the rain sliding everywhere, hitting my head on the doorway and smacking into the tiny walls of the well used toilet.
They were all nice to me and I'm sure they would have helped if they could, but they were definitely enjoying the whitey falling all over the place, running down the stairs (even though it was cold) in just boxer shorts! As my Uncle Joe used to say, "it's part of the game", but I thought it would be hard enough to trek to Everest Base Camp with out being that sick.
I was going to stay that day, but the way they looked at me in the morning made me feel slightly uncomfortable, so I hobbled on along the trail and left my marks all along the way. After the first day I only had trouble if I ate or drank anything, so I avoided that, which isn't good while you're trekking. I had one close call while I was climbing up an 800 meter section. I was tired and took a break near a waterfall, I filled up my water bottle (with a built in filter) and had no choice, but to drink! 5 minutes later I almost knocked down this nice old Lady that I had been trying to talk to.
I didn't see any toilets around and there was no time to ask, so I dove 10 feet off a terrace and landed in a corn field where I made a very large mess! Poor lady! I climbed out of there with my tail between my legs, strapped on my backpack and got the hell out of there! That old lady was watching me the whole time and what could I say? I was spreading toxic waste all over her beautiful corn field.
Luckily, after three days of this I saw Dirk Almighty. He had been diagnosed with Giardiasis, a type of dysentery and had enough medicine for me. I was nice to him. Trekking is much more enjoyable when you have energy and you can actually drink water and eat food.
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