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Published: January 4th 2006
12th September-10th October 2005
(Trekking Annapurna Circuit 16th Sept-4th Oct)
Following is a transcription of the diary i kept along the way while hiking
Flew out of London on the 11th Sept via Doha (Quatar) and arrived into Kathmandu (Nepal) on the 12th, I was welcomed outside the Kathmandu airport by the friendly locals offers of "you need transport?where you going?where you from?you need a taxi-I give you taxi good price"-the entree' of Nepal! After basically telling them to "go away" in the nicest possible way and that i had transport organised,I looked for my transport and low and behold it was nowhere in site!! After a phone call to the hotel who let me know the hotel bus had just gone & i would have to either wait another hour or so (nepali time) for the next one or....catch a friggin taxi-so yes i caught a taxi! My what a scary introduction-I took the advice of a local and got a metered taxi,but honestly I don't think the driving quality of metered/non metered taxi's is any different. From the moment I hopped into the cab the horn honking began-the nepali signal to let other cars know they
Prayer wheels
The prayer wheels commonly found throughout Nepal-spun for good luck/fortune/blessing whilst saying 'om mani pugmi om'are overtaking-honestly I didn't know if I was actually even going to make it to the hotel,let alone around the 3 week trek ahead! However, after managing to avoid any collisions with various other modes of transportation-be it pedestrian/bicycle/rickshaw/car or truck and avoiding making roadside dinner of a buffalo or cow I was so pleased to make it to the Guest House where I stayed for the following two nights.
On the first night I met up with Dave,Louise,Christy,Garth and Phil-5 of the 6 who I would be spending the next 3 weeks with gallavanting around the Annapurna circuit with. Had dinner and then an early night.
13th Sept
Met up with Mani who would be our tour guide for the trek and he took us on a tour around a few temples,stupas and the like. At one of the temple areas which a 'holy' river flowed thru we witnessed a cremation,which was very interesting. It felt like we were intruding but it is normal for the pubilc to witness cremation ceremonies in Nepalese culture. The body is bought down to the river side on their doona(though the body is covered) by the family shortly after
smoking of bodies
At the 'holy river' Kathmandu where the bodies are cremated on the platforms by the families,the ashes are then swept into the river he/she passes away(usually within hours),a stack of wood is then formed in the shape of a square and after the body is cleansed and flowers sprinkled over it,the relatives carry the body 3 times around the wood stack (to 'release the spirit' and then place it on top. Then traditionally the eldest son lights a fire in the mouth of the deceased,and then the remainder of the wood pile is lit. The body is left to burn and then once finished the ashes are swept into the river-and yes people wash etc in this same river not too far downstream!
14th Sept
Up reasonably early & hired bicycles and took the opportunity to ride amongst the local traffic-it was bit scary at first but within about 5mins you learnt basically not to look behind,and if something beeps/rings their bell move to the left,or just keep riding and they will eventually drive around you! We ended up venturing on our bikes out to a village Bungamati,about 20km from kathmandu and it was wonderful to get away from the hustle & bussle of the city. Along the way there was a noticible army/police presence on the street with their
riding
On our bike ride to village hear Bungmati,about 20km out of Kathmandu guns slung over their shoulders,but strangely it didn't feel remotely scary! As we got further away from the city the nepali 'flat' began "a little bit up and a little bit down"-and the views were lush. We stopped to watch women hand making massive rugs (looming),extreemely repetative but amazing to watch-the rate of RSI I imagine to be quite high! In the mean time our final trekking buddy Mike arrived in Kathmandu.
That night we were lucky enough to be invited to Mani's (our guide) for a traditional Nepalese meal of Dal Baht-And boy do the nepalese looove their Dal Baht!!. It basically consists of a large tin plate (often divided into sections) with a bucket load of rice,lentil soup(Dal),pickled something-ie. chilli,cucumber,and curried vegies/meat(most often seemed to be just vegies such as potato). The method is then to pour the Dal over the rice and gradually mix in the curry with your hand,and then eat with your hand-and only the right hand is traditionally then used to eat with as the left is used for toiletary purposes!
Oh yeah and on the way to Mani's while in the taxi a kid was trying to get us to give
him food-sticking his head thru the taxi window doing a chomping motion with his mouth-I was trying to shove his head OUT of the taxi with Louise attempting to wind up the window and then he promptly attempted to open the front door of the cab-but in the end we won and he was unsuccessful in getting any food! little turd!!-
...And our journey towards the Annapurna Circuit begins...
(Altitude;Round about kilometers walked,time taken)
15th Sept-Kathmandu > Besisahar (150km-7hrs on the bus!!)
