Who Knows Where

Armchair. Conquistadors. Let me take you on a journey to, a land, shrouded. In, history. A land, of extremes, the. Highest, mountains. And the other, opposite, of that the, birthplace of Buddha. And your. Next. Most grama, ball pick. With. Me. That's. Me Monet. As a, white woman who likes to travel I'm incredibly. Unique and after. Traveling solo to almost 50 countries I'm ready to show you how it's done so. Join me on my trip who knows where. I, first. Came to Nepal in 2012. And something, just clicked, Nepal. Is the farthest, away where I feel the most at home this. Is my fifth time in the country and I've never been trekking so. On this trip we will be doing a nine-day trek up to Annapurna, base camp. Nepal. Is a relatively tiny country, sandwiched, between two, giants, India, and China when. We hear about Nepal in the Western media it probably. Means there's been an avalanche or an earthquake which, partly, explains, why when I told people I would be traveling there alone some of them were very concerned, but Nepal is a great place to visit as a solo, traveler which, is a bit ironic as, the country didn't even allow foreigners, until the 1950s, and even, then getting, a visa meant a personal, invitation from the king of Nepal. Nepal. Is probably, best known as being home to Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. But. It's also home to seven, more of the tallest mountains including. Annapurna. Whose, base camp me and my team of three crew members will be trekking to, we're. Starting our trip off and patan which, is its own city but is so close to the capital Kathmandu that it's almost like a suburb of it tomorrow, is an election in Nepal meaning, that all, stores, and, government. Offices will be closed, so we have just today to get everything that we need in order to leave tomorrow. So the fastest way to get around having to do is. But, if you have more than two people or I can't recruit. Said take, a taxi but the streets are super narrow and, you can see the walls are very closely. Our, first errand is to get trekking, permits for, this trip we need two per person one, for general trekking, and the other to enter the Annapurna Conservation. Area get. To the Tourism Board when it opens at 10 a.m. and it, should be pretty simple. Let's. Go now we're heading back to Patten to meet up with a Nepali trekking, guide to get some last-minute advice before, we set off for the mountains and here, we have Serena, with us you, do some pretty cool stuff Serena, Rai is the first Nepali woman to be a certified, ropes, access, technician, she's, a leader in the Kathmandu punk rock scene and she's, a single mom basically she's.

A Badass so, can you like talk about the punk scene and what it's like here it's. Pretty, mel dominated, i would say but. Still me. Being probably the oldest punk in town, it's. Quite funny, I guess that I happened, to be a woman okay. So do you have any advice for us we're about to set off and a pronoun sanctuary trek enjoy. Yourself. Of, course there's gonna be moments where you'll be pushing yourself to the limit but. Take it slow don't. Listen to your obsessive, egos too much and listen, to what's safe first awesome. Check your ego at the door. With. Serena's, sage words and my mind I wake up the next morning excited. To set off now. That we've gotten everything that we need in Katmandu I'm ready to go find myself on a Himalayan mountain, side so. We. Were supposed, to be taking one of these buses to Pokhara which is where we will start the trek but. Because of the election the roads have been shot to traffic for the day so the only way to make sure that we can get to the trailhead on time is to, rent a private car and drive through the night but we are in the car heading to program state. It seemed to be open now but we're stuck in some traffic we just started moving there's a lot of dust and, a beautiful sunset and we'll see how long it takes to get there it, took a long ass time because. The roads had been closed everyone, else who couldn't drive during the day was also driving through the night meaning. Most of the ride looked, a lot like this. But. We made it with, me looking only a little worse for wear and from. Pokhara it was just one Celine, Dion sing-along away to the trailhead at Fetty. Okay. We just arrived at the trailhead. The. Trek up to ABC, will take us to 13,000. 350. Feet above sea level the path is relatively, well marked, so a guide isn't, necessary, though, their expertise, can add a lot to the experience, we. Decided to go it alone carrying. Our own bags and planning our course from recommendations. We found online on day. One we hiked through terraced farmland, for four hours until we, reach the village of putana where we'll be spending the night we're.

