Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, Part 1 (Days 0 - 12)

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Dec 13, 2005.

The trip report is broken into two sections, Part 1 (Days 0-12) and Part 2 (Days 13-21).


Our itinerary was to fly from San Francisco to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to Bangkok, and then finally from Bangkok to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Judy was paranoid about the airlines losing our baggage and wanted to bring all our bags onto the plane as carry-ons. This didn’t quite work out because our ticket check-in person turned out to not be blind. Our North Face duffels were clearly too large to be carry-ons. He made us check the bags in and labeled the bags “Priority” to help reassure Judy that they wouldn’t get lost.

The flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong turned out to be much faster than expected. We took the red-eye flight that left Thursday evening (Oct. 20) and since it was nighttime anyway, I ended up sleeping a good 8-9 hours on the flight.

Our Hong Kong layover was 1.5 hours and our Bangkok layover was only 50 minutes. For domestic flights, that is typically fine, but for international flights, it’s probably a good idea to leave a bit more time between flights just in case. Fortunately for us we had no problems as our flights all arrived on time or only slightly late. However, we learned a good lesson for future travel.

Saturday, Oct. 29 – Kathmandu
We arrived at Kathmandu a day earlier than we needed to be there. Judy (who basically planned the entire trip during her hiatus from work), planned our early arrival intentionally to help account for any potential flight delays. Our plan was to obtain a Nepal visa at the Kathmandu airport (we had our photos taken at home that we brought with us).

Of course, a bunch of other people from our flight had the same idea so we ended up having to wait about 45-60 minutes to get our visa. Overall, the process went smoothly enough. We passed the time in line chatting with a nice man from Canada who had married a Nepalese woman and now lived in Nepal. He told us a bit about the country and the places we should try to see during our stay.

After obtaining our visa, we picked up our bags (which got to Nepal with no problems) and then changed some money. The next step was to find a taxi to get to our hotel. That turned out to be no problem at all as we were basically mobbed by people selling taxi services as we walked out of the airport.

We were soon in a taxi on our way to the Kathmandu Guest House. The taxi ride was relatively uneventful, though I did notice how bad the street pollution was. The air felt dirty and heavy and I actually found myself having a harder time breathing.

A special festival, the Festival of Lights, was occurring during this time and several streets were closed off due to it. As luck would have it, the street to our hotel was closed off so after being dropped off by the taxi, we had to walk a quarter of a mile or so to the hotel.

It was around 2:30 PM when we checked in. At first, they couldn’t find our reservation because we had registered with GAP adventures instead of Intrepid whom the hotel was more familiar with. It’s basically the same entity so we soon got that sorted out and headed to our room.

After unloading our stuff, we headed out to check out the surroundings. The street outside the Kathmandu Guest House is basically totally geared towards tourists. There are shops galore where you can buy really cheap gear (Gore-Tex jackets, down jackets, sleeping bags, backpacks, etc.) from The North Face and other major brands. Although they were almost certainly imitations, the quality actually didn’t seem that bad.

Judy ended buying a cool Sherpa-style hat. After dinner, we retired early back to the hotel. Judy hadn’t gotten much sleep during the flight so she was pretty tired.

This turned out to be an extremely long trip report and I decided to create a single monster report rather than split each day into individual entries. To facilitate navigation, here’s some quick anchor links to each day of the trek:

Day 1 (Sunday, Oct. 30) – Kathmandu (Orientation Meeting)
That night’s sleep was marred by pigeons of all things. For some reason, there were a bunch of pigeons seemingly right outside of our window, and they fluttered and cooed throughout the night.

Our only engagement that day was a 5 PM group orientation at our hotel. We therefore had basically a full day to explore the city. We decided to head to the Kathmandu Durbar Square, a popular tourist destination. Being newbie travelers, it was a bit disconcerting walking down the street at first. We had a map and knew roughly where we were going, but we were still in a very unfamiliar place. There were lots of people and we were carrying a good deal of money and traveler’s checks (we thought it would be safer than leaving them in the hotel) so I found myself constantly checking my money belt to make sure it was there and/or not easily picked off. For the most part, our worries were completely unfounded and as the day went on, we gradually became more comfortable with our new surroundings.