Met up with our guide & 2 of the porters @ guest house and piled into the minivan for our 150km trip to Besisahar- took us close to 6hrs (yes 6hrs for 150kms!!-with a stop of course!). 12 of us were packed into the minivan so it was nice and cosy . About 2hrs into the journey a not so wonderful scent filled the vans cabin and we had to pull over as the tyres rubber was burning!!Pretty amusing. After bout 15mins it cooled down though and we continued on our way. Stopped along the way in a small village to have lunch- some of us embraced the opportunity to make
carrying bags
A common sight in nepal,people transporting goods by carrying them with a rope support around their forehead! a mess and chose to eat with our hands! We then continued on our way and on getting back in the van one of the poor porters fingers was jammed in the door-ouch! he was ok though. Along the way the villages were endless,regardless of the terain. Loads of rice fields,cows,chickens and ducks along the way,and big trucks which looked like they were headed for the circus-some with amazing airhorn tunes-WEIRD!! Went for a wander round the town, saw some chickens (alive) hanging with their feet tied upside down off the side of a motorbike-and it didn't take much to work out what their destiny would be!! An early night ready for our first day of hiking tomorrow. Nervous but excited,not sure what i have got myself in for-oh well,I'm sure i'll manage.
16th Sept - Besisahar > Bahundanda (760m 1310m;~18km,6hrs)
Reasonable nights sleep,left Besisahar bout 0730 on dirt road/tared road to start with then had to walk through a river,Louise fell over while going over the rocks but didn't hurt herself. Mostly it was flat terrain today,a few hills but not difficult. Passed over loads of suspension bridges which were fun,looked like it was goning to
Toilet
Nepalese squat toilet-and this was a clean one to some of the others! rain but only a few sprinkles which was good. Heaps of donkeys along the way carting stuff,bells around their necks to let others using the roads know that they are coming. Stopped in a place called Ngadi for lunch-Dal baht. Feeling fine.
17th Sept - Bahundanda > Chamje (1310m 1680m;~12km,6hrs)
Up @ 7,breaky then away about 8. Initially a steep descent,down about 200m then up/down lots! knees quite sore-weird cause i've never had trouble with my knees?? walking thru river bed most of today,pretty slippery @ times but managed not to stack it. Loads of donkeys,lunch @ Jagat-egg fried rice. Heaps of waterfalls today,at one point walking right alongside one-amazing. Arrived Chamje 'bout 3pm-along the way got 2 chickens and had them for dinner-felt a bit weird eating them as we saw them being carried into kitchen knowing what was going to happen. Amazing scenery from the tea house,basically a massive drop off the side with a huge thundering river-the toilet/shower overlooked this-pretty neat cause it was just like a small tin shed with a big hole cut in the wall so you could look out onto it. Played cards for a while tonight. Mathias had a
Donkeys
Some donkeys along the way,used to transport goods up and down the mountains rat in his room-gross!! Am now paranoid to go to sleep,i can hear it scurring in the roof-ew! finding the hiking challenging but seem to be managing ok and keeping up. Getting blisters near big toe-taped them-should b ok. Oh yeah bought some pringles from one of the stores-they expired in 2002!! so swapped them for some that were a bit fresher exp 2004!tasted fine.
18th Sept - Chamje > Bagarchhap (1680m 2160m;~15km,7hrs)
Usual breaky @ 7,not really much appetite. Last night woke up with gross burping,tasted really acidic,and had diarrhoea-took some immodium,but felt pretty ordinary,last thing i felt like doing was walking up mountains,but i kinda had no choice!. Hardest day so far as lots of up hills. Heaps of suspension bridges. Knees were a bit sore from yesterday so Louise strapped them for me which helped. Relaxed in the arvo & played cards till bout 10-bed.
19th Sept - Bagarchhap > Chame (2160m 2670m;~13km,5hrs)
Up & at it bout 0820-no more diarrhoea!!yay!! walk was mostly uphill today,starting to feel difference in breathing because of increase in altitude. On way up lots of locals making a road which will go from Manang to Besisahar when
completed. Had to walk on this really dodgy part of track with loads of trees and rocks on the ground,close to the edge of a large drop-had to go this way cause on the other part of the track(the usual way) they were blowing up cliffs nearby to make way for road. Saw workers blow up a rock with dynamite-it was so funny cause they told our guide as we walked past they were going to blow up the rock-our guide just thought they were trying to make us afraid,but as we continued walking,looking back we could see they weren't joking,next minute they start running down the hill and calling out run! run! then this massive BANG!! and the rock is gone!! man I was pissing myself laughing. Not as many donkeys today.
