More on the Annapurna circuit

I just wanted to add a little more about the recently competed Annapurna circuit. There is so much to write, as we saw so many different people places, mountains, trekkers, lodges and recent changes to the trail.

The main theme of the first few days was the little stomach bug that my dad picked up the night before the trek. I told him not to eat the chicken but he didn't listen, so for the next couple days there were a lot of pit stops and slow walking. A couple times it looked like he was going to tip over he was going so slow. But things turned around for 2 reasons. The first was meeting a girl with some pills that killed the bug with in a few hours, and also the decision to hire a temporary porter to lighten the load on my dads back. Chandra was his name. He did a great job, he wanted to finish the trek with us, but after 3 days dad was back in the saddle and had his legs back under him. And he was a little more travel wise, it's not a good idea to eat meat in a city that has about 4 hours of electricity, especially when you haven't been in said country for enough time to build up a little tolerance.

By the time dad was getting healthy, so were the views. To our left constantly was the Annapurna range, towering over us at 7500 meters. The villages of this section were so amazing. All made of stone, camouflaged into the scenery, with hay piled up and prayer flags flapping in the wind. Cute runny nosed kids saying, "namaste" The bow and arrow contest between all the wine drinking males. It just seemed like there was so much history and culture in these little places, everyone was super friendly, the food was delicious and the guesthouses accommodating and affordable. By this time of the trek we had made some good friends too, people we had been hiking with for the past 2 days, so besides the mountains and the culture we had the social aspect as well. In the evening's we would eat, chat with our new hiking partners, then hit the hay around 8pm to rest for the new days adventures. We were usally on the trail by 8am or so, but there was really no hurry, You just wander from village to village, eating and walking. One of the best things we did was leave for the pass after everyone else, we had the whole mountain to our self. Then caught all the trekking groups on the way down.

By the time we reached Manang, the elevation was starting to get a bit high, so there were a couple super short trekking days, like done with the walk by noon, the rest of the day was spent playing cards, eating tasty dal bhat, watching the weather roll in and listening to people scare each other with altitude sickness stories.

One big reason people attempt this trek is to trek over thorung-La, 17,770 foot pass. And it was highlight of our trip. The day before it snowed for a couple hours, leaving a dusting of snow on the barren hills, making for a beautiful morning. We left at 7am and were on the pass by 10am, so 3 hours to get from 14000 to 17000 feet, not to shabby for the old man, I thought. The pass was definitially a highlight o stand up there with their dad was something that not too man people can say they've done. A few days before we had actually discussed turning back becase h could barely move.

We also met a hell of a character, Frank from Germany at this stage of the trek.He was up here for a little training before he headed over to Tibet to climb Mt. Everest. So he was my dads porter on this day. He was planning on going solo, no ropes, oxygen, no support team. He is super accomplished, he's been up a few 8000 meter peaks. He gave us some local tips too. Like eating garlic to prevent altitude sickness. He said Viagra also works really well. sucking on a chili will keep you warm, and mixing coke in with your water is a good energy boost, he did all these things in the few hours we were with him, He also trekked about 20 miles a day, even with a nasty stomach bug.
The next few days were spent quickly loosing all the elevation we gained in the past days. We got down to the airport city of Jomnson pretty quick and my legs were feeling it. Going down is always harder on the joints than going up. In Jomson we were able to get online, there was a little withdraw, 11 days with no internet is a long time for us tech addicted Americans.I mainly wanted to see who had won the final four. I actually had Michigan St in the final game, but no Connecticut. It was also nice to have Yak burger. The scenery on the drier Jomsom side was a big change from the tree lined Manang area. Jomsom is in the Mustang area, which is brown and dry, but still beautiful in a unique way. The had some bright green irrigated fields that stood out in this arid area.
The next couple days we trudged down through rainy weather, walking on the newly completed controversial road that travels all the way up to Muktinath, near the pass. We made it down to Tatopani for a rest day and a soak in the hot springs, that rally hit the spot after a couple weeks of trekking. Plus by this time our posse of friends and acquaintances had ballooned to about 10 people.

I do have an opinion on this road, and it's not what you think. I am 100% pro road. As an avid trekker you would think I'm against it, but this is Nepal and I think it will have benefit for the people of this area. This country and these villages and mountains were not put here for tourists to gawk and take photos. The locals don't go trekking and wake up at 530 to take photos, they wake up at 5am to milk their cows and plow their fields. They just wan to have a good life and make some money, just like everyone else. And if tourist's complain that the road is ruining the place, than try one of the other dozen or so treks that have no roads in them. That's my editorial note for this entry.

So all in all the trek was fantastic, scroll down and check out some of the pictures. I captioned them all to add a little context to my free form, no notes blog entry. In a few hours I'll be flying up to Luckla to try my hand at Everest base camp, Cho-La pass, Gokyo lake and maybe a little more. For this trek i want to take my time, take some more photos and soak up all the mountain culture I can. Thanks for reading, Later.