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Day 16 Muktinath to Jomsom: The landscape changed dramatically and it became very arid. The villages looked very green though, like oasis in the middle of the desert. Instead of walking this part of the trail, many people opt to take jeeps, but it's worth doing it, especially if one has the time. A lot of times guides will tell their customers that the road is full of traffic, dust everywhere and too much wind. The part about the wind is true, but just for a few days. The part about the traffic and the dust, it's not bad at all.
It took me 4 hours at a rather fast pace to get to Jomsom. I went past Kaghbeni, but didn't go to the village. Apparently it was a mistake, because a few trekkers told me that it was a beautiful village and a very good place to stay at and some of them had stayed there a couple of nights.
I got caught in a very strong wind while I was crossing a valley to get to Jomsom and I arrived covered in dust. I didn't really like Jomsom at first sight, but after I went past
the more developed part, the village itself is quite nice; it has traditional houses and nice narrow streets. I stayed in a hostel that had the first decent shower I had seen in about 2 weeks.
Day 17 As an alternative to the main road, it's possible to do detours in side trails; often crossing suspended bridges and going on the original trail, on the other side of the river. I did just that and ended in a monastery that I hadn't seen on the map, just past a small village by the name of Dhumba and a lake with the same name.
There was an old man apparently in charge of the overall maintenance of the place and of collecting the 100 RS tourist fee. There were 3 old women praying and an old monk. There was no way of speaking English to any of them, so I had to resign to walk and look around. It was a pretty simple building with a few big rooms, dormitories, a temple, kitchen, etc.
From the monastery I followed the trail down to the river and when I saw that it went uphill again, I
decided to walk all the way to the river and cross to the road. But when I got to the edge of the river, I realized it was wider than I had thought initially and I had to backtrack along it for a while until I found a bridge. Right before crossing the bridge it had started to rain a little. Right after crossing the bridge it started hailing, so I had to quickly put on my waterproof clothing.
For the next 3 hours I just followed the road, under intermittent downpours, thunder and lightning all the way to the next village, Tukuche. My initial plan that day was to get to the village that's after Tukuche, but there was no sign of the rain stopping anytime soon, so I thought of spending the night there. There's nothing special about the village and unfortunately I didn't pick the best place to stay. Some you win, some you lose.
Day 18 I pushed to go all the way to Ghasa. As well as the previous days, I combined walking on the road and doing the original trail, going past very nice villages.
I stopped for
lunch in Kalopani, where I was surprised to run into Thomas again, a German guy I had seen a few times before the Thorong La Pass, so I had lunch with him.
Kalopani is located in a valley and i located between the summits of the Dhawalagiri and Annapurna mountain ranges, making it the deepest valley in the world. A good place to stay and enjoy the views.
I was really glad I made the decision to walk the other side of the Annapurna circuit, past Thorong La. The scenery is very beautiful. Green forests and full of small villages.
I didn't find Ghasa particularly interesting as a village.
Day 19 & 20 From Ghasa to Tatopani, it's a bit more of the same landscape (still wonderful and easy as it is mostly downhill, so very enjoyable). I liked the village; it's surrounded by high green hills and has a great view of the Annapurna range.
I stayed in a hostel that I really liked, especially because of the terrace on the third floor.
I stayed 2 days there and during that time I read a lot.
Tatopani has hot
springs, but to me, they didn't really look very appealing, so I skipped them.
In the hostel, I met a very nice Spanish couple (Jordi & Cristina) that lived in Ireland and had been traveling for a year already. They've also been keeping a blog, which I found is excellently well written and entertaining:
http://puckcris.wordpress.com/. I had dinner with them the first night.
Day 21 After that day of rest (apparently much needed) I went uphill to Ghorepani, which is about 1800 meters higher than Tatopani, so it's supposed to be a pretty tough day.
Fortunately enough, out of all the days of trekking, it was probably the day in which I felt most energetic and kept walking uphill without feeling tired at all.
When I got to Shikha, a village that's half distance between Tatopani and Ghorepani, I took a short break and had some Tibethan cheese bread and a coke.
The trail goes by numerous villages and it's all very green. It's very usual for kids to ask for "sweets", "school pens" and sometimes even money. The strangest request was a kid asking for water.
The last bit before
arriving in Ghorepani is a series of stone steps that seem to go on forever.
I went to the end of the village and found a hostel that seemed good. I checked in and there I met a American-Jewish couple from NY (Robbie and Serena) and spent the afternoon with them playing cards.