20th Sept - Chame > Pisang ( 2670m 3200m>3700m;~16km)
Left Chame bout 8,one bastard of a hill but otherwise not too bad. Walking thru a pine forest for some time-was so nice to just totally forget about the real world! When we reached the top of that hill there were these 2 stalls selling jewellery apparently from Tibet so they said(our guide just saidthey
group shot
the group of us who went hiking! just would have gotten it from Kathmandu! Bought a bracelet from them anyway. Noticing a change in the flora from yesterday. Arrived in Pisang about 1230 then hiked it to upper Pisang (3300m) after lunch to visit a monastry-Amazing view of Annapurna 2. Loads of Marijuana along the way,especially on the bit to upper Pisang-some of these plants were bigger than me! A gorgeous puppy along the way today,it started following us-I wanted to stuff it in my pack-but resisted:-(
21st Sept- Pisang > Manang ( 3200m 3540m;~12km)
Were allowed to have a sleep in and didn't leave till 9. Mostly flat today. This little boy-probably bout 8yrs old started following us at the start,even though he had snot hanging out his nose he was still cute-he was holding my hand and skipping along,i didn't think he should be following us,our guide told him to go back but he reckoned his school was the same way-after we'd been walking bout 10 mins and were just bout out of the village we passed some houses and these women came running out and yelling at him!! telling him to go back i am guessing-he was so not going to school!-
naughty little boy!! And on that same bit of track some guys donkey had run off-he was chucking stones at it to try and stop it! yeah like that will make it stop-anyway some of us managed to make it turn around and go back the way it was meant to be heading. Lots of different scenery today,really dry-like loads of dried grass tufts and shrubs opposed to trees,very rocky mountains. Reached Manang about 1pm,went for a bit of a wander-bought a beanie & some chocolate. Lou also bought some chocolate from a different shop-it expired in 2003 or something and she went to take it back to swap,but there was no in date stuff at that shop-so she asked for a refund but the guy was like "how do i know you bought it from here? I'll give you 45R for it" when she'd bought it for 65R!! anyway she argued with him for a bit but he wouldn't budge so she just kept it and ate it anyway! Everyone pretty lethargic/tired. Watched movie 'Into thin Air' at local 'theatre' -felt like we were in some dingy backstreet porn store,but was a luxury to watch TV!!
22nd Sept
Thorong La Pass
And we made it! - Acclimatisation in Manang (3540m 4000m)
Feel like shit,so lethargic-been in bed basically all day. Haven't been able to stop going to toilet all day,not seeming to b able to retain any thing-my guts are just going crazy-friggin diarrhoea hate you. Have been about 10 times at least-it's just ridiculous. Took 3 immodium tablets and commenced Antibiotics's-hopefully they kick in soon:-( Not really sure where i got crook from-have been sterilising my water or drinking bottled water-the only time i had unsterilised water in my mouth was the first night brushing my teeth,and i didn't swallow it?? Haven't eaten much at all today-the thought of food is just gross. Somehow managed to haul my ass 500m further up in altitude to acclimatise,hopefully it will help me tomorrow . At least it was a great view from the top-we went to the Llamas house and paid 100R to have him bless us,have a cup of tea and wish us good luck for the upcoming pass and give us a piece of coloured string to wear round our neck for good luck. The others went to the glacier lake-Dave & Mike went swimming in it-bloody idiots! Really hope this diarrhoea stops
tomorrow. It's so scary being sick here,there is a hospital nearby but there is no way i would want to go there-have drunk some electrolyte replacement stuff which made me feel a little better but still feel like crap.
23rd Sept - Manang > Yak Kharka (3540m 4018m;~9km)
Diarrhoea almost stopped,tummy much more settled but certainly not 100%. Up @ 6 and climbed onto roof to watch sun rise over mountains-spectacular view. Went to bakery for a few bits and then headed off bout 9. Definately feeling altitude today,getting puffed going up hills much smaller than previous days. Dave and Garth have headaches,probably due to the altitude but everyone else is so far ok. Played a bit of frisbee-i suck at it! Kerosene kitchen stove-man there was smoke everywhere,thought the cook guy was going to blow the place up-one of the kero bottles conected to a hotplate wouldn't lite so he was tipping it upside down,kero dripping on the floor! And then using a hand held pump type blow torch thing to light the cooker-very scary!! Pretty cold here today/tonight-they gave us extra dooners so should be warm enough.
