Nepal and the Himalayas

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Well, after 32hrs in transit from Iceland we arrived in Kathmandu. Props to the Dehli airport for the remodel and the comfortable chairs. Minus points for the crappy sandwiches and smoothies that we had at the "Swich"sandwich place there. BLECH!

On the 26th we arrived in the Kathmandu airport, ghot our 30 day entry visas and caught our shuttle to the "Hotel Ganesh Himal right in the center of it all in the Thamel area of the city (tourist area). Immediately we noticed how busy, loud, dirty and vibrant the city is. The Lonely Planet claims that there are 1 million people in the city...I bet you there are waaaay more people than that! Having arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon, we just chilled out, ate and rested for the remainder of the day.

Our first full day in Kat we were on a mission. We had to find the passport office and get our visas extended by 15 days, get more passport photos for some trekking permits (digitally altered mind you...), get our TIMS trekking cards and get our Annapurna conservation area permits. It was a loooong day. We walked all over town, dodging motorbikes, cars, buses and basically everything but the kitchen sink on our quest to get all of our paperwork in order. We managed to survive all the honking and diesel smoke and returned to the hotel triumphant! The next day we marched our butts to the appropriately small and laid back Canadian Embassy to register ourselves for our trek (in case something happened...). After dodging more traffic and arriving at the embassy, we were told that we could not register there! WE had to do it online! AHHHHH! We made our way back to the hotel and had some delicious lunch. The food was both cheap and super awesome. Last tasks for the day were to pick up some trekking poles for Andrea and get some "trekking meds." The Pharmacy Specialist in our trekking party of 2 (Andrea) used her mad skills to pick up some meds to battle the feared Giardisis and Cryptosporidium ailments that are not that uncommon during trekking.

Despite all of the pollution, honking and the smell, Kat has its charms, but due to the race to complete our tasks and get to trekking, the exploration of the temples and history in the city was put off until after the trek. I am personally stoked about visiting the Swayambunath Temple (The MONKEY temple!).

After all the running around, Andrea and I took off to Pokhara via bus. Why Pokhara? Well, we thought that it was close to the beginning of our Annapurna Circuit Trek. We were wrong. Pokhara was still a 4hr bus ride from the beginning of the trail in Besi Sahar. While in Pokhara was did take the time to relax, watch some TV and do some "Forbidden Laundry." 😊

On Oct 1st we rode the "Mona Lisa"tourist bus to Besi Sahar to start our trek. After 4 hrs of bus ride and listening to the drivers mixed tape of Cher, Cotton-eye Joe, BS Boyz and Celine Dion, we arrived in Besi Sahar. Once off the bus, we gathered our bags, registered with the local trekking office and hit the trail. There is not much to say about the first day of hiking to Bhulbule. The hike was up a 4wd road and it was stupid hot and humid. We got to cross and exceptionally sketchy bamboo bridge, heard some insanely loud bugs and saw a bunch of very pretty butterflies. It was jungle sweaty and we were glad to arrive in Bhulbule after about 3hrs. We got some cheap digs, ate some Dhal Bhat and crashed for the night around 7:30.

After some banana porridge, we began or second day of "jungle trekking." Seriously?!?! We are hiking to the Himalayas and nobody told us about jungle. Graeme....Summer Balls in Nepal man.... As you can tell, day 2 was another hot and humid day, but the scenery was much improved. The day was spent hking wpast waterfalls, rice patties and crazy big and beautiful butterflies. While hoofing it up over a big rock in the trail, we saw some Humungous spiders hanging around in their webs a few feet overhead. I have a photo of one of the monsters. Who knew that spiders that big still used webs... We stopped for lunch in a small village called Ghermu with some fellow trekkers and then marched on to Jagat for the night....BUT! about 45 minutes before Jagat, the skies opened up on us and fully drenched us during a steep zig-zagging climb into town. Once in town, we hung up our soaked clothes and crashed for the night after eating some srt of rice dish.

On our thrid day of trekking we saw all sorts of neat little lizards and more crazy butterflies before getting into Dharapani for the night. There was more cool waterfalls along the way as well. At this point in the trek we are only averaging about 15km per day, but we are on the move for about 5-6hrs per day carrying about 40lbs of gear and keeping pace with the other trekkers.

Day 4 we moved on from Dharapani to Chame, another 5-6 hrs of hiking away. What do we remember about the day? A grueling 500m slog uphill, donkey dung all over the trail and feeling like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown with flies buzzing around our heads! Once in Chame, we passed the bank with abot 6 armed guards out front. They had machine guns! Wierd. In the evening we were rewarded with a great view down the valley of some massive snow capped peaks.

Day 5 was a pretty uneventful day as we hiked another 5hrs into Pisang. We decided to stay in Upper Pisang and the 100m climb into town was a bit torturous at the end of the day! The climb was worth it! We got our first close up view of one of the Himalayan giants. Despite our 3300m elevation in Upper Pisang, The 7937m Annapurna 2 peak loomed far overhead. Snow covered and utterly awesome, it made all the hiking and effort more than worth it. For 100Rs ($1.50) we had a room with a view of the mountain. WOW. $250 for the Columbia Icelfields hotel?!! Whatever!