We finally reached Durbar Square where a man asked if we wanted a guide. At first we said no, but he was persistent (in a nice way) and since we really didn’t know where to go or what anything was, we ended up agreeing to paying for his guide services.

It ended up being a great decision. Our guide’s name was Toya and he showed us around Durbar Square and explained a lot of the things we would have never known without his help. Obviously, it was helpful that he spoke English pretty well, and we were impressed to discover that in addition to English and Nepalese, he also spoke Japanese and French.

In addition to Durbar Square, we also wanted to check out the Monkey Temple. Our agreement with Toya was only for Durbar Square, but we agreed to pay a bit more to have him take us to the Monkey Temple. All in all, we paid Toya 1500 rps (~$21) for 3-4 hours of his time.

We still had some time to kill before our orientation meeting. Since it was so cheap at the beauty parlor in the hotel, Judy decided to get her eyebrows waxed before the trek. It turns out that they don’t actually wax your eyebrows but instead “thread” it. This basically involves a thread that they manually scrape across areas in which you want hair removed. Somehow, the thread removes the hair. They “threaded” Judy’s eyebrows. The end result was just like a waxing and it didn’t particularly hurt either. Interesting.

At 5 PM, we met our guide (Rajesh or Raj for short) and the rest of our group (in the order I met them): Renee, Beck, Troy, Guy, Rob, Hannah, Phil, Lisa, Leigh, and Barbara. With the exception of Phil who was from the U.K. and Hannah who was from Canada, everyone else was from Australia.

Judy decided after the orientation that she wanted to get some pants to trek in. She had read that it was advantageous and customary for women to wear skirts on treks like this, but a quick poll of the women in our group made her decide to get pants instead. Fortunately, we didn’t have much trouble finding stores that sold pants.

After the pant purchase, we had dinner at a Thai restaurant (Yin Yang) and then retired fairly early back to our hotel room. Although we had already been away from home for several days, all that time was really just a pre-cursor to the main event. Our adventure would not really begin until tomorrow.

Day 2 (Monday, Oct. 31) – Besisahar (760m)
Once again, the pigeons raised a considerable ruckus during the night. We had packed our stuff the night before. Not wanting to overload the porters who would be carrying all our gear during, we separated all the stuff that we didn’t really need for the trek, put them into stuff sacks, and checked them in with the hotel.

After eating breakfast at the hotel, we grabbed our trekking bags and had to walk a quarter mile or so to the bus stop. The bus was soon loaded and we were on our way! After a couple of hours, we stopped for a tea and toilet break. Here, we got our first taste of many suspension bridges to come. We then went on a short hike where we were shown a funky looking tree. I don’t recall exactly, but I think it was the oldest tree in Nepal (or something like that).

Knowing that it would be a fairly long bus ride on potentially curvy roads, Judy and I decided to take Bonine to avoid any motion sickness. The ride went smoothly until we encountered a major delay on the curvy mountain road. An oil tanker had somehow flipped over pinching off traffic on the two-lane road. The accident resulted in a 3-hour delay which threw our schedule into a tailspin.

We didn’t get to eat lunch until almost 3 PM. Everyone had dahl Bhaat, which is the staple dish of Nepal. It consists of a large plate of rice (bhaat) and lentil soup (dahl) as well as some side dishes. The side dishes can vary quite a bit from potato/vegetable curry to greens to pickled vegetables.

After lunch, the side effects of the Bonine really kicked in. I was incredibly drowsy and slept for much of the bus ride from that point. We arrived at the hotel at around 7 PM, and had dinner in the dim, candlelit room of the hotel. After eating, everyone pretty much just went to bed.

Day 3 (Tuesday, Nov. 01) – Bahundanda (1310m)
Very early in the morning, most everybody was awakened by roosters and the loud honking and passing by of trucks and buses. We were never quite sure what all the hustle and bustle was about, especially since all the noise oddly seemed to subside after we got up.

