Laura's Year in Asia = Fun Stories

After deciding to do the whole Annapurna Circuit trek, Justina and I spent a frantic 48 hours trying to organize everything we needed. I'm not going to lie to you, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Who goes into the Himalayas for 3 weeks? As you can see from the picture below, the main concern was making sure we had enough chocolate bars and white rabbit candies to last us.


Day 1: Kathmandu - Bulbhhue
We left Kathmandu on a minibus with our Sherpa Nirpa Thapa. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred on our 7 hour Nepali bus ride, and ate some dal bhat at a roadside restaurant. We got to Besishsar, the official starting point of the trek, checked in with the ACAP office and got our expensive trekking permits stamped, and off we were....on another bus. This was a local bus though, and we opted for the local 'upper class' option of riding on the roof with about 25 other people. It was exciting to say the least as the bus lurched through river beds and along narrow cliffs, fun if only slightly deadly. The bus dropped us off and we walked another 20 minutes or so to our first teahouse. We learned a lot that first night. 1) rooms are CHEAP at 100rs ($1.50) for a double, basic, but have INCREDIBLE views. 2) The food is amazing.


Days 2-3: Bulbhue - Bahundanda - Chamje
We quickly got into the rhythm of trekking. Up at 6am, pack up everything, eat breakfast (that was pre-ordered the night before. GENIUS!) that consists of Tibetian bread, Nepali tea and eggs at 7am, and be off on the trail by 7:30am. These first days we followed a river valley that was so green and lush that it was hard to keep your eyes on the trail. The Annapurna Circuit trail is actually just local village trading routes that connect each village to the next. Thus its a really easy trail to follow, but you quickly learn that Nepali's take the saying, "The shortest distance between two places is a straight line" VERY SERIOUSLY. Especially when crossing rivers.
Sometimes there was a bridge, and others it was test-and-go. Justina bailed once and after that left me to do the pioneering. You start to meet the same people on the path, with a few of the fast people catching up and leaving the slow behind, and we met tons of people from every corner of the earth, but as typical travelers we shunned them all and hung out with a father/daughter combo doing the trek also from Vancouver (main st. actually...haha) and talked about high school and mutual friends all afternoon (Joe Mergens!!). This part of the trek was one of the most scenic as you have waterfalls crashing down the valley every couple hundred metres and tons of stream crossings to negotiate. The highlight of these days though was arriving in Chamje to the Tibetian tea house and playing with the kids. We were a pretty big deal when we started handing out Canada balloons and letting them listen and dance to our iPods.


We were also met with another checkpoint on day 3, as we officially crossed into the Autonomous Republic of Tamuwan. Yep, we met the Maoists. Even though there is officially a cease-fire right now in Nepal, it has not stopped the Maoists from the lucrative business of forcing tourists on treks to "donate" to their cause. You're charged anywhere from 1000-3000 rupees for your trek, and nicely enough give a receipt from the rebels. You also get a pamphlet attempting to outline their stance, but with sentences like, "The contemporary political situation of Nepal is transitional and specific enough, About 250yrs old feudal monarchy which was limited to a narrow pertiteri because of the direct effect of the people's war." It's a tough situation because paying the donations only contributes to the ongoing instability of this wonderful country, and its obvious that the Maoists, even in rural areas, are not putting that money towards any sort of development. But refusing to pay not only puts yourself in danger, but more so your porter or guide. Nirpa insisted that we be quiet and let him handle it so not to endanger himself. It's just not a good situation at all.




Day 4-5-6: Chamje - Bagarchhap - Chame - Pisang
Welcome to the cold. Day 4 I realized why I've been huffing around my fleece/down vest/wool socks and gloves for 5 months. It got COLD! Not only that but the trekking got tough. Bar with me, I'm going to copy my journal so you can get the full effect....
I'm so cold i can't even dear diary straight. What a day. I think i used over 98% of my bodies reserved energy today. I was up at 7am, trying to massage my legs into just getting down the stairs from our room to the kitchen. Our first hour of trekking was super tough because my legs felt like 100lb weights, and the path was all uphill. I definitely took advantage of the stone lean-tos that line the path for porters and took the trekking equivalent of lots of cat-naps. Working through the pain seems to be what this trek is going to be about though, becasue after 2 hours I didn't feel any pain and was ready for our lunch break in Tal. The kids at the restaurant we stopped at were sooooo cute, but sooooo snotty. So we offered them some toilet paper and hand sani and then gave them some balloons to play with. Their mom loved us and made us some of the best Dal Bhat ever. So creamy and the potato curry was just to die for. After a long and lazy lunch in the sun, we stopped at a waterfall to have a cool down and i had what proved to be my only semi-shower in 6 days. The path in the afternoon was no less forgiving as it would go all the way up one side of the valley, then down to cross the river, then up the other side.....hour after hour. Only broken up by the really steep parts that were long stone staircases up and up and up. We saw some guys building the stair cases, well actually sitting beside a bunch of rocks smoking hashish...this is Nepal people. Justina and I both broke our super trekking sticks today, and now find their performance to be less than stellar on rocks.... I also had my first "accident" today, thanks to a renegade pony who bolted from his caravan and sideswiped me with his saddle bag. Nirpa and I fell against the rocks, and i scraped my calf. Justina only hurt her stomach from laughing so hard at me. (Little did we know that this wouldn't be our last run in with these animals...) Then because the Circuit Trail is constantly changing due to the construction of a road that will eventually replace the village trails (yes in 10 years you will be able to trek by bus....sad) we had a much longer trek to our endpoint and by the time we go there my hands were so swollen and knees weak that we literally fell into a teahouse to wait for Nirpa. Spending the night at 2150m proved to be COLD! I wore my lifa long underwear AND my down puff vest! Honestly though I can't believe how much I'm loving this even though I'm in so much pain. And i know that all we have to go is more up. After the 7.5 hours of trekking today I don't want to think about that though - all I want is a small pot of Lemon tea and some momos.
So all the days weren't quite like that one, it was just the first time my body was actually dead tired and dead cold. I defiantly got used to it though. Plus the mountain views from this point were legendary. We were IN the Himalayas, and everywhere you looked was another 6000, 7500, 8000 metre peak just right there. Even out our bedroom windows (we always got stellar rooms) Its hard to explain how I just got used to the whole trekking all day thing. Picture walking from UBC to the Grouse Grind, up and down the Grind, then back to UBC. (Or from Mowbray to Table Mountain, up and down, then back to Mobs....) Everyday. It's no wonder our apres trekking was less whistler styles (beer, nachos and a canucks game) and more eat dinner at 5:30, and be in bed by 6:30 or 7pm. Our bodies literally needed the 12 hours of sleep to repair and prepare themselves.
In Pisang (3000m) we started our first real acclimatization precautions, as we soon learned, we were now in "the death zone". We followed the recommendations to trek high and sleep low, by doing afternoon walks up to higher villages and temples, drank tons of water, and had garlic soup for at least one meal a day (local Nepali altitude remedy). I had my first waking-up-gasping-for-breath experience in Pisang too as my lungs were obviously getting used to the constantly thinning air. In Pisang we spent the night watching one of the most unfortunate movies I have ever seen. The movie rendition of Into Thin Air by Jon Kraukauer. This movie though has some of the worst actors/cinematography/script/production you can ever imagine. Although Justina, Christiana and I loved it as it provided us with priceless sayings for our extreme trekking like, "HEY We're in the death zone now, its turn back time" and instead of oxygen being our lifeline, like our friends on Everest, we were concerned with "TURN up my Pringles intake!!! STAT!"

