Chitre (2390m): Day 2... Italians and an early return

Now, having said that everyone here is great… there’s always an exception.

Just one exception to the rule.

An Italian couple that arrived late yesterday. Glad they only stayed the one night and were off on the trail early the next day… Thank fk… I don’t know if my rage could’ve stayed in check much longer.

Fair enough, I didn’t speak to them downstairs, because, well… I was already talking… and they didn’t seem friendly by the sounds of the ordering methods. Once we hit the sack, that’s when the fun started… “smooch, smooch… waffle waffle waffle… smooch”.

Sure, let them have their fun… get it over with and get to sleep. The walls are paper-thin, as you probably know… so we could hear their every move. Only, nothing was happening… Just sloppy kissing and constant chatter. Finally, after a good half hour I requested kindly for them to shut up.

No response.

A light tap of the wall, with more requests.

Ignorance.

At the end of my tether… Anglo-Italian Expletives *insert your preferred words here*.

Finally, silenzio.

With the show halted in it’s tracks, I didn’t have a good sleep. We had an interest wander around after waking up though… Said Italian man seems to lack decency as he was willing to urinate with passion and the toilet door wide open… Cascading happily into the awaiting water.

Luscious indoor plumbing in the Annapurna, and this man makes a mockery. Grr.

Anyway, more of the same today. Relaxation under Dhaulagiri… Ahhh.

Got to know Marieke a little more. She wants to work at a donkey farm in France for a while when she gets back to Bruges… Have to admit, that’s probably the first time you’ve heard that… It’s the first I’d heard about donkey farming desires from anyone.

Also helped out around the lodge with a little tidying, and got to know the family a little through a mixture of not much English and not much Nepali.

Really, aside from chatting away, we didn’t have much option but to relax… We lent Sittaram and Anil our playing cards on arrival and we’ve barely seen these guys since. Nepalese are so obsessed with cards… Every night at camp we’ve played cards with Ang, Sittaram, Subas… and even Prasuram; who is Sittaram’s older brother, and the cook-on-tour.

Great fun though… Many happy memories from the cards… when we had them :D

I went for a stroll around Chitre to see the heavily dressed-up donkeys, nearby school and other stuff during the afternoon, leaving T to rest her back a bit more, and there was a surprise awaiting me… Our camp had returned.

Apparently the weather was so bad – as predicted – further up the trail that they had had to come back down a day earlier than expected. So… tonight it’s back in the tent on frozen ground…