Doing Tea house trekking, in Nepal which is where you trek from village to village staying, at tea houses along the route that where you can get a hot shower of food a bed, tomorrow. We have an eight-hour day to, get to Jenna Donna where there are hot springs. Well. Fog isn't really coming right now so, we'll give you a little tour of our. Teahouse, room it's pretty cozy and might get pretty chilly tonight good thing we brought sleeping bags. Dad. Welcome. To paradise. Okay. This is our room, pretty. Basic two bags and a light bulb and, then we'll show you our nighttime security, we. Close this. Data. And. Then coming out here. To. Look out at our forest. And. Then there's a shared bathroom on the floor. Pretty. Decent, once. You stop moving you get cold pretty quickly and since there's little to no heating available, you're gonna want to pack plenty, of layers and probably, wear them all to dinner which. Is what I was doing when it happened. Do. A tampon. Has. Aunt Flo ever showed up in inconvenient, locations. Join Monet in this next segment as she tries to find tampons, remote, areas of the world. We. Have found pads, people. I repeat. We. Have found pads, tampons. On tampon. China pad. Chai write article. Tipo. No, that's not Nepali, no China. One. Snickers, daddy, dunya but honey, tampons, when you can have chocolate thank God I got my period Fanny's. When. Women are menstruating they have several options including, tampons, pads or period panties yes, like, a diaper but, for blood. But. Not everyone has access to or, can afford these necessary. Items, meaning. That for many women all over the, world getting. Your period can hold you back from thriving, at school work. And in, the community. Okay. Back, to Nepal. Me. And my blood diaper we're making our way through the Himalayas. One. Of the awesome things about the ABC Trek is that it takes you through a lot of different landscapes so. On day 2 the, path leads through dense forest, greenery with these huge, waterfalls. That feed into the modi khola river, the bridges range from epic metal suspensions. To little more than rock and wood lashed together and the whole time we're walking up and down these narrow stone steps, on the side of a mountain sharing, the path with all kinds, of traffic those. Donkeys hey pushed us off the path which is very good and then farted all the way down as they passed us in the wake of this odiferous, flatulence. We. Arrived, in jinwu Donda and, immediately. Go to sleep, or, try. To that's. A Nepali. Fire whiskey, and. Rocking. Out happening, right outside our door now, I'd, say like this one.

Jinwu. Is best known for its hot springs, I used. The 20-minute walk downhill to, thank the period, gods for, blessing me with a light enough flow that morning to enjoy a moment, of steamy Zen. In each -, it is just. Just as no one. Let's. Do today. My. Hairy legs. Bring, some soap and make a shower out of it because, if you're anything like, me this, will be the only one you take on the track. After. Toweling. Off and loading up I hit, the trail refreshed, but. Trepidatious. Today. Is the day that. All ABC. Trekkers, fear, the. Day of the CIAM wrong steps. I'm. Taking a break on the longest, set of stairs I've ever climbed that. Mountain is, macho pooch RA which, is considered, sacred by. Nepali. So, no, hikers, no trekkers are allowed to summit it mo Chiu Bukhari means fishtail, because. It kind of looks like a fishtail okay. I should go everyone's, gonna worry that I fell off the mountain on, the third day of trekking your, body is tired. Things. Hurt, my, calves are talking, and. Now. You. Have to hike almost 2,000. Stairs to, reach the village of Chora no I stay. We, were warned about these steps, like. Nothing compared to actually going up them, I made. It barely, was. So painful. He's. Cheong wrong stairs. Like. That, was. So hard. But, at the end of, this excruciating. Day. There. Is something so, special waiting, for you at charm wrong cottage, in. 2010. An undercover, reporter for Time magazine ate, this Dedes chocolate, cake and voted. It Asia's, best and the. Fact that it takes over two days to get to it hasn't stopped thousands, of people from traveling to CIAM wrong just, to taste it, judy. Has invited us into her kitchen to see how she makes her amazing, famous, chocolate, cake let's go it's. My. One. Of the couple they told, me you are the very famous hours of the time, and. I said oh no it, still is July I don't, have idea we here, then. They. Told us they, come Nepal, in holiday. And. They look in blood they find the time magazine and my cake then, they decide we're going to go and upon them because of cake and time and say they, come here they, come through I think it was very much the same I. Never been in the, Mizzou or Everest, got my plan, go. Please, I, like. Mountain. Berry must have been ABC program. And. We go there pray I'm Buddhist we. Go pray with the month mm-hmm. Then do, / oh reading. And trend and back and. Also next. June I'm going to again with, Dee Dee's kitchen being situated, on the side of a Himalayan mountain, she's, had to get pretty resourceful using, non perishable, ingredients, like powdered milk custard, powder and even lemonade, mix for, that perfect hint, of citrus. So. We made this chocolate cake late last night so I fell asleep before it finished baking but, what's. Better than cake for breakfast. It. Was pretty freakin good. Especially. After a day of hiking when all you want is like the, sugar is. Fueled. By chocolate cake I set, off from trauma day, four takes us through dense forests, of bamboo and rhododendron. Which, you can catch in bloom if you go during springtime. Six. Hours later we arrive at the village of Himalaya, where, almost everything, goes wrong at once so. We've run into a little bit of a snag we just found out that there is a group, of, 200. People that's. 120. Malaysian. Hikers, plus, 20, 60, porters for, 64, ders who, are trying to set a Guinness world record for, the.