Day 6 was, in a word, spectacular. After a hard climb of 300-400m we were rewarded with a panoramic view of Annapurna 2, 3, 4 and Tilicho Peak among others. At the top of the climb, we got to see some huge Golden Eagles cruising right past us. Pretty cool to look down on an Eagle flying at 3600m above sea level! We sat and ate some snickers as we took in the view of the mountains and the huge birds. The rest of the hike I kept taking photos and staring up at the mountains. 8hrs after our start, we arrived in Manang, completely worn out. Happily, we bumped into some friends we had made along the trail and hung out with them a bit before calling it a day.

Day 7 was an acclimatization day. At 3540m, I think that I was starting to feel the effects of the altitude and I had slept like crap last night. We did nothing, but eat, hang-out and drink cheap tea in town for most of the day. We did however, attend a free presentation on AMS (Altitude Sickness). We learned about HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema) and HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema). Oh Boy! We were advised about all of the symptoms of each and what to do in each case. All can occur above about 3000m, so we were advised to avoid sleeping more than 500m higher than our previous night and watch for headaches. Got a headache? DO NOT climb higher. Pop a tylenol and make sure you are hydrated instead. Is the headache worsening? DESCEND DESCEND DESCEND!!!! After the lecture we became quite paranoid about AMS and the other badnesses that can occur altitude.

Day 8, Andrea and I both feeling well, hiked up from Manang (a day hike) to the site of Milerepa's cave at about 4000m. The cave had been made into a small temple and we were surrounded by prayer flags on the nearby hills and trees. The temple was neat and all, but the glacier dangling off the face of Annapurna 3 was only another couple hundred meters higher up the hill. 😊 We wheezed and dragged our butts up to the base of a glacier for a great view. To our left was gravel and rock covered glacier. Every now and then, the melting ice would give way and rocks and gavel would tumble and crash down the slope. Directly ahead was the glacial finger hanging down the mountain face. To our right, Blue Sheep. They are very similar to Rocky Mountain Sheep, but the males massive horns do not curl. Instead, they twist slightly and point straight out to the side. After many mountainous photos, I got a massive headrush when I stood up. I think I was near passing out so I called the day once I recovered and we headed back to Manang. Along the way, Andrea and I had a disagreement about which way to take in a fork in the path. I was wrong, forced a detour and we had to back track 10 minutes uphill (at 4000m) to correct my error. I am ashamed of myself. Props to Andrea. 😊 Once back in Manang we ate an unspectacular dinner, but for dessert we had snickers rolls! What is a snickers roll you ask? Wrap a snickers bar in a pancake, fry it and voila! It tastes exactly as you imagine it would.

Day 9, Feeling pretty tired and worn out we took the day pretty easy. After four months of travelling, I am not the hiking machine that I once was. 😊 In addition, Andrea got head butted by a Pashmena goat yesterday and she needed some recovery time. She really did get head butted, but the cute little goat did no damage. HA! We did some short hikes around Manang to continue our acclimatization to the altitude. OH YES! I, Corey Holfeld, am now affeared of Yaks! On our way up to a viewpoint, our path was blocked by a big, snorting, vocalizing and dirt kicking male Yak. I almost peed myself. Andrea was laughing more than being affeared. Solution? A small Nepali man, carrying an unbelievable amount of hay on his back, walked right up to the beast, kicked it in the ribs and the animal simply grunted and moved on. Needless to say, I will never kick a Yak in the ribs. I shall do my best to avoid the angry ones!


After three full days in Manang, Andrea and I decided to move on. We decided to hike into Tilicho Lake, allegedly the world's highest, and picked our new home for the night along the way in Kangsar. From Kangsar, there are two routes to the base camp lodge 800m below the lake. There is a "high route"and "low route." After dropping our bags in Kangsar, we tried to explore the two routes a bit, having heard that the low route was dangerous due to falling rock in an active landslide area and that the high route was a real gut buster of a climb. Due to tremendously poor signage in 5hrs of exploring, we did not really figure out which route to take. From what we could tell, there were actually 3-4 routes that led to the base camp lodge! We gave up exploring for the day and crashed in Kangsar for the night.

On day 11, we started out planning to try the low route to the lakes base camp, but after passing many hikers that described the low pass as "scary," "dangerous," and "vertigo inducing," we decided to attempt the high trail. After about 4hrs of climbing and watching some male blue sheep fighting for a bit, we reached the top of the high trail. At the top, we were greeted by a 1ft wide piece across a sketchy rock slide before we could begin our descent down to the camp. To tired to be scared, we picked our way along the trail before reaching a good rest area 2-3 minutes later. AND THEN......Well, the base camp now sat about 800m below us! To get to the camp we got to descend down a zig-zagging trail that had been worn into the side of a "steep as f@#@" scree slope! Still too tired to be scared, we zigged and zagged down the sketchy7, sometimes moving trail, all the way to the bottom. Our reward? beds. Oh, there was not functional crapper so we got to "lighten our loads" in the bush when nature called. 😊 Those that arrived later than us got to sleep on the floor in the dining area. 😊

On day 12, we climber our way up to Tilicho Lake at 4920m. The lake is breathtaking and glacier comes right down to the aqua blue waters. We sat at the lake for about an hour, taking in the view of the snow covered mountains, glaciers and the lake. Just after our departure, we got to see a good sized avalanche steam roll down to the shore of the lake. Very cool.