24th Sept - Yak Kharka - Thorong Phedi
-high camp (4018m 4700m;~10km)
At breaky this morning Christy ordered boiled eggs-one was fine but the other one was seriously green-dodgy!! headed off bout 0815 to thorong phedi (4500m),arrived there about 1115,had lunch and everyone was feeling ok so we continued upto high camp (4700m),200m up very steep! basically by getting to high camp today we wont have to leave as early tomorrow to make the pass-and thankgoodness we made it to high camp today and didn't have to do that part of the walk first thing tomorrow morning! Dad's bday today-rang him from satellite phone US$5 a minute,and got bloody msg bank!
25th Sept - Thorong Phedi > Thorung La Pass !! > Muktinath (4700m 5416m 3800m;~13km)
Up bright and early @ 0430,breaky then left for the pass at 0515. My R ankle getting red and sore from boots rubbing so wore my hiking sandles for the pass-with socks-mmm-very sexy. Climb to the pass wasn't too bad but was just hard to climb cause of the altitude-ie. not being able to fully expand our lungs because of the pressure. we stopped a fair bit which made things better. Reached the pass about 0830!! bloody cold,not snow
Kathmandu guesthouse
At last back to moderate civilisation on the actual pass track, but was some on the side,and stupid me thought i would bother putting my gloves in my day pack so my hands were friggin numb! There was one lone teahose on top of the pass so cup of tea and biscuit to celebrate!! Dave looked and felt like shit ontop so he descended fairly quickly,the rest of us stayed up tere bout 15/20mins then headed down. Very steep descent after the pass bout 1600m-reached Muktinath bout 1230. My knees on the way down very sore,it was nearly impossible to go slowly cause it was so steep. A flash teahouse for nepal standards here! carpet in our room,sheets and a blanket on the bed!! and a reasonably hot shower!!!Feel half human again!! rang mumma,so nice to chat,but as soon as dad got on he bloody phone cut out!! Went up road to pub where out kiwi friends were staying-played a bit of pool-candle lit as the power blacked out! made for an interesing game!Then walked back in the dark to our hotel cause we forgot to take torches-whoops!
26th Sept - Muktinath > Kagbeni (3800m 2800m;~10km)
Up @ 8 & went to a temple which is one of the biggest in Nepal,weren't allowed to have breakfast before we went because of religious beliefs - was so starving too. Was interesting,there was one part there where there was a natural flame-no one knows how it stays alight!weird. The trek to kagbeni was so desert like,initially flat then very steep descent-quads & calves very sore!! Made it to hotel about 2pm then went for wander around village-there were so many calves with no mummies-very sad. Went to the boarder of the upper mustang region where it costs US$700 to cross & trek for 10days,then an additional US$70 for every extra day!! we of course did not go across! Nice day while treking but got very windy at times and very windy in kagbeni. Did some washing-hopefully will not get dirt blown all over it!
27th Sept - Kagbeni > Marpha (2800m 2670m;~16km)
Left Kagbeni around 9-walk today was least fun so far-felt like we were in the middle east or something! was all desert like and so windy-bloody gave me the shits-had a continual sand film on my teeth-and my chewing gum was quickly invaded by sand particles-yuck yuck yuck. Once we reached Marpha went to a monastry and watched the monks doing their thing-chanting,crashing and banging!! I'm sure there was some form of organisation to their crashing of symbols,banging of drums and blowing of horns but basically it was just a load of noise!! following that Mani took us to the local brandy factory-and to be honest it certainly didn't taste like brandy!! It was soooo strong-tasted maybe a bit like tequilla,but not,basically it was gross! Some of the others bought a bottle (small) and Mani 2 large bottles for us to share-and basically the porters,Mani and the nepalese hoed into it and got trashed,singing and dancing while we sat and pissed ourselves laughing at them!! later heard someone chucking their guts up-surprise surprise!!
28th Sept - Marpha > Ghasa (2670m 2010m;~25km)
Friggin diarrhoea - again! Woke up during the night with the burping & tummy gurgles went to the loo and nearly bloody passed out-don't know what the hell is going on but man i appreciate good health! Started on antibiotics again different ones recommended in Garths travel doctor book-reading through that from my symptoms it seems though i have Giardia-friggin hell-sooooo sick of diarrhoea. Everyone except the other girls has had it at some point but Dave & I are going to be president & vice president of the runners club!! Lots of up hill down hill- Buggered.