Those who ordered the scrambled eggs for breakfast were in for a treat. Not sure whether they got the condiments mixed up or if it’s their special recipe, but the scrambled eggs had sugar in them. I wasn’t too fond of them and neither was anyone else.

Our porters had packed up our bags and we were all impressed with the amount of weight they would be carrying. Shortly afterwards, we finally began our trek in earnest. Starting from the hotel, we continued along the dirt road out of Besisahar. We soon passed a large swingset constructed from tall stalks of bamboo with kids taking turns swinging on it. This type of swingset was erected specially for the festival and we’d see several more of these during the trek.

About an hour later, we reached a stream crossing. Although there wasn’t a bridge, it was possible to delicately walk across the stream on some rocks. The rocks seemed a bit precarious because of their shape and spacing so most people elected to take off their shoes and socks and walk through the water. I decided to try walking across on the rocks. I almost made it, but lost my balance a bit on one of the rocks and had to step into the water with my left foot. Oh well, now I had to hike with one soggy shoe for a while.

On the other side of the stream, Bec stopped to open her pack and was immediately swarmed with kids hoping that she had sweets to offer. One of the Nepalese words we learned came in very handy during situations like these: Chaina (“No”)!

Lunchtime found us at Ngadi where we were treated to a music and dance show by some of the locals. The music was supplied with a cassette taped played through a cheap boom-box, the sound quality of which, especially in an open outdoor environment, left a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, the show was entertaining and at the end, Lila and Phil jumped in to join the dance action.

Rob decided to see what it was like to haul around one of the porter’s packs, Nepalese style. The Nepalese prefer not to use Western backpacks the way they were designed, and instead prefer to haul stuff the traditional way with a head strap. Carrying loads in this manner transfers the vast majority of the load to your head and consequently your neck. It’s certainly not a method that would work for Westerners, but is a very natural thing for the Nepalese who have been raised hauling loads in this manner.

While it is true that most Nepalese are accustomed to carrying loads this way and have done so since childhood, it is nevertheless amazing how much weight they can carry. Raj, our guide, said that many porters can carry 100-150kg (220-330lb), and we were surprised to hear that there are also female porters that typically can carry 50-100kg (110-220lb). I still find that hard to believe and am not convinced that is totally true. Regardless, the fact remains that they can carry A LOT of weight, certainly much more than I or a typical Westerner can.

Later that day during one of our rest stops, Renee accidentally dropped her sunglasses in the toilet. Fortunately, Barbara had a spare pair. Otherwise, Renee would have been faced with the very unpleasant decision of either retrieving her sunglasses or continuing on without them.

We reached our hotel before the porters, and by nightfall, the porters were still nowhere to be seen. When they finally arrived, it wasn’t clear why they were late. Raj said that one of the porters (Raju apparently) had gotten a blister which slowed them down. It was clear that this was the real reason for their delay and some speculated that perhaps the porters took some time to enjoy the festival activities along they way. Either way, they appeared to be OK and all our bags were intact.

The dining hall in the restaurant was pretty dark, but the food was OK. The annoying thing was that a bunch of bugs started flying around, seemingly attracted to the light. While the bugs didn’t bite, they were annoying because they were pretty much all over the place, and since it was dark, you weren’t sure how many bugs you were actually eating with every bite. Everyone probably got a bit of extra protein for dinner that evening.

Most of us hit the hay soon after dinner. There was quite a bit of noise from the festival celebration in the nearby village – lots of singing and dancing and… also some fighting from what we heard from Barbara the next morning. Apparently, one of the locals got drunk and started insulting the porters, the result of which was a brawl. Although it wasn’t clear to me, it didn’t seem like any of our porters were directly involved in the conflict.

Day 4 (Wednesday, Nov 02) – Chamje (1430 m)
The day began as most of our days would: up at 6:30AM, breakfast at 7:30AM, ready to go at 8:00AM. The weather was again beautiful and we saw several waterfalls, various locals hauling heavy loads on their heads, and many nice and friendly Nepalese.

