We just finished an incredible three weeks trekking the Annapurna Cirucuit in Nepal.
We arrived in Nepal on March 26th with mixed emotions. We were very excited to be there because we had been dreaming of trekking the Annapurna Circuit for months. But we were also a bit anxious about our safety after hearing about 200 people being killed in a battle between the Maoist rebels and the army in a town called Beni, which was at the end of the trekking circuit. We felt a bit better about the situation when we got to our hotel and chatted with other travellers about the situation in Nepal. They all assured us that Maoists didn't target tourists, but there was still the risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We had also heard things about burning buses and having to give a 1000 rupee ($20) donation to the maoists, but we were assured that this wouldn't happen.
We hung around the bustling streets of the Thamel area of Kathmandu for a few days, getting caught up on our western food fix and buying gear for our trek. Not even an hour after we bought our bus tickets to head off to go trekking, we met two guys who had come back from the Annapurna region and told us that it would be impossible to catch the local bus to the town we needed to get to because of the Maoist situation. We didn't know what to think then, but decided not to change our plans and to just continue on with what we had planned to do.
That Monday morning, we got on the bus and headed off. The driving in the bus was crazy, as per usual. Buses passing buses, blind corners and oncoming traffic, not to mention the huge drop off if we ever did go off the road. There was a definite military presence with checkpoints going into many of the towns we passed through. All of the men would have to get off the bus and go through a security check before getting on again. Women, children, and tourists were exempt. We arrived in Besi Sahar by about 4pm that night after travelling all day. We were very relieved to actually get there since we were worried after talking to the guys in Kathmandu.
We had decided to hike the Annapurna Circuit after hearing so many fantastic things about it from Les and Kell who had done it in 1999. About two thirds of trekkers in Nepal hike in this region. There are three main hikes people do here - the Circuit, the Sanctuary, and Jomson, with the Circuit being the longest and highest. We had planned to hike for 16-20 days up as high as 5416 metres.
We headed off the next morning to start hiking in the mountains. We spent the next two weeks hiking the narrow trails to reach the highest point at Thorung La pass and back down to Beni. A typical day would be getting up at 6:30am, getting dressed, having breakfast, setting off to walk through rice fields, forests, small villages, past landslides, over bridges, past prayer wheels, stopping for tea and lunch along the way before getting to our end destination at night. We would stay in teahouses for at most $2 CDN a night. In the afternoon, we might sleep, read, write in our journals, wash our clothes, play cards, or just hang out before dinner. We would have dinner, chat with other trekkers, before everyone headed to bed in between 8-9pm. Our rooms were like very rustic cottage rooms. Simple but often cozy enough.
On our first day, not even three hours into hiking, we met a group of five Irish guys. I'm not sure if the mountains or meeting these guys was the highlight of our trip to Nepal. They were the kindest, funnest, and funniest group of guys you could ever meet. We ended up spending the next two weeks together. These guys, Dathie, Nigel, John, Barry, and Gary, are from a town called Wexford in the south east of Ireland. When we found this out, we told them that we had been to Wexford with Mom and Paul back in September and we had witnessed an Irish funeral/wake where there were hundreds of people walking behind the coffin through the streets. Well didn't it turn out that it was Gary's uncle and all of the guys were there walking in that procession that night. We couldn't believe the coincidence.
Our first night, we sat around and listened to their stories while we ate. Our bellies ached from all of the laughing. It started with Gary's "mouse money" story where he actually found a mouse cooked into his loaf of bread in Ireland. He ended up receiving 16,000 Irish Pounds ($30,000 CDN) for it which he used to go to the 2000 Olympics. Then the Dathie stories started. He was an amazing storyteller and he had many stories to tell about his family, working in the navy, and everyday stories about Wexford. These guys were all in their early 30s and had been friends since childhood so they had endless stories and jokes. The fun part was that when a story was told, they would all take turns at telling different parts of the story, even if they weren't there because they had heard about the incident so many times before. The stories continued for over two weeks, which kept us very well amused.
The trail was totally untouched by motorized vehicles, which was one of its great beauties. This meant that everything on the mountain trail had to be carried in by either a donkey train or porter. You would see and hear donkey trains almost all day long. There would be a group of eight to ten donkeys with bells around their necks carrying goods up to villages in the mountains. There is no doubt in my mind that the mountain porter job is the most difficult job in the world. These men can carry up to 80-90 kilos on their backs up the narrow and steep moutain paths. It was truly incredible. One day we all stopped and Gary and Bow tried to put their load on their backs. It wasn't possible. When Gary first tried, the entire load of goods toppled over and it took three men to get it up off the ground.
The Nepalese people are very poor but are always very happy and friendly. One man told me that Nepal actually stands for Never Ending Peace And Love. You would never walk past someone without saying "namaste" (hello). Many of the trekkers had a porter or guide. The Irish guys had hired Tej, their guide. He was excellent. He ended up helping us out quite a bit along the way and telling us more about life in Nepal and the Maoist situation.
The most exciting day of our trek was the day we reached Thorung La pass. This was the 10th day of our trek and what we had been leading up to. As we reached higher altitude levels we had to watch out for Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). The higher altitude meant thinner air, which could affect breathing. The brain could also swell leading to headaches. About three trekkers die each year from AMS. It made everyone a bit anxious because we were up so high and if anything went wrong you would have to be helicoptered out or taken down the mountain by a porter. There were only a few towns where helicopters could land so it made any type of medical emergency a huge deal. There were a few nights when we could feel our breathing change and we also had mild headaches, but that was quite normal.
The day of the pass, we were all up around 4:30am getting ready to head off. We left under the moonlight to start climbing to the highest point of the trek. There were many people on the mountain that day but it was very quiet. As we reached the top, it became extremely difficult to breathe. We had to stop every ten steps or so in order for me to catch my breath so we could move on. As you looked ahead and behind, most people were doing the same thing. Near the top, I didn't have much energy so Bow had to practically drag me up. All of a sudden we came around a corner and everyone we had been trekking with over the past 10 days were cheering and greeting us to congratulate us. It was an incredible feeling to finally reach 5416 metres. By this time, it was a beautiful crisp sunny day which meant we had perfect views all around us. We all stayed up at the top for an hour before heading down a steep 1600 metres to the village where we stayed that night.
It was a nice change to hike down for the following four days. We ended in Beni on Easter Monday with the Irish lads. It was a bit eerie to be in Beni where the bloodshed had happened only three weeks prior. We could see many bullet holes in a few of the buildings in town.
We spent the next two days in Pokhara, which is a great town on a lake overlooking the Annapurnas. We went out our first night since it was New Year's in Nepal. We were very surprised to find out that they were celebrating the upcoming year - 2061. I won't see that again until I'm 85 years old. It was a good night out, the streets were busy with people. However, around 10pm, some gang fights broke out with people kicking one another's motorbikes, which was unfortunate. Being back in a city, there were army everywhere with machine guns always seeming to be pointing directly at us when we were walking in the streets.
We headed back to Kathmandu on Wednesday. There was a definite increase in military presence. We had heard that there had been strikes and protests and maoists in the city. We decided to head back to Bangkok a week earlier than planned since we had finished our trek sooner than we thought we would.
We are now in Bangkok. It's been a very relaxing few days here. Instead of heading to the beach, we've decided to fly to Hong Kong for five days. We've heard so many things about it and it's so cheap to fly there from here. We leave tomorrow and come back on Saturday. Then we fly to Kuwait to visit Jay and Fiona for eight days, which we are really looking forward to.
Until next time,
Jill