The hostel up to that point was nearly empty, but it got pretty crowded in the evening (groups of Germans and Russians mostly).
I joined Robbie and Serena for dinner as well. That day (May 14th), they were celebrating a Jewish holiday (Shavuot), which commemorates the giving of the Torah in Mount Sinai, so I joined in and had a glass of kosher wine with them.
The plan for the next day was to up Poon Hill, where there's an excellent view of the Annapurna range (and Annapurna I). It takes about 45 minutes to walk uphill from Ghorepani and the best time to get there is just before sunrise.
Day 22 Poon Hill. I started going uphill at 4:30am. Luckily that morning the sky was clear and from dawn until just before sunrise the view of the Annapurna
range was fantastic. Just before sunrise though, everything was covered by clouds very quickly and the show was over.
After getting back to the hostel I had breakfast and then went to Gandruk, a village that was about 6 hours away and of which I heard was worth seeing.
The trail from Ghorepani goes uphill until it reaches a village called Tadapani. It started raining just when I reached the village and just in time to find a guesthouse to wait out for the rain to pass. In the meantime had something to eat and had to wait for about 2 hours before going on.
The trail is all forest and rivers and waterfalls and rain. Very green and one of my favorite parts during those three weeks.
There were a few times in which I wasn't sure where the trail continued, but common sense and usually following water pipes and electric cables worked out fine.
I reached Gandruk and it seemed difficult to find my way out. I had to ask several people where to go. It's a big village and has paths going all over the place, I found it a bit disorienting.
I stayed in a hostel where I met some English people and had dinner with them.
Day 23 - Last day From Gandruk there's a possibility to get a jeep to Pokhara from a place that's just 1 hour away; Tamle, for 800 RS. I almost got in one of them. While I was waiting for the jeep to depart, I saw Thomas again, walking along. He told me that from Nayapul (a village 3 hours away from there), it was possible to get a bus for only 150 RS. I decided to do the last part of the trek with him to Pokhara, which ended up being the best decision.
It was a good day to walk; sunny and warm. We reached Nayapul a few hours later and had lunch there. Buses go by regurarly to Pokhara from there. It's also possible to take taxis, but they cost from 1000 - 1500 RS.
We took a bus and asked the person there if we could ride on top of the roof with the bags, to which he had no problem. It was maybe the most memorable thing of the 3 weeks and
a great way to end them. We rode almost all the way to Pokhara, before we had to get off the roof before passing a police checkpoint (we had passed another checkpoint before, but the policeman there was a relative of the person working on the bus, so it was fine).
Finally, we arrived in Pokhara - the perfect place to stay after a trek. Lots of cheap and good guesthouses, no shortage of activities and plenty of good restaurants. The tourist area is conveniently located by the lakeside.
I spent 3 or 4 days there not doing much.
I ran into Jordi & Cristina again and joined them for dinner a couple of nights.
Then I went to the Chitwan National Park to spend my last days in Nepal before heading to Kathmandu.
Looking back - it was a good decision to this trek. It was all I tought it would be and thoroughly enjoyed it, every last bit of it. Nepalese people are very chilled and layed back, friendly and willing to help. The sceneries are very varied; from forests, jungle-like landscapes to snow capped mountains and arid, desert-like terrains.
One piece of advice I can give here: it's good to take all the time you need to do this circuit. There are day trips that can be done from different places and there's no need to rush through it. The more time you can take to do this circuit, the more you'll get to enjoy it. Otherwise, there are plenty of shorter treks to choose from in Nepal, all as amazing as this one, I presume. USEFUL INFORMATION
This is info which I think might help whoever is wondering about doing this circuit. Questions I had before starting and same questions I was asked after (actually, just a day before writing this, an Irish couple I met asked a few of these).
1.-
Guides / porters: No, it's not necessary to take a guide. A map is all you need. Trails are CLEARLY marked. If you're traveling on your own, you might consider going with a guide just for company (and it's always a prudent option not to trek alone), but IT'S NOT NECESSARY. The trail is not dangerous. There are plenty of people doing the
trek and you can always join other solo trekkers or groups.
A porter, you might want to consider if you think you won't be strong enough to carry your backpack all the way. That's a personal thing to consider. If you're not heavily loaded and are in decent physical shape, you should have no problem at all. Often you can get a guide that will act as porter as well.