Days 7-8-9: Pisang - Manang - Yak Kakarka
We started into new territory in this part of the trek. Not only were we at a much higher altitude, but now in the rain shadow of the Annapurna Himalayas, so the environment was much more barren. And we were in the Buddhist majority part of Nepal now, so there were many more prayer flags, chortens everywhere, and Mani walls of prayer wheels at the entrance to every town. I really loved this part of Nepal, much more than the Hindu areas, but more about that later. Plus we were now officially in Hashish Territory. Marijuana grows like dandelions here. There are plants (some big enough to be called trees) everywhere, most restaurants have them lining their balcony so you can just reach over and grab some. The more resourceful trekkers would tie branches onto their backpacks to dry in the sun as they walked, but I could barely handle caffeine at this altitude (I had a cocacola one night and my body made me pay) So there was no way I was indulging in anything else. Especially after we came across the mountain goats who based their diet on the said plants. Stoned goats are pretty funny though.....
We trekked with Christiana for a few days here, her Dad decided to do the intense upper route, while we stuck to the "Nepali flat 4 hour" option. Nepali flat though means only a few wrek-beach like staircases up and down. The three of us had a sweet time just making fun of the other trekkers (German tour groups just make too easy of a target!) and eating great cinnamon rolls fresh from the smaller bakeries in even smaller towns.
Once we finally reached Manang, one of the biggest commercial centres in the area, we settled in for a 2 day acclimatization rest spot. On our first day there we woke up to a blanket of snow an absolutely freezing temperatures, wouldn't be a problem if we could actually "rest" on this rest day, but we had some important thing to do. First, wash ourselves and our clothes for the first time in 7 dirty and sweaty days of trekking. The showers were cold as usual, so it only consisted of getting my hair wet and using minimal shampoo to semi-clean it. The layers of grime on my body would just have to wait. Then we had to wash our shirts and underwear by hand in an bucket with ice cold water and our trekking sticks as agitators. My hands were ice stumps after but the clothes smelled 100X better. Second, i walked along the path into town to find a guy with a sign that said "shoe fix" to sew up my Crap-mandu purchased hiking boots that were falling apart at the heel already. These two activities were enough to exhaust me at the 3500m altitude, and give me a splitting AMS headache, so off to bed in 3+ layers of clothes.
"The AMS is sure getting to me now, every once in a while there is a sudden splitting headache that feels like my brain is being squeezed in a vice from all directions, constantly tightening. Eating isn't any easier as your appetite comes and goes. Going from starving to puking in 5 minutes hasn't been uncommon. And its like I keep forgetting to breathe, and every few minutes end up gasping for breath. My poor body is just so confused!"

That afternoon we went to the NGO clinic run by the HRA (Himalayan Rescue Ass'n) that is set up to educate locals, trekkers, guides and porters about the symptoms, cures and dangers of altitude related sicknesses. The volunteer doctor put on a free talk that was really informative and just basic, not trying to scare us, but teach us. What I learned came in handy later on the trek for sure. Anyone who is doing the Circuit trek in the future I'd for sure recommend going to see this guy!
After watching a huge Yak being killed by a group of Nepali men using successive blows to the head with a blunt axe right beside the trail, we were off to Yak Kakarka, a teeny town only 3 hours trekking away. The nice thing about trekking at this altitude is that you really can't go fast or far, so it made for nice easy, relaxing days. Although when we arrived in Yak Kakarka, it was so cold that we literally spent the afternoon in our beds wearing nothing less than: 2 pairs of wool socks, one pair of cotton socks, long underwear, lululemon pants, 2 lifa polypro shirts, ski club tshirt, windstopper 200 fleece, puffy down vest, wool mitts, yak wool tuk, sleeping bag, huge blanket and a spare tuk on my face to keep my breathing warm. And we were still cold. It was a boring afternoon/night for sure.