Renee seemed to have the most interesting day as she reportedly had a near death experience. Evidently, a donkey nearly pushed her off the side of a cliff, and she was saved by the donkey herdsman who was able to grab her in the nick of time and prevent her from falling to her death. Whew! Later that day, Renee saw some human feces just off the trail with some big worms in it. She thought they were just earthworms, but Raj matter-of-factly stated that they were actually internal worms and that it wasn’t uncommon for people to be afflicted with these. Yuck.

We passed a bunch of Maoist rebels. They were just kids. It was odd, and also sad, to see young boys and girls walking around carrying rifles. We heard later that Lila had to pay off the rebels at around $2/person/day.

Troy had run into some trekkers on the trail coming from the other direction. They reported that there was around 70 cm (~28 in) of snow along the Thorung Pass and that they had to turn around as a result. Bummer! Since they were there 8-9 days ago and we wouldn’t get there for another 8-9 days, hopefully the snow would not be an issue for us by the time we got there.

A quick round-up of the day’s events: Leigh developed a blister that Hannah the nurse helped tend to at lunch; Lisa fell into a bush and developed a somewhat painful rash on her left arm which continued to hurt at dinner time.

Our hotel that night had a shower. Hot water was available although not directly from the shower. Water would be boiled and put in a big bowl that you could take into the shower. I decided to help prevent further tourist-induced deforestation by taking a cold shower. I’m not sure it was worth it, however, as it was one of the coldest showers I had ever taken. Brrrr!!!

The dining room at this hotel wasn’t very bright. I was worried that there would be bugs here again because the elevation wasn’t that much different than the night before (only 120 m higher), but fortunately, there were no bugs here. We didn’t end up eating until 7:30 PM or so because the chef was out partying in celebration of the festival. Raj and the assistant guides ended up having to do much of the cooking. Despite being late and forgetting Phil’s tuna momos, the dinner was good.

Day 5 (Thursday, Nov 03) – Bagarchhap (2160 m)
We were lucky again with the weather – sunny and clear blue skies. Our hike took us past more waterfalls, suspension bridges, and lots of marijuana bushes. At one of our rest stops, all the girls (except Bec) and Phil (clearly, the Nepalese woman considered Phil to be “one of the girls”) were given a beautiful flower lei in celebration of the festival. It was a nice gesture, especially the recognition of Phil as one of the girls.

Our hotel rooms that evening were good-sized compared to previous nights. We arrived early enough that I had some time to do some laundry at the nearby outside spigot. The water was absolutely freezing! I could only quickly scrub my clothes in the basin for a few seconds before having to remove my hands from the water to warm back up. While I was washing, a nice lady came up to share the spigot with me – she was washing a bunch of vegetables for our dinner and seemed impervious to the cold water. I told her that I thought the water was really cold and she just laughed and said that the water was warm. I’m sure she thought I was a wuss.

Showers were once again available, this time with hot water from the shower itself. Well, actually it wasn’t hot, but lukewarm. Still, it was much better than the chilly shower I took the night before.
After my shower, I put on some warm clothes and headed to the dining room to begin “Into Thin Air”, a best-selling book by Jon Krakauer detailing the true story of the fatal May 1996 summit of Mount Everest. A book about such a horrific mountaineering tragedy in history may not have been the best choice for reading on such a trip, but it was a book that I’ve been eagerly wanting to read for some time but just never got around to. Such a trip would be the perfect opportunity to getting around to reading it. Interestingly enough, I was not the only one who had decided to bring this book along. Bec and Leigh were reading it as well. At any rate, it was quite nice to sip warm tea and curl up with a book and read by candlelight.

For dinner, I decided to try the vegetable padoga which consists of a bunch of vegetables mashed together and deep fried. I found it absolutely delicious as did several others who tried it.

Shortly after dinner, the real festivities began. Since tonight was the end of the festival, it was imperative that we all do a bit of celebrating. With the music pumping, Prim, Lila, Raju and the rest of the porters wasted no time in getting their grooves in motion and Raj soon jumped in to show off his unique flowing hand dance. It wasn’t long before everyone was on the dance floor having a good time.

