Annapurna Trek

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On the trek of Annapurna, we enjoy the company of Ajay Dharal, the most wonderful and funny leader of a trek you could find, “possibly/somehow”, his favourite sayings, along with my brother porters: the warrior-like soldiers of the mountains, Prakesh (aka SnoopDawg), food provider Sushel, the famous dancing machine Buddhi and, finally, the funny and easy-going Ramesh Tamang, no relation to Buddhi. Watch for the soon-to-be-added video of Buddhi dancing Nepali style!

The visit to Pokhara, which is the start of the trekking leg of the tour, was mostly uneventful in itself, but still there is so much more to enjoy. We dined at Once Upon a Time more than a handful of times; it was the anchor spot to spend our down time.

As well, upon getting to Pokhara, we were strongly advised (by Ahjay) to buy a few indispensable pieces of gear we were sure to put to good use along the way, i.e. trekking poles (which we negotiated down to about NRs400 from 800), poncho (not once used by any of us, attained for about the same price as the poles), knee supports (which I didn’t use once). The group tripped about Pokhara for this gear and got a group discount, not too bad in the end. I gave my pole away to Buddhi at the end of the trek but will keep the poncho for future travel. You just never know when it might again come in handy. I also now own Nepali wool-fleece-lined hat and mitts acquired somewhere in Kat or Pokhara! Nice to hold onto even though I don’t know when they will next be used?

Inasmuch as the trek itself is concerned, it was one of the most difficult things I have done since my benchmark accomplishment of the 90s (you haven’t heard, too bad; I will not tell you)! I just no longer have, at this age, the lungs to deal with going steadily uphill; cannot breathe in enough oxygen; however, as for going downhill, this was simply easy-peasy, lemon-squeezie for me. I now realize that I have sufficient muscle for trekking but no cardio and this is what I will work on upon returning home (get out the bicycle and get ready to bike everywhere!).

On the whole, I was tired to the bone on the last day and wanted only to get back to Kathmandu to rest and relax. My body is fine though and I suffer little from trekking the Annapurna “Coca-Cola” trail (Tikhedhunga/Uleri to Ghorepani to middle of the night uphill climb to Poon Hill for sunrise to Tadapani for 6 hours and a visit to the Jhinu natural hot springs and trek back to Nayapul with a drive back to Pokhara and flight back to Kat).

I would say this about the trek; it was a wonderful experience; I enjoyed beautiful scenery; but, the adventure was even more exciting! Our return dinner is fair to middling and the boat tour on Fewa L. in Pokhara is really a dismal affair.

Truly, they say people make the journey, and it is literally true here especially as they helped make the trip a wonderfully enjoyable time for me. I cannot say enough about the support we got from Ajay to the brothers, our porters, who went faster up and down the mountain than any of us could without any gear on our backs. You really had to be there to see their skills at work during hours of uphill stairs and along the downhill mud and stone. A big “thumbs up” for BohemianTours.com! I will look to use you again particularly as I have to return to visit Tibet (see more on this below).

As for this latter issue, the really bad bad news here about Nepal and the add-on of Tibet leg is that there is no Tibet for me this time around. Apparently, self-immolations are occurring randomly and the Chinese do not want a Facebook like revolution as in Tunisia and the Arab Spring revolutions. The result of this protest is a new requirement to get into Tibet which I cannot meet (5 nationals from the same country??????). Even then, the Chinese have recently, now, simply closed the border completely. I met a friend along the way from the trekking in Kathmandu, Marie from France, who had the right number of French nationals in her group. And, she said she had in hand the necessary visa and permits to enter Tibet but was denied departure out of Kathmandu into Lhasa!.

Reluctantly, mostly because of the expense, I choose to take the Bhutan add-on leg but even this is not so easy to purchase. After BohemianTours blows Tibet for me, they cannot manage to get me onto the June 2 tour and now I have to hang on in Kat until June 7 at Thamel Resort ($55/day or about 55,430 NRs). It is all a little too pricey for me but for about US$ 1667, all in, with visa and flights to Paro and back out to Dhaka, where I want to be next, this is almost acceptable what with the loss of Tibet! Nevertheless, nothing, literally nothing, can provide sufficient compensation for losing the chance to visit Tibet.

I guess I will use the extra time in Kathmandu to relax and kick about the city and do some picture editing and more. Gave some thought to visiting Chitwan National Park, but that just does not appeal to me, particularly what with the higher temperatures there! It is just too hot for me and likely also for the animals there. In fact, it is now getting too hot in Kathmandu to enjoy being out and about the city except for later in the day when the heat of the sun is less likely to scortch the body and soul.

Got a couple of nice hand-made flags put on 2 t-shirts by my new friend, Mumtaz, near the Eco Resort; nice job and now the other flags I own can be used elsewhere.

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