Most People to reach Annapurna, base camp and they, are booking up all of the tea houses up until, base. Camp there are two base camps you reach much of which are a base camp and then head up to Annapurna, base camp and they've booked up both of them there, might not be space for us oh we. Also ran, out of money. And, I'm, sure whoever's watching this right now it's. Shaking. Their head at two how we did that, so. On. Top of this my, producer. Here has also been working as my camera woman, has. Hurt her knee, pretty. Badly and, we. Aren't, sure she'll make it up to base camp, faced. With these obstacles, I take. Some time to think about our options. It's. Super. Early to. Erin. Who. We just met on the trail also. Bandaged, my blister because, she is a wilderness angel. After, hugging my producer, goodbye I set off as quickly as possible trying, to reach MBC, before, the group of Malaysians, so we might have a chance of getting a room of. Course at 10,000, feet with thin air and frigid, temperatures no, one is going anywhere fast and it wasn't long before we, ran into our competition, so. We're so nice and excited, about trying to break a world record since, that's really, cool and spoiler. They did it we. Have made it to mbc, we've dropped our packs and we. Are heading, up to, Annapurna, base camp that, beauty, up behind me we, are all feeling the altitude, just taking it slow and, now we just, have an hour to two hours until, we hit ABC, where, we'll get some tea and then head back down, to MBC. To spend the night also, this seems as good a time as any to talk about the fact that I haven't pooped in four, days I really, expect it to be doing a segment on trowel, diarrhea, and, we. Might have to do one. That's kind of about the opposite. This. Is the, final, push we are now hiking, in the annapurna, sanctuary which, is a glacial basin, surrounded, by a ring of mountains, most, of them over 23,000. Feet we've, been a. Trekking. For five days going pretty hard every, single day my. Calves kind of feel like they have knives in them let's. Sort of get like twisted. A little and. Every step we have to go up and there are a whole, lot of steps on this Trek, literally. Just one step, in front of the other at this point we had to push hard, today to make it to ABC gaining. Over 3,000. Feet in one day which puts us at risk for things to go wrong okay. We lost. One. Team member to. What. Seemed to be symptoms, of altitude sickness so, we best for her to just go down back to NBC. Make. Sure that she's feeling healthy for tomorrow which. Means that from, for we've been knocked down to two every. Breath feels like its own battle, by this point and I'm doing what I can to, keep my mind alert as my body just puts one foot in front of the other. Calves okay, sounds. Crazy, sounds like there's a helicopter in my head like duh. It's. Just blood Oh. Almost. There, actually. Almost. There, okay, these are literally, the last steps. Until. The top behind me which. Is really good news I. Made. It, okay. I'd like to take all the off. We. Are up, here at Annapurna, base camp. Drinking. Some hot masala. Tea which, is sweet. And spicy and really hitting the spot with. This in single. Oh my gosh look there's like an avalanche. Look. At that. Okay. Take two on that did. You say I'm like pretty surprised, at how the altitude, affected, me I was. Moving very, slowly. I'm, gonna have some veg noodle, soup and, just enjoy the view for a bit. And. So. We made it. 13350. Feets at, the base of the annapurna, range, I eat, bye noodle soup and watched the fog roll in and. Now all we have to do is go, all, the, way back, down luckily. It's easier to lose altitude than, gain but. I'm not gonna lie this, is gonna hurt, I only. Picked one outfit, because I, wanted to save room for camera, equipment, so. I'm now on day 6 of, wearing the same clothes I smelled, pretty bad yeah. We. Are all very, happy to use our injured producer, as an excuse to get to a shower as soon as possible, okay, we have booked it down the mountain we're, gonna hop in a jeep now and go back to Pokhara and we will have done a nine-day, Trek in seven days woof, everything. Hurts and. There, you have it from chocolate cake to mountain peaks and back again, there's a lot of good stuff to see in our world check. It out there. But. Before you leave, we've got fan, mail. Over. The past 10 minutes we have been inundated with, fan, mail asking.

Us Your most pressing questions, some. Of which were frankly, inappropriate. My, producer, just handed, me three questions picked at random written. Down on a plane ticket Kenny, from Alabama, wants to know how. Many freaking Snickers did you eat on this trip I have, been finding Snickers, wrappers, in very, unusual places. Let me just put it that way Sally, from, London, says you. Go girl thanks, Sally Judy, and Jeremy from South Africa want to know where. Are you going in the next episode. Great question, Judy and Jeremy, subscribe. To find out if, you would like your question, to be answered on our show email. Us at we're still working on the title for this travel series feature you know female, host at aol.com, it's. Been a pleasure spending time with you see you next time who knows where do, you wanna watch the sunrise with me, let's. Go out and see what we can see we. Can guard and get lost. Try, to find our home.

2018-03-26 16:34

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