It's also possible to hire porters and guides along the way, if you want to do specific portions of the trail with them. I.e.: Thorong La Pass. So it's not necessary to go with someone for the whole duration.
2.-
High Altitude Sickness: If you get to Manang and want to know more about it, go to the free daily talk at 3pm that's held daily at the Health Post and only lasts for about 30 minutes. Preventing high altitude sickness is pretty easy and straightforward. I'll give here the most important highlights:
- Always sleep at no more than 300 - 500 meters than the place you slept in the previous night. It doesn't matter if you do a 1000 meter climb during
the day, but what matters is the place you sleep at.
- High altitude sickness affects people differently, so it's always good to take it slow, just as precaution.
- When you get to Manang (3500 meters), it's advisable to spend a day off there, for aclimatization.
- Diamox pills are not recommended to be taken as precaution; only if you start feeling high altitude sickness symptoms.
- If you get symptoms, but they go away, you can continue up. If they remain, but don't get worse, stay where you are. If they continue and get worse, go down. Easy.
3.-
Electric power / Charging electronic equipment: All hostels have places where you can charge batteries, phones, etc. They'll usually charge between 50 and 200 RS per charge.
4.-
Money: I asked this to a guide and his answer was very precise. He said with 50,000 RS for the whole circuit I should be fine. He said: "take 60,000 RS, just to be on the safe side". I spent about 17,000 RS per week, not traveling on a budget. I didn't bargain for the rooms and had a beer ocasionally.
I also often didn't stick to the most economic choices on the menu.
There are no ATMs anywhere, except in Jomsom; two days trek after the Thorong La Pass. 5.-
Accomodation / food: The cheapest option is eat where you sleep. This way, you get cheaper accomodation (sometimes even free), but you have to eat there. Places have set menus and set prices, so it doesn't really matter where you stay. The higher you go, the higher the prices.
It's very common for places to have electric blackouts, so a flashlight/torch is almost a necessity. Don't get your hopes up on acommodation and showers.
6.-
What to take: this one was the toughest of all questions. You often wonder if you're overpacking or if it will be enough. If you didn't buy something and have second thoughts, you can always get it in Manang and quite cheap (I'd say cheaper than in Kathmandu or Pokhara). The bulkiest and heaviest things are usually the sleeping bag and the down jacket. You can either buy them or rent them. It's a personal matter. I went during May and I think I could've done without the downjacket.
I still don't regret taking it though.
As far as the sleepin bag goes, I don't regret taking it either, but most, if not all guesthouses have warm blankets (in some of them you have to ask for them though and may charge you).
T-Shirts, underwear and socks, you can always handwash them at the end of the day and hang them in the backpack during the next day to dry them.
Here's my ideal list of things to take:
- Windstopper (instead of the downjacket). - 2 light polar sweaters (to layer up). - 2 long sleeve dry fit shirts. - 2 short sleeve dry fit shirts. - 2 trousers (with zip off legs). - 1 long thermal underwear (can be used as pajamas as well). - 3 underwear. - 3 pairs of socks. - 1 pair of light plastic shoes or flip flops. - Good/comfortable trekking shoes. - Sleeping bag (and optional liner). - 1 Bandana. - Polar or woolen hat. - Sun hat. - Sunglasses. - Sunblock. - Water bottle. - Map. - Head torch (VERY USEFUL!). - Multitool knife. - Money/TIMS/Pass/Passport. - Light, fast drying towel. - Medicine: Diamox (high altitude), anti-diarrhea
pills, bandaids (for blisters), water purification tablets (can come handy sometimes). - Personal hygene items. - Always have toilet paper with you.
No need to get food, you can buy on the way, although you might want to take a few granola bars and dry fruit (won't find them along the trail, except maybe in Manang). Chocolate bars you can find everywhere though.
Any other questions you might have, just ask through the blog.
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Andres
non-member comment
saludos desde Lonquen
Hola dani, tremendo trecking que hiciste. es como un magister en trecking!! Ya no falta para para que se junten con la Vale y JM. me imagino lo contentos que van a estar los tres. Por acá ya terminamos la vendimia y estamos vinificando es decir transformando el azúcar de las uvas en alcohol. Todo va muy bien. Algo menos producción que el año anterior pero bien. Nos estamos preparando para el cumple del Clemente que es el 01 de Junio y tenemos el matri de Camila Cartwright en que nos juntaremos toda la familia. Todos bien y sin novedad. un abrazo Andres