Uncertainties before the Annapurna Circuit

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From Manila I had a flight to Singapore. I arrived there at around midnight and had to wait until about 7am to get my next flight to Kuala Lumpur. In the meantime I had a healthy meal at Burger King and read a book about snipers.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur at around 9am, only to find out that my backpack was missing. Apparently they hadn't put it on the plane (Tiger Airways). I had to fill out a report and hope for the best. My next flight was at 11am to Kathmandu, so I flew with out my backpack hoping to retrieve it in Kathmandu in the next few days.

Fortunately during that day, they at least confirmed that they had it. Apparently they had sent it to Kuala Lumpur later that day and when they found out I was already gone, they sent it back to Singapore and then forwarded it to Kathmandu, 2 days later, with everything in it.

The problem for me during all that time was the uncertainty of whether I was going to finally be reunited with my things and how long it would take. From the 20th until the 22nd I used the same clothes even as pyjamas.



In the Kathmandu airport I asked an English guy if he wanted to share a taxi to Thamel, the main tourist area of Kathmandu. Everyone goes there. I'm sure there are better areas to stay in, but if you really don't know anything about Kathmandu, I suppose it's the safest bet. The English guy's name was Dean and we hanged around the next few days from time to time. We ended up staying in the same hostel, a new one called “Happily Ever After”, which was cheap and good. There was an American girl staying there, Sylvie, who we hanged around with as well.



Note on side: If you're intending to stay over 30 days in Nepal, but are not sure, the best thing to do is get the 30 day visa and then an extension. Visa extensions are extremely easy to get in both Kathmandu and Pokhara and are cheap.



I went to Nepal thinking about doing the Annapurna circuit trek, plus the Annapurna base camp (ended up doing only the circuit though). There are a lot of circuits and treks in Nepal and I didn't really read anything about other treks. Somehow this circuit seemed very appealing. It was recommended to me by a friend.



The offer of tour agents and freelance guides is overwhelming. You get constantly bombarded by information, so if you haven't been here before, it can be a bit too much. There are a lot questions that arise, such as: "what kind of clothes do you take and are they going to be enough?". "Do you take a guide and/or porter or do it by yourself?" Etc., etc. I met a lot of people that said this trek was easily done without guides and that there are always plenty of people doing it. (After I finished the trek I wrote the entire Annapurna circuit in 3 posts. In the the third one I put a list of "useful information").



I spent the first days getting acquainted with my surroundings, asking in different places about the trek and what gear to take, etc. I did a lot of walking around.

One of the mornings I met with a tour guide who was the acquaintance of a distant cousin of mine. I asked him about all these questions I had and made up my mind to do the trek on my own. It was hard to make a decision, based on the little information I had.

I ended up buying the stuff (I thought) I needed for about 150USD in total. Most clothes are cheap fake copies of the originals, but do the work just fine.



One of the days I used to go to the tourist center to get the TIMS and the pass for the Annapurna region (takes about 30 minutes to walk from Thamel and it's easy to get there. The whole process doesn't take long either).



I spent 4 ½ days in Kathmandu. The first days focused on recovering my stuff from the airline and the rest thinking about the trek. In the end, all I wanted to do was to get going on the trek.



Anyway, there are plenty of good places to eat in Thamel and good bars as well. Finally, the 5th day, I took a taxi to the "bus station" (if it can be called that) and from there, a "tourist bus" to Besishahar (the starting point of the circuit). I teamed up with Dean and Sylvie for the first days of the trek.

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