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See Annapurna Pictures
See Kathmandu Pictures
As Chelly told Hunter upon her return from world travels almost 2 years ago, "Colorado isn't God's country, Nepal is". Well, we have to agree with her. Of course Colorado is a close second and the Mexican food is a lot better.
34 days in Nepal
It was a dark and stormy morning and Hunter awoke with 103 degree fever and diarrhea. He didn't feel much like walking to the bathroom, much less going on a 9-hour local bus ride to the start of the trek. We spent the first 3 days of the trek in Kathmandu while he recovered from Bacterial Dysentery (A cooler name than just traveler's diarrhea).
We decided to do the Annapurna Circuit and Annapurna Sanctuary hikes in 35 days, which would give us 7 extra days to play with over the recommended 28 days. The Annapurna Circuit trek basically takes you over 200 miles in the Annapurna region via the trails which connect the many villages. The Annapurna Circuit is not a wilderness experience in the sense of trails back home which take you to the boonies, but you are using the main trails between villages and thus you can always expect to run into a few people or many depending upon where you are. Of course the scenery is outrageous almost wherever you are. The Annapurna Sanctuary takes you up many miles (unknown) into a Sanctuary, i.e. National Forest-like area which only has villages composed of hotels for trekkers, so it has a different feel.
We got a porter and guide. The porter for obvious reasons and the guide so we could get more cultural interaction while on the trail; both turned out to be great guys.
So the journey began on the 4th day. After a 9-hour local bus ride, which included 3 hours of offroading by our standards, we began the Annapurna circuit at a small town called Besisahar (2690 ft). Besisahar is a small farming community and is the last town on the "road". It would be another 30 days before we saw a vehicle again.
We started off down the trail, which is much like the Grand Canyon trail- fairly well maintained and lots of mule dung sprinkled about. Kaji, our guide, got a bamboo stick and crafted a nice walking stick for Mindy. We passed many terraces which were planted with wheat and corn at this time of year.
During a typical day we would get up at 6, eat a breakfast of porridge or muesli or pancake, or Tibetan fried bread and then we would be off at 7:30 to get in the views before it clouded up in the afternoon. We would hike for a couple of hours and then stop at a teahouse and get either a milk tea or Hot Lemon. We would then go onward stopping wherever we wanted to for breaks or to check out the sights- monkeys, waterfalls, outrageous mountain peaks, leeches, etc. Lunchtime would arrive and we'd stop at a hotel and have lunch, which consisted of Dal Bhaat, or fried rice or macaroni. We'd cruise further down the trail to usually 2-4 PM and then get a hotel and wait till dinner. Dinner consisted of the same items as lunch. Usually because there was no electricity and we were always tired from the trekking, we would retire to our room at around 8or 9pm and be lulled to sleep by the roaring rivers. That's pretty much the way it was day in and day out. Not a bad life.
The trail changed daily between terraced fields, bamboo forests, waterfalls, a huge granite face, pine trees like back home, barren plains, shrubs, high alpine, Utah or AZ-like desert, stony riverbeds, fruit orchards, windy valleys, snow-covered paths and peaks, etc.
It took awhile to get used to the concept that everything was carried in by mule or human. It was amazing what some of the porters carried and what the local villagers carried just outside the villages. One day we passed by these porters who were each carrying 3 - 8"x10"x12' wooden beams. The weight alone was impressive, but the way they had to maneuver the beams through the obstacles of the trail and villages was even more impressive. We asked our porter Sarma if he could carry those beams, he replied that he could carry 4 beams! So we asked Sarma what was the most weight he had ever carried. He said he had carried 250 lbs. of rice for 16 days, but he went real slowly. - Puss boy - NOT. Sarma could not weigh anything over 130lbs if that. These porters are amazing.
The locals were very friendly and with those that didn't speak any English, we got to interact with them via our guide Kaji. Interesting to see how many of them lived, a rather simple life but not an easy life.
