They met on Valentine's Day while hiking in the Himalayas
It was Valentine's Day 1996 when Lee Green walked into a mountain lodge in Nepal, surrounded by the snowcapped Himalayas, and encountered Mandy Halse for the first time.
Green
and Halse were thousands of miles from their respective homes in
England and New Zealand. Both were backpackers in their twenties
determined to see as much of the world as they could. They'd found
themselves in Nepal by a series of coincidences.
When Green entered the Nepalese teahouse, the stage was set for a memorable meet-cute.
Except on February 14, there were no sparks between the two travelers.
Two weeks later it was a different story, one that's still ongoing 26 years later.
A meeting in Ghorepani
Here's Mandy Halse in Nepal on the morning of February 14, 1996.
Kirsty Bloom
For
Halse, Nepal was a spontaneous layover en route from Auckland to the
UK, where she was set to visit an old friend. She'd been exploring
Thailand and Malaysia, and a travel agent had recommended breaking up
the journey with a stint in Nepal.
After
learning of Nepal's trekking routes, she met a British woman, Kirsty,
while in line for a permit to hike the Annapurna Circuit. The two
decided to join forces to tackle the trail, which winds through Nepal's
central mountains, taking in picturesque villages and incredible views
along the way.
Halse,
who'd had no idea what to expect, was awestruck by the spectacular
landscape, particularly when she and fellow hikers arrived in the
village of Ghorepani, where they set up camp in a "teahouse" mountain
lodge.
"It was the most beautiful setting," Halse tells CNN Travel today.
She was sitting in the lodge's common area with her new friend Kirsty and other backpackers when Lee Green walked in.
Green,
a mailman from the English town of Coventry, was traveling Nepal on a
career break with colleague and good friend Murray. The two men had
originally intended to use their sabbatical to embark on a cycle ride
from the UK to India, but had abandoned the plan after just 200 miles,
realizing navigating northern Europe in winter on bike was going to take
too long.
Instead, they'd ended up flying to India, trekking through the northern part of the country, before making their way to Nepal.
The
two friends arrived at the city of Pokhara, and set off on the
Annapurna trek. Like Halse, they'd befriended other travelers en route.
Green
(second from left) and Halse (third from right) embarked on Nepal's
Annapurna circuit with a group of other backpackers they'd met along the
way.
Kirsty Bloom
"There's
one path that links village to village to village, so most people that
go trekking tend to overlap each other, meet up with each other at the
tea houses, along the path," Green tells CNN Travel today.
When
Green's group entered the teahouse, they were warmly greeted by Halse
and the other travelers. The backpackers ended up chatting through the
night, playing cards by candlelight.
"It was really nice, it was really chilled," says Halse. "The teahouse was gorgeous."
The travelers spent a couple of days there, before continuing as a group onto the next leg of the trek.
Halse
and Green were friendly to one another on their first few days hiking,
but they didn't have much opportunity to chat one on one.
"We
didn't talk much in the beginning as we were both very quiet, and we
walked in different parts of the group: me in the middle with Murray,
and Lee at the back with Kirsty," says Halse.
A growing connection
The backpackers were trekking through spectacular landscapes. Here's the group near Muktinath Valley in February 1996.
Kirsty Bloom
When
the travelers reached the Annapurna circuit's 5,400-meter-high Thorung
La mountain pass, they found their way blocked by heavy snow, forcing
them to turn back.
Some
of the group decided to give up at that point, making their way back,
via plane, to the trail's gateway town of Pokhara. Halse and Green,
along with their friends Murray and Kirsty, decided to make the full
return trek by foot, just the four of them.
So began another two weeks of walking -- and it was in this period that Halse and Green started to grow closer.
"We'd become quite good friends, and as we're walking along I started feeling the vibe, the tingles," says Halse.
When
the group arrived in Tatopani, just up the trail from their original
meeting place in Ghorepani, the town's balmier climate and beautiful hot
springs were a welcome change to the snows they'd just emerged from.
"There's
oranges and lemons growing everywhere, citrus fruits growing, it's like
a little Garden of Eden. It's a great place to relax and chill after
the hard trekking," says Green.
Halse and Green grew closer as the trek continued.
Kirsty Bloom
Lounging
at the hot springs over the next few days, Green and Halse grew closer
still. They recall braiding one another's long hair and talking about
previous adventures, their lives back home and travel goals.
"We soon realized we were very similar," says Halse.
"We
both wanted to travel, we were prepared to work hard and save money,
and to achieve our travel goals, which is what we both wanted to do,"
adds Green. "We realized it would be quite nice to do it together."
They shared their first kiss on February 29, 1996, a leap year. From that day onwards, they were inseparable.
But
while they were swept up in their new romance, the two remained keenly
aware that travel flings don't always last, so Green and Halse focused
on enjoying the moment. They decided, along with Kirsty and Murray, to
extend their time in Nepal and embark on a trek to Everest.
The
only issue was Halse had somehow lost her passport. Before continuing
any further, she had to head to Kathmandu to get new papers.
So the pair said goodbye to one another, hoping it would just be a short separation, as Green and Murray went on ahead.
A
couple of days in, it looked like Halse's passport would be arriving
sooner rather than later. With no internet or cellphones to convey the
news, Halse scribbled a hand-written note updating Green, letting him
know she'd be hot on his heels before long.
Note
in hand, Halse hopped onto the bus that was heading to the Everest
trail, and asked if anyone heading that way would look out for the two
men and pass on the message. She included a description of Green and
Murray on the back of the note.
Here's one of the notes Halse passed along the trail for Green.
Lee & Mandy/Frugal Travellers
She
did the same thing the following day, and the day after that -- and
then before long, Halse had her new passport and she and Kirsty were en
route to Namche Bazaar, the gateway to Everest, hoping to catch up with
the two mailmen.
The notes successfully made their way up the trail to Green and Murray.
"As
we got closer and closer to Namche Bazaar, all of a sudden people
started walking up to us on the trail with these notes, and they were
like, "Oh we've got a note for you guys," -- you know, in the middle of
the mountains in Nepal," recalls Green. "We open the note and it's from
Mandy."
The two men couldn't believe it.
"More and more people started giving us these notes," says Green. "So we wrote some notes back."
They
passed these replies to trekkers walking the opposite way, describing
Halse and Kirsty, and hoping the notes would make it to the two women
successfully.
Here's Halse and Green on the trek to Everest Base Camp.
Lee & Mandy/Frugal Travellers
Meanwhile,
Halse and Kirsty were walking as fast as they could to catch up -- so
much so, they ended up overtaking Green and Murray.
Eventually,
the group were reunited in the small village of Jorsale, between the
entrance to the Sagarmatha National Park and Namche Bazaar.
From
there, they headed to the 5,357-meter Gokyo Ri peak, because Kirsty had
read that the view of Everest was more impressive and that the trail
didn't have as many trekkers. It turned out to be a highlight of the
trip.
"We
were walking on a frozen lake, which if I'd thought about it, I think I
would have been scared, but the snow was up to our thighs," says Green.
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