Day 6 (Friday, Nov 04) – Chame (2670 m)
It was quite cold the night before, likely a sign of things to come as we continued ascending in elevation. What made the cold night worse is that I had to get up to pee at around 5:30 AM. I only had to hold it an hour or so longer until we had to get up but just couldn’t. It’s definitely not pleasant having to get out of your warm sleeping bag into the cold.

Unfortunately, Guy started feeling pretty bad last night and was still not well this morning. One of my worst fears was to get sick on a trek like this and I desperately hoped that both Judy and me, and everyone else for that matter, would stay healthy during the entire trek.

We passed by a bunch of Buddhist prayer wheels and walked through some major road construction. During one of our rest stops, two men were teamed up to pound a stake into a big rock. The intent was to create a cylindrical hole in the rock into which a stick of dynamite can be dropped to blow the rock up into smaller, more manageable chunks. One man would position the stake while the other would pound a sledgehammer into the stake. Troy decided to lend a hand and whacked the stake a few times with the sledgehammer.

Shortly afterwards, we were able to catch some nice views of the Manaslu Peaks. Lunch found us in the small town of Thanchok. Although the festival was over, the restaurant’s chef was still away so Raj had to help with the cooking again. Since the veggie padogas were so good the night before, both Leigh and I decided to each order a plate of them. Big mistake. Not sure whether the padogas at this place just didn’t taste as good or whether we just ate too much of them that we got really sick of them, but after a few padogas, I started to find them extremely unappetizing. I finished my plate, but Leigh couldn’t quite finish hers. There were quite a few of them left so we decided to give the leftovers to the guides and porters. Hopefully it added some spice and variety to their usual Dal Bhaat.

We trekked on after lunch and on the trail, Judy made a new Nepalese friend. One of the locals who happened to be going in the same direction was really friendly and just came up and started talking with Judy. He was probably just trying to practice his English (or maybe he was just trying to hit on her, who knows?), but they ended up walking and talking for a good half hour or so.

Our hotel rooms in Chame were big and spacious. It was clear that we were gaining elevation because it was noticeably colder once the sun went down. Judy decided it might be a good idea to have another thick fleece so she ended up buying a nice imitation North Face fleece jacket for around 900 rps (~$12.90).

I’m not sure if it was the padogas or something else, but I was feeling pretty nauseous when we got to the hotel. The mere thought of padogas made me want to hurl. Fortunately, nothing came out, but I still wasn’t feeling very good. I decided that it might be a good idea for me to get another fleece so I went to the little shop across from our hotel and bought a nice imitation Patagonia pullover fleece shirt. The owner charged me 400 rps (~$5.70), and altough I tried to haggle, he refused to budge. Since I wasn’t feeling all that well, I gave in and bought it at the initial asking price.

After getting some warm food in me from dinner, I felt better. Unfortunately, Guy was still feeling like crap and he pretty much slept from the time we got to the hotel until the next morning.

After dinner, most of us hung out in the dining room because the wood stove in the middle of the room made things moderately warm. Plus, there was a TV connected to a real satellite dish. We watched some soccer as well as the Nepalese version of MTV, complete with fashionistas and scantily clad women. The Westernization of Nepal was clearly in motion.

Day 7 (Saturday, Nov 05) – Lower Pisang (3200 m)
The night before, Barbara recounted how a bunch of army guys bandying guns had come into the hotel to perform a room check. They didn’t actually check every single room and instead just sat down to watch a bit of TV and then left. It was likely more a formality than anything.

I felt much better after a good night’s sleep and fortunately, so did Guy. He reported feeling 70% of normal and even led Phil and Rob through some stretching exercises that morning before we got underway.

From the balcony of the hotel, Annapurna II was visible in all her glory. Raj says that it was Annapurna IV while Ramesh says that it was Annapurna II. After looking at the map, I’m siding with Ramesh.