29th Sept - Ghasa > Tatopani (2010m 1190m;~12km)
Again lots of up/down hill. Arrived in Tatopani after lunch,went to the local hot springs which were hot hot hot-had to alternate between the spring and the river! By the river children were plucking & gutting a chicken-ewww!! hung out with some other American and Israeli trekers and sampled some of the local flora if u know what i mean!!hehe
30th Sept - Tatopani > Sikha (1190m 1935m;~10km)
Mainly uphill today,much to us girls disgust!! we were expecting downhill-our cranky pants were on today!!na it wasn't to bad. Mattias left our group today and headed off to Annapurna base camp.
1st Oct - Sikha > Ghorepani (1935m 2750m😉
Up hill lots-met by maoists(look them up on google i cant be assed explaining what they do) and after about an hour and a half of frustring discussion with them we each had to pay them equivilent of US$21-otherwise we would have had to turn around and go back the way we had come-there was no way we were doing that!hot shower!!!yay-sooo nice
2nd Oct - Ghorepani > Hille (2750m 1475m)
Loads of downhill today,Hille a very quiet place. Went down with intentions of swimming in river but was too cold-Christy and i both managed to stack it on the river bank cause the rocks were so slippery-i smacked my shin and she hammered the back of her thigh-was funny though!!
3rd Oct - Hille > Nayapul > Naundanda > Sarangkot (1475m 1592m)
Early start today,tummy again feeling abit off but no diarrhoea-yet! nice walking today,thru rainforest type land,nepal flat-little bit up,little down today. quite slippery in places,I nearly stacked it about 10 times but managed to keep my balance,Mike an Lou however were no so luck and both stacked it!!whoops!! From Nayapul caught local bus to Naundanda-got to sit on bus roof racks -was fun. Took bout 30mins for that trip,stopped and had lunch in Naundanda-proper bread-so had banana and apple sandwich-man i miss eating 'normal' food-especially bread/toast. Mostly uphill to sarangkot,not steep but just neverending uphill slope-cranky pants were on!! Arvo nap once we got there,bit of reading then bed.
4th Oct - Sarangkot > Pokhara (1592m 820m)
Extreemely foggy this morning and also extreemely slippery. Descent was mostly through rainforest,hard to enjoy as had to concentrate so much on where you were stepping so you didn't slip,started sprinkling just as we got on the road to Pokhara and then just kept on coming down till it drenched us!! We were pretty lucky with weather up until today,only one bit of sprinkling along the way for the whole trek. So nice to feel back in moderate civilisation!! once again..yes by this point it is just ridiculous...diarrhoea AfrigginGAIN!! Nightmare-so commenced on different antibiotics-hopefully these kill whatever bastard bug is in my guts-am so over having the runs!had a bit of a look round town but basically felt too lethargic to do anyhing so then went to bed. Others went out for dinner but I felt ordinary so had an early night.
5th Oct - Pokhara
Went and saw Devis Falls,this amazing thundering river that has a 100m drop then continues underground,after that visited a Tibetian refugee camp-there was a sports carnival going on and i killed myself laughing when one of the teachers had to chase a buffalo off the running track!! Then back and had a wander around pokhara main street-the king was in town and there were locals hanging a banner of some description-tying it to powerlines!! idiots-yeah like so the powerlines touched each other and massive sparks!!Had to laugh though!! And while walking along, this guy was sitting on the footpath with a basket with a lid on it,he kind of gets our eye contact while lifting the lid and there's a massive bloody snake in there! We were very quick to move away-once again bloody craziness!!
6th Oct - Pokhara > Kathmandu
Up reasonably early to catch bus to go white water rafting at the Trisuli river-was pretty good but rapids not as big as we thought,good to break up the 5 or so hour bus trip back to Kathmandu though! Went there with the Canadians/Americans we met along the way. Got into Kathmandu about 6 then out for dinner and i was so happy to have a big fat steak with creamy mushroom sauce-yumm!! Bed about 9 and crashed out! Oh and on the trip back nearly had a head on with a massive truck-but by that point i knew just to laugh!
And the things i will remember about Nepal...
The hoiking of the nepalese (snorting/spitting)
Donkeys/goats/buffalo&yaks
Crazy driving and horn beeping to overtake
The rickshaws
Dal Baht
the pestering shop owners trying to convince you to go into their shops
the nepalese squat toilets
Prayer flags
Our trekking groups continual discussions of poo over meals!
The nepalese running up and down the mountains in flip flops
Men holding hands,even army guys!
Kids along the way continually asking for 'sweets,sweets,school pen'
Nepalese people asking where your from-telling them Australia-then them responding that Australia is a beautiful country,despite the fact that probably only 1% of their population has even been to Australia!!
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Kaz
non-member comment
Hannie these photos are great! looks like an amazing country! love you! mmmwah!