Number One in Nepal
Anyone who knows me knows how little numbers mean to me — the number of followers I have, the number of likes I get on social media, or even the number of stamps in my passport. However, I would be lying if I said the number one didn’t mean something to me during my trek to Annapurna Base Camp. At the beginning of our hike, our lead guide from Discovery World Trekking assigned each of us in our group a number. That number would be what they called when ordering and serving our food throughout the entire trek. Out of the twenty-two hungry hikers in our group — I was number one.
We ended each night with our breakfast order for the next morning, and we started each day with our lunch order before continuing the hike. While eating lunch, we put in our order for dinner. After hearing our numbers called multiple times a day for our food, it was no surprise that they became our nicknames and an inside joke with the guides. There was a point where I even believed my porter may have forgotten my name throughout our journey to base camp and just started identifying me as number one. Annapurna Mountain is named after the goddess of food and nourishment, “Anna” meaning food, and “purna” meaning full or complete, and I couldn’t think of a better nickname than one derived from ordering food.
When we arrived at base camp, you couldn’t see a thing. The clouds covered almost the entire view of Annapurna I, Khangsar Kang, Gangapurna, Annapurna III, and Machhapuchhare Mountain. That didn’t hinder us from celebrating our accomplishment of finally making it to base camp. We yelled, high-fived, and danced with each other below a sign that said, “Namaste Annapurna Base Camp (A.B.C. 4130 m)”. Our dancing subsided when our legs reminded us how tired they were after four days of hiking. We headed into the tea house to change out of our sweaty clothes and anxiously wait for the clouds to clear. In the tea house, I couldn’t focus on anyone’s conversation. My eyes kept darting towards the window so I didn’t miss the moment the mountains decided to show. A group of us distracted ourselves with a Nepalese card game called Dhumbal. The strategy is to get the lowest number of points, and I didn’t win once. I was surprised that I was able to focus enough to play the game in the first place.
My eyes widened when I caught a glimpse out of the window. The mountains are out! I dashed outside with my camera as the clouds started to break apart like gates opening to heaven. I spun in a circle while trying to take in the view. I was surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in the entire world, and I tried to take as many photos as I could before the clouds closed up again. It was fleeting, yet peaceful — fleeting because I knew this view wouldn’t last forever, and peaceful because in that moment the view was the only thing that mattered. I saw the others from my group slowly head back into the tea house as they watched the clouds begin to cover the mountains again. There was only one thing left to do after seeing Annapurna, and that was eat.
“Number one!” My porter yelled as he gingerly placed my dinner in front of me. I lit up with excitement and couldn’t wait to dig in. I smiled in between each bite. In that moment the only thing fuller than my stomach was my heart. I know I said before that I never really cared too much about numbers, but that was before I hiked to 13,5550 ft. with 22 incredible people. That was before I saw the 10th highest mountain in the world standing at 26,545 ft.
That was before I was number one.
Lava Led Me Here
I have rewritten this several times. Sometimes it’s hard for me to put into words what my travels and experiences do for me. But all I ever keep coming back to is how they make me feel. For me, the essence of travel isn’t to move from place to place, or tick sights off a list — it’s to feel.
And in Iceland I felt alive again.
An Icelandic reporter was sharing the news on the radio about the new volcanic eruption, and how approximately 5,000 people have visited the eruption in just one day. At least that’s what Petur told me as he translated the news for me while he drove us to see it for ourselves.
Petur, a native to Iceland and now friend to me, shared half of his chocolate licorice before we began the hike to watch new earth form before our eyes.
I remember looking back to see the view after pushing through the steeper part of the hike and seeing all of the other people on the trail following behind us. No matter where we were from, what we looked like, or what language we spoke, we all had one thing in common. We were damn excited to see a newly active volcano.
We all hiked 14 km through rugged terrain to get there. Part of the hike there was no trail, just markers the rescue team placed like bread crumbs to follow to the volcano. Then eventually we started to see faint red smoke off in the distance, and I started to get butterflies in my stomach. As we got closer we finally saw all of it in its glory, and I couldn’t, and still can’t believe what I saw. I stopped in my tracks, and was overwhelmed with emotion. Tears began to well up, and I started to feel the purest form of joy I had ever felt.
But it wasn’t just from seeing the volcano. Watching others experiencing it was just as good, if not better. Gasps, cursing, cheers, and tears surrounded me while watching new earth being formed. At one point I looked over and saw a family celebrating a birthday. Seeing them try to light the candles on the cake in the wind, and singing happy birthday while overlooking the volcano was special to watch. Humans just being humans. And to think I almost didn’t go. To think I almost missed the feeling of all of this.
I hope by sharing my experiences to the public I might inspire someone to go out and find that themselves. I hope you find wander, you learn, you discover, and more importantly I hope that you feel.