Shortly into the day’s trek, a group of us were nearly trampled by a galloping horse. We were just walking through the town along the main pathway when I heard a horse coming up behind me. I glanced back expecting a horse or donkely to be slowly approaching, but the horse was trotting with seemingly no intention of stopping for things or people in its way. The pathway was narrow enough that I had to jump out of the way. Hannah was behind me and had to do the same, and she just narrowly avoided getting hit by the horse. She took a stumble, fell, and bruised her arm a bit. Not sure what was going on, but the horse had a rider so perhaps the man had decided to have a bit of fun at the expense of us tourists.

Our surroundings were clearly changing as the environment slowly became more alpine and more remote. Towns and villages were more spread apart and while we still saw plenty of people along the trail, there seemed to be less than in prior days.

We passed by some apple orchards and during one of our rest stops, fresh, organic apples could be bought for only 5 rps ($0.07). Lunch was in the town of Pokhari (3060 m). I ordered the Tibetan Thuka, a new dish on the menu, which consisted of noodles in a thick soup with vegetables. It was delicious! I also tried the cinnamon roll which wasn’t that great – it had sesame seeds on it which was kind of strange, and more importantly, it didn’t have the white frosting on it so it wasn’t very sweet.

After lunch, we hit a section of trail that was covered with snow. It was certainly colder at this elevation, but the main reason the snow was still there was because this section of the mountain didn’t get much direct sunlight – it was shady for most of the day. There were some icy areas and although several people took some slips and falls, none of them were very serious.

Day 8 (Sunday, Nov 06) – Rest Day at Lower Pisang
I finally remembered to take my watch off so I could measure the temperature. Last night it got to 33F (0.7C) in our room (it was certainly even colder outside). Brrrr, that’s pretty cold! We were both really happy to have high-quality down sleeping bags.

When Judy awoke, she felt nauseous, had a bit of diarrhea, and no appetite. Oh no, hopefully she’s not getting sick. At least today was a rest day. The itinerary was to hike up to about 4000 m where there was a nice viewpoint of the valley below. Since she wasn’t feeling well, Judy decided to forego the hike. Hannah also decided to pass on the hike in order to rest her knee which had gotten pretty sore from all the hiking thus far.

The rest of us went on the day hike which went pretty much straight uphill. We went through a Buddhist village and then visited a Buddhist monastery. During the entire way up, we were treated to expansive views of Annapurna IV as well as cool views of the valley below where our hotel was. The climb up was a tough trudge, but it was made a bit lively by a few sporadic snowball fights that broke out on the way up. In addition, we had our first yak sighting – nothing really exciting though as it was just a single yak some distance away.

Everyone was able to get to the top and the view was very nice indeed. We could see all of Annapurna IV, the valley below, and also where we would be headed. In the distance, we could see an airstrip which we would pass by tomorrow.

Coming back down was much quicker than going up. As we neared the bottom, we passed a field where there were dozens of mountain goats. We got back to the hotel well in time for lunch.

Judy felt quite a bit better after lunch which was a really good thing. Since we still had half a day ahead, many of us decided to do some laundry. Even in the midday sun, the spigot water was icy cold. The hotel had strings laced around the building to hang wet clothes and before long, nearly every inch of the strings were being used for this purpose.

I had assumed that the mountain air was very dry and that the clothes wouldn’t take very long to dry. For whatever reason, certain clothes, particularly my socks, seemed to take a long time to dry. Bec decided to use the wood stove in the dining room to help speed up the process. By holding articles of clothing close to the stove, they would actually start steaming. Soon, there was a group of people huddled around the stove holding their wet clothes close to it. There were drying lines in the dining room as well, and as the sun went down, these lines were quickly filled with people’s clothes, including bras.

Prior to dinner, Judy wanted to play chess so I taught her. In her debut game, I promptly kicked her ass in the aspect of chess playing.

It was Rob’s 49th birthday that day and Raj was gracious enough to have a cake baked for Rob that night, complete with 4 candles. It was a nice gesture and we were all able to have a nice dessert before retiring to bed.