Our guide Kaji spoke very good English, but could not read Nepalese or English. Mindy came up with the brilliant idea to teach him to read English. She made an ABCs book with drawings and taught him the alphabet. During the day I would quiz him on how to spell words we saw on the trail, e.g. Yak or Prayer Wheel. By the end of the trek, he was reading simple sentences and reading the menus at the hotels.
Food
Food on the trail was overall good. What amazed us most is that the menus at all the places were about the same, but the dishes which came out were sometimes so different, but usually quite tasty. The food was almost always vegetarian, and occasionally lower down there was some meat (usually yucky yak and/or chicken), but it was very expensive. Dal Bhaat is the main food amongst Nepalese. It consists of Dal (lentil soup), Bhaat (rice), and takari (a potato curry). A rather tasty dish and it is always all you can eat, which is an important thing on the trail. Our porter Sarma could down 3 big plates of the stuff in a very short time. To eat Nepalese style, one forgoes the fork and spoon but uses the right hand (never the left since it substitutes, when used with water, for toilet paper).
After about 3 weeks, we went through the "apple pie" section of the trail. There were many apple trees; thus there was delicious apple pie and fresh apple juice. After 3 weeks of similar food, it was a nice addition.
Hotel
Well when I say the word hotel it conjures up probably a little different image in your minds than what reality is here in the hills. The typical Hotel was a stone building with several rooms, a dining hall, 1 or 2 squat toilets, and a "bath room". The rooms had 2 or more beds and usually a not too well sealed window. The walls between the rooms consisted of thin boards slapped up to a frame and usually the boards had cracks between them. All this luxury ranging from 33 cents/night to an outrageous $2/night. The dining room was the place to hang out because sometimes it was heated and always it had light - usually via kerosene lamp or candles. The dining room was usually a great place because you got to chat with other people from all over the world and talk about the day's events. However, many nights the talk would turn into food fantasies- Mexican food, French wine and stinky cheese, you name it. The Nepalese food was good, butS Many nights, we were the only ones in the hotel, so we would read and hangout till bedtime. The bathroom in the nicer places had solar heated water and a real showerhead. In the more rustic places, you had to go and fill a water bucket outside, bring it into the bathroom and splash water on yourself and thus get an invigorating shower. A couple of times Mindy splurged on ordering a bucket of hot water for some extra Rupees (the Nepalese currency is 60 Rupees to 1 US Dollar).
The scenery on the trail was incredible and I will not try to describe it. We gradually gained elevation until we were at Thorung Phedi (14,600 ft) where we spent the night and awoke at 3am to walk up to the top of Thorung La Pass (17,769ft). It was a clear beautiful morning when we departed. We were the first to leave and lets just say we weren't quite the last ones to reach the top. The pass was very nice and then we descended about a mile in elevation where it was toasty warm again. Mindy said it was the hardest mental challenge she had ever accomplished (physically, it was tough, too); it just seemed like it would never end so after 10 * hours, it was quite a relief!
Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) in the Annapurna Sanctuary is at 13,550 ft and is literally surrounded by huge peaks. You can see 1 peak 3 meters shy of 7000m (over 23,000ft), 4 peaks over 7000m and one big boy (or girl) over 8000m (over 26,000ft). We arrived there in a snowstorm (which made for excellent glacading the next day) and were hoping the clouds would clear by morning. Morning came and there were just a few clouds in the sky. The prettiest sunrise we've ever witnessed. It was interesting watching the light change on all the different peaks.
Kathmandu
After the trek, we spent the next few days hanging in Kathmandu eating
some good food, getting our bus tickets to India, changing our airline
tickets, finding a teacher to teach Kaji written english, meeting
Tom and Amy from Boulder, having lunch one afternoon with Kaji's family,
visiting some temples, and shopping. Shopping in Kathmandu was fun
as there are so many interesting things to buy. Mindy had become quite
the bargainer and she honed her skills even further.
We had to get our transit visas to go to India. There was a sign at
the embassy which gave the different visa prices. We were completely
jazzed that the visa was only $7.50 each which is outrageously cheap
for the average asian country. At the bottom of the list, there was a
special charge for citizens of only 1 country and it was $25 per
person. Guess which country.
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