confusion enough

the annapurna circuit is probably the most famous trek in the world. it works like this: you walk for 4-8 hours a day, sleeping and eating all 3 meals at teahouses/hotels/lodges on the way. there is no need to carry food (aside from snacks for the day) or a tent (sleeping bags, however, are HIGHLY advised due to the night-time cold above 6000 feet), so your backpack is relatively light. still, i found myself cursing the additional weight of a small chess set and 3 extra pairs of socks. you feel every ounce for the first week, but after that your backpack becomes an extension of you and ceases to be a problem.

i walked the trek in 18 days (+2 days for transportation there and back), but it can take anywhere from 14 to 21 depending on your fitness level and desire to hang out in random tiny mountain towns, tak rest days, and do side-trip day-hikes. here is a day by day diary of what happened.

day 0 – travel day. i spend all day in a shaky bus headed to pokhara. i get dropped off at dumre and wait for a bus to besisahara, which is an additional hour from the trailhead at buhlbuhle. random dudes keep me company and offer me portering and guide services. i politely decline. they assure me a bus is coming. no bus comes. eventually a bus shows up, but it is has been chartered by a cadre of french tourists and their guide & porters. the nepali dudes ask their driver for a ride on my behalf and the response is a resounding “no.” i go up to the bus and try my white-man-in-trouble luck – “so can you give me a ride?” “where you from?” “america.” “600 rupees.” “ok.”

i get on. lots of french people nod in a friendly way at me. i am in luck – they are going straight to the trailhead at buhlbuhle. awesome.

that night, i get my first glimpse of trail lodgings. shacks with cheap, but reasonably comfortable mattresses on home-constructed wooden beds. each hotel expects you to eat dinner and breakfast there. the menus are chock full of continental & american breakfasts, “chinese” food, nepali food, and random other stuff. all the menus throughout the trek are almost completely identical, except for the prices, which vary based on how far from a serviceable road the lodging is. more on this later.

day 1 – i get up at 6 am, eat some tibetan bread (a kind of flat unsweet donut thing – tasty) with jam, drink some black tea, and head out.

immediately, my mind assaults me. i checked in with the i-ching before going on the trek and it told me “difficulty at the beginning.” massive understatement. i spend the first day fighting off thoughts like “this is hard,” “i’m tired,” “oh no another huge hill,” “why am i doing this again?” &c.

i am alone so things are hard. i take too many breaks and even 2 naps in the soothing sunshine. i fail to appreciate the scenery. i want to go home =(.

after 3 hours i have lunch, look at the map, and realize i’ve made way less progress than i should have. there is still a road in this part of the trek, and i start hitchhiking to make up for lost time. i get a ride pretty far. i start walking again.

i meet femke (from holland) and her nepali guide. we start chatting and walking. we stay at the same hotel, play cards, and decide to walk together. awesome!

day 2 – thanks to femke, i walk much more and take fewer breaks. this is good because it turns out i need way fewer breaks and can actually cover the distance i need to during the day. we generally eat breakfast at 7 am, walk with tiny breaks from 8 to noon, have lunch, and then walk for 2-4 hours after lunch, depending on the day. bedtime is 8 or 9pm. the first days, i regret packing all the niceties into my backpack because it feels so damn heavy, especially on the hills, and it’s all hills since we are aiming for elevation of 18000 feet and we start at 3000.

my mind is still attacking me. walking is unpleasant, even though the scenery is gorgeous. at these altitudes, we are basically in a jungle.

day 3+4 – slowly applying meditation-style “scrutinize every thought” to the self-assaulting whine-thoughts. getting easier to walk.

day 5 – ok ok getting a handle on my brain. walking for many hours becomes ok. our group of 3 (femke, guide and me) becomes a group of 7 – femke’s guide’s sister (also a guide) is guiding (along with a porter) the daughter-mother team of samantha and dena from canada. we all join together. it is jolly and lovely. everyone is a pleasure to walk with, and hang out playing cards in the evening with.

scenery changing to alpine forests. air chilling. first views of huge giant INCREDIBLE HOLY CRAP mountains. (see facebook pictures).

days 6-7 – we reach and stay in manang, the main town of the district. we have to stay an extra day here to acclimatize to the elevation. this is necessary to avoid AMS – acute mountain sickness.

i have been eating a lot more than usual. walking all day, every day has awakened a mythic appetite in me. i usually order the dal bhat – a thali plate with rice, dal, veggie curry, papad, and pickle AND AS MANY REFILLS AS YOU WANT. i stuff myself silly, and am still hungry during the walking. mars bars on the trail to the rescue.

i buy and read into the wild. it is excellent. i listen to “big sur” by jack kerouac on the ipod. it is excellent and depressing.

day 8 – we are very high. the trees are gone, the bushes are scrubby and rough. vegetation is decreasing. prices are increasing as the roads have been left far behind and porters have to haul all equipment on their backs and heads, often wearing only flip flops. i absolutely cannot believe how much these men can carry up hill. their packs dwarf them easily. we pass them often on the trail and they are very impressive.

day 9 – the day before the 3000 foot ascent to the highest point on the trek. i have signs of altitude sickness =(. i have a hefty headache, and feel generally lightheaded and weak. i drink a lot of water and take it easy. we are so high at this point that there is no town to speak of – just a hotel or two sitting alongside a massive & steep trail.

day 10 – the massive intense ascent to thorung la pass (18000 feet). we wake up at 4 am, eat quickly, take a packed lunch and set off on the trail before dawn. i feel 100%, no signs of sickness, and am instead VERY energetic. i usually trail behind the rest of the group (my pace is slow and steady), but on this day (by far the toughest), i get a weird, mysterious burst of mystical energy and charge ahead cheerfully. i feel no exhaustion, but only exhilaration. it is very cold. jacket, sweater, gloves, hat, and scarf are all required.

the views are unearthly, breathtaking, and profound. i have never seen anything so literally awe-inspiring as the snowy crags at dawn. i’ve uploaded a pic example to this post, but see facebook pictures for many more.

after we get to the pass (it took many hours, but i forget how many exactly), we celebrate at the teahouse up there (!), have a nip of rum, and relax a bit. i try to light a cigar, but there is not enough oxygen in the air to keep it going.

we descend 5400 feet. big giant =( for my knees. a long day.

day 11-18 – we walk the other side of the track. kag beni is a lovely town, looking like it was preserved from medieval times. marpha is known for its apple orchards, and the apples are indeed very tasty. further down in elevation, orange groves appear. the local oranges taste very mandarin-like, and make a tasty slightly-sour orange juice. piece by piece, we descend back down. we suffer a few days of huge exhaustion (a rest day would have been a good idea).

also, a good portion of the eastern side of the trek is now full of roads. at least 3 days are dominated by road-walking and it is somewhat miserable. clouds of dust follow every passing jeep & honking bus. it feels more like we are next to the scenery instead of in it. we get through it, however, and return to the trek to climb up and descend endless staircases for 4 days back down to civilization.

all-in-all, the trek is amazing. i did it for 1500-2000 rupees a day, with about 10k worth of preparatory and transportation costs. i didn’t need a porter, and i’m not 100% sure about guides because the folks i traveled with had them, so i ended up de facto using their services. i think it should be ok without a guide, as long as you get up early and get to the next town quickly, in order to secure room reservations (october is high trekking season).

next, i head back to india (varanasi).

howdy. been a while. i have temporarily lost all desire to write, so this will be short.

i am in kathmandu, and tomorrow i head into the himalayas to do the annapurna circuit trail. i will be have no internet access until approximately october 28th, at which point i fly back to india (varanasi).