Day 9 (Monday, Nov 07) – Manang (3540 m)
That morning, Judy’s stomach felt better but now she had a pretty bad sore throat. I felt a slight lump in my throat as well and desperately hoped that we would both be able to fight off whatever bug we had.
Last night, several of the girls (Hannah, Barbara, Renee, and Lisa) stayed up late and the hotel owner wasn’t too happy when Raj asked her to get more wood to keep the fire going. C’mon lady, don’t you know that the most important thing is to keep the Westerners happy? The fact that firewood is hard to come by in the mountains and that tourist-induced deforestation is occurring at an alarming rate are all secondary considerations to the comfort and happiness of Westerners. Geez lady, get a clue.

The environment around us was definitely becoming more remote and as we continued to ascend, snow became more commonplace. Actually, snow itself wouldn’t have been that bad. It’s when the sun melts the snow and the trail becomes muddy that the trekking becomes more difficult. We trekked through many a long section of mud.

We decided not to stop for lunch but instead elected to push on to Manang and have lunch there. As a result, we didn’t eat lunch until around 3 PM. Along the way to Manang, we saw spectacular views of Annapurna III (7555 m), including an avalanche as it occurred, as well as Tilicho Peak (7134 m). The scenery was beautiful. We also passed a yak slaughter area, an open area where a yak or yaks had apparently just been slaughtered. There was blood all over the rocks, and slabs of yak meat all over the place. In fact, I walked right behind a couple of guys who were carrying baskets full of various parts from a freshly killed yak.

Our Manang hotel was the best yet. It had a courtyard layout, there were toilets in the rooms themselves, and a solar water heating system provided true hot showers. The menu was also quite extensive with several items containing, as expected, fresh yak meat.

Manang was a pretty good sized town compared to the other towns we had passed through. In fact, it even had a mini theater. A group of us (Bec, Troy, Guy, Rob, Hannah, and myself) decided to check out the movie “Into Thin Air” of which I was reading the book on which the movie was based. I had almost finished the book by this time so watching the movie didn’t spoil anything.

As expected, the movie theater was pretty small with a maximum capacity of perhaps 30 only or so people. Movies were shown in English with English subtitles as well. My guess is that they were just showing pirated DVDs. We were let in to the theater a few minutes before the designated start time. However, “start times” were apparently just very rough approximations. The movie “Ray” was playing when we entered and was not anywhere near its end. We sat through nearly an hour and a half of “Ray” (which I hadn’t seen before but looked like a really good movie) before “Into Thin Air” started.

Despite some pretty bad acting, the movie was still fairly entertaining because the underlying story is so good. After the movie was over, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was Renee’s 30th birthday today and Raj arranged to have a cake made for this occasion as well.

Day 10 (Tuesday, Nov 08) – Rest Day at Manang
Uggghhh… the previous night I had a horrible sore throat, the kind where you don’t want to swallow because it hurts so bad. Plus, it got pretty cold – my watch indicated 36F (2.2C) inside our room. My sore throat improved through the night. I still felt sick when I got up in the morning, but at least my throat was feeling a better. Judy was feeling a bit better as well, but still not 100%.

Today was an acclimatization day and involved a day hike up to around 4000 m. There was lots of snow and ice on the way up. At the top, we had a spectacular view of the mountains around us as well as Manang below. Raj, Prem, and the porters had some fun hurling snowballs at each other at the top.

While snow and ice didn’t really affect the uphill part of the hike, the downhill was certainly made more difficult for many people in the group. The guides and porters pretty much held the hands of the girls (Bec excluded) and helped them down the hill.

We returned in time for lunch and I decided to veer from the vegetarian diet I had adopted to try a yak burger. After all, where else was I going to be able to have a yak burger? I had to at least try one. The meat was likely very fresh (the yak slaughter area was very close), and the fact that Phil had eaten a yak burger the prior day and was still alive provided an added margin of safety. The yak burger did taste different, but overall I thought it was just average.

Since we probably wouldn’t be able to shower for the next several days, I decided to take a shower. The water was pretty warm, but after this shower, I started re-thinking whether a shower was actually worth it. The problem is that everything is nice and warm when you are taking the shower. However, when you’re done and you turn the water off, the cold very, very quickly sets in and you are left freezing! I was literally shivering while drying myself off and putting my clothes back on. Sure, I felt clean afterwards, but I’m not sure those moments of freezing cold were worth it.