Day 13. After 2 nights of dorm life (6-7 peeps per room) and having to put up with a smoochy Spanish couple AND the unsanitary conditions around camp due to the lack of a functional biffy, Andrea and I were ready to leave the Tilicho Lake base camp. Still affeared of the lower trail back to Kangasr, we decided to grind it out back up the 800m of scree slope that we had descended two days earlier and take the high trail again. The Grouse Grind has nothing on that climb! It took us 2hrs and 20minutes to reach the top. It was tough! We could not have made it up without our trusty hiking poles. WE will never ever forget that part of the trail and will never ever ever do that again! At the top we had another snickers break and watched some sort of woodpecker/Cockateal looking bird rummage around in the dirt along the trail and make motions like it was setting up a nest. Neat little bird! Shortly afterwards we met a fellow hiker and chatted for a bit at the peak of the trail. A few hours later we were at a guesthouse in Shree Kharka for the the night.

Day 14 was a rest day! I have a slightly impacted toenail on my right foot at this point and it needs some TLC! We ate and ate and ate and played some cards etc... Plain boiled potatos with kethcup are pretty tasty after a few days on the trail! We spent some time discussing our future travels in South East Asia and I wrote down some blog in my trusty Hello Kitty notebook. 😉

Day 15. Today we marched our butts from Shree Kharka over to Ledar on our way to the Thorung La Pass (the highest in the world at 5416m). We took a shortcut...yeah right! The so called shortcut was an up and down affair over hilly terrain for about 3hrs until we met the main trail to Ledar. In total it took about 5hrs to reach Ledar today at 4200m. Once set up for the night in Ledar, we watched with smiles on our faces as three baby goats played around in the field across the trail from our room. They are cute I must say. 😊 For dinner, we had some taters in the smoke filled kitchen at the guesthouse. Later in the evening we watched some random dude hike into town in the virtual darkness around 6pm (random!) and listened to an orchestra of horse bells as an apparent herd was brought into town as we were trying to sleep around 7:30pm.

Day 16. The destination today was Throung Phedi at the base of the Thorung La pass. Having heard that the accomodation in the village could be scarce, we were up at the crack of 4:30 and on the road as soon as we had enough lighjt at 5:45. On the way we saw some grouse like birds waddling up a scree slope and got some nice early morning views of the mountains. After about 1hr 45mins, we arrived in Thorung Phedi and snatched up a small double room. As for the day, we sat in the attached restaurant and ate, played shithead (card game), played chess and ate some more! Highlights of the day included chatting with Wally (66 year old guy from Arizona), watching a ridiculous spanish film crew and attempting to tell off a german trekker.

The spanish film crew......well, they all matched outfits for one, but the best part was watching their "medic" explain to a girl with AMS symptoms that getting the shakes at altitude is ok. IT IS NOT! The best advice if you get a headache AND the shakes on your trek? GO DOWNHILL! Stupid tards.

As for the german.....Well, the whole restaruant was enjoying some good North American rock'n'roll (White Stripes) until Senor Douche asked "who is in charge of the music?" He had them change to Nepali music because he felt that the music was ruining the experience of Nepal. My tired and frustrated response to the "the douche" was "thanks for making the decision for all of us." I was very sarcastic, but I think that he thought that I was thanking him! As for the Nepali music? The awesome Nepali in charge of the tunes played Bob Marley! Rad! Apparently Senor Douche thought is was Nepali because he seemed content with the Marley. 😊

After enjoying some delicious chocolate buns and seeing waaaay too many people with AMS headaches, we went to bed and froze our asses of again (-2C).

Day 17....the climb! We opted for the 6am start instead of the 3am start (which I'm certain was freezing and slippery on the icey trail) The climb itself was fairly uneventful for us, though we ran into many winded trekkers with AMS and witnessed many slips and slides on the ice. In excellent time, we made it to our final goal of 5416m, documented the journey with some photos and a snickers bar and enjoyed the top sans AMS (our earlier hard work payed off). And then, the knee-busting 1600m downhill part. Yeah, sore feet and knees...we'll leave it at that. The day ended in the town of Muktinath, with a piece of apple pie.

Days of Dusty Trails and Bus Battery- These were some of the toughest days of the trek. We were so close to the end, but two days of dusty roads through dirt hills seemed....well......pretty lame. We figured the first day of not walking would be fabulous, but the jeep and two buses we took literally left us black and blue. Finally we made it to Pokhara and have been relaxing ever since. Showers are great, but sadly the beer leaves much to be desired here 😊 (though 650mL bottles do help). We've booked some bus tickets (ON A NICE COMFORTABLE BUS) to Chitwan National Park to hopefully go and see some Rhinos, Bears, Tigers and Elephants in the next few days!

Now tired, but happy and clean!

Corey and Andrea

More to come at a future date. Stay tuned 😉

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