After several chaotic days in Kathmandu I decided to head over to Pokhara, the second largest city in Nepal. To get there I endured a very long 7-hour bus ride sitting next to a fellow American who felt the need to preach to me the entire time about how he found Jesus. Needless to say, I was more than relieved when we arrived in Pokhara which turned out to be a small piece of paradise compared to Kathmandu. Pokhara, situated on a beautiful lake, is a bit lower in altitude and much warmer than Kathmandu. It was lovely to see palm trees with snow capped mountains in the background.
Nepal is a trekker’s paradise with treks through the Himalaya Mountains ranging anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks or longer. Along the well-marked trails you typically encounter “teahouses” which are village-run guesthouses providing basic accommodation and food. This was fantastic since there was no need to carry heavy backpacks filled with camping gear and food and you had the opportunity to interact with the local villagers.
Typical room on the trail ($2)
After talking to a few ex-guides around Pokhara I felt comfortable that there was no need to hire a guide or a porter to carry my things. Being the independent person that I am, I decided to go it alone and was told that there would be lots of people on the trail so I would never really be alone. My only concern was the weather. The day before I left for my trek there was a torrential downpour in Pokhara that brought hail the size of quarters. Imagine being stuck on the trail with no shelter while being pelted with hail of that size!
Porters would carry at least 3 backpacks each!
With a trail map in hand I caught the local bus to the trailhead and set out on a 6-day trek of the Poon Hill – Ghorepani – Ghandruk circuit through the beautiful and stunning Annapurna Range of the Himalaya Mountains.
Annapurna Range of the Himalaya Mountains
For the next 6 days my days went like this:
Wake up around 7am and eat a great breakfast at the guesthouse (sometimes with the most stunning view), pack up my gear and head out on the trail, hike for a few hours and hopefully find shelter from the daily rain (and sometimes hail), continue hiking and stop off at a little café for lunch, hike for a few more hours, find a guesthouse around 4pm and shower, enjoy a nice dinner, and then off to bed.
Typically I walked for 4-7 hours a day and most of it was either straight uphill or downhill, almost never was it flat. The first 2 days were tough as it was a constant uphill battle but the views afterwards made it all worth it.
Along the way I met several trekkers headed in the same direction and we’d meet up at the end of the day and enjoy a great dinner together.
Trekking friends along the way
The best part of my day was always arriving to the guesthouse in the late afternoon, taking off my sweaty and dirty clothes, showering in a hot shower, putting on warm - dry clothes and then eating a big dinner of Dal Bhat (the local Nepalese dish). Such a fantastic experience!
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