Judy, Leigh, and I hung out at the courtyard table for a while, basking in the warm sun. Unfortunately, the sun’s warm rays were soon blocked by the hotel building and once the sun goes down, it gets cold in a hurry. I retreated to the dining room to finish “Into Thin Air”. Judy showed up shortly afterwards and engaged the porters in a game of cards. The porters were fond of a game that was called, for lack of knowing its real name, 3 pairs, the object of which is to get 3 pairs with suits being irrelevant. It was pretty much a game of luck, but the porters seemed to enjoy it quite immensely.

I still wasn’t feeling very well so I pretty much just ate dinner and went to bed.

Day 11 (Wednesday, Nov 09) – Yak Kharka (4018 m)
I awoke this morning feeling pretty much like shit. Judy felt better (light congestion), but was also feeling weak and tired. The timing for all this was poor because in two days we’d be crossing Thorung Pass which, at 4450 m, would be the highest point of our trek. Not only that, but the distance traveled and the terrain crossed would make the day quite challenging physically.

My condition made today’s trek a struggle, and the muddy trail conditions only made things worse. Fortunately, it wasn’t a very long day as we reached our destination, Yak Kharka, at around 12:30 or so. As soon as we got our rooms, I went to lay down to rest for a little while.

I got up for a dahl Bhaat lunch, stayed out in the warm sun until it retreated behind the mountain, then went back to our room to rest. Despite being in my 15 F down sleeping bag and wearing lots of clothes (T-shirt, light fleece, wind jacket, and my down jacket), I was still cold. My watch indicated that the room temp was only 37 F so clearly something was wrong with me.

After a few hours I got up and felt a little bit better. After dinner, Raj recommended that I try “steaming”. Steaming involves putting a few drops of menthol into a bowl of hot water and lowering your head near the bowl so that you breathe in the vapors. Your head is covered with a towel to make the vapors even more potent. The process is supposed to help clear congestion in your nose, throat, and chest. I went first, followed by Troy, Judy, Leigh, and finally, Raj. It did seem to help with the congestion, but it was only a temporary fix. I popped two Nyquils before bed to help ensure a good night’s sleep.

Day 12 (Thursday, Nov 10) – Thorung Phedi (4450 m)
It got pretty cold last night – my watch read 27 F (-2.8 C) – and the water bucket in our bathroom (used to flush the toilet) had frozen over. While my chest still felt congested, overall I felt much better.

The morning portion of the hike was nice because the muddy trail had frozen making the ground solid and thus easier to walk on. Although I felt OK at the outset, I soon started slowing down and feeling more and more tired. It felt somewhat difficult to breathe. My chest congestion was likely compounding the effects associated with the thinner air.

At our final rest stop before Thorung Phedi, there was a really steep climb up a series of switchbacks. That climb was murder for me. Not only was I going very slowly, but I couldn’t even talk because of the difficulty I had breathing. I was certainly hurting.

The original plan was to see how everyone felt when we reached Thorung Phedi. If everyone was OK, we’d push on to “High Camp” which would help make the following day (crossing the Thorung pass) a bit easier. When we arrived at Thorung Phedi, I was completely spent and in pretty bad shape. Raj decided that we would stay in Thorung Phedi for the night rather than continue to High Camp, and get a really early start the next morning. Although I was certainly in the worst shape of the bunch, there were several others who were suffering to varying degrees from the high altitude so it was a good decision.

The hotel had two dining rooms, one part of the main building and the other appended to the main building. We had lunch in the appended room which was kind of nice because the windows created a nice greenhouse effect from the sun making things warm and toasty. After lunch I curled up in my sleeping bag to read. I had finished “Into Thin Air” and was now starting “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson.

After dinner, Raj recommended I take one tablet of Diamox which is used to treat altitude sickness. Although I was pretty sure my ill effects were from a cold rather than the altitude, I figured it couldn’t hurt and might be a good precaution.

That evening, the moon cast a bright glow on the snowy mountains and huts surrounding our hotel. It was beautiful, but there just wasn’t enough light to capture the scene with my digital camera.