Annapurna
NEPAL
Annapurna Circuit 2011
By AARON
Sunday, May 29, 2011
So drifting from our normal “blog writing style”, not that we have any, we’re going to give a fairly detailed account of our circuit so that anyone else planning on doing something similar can hopefully benefit from information we feel is relative and that we may have not found in our searches before our hike.
So to our millions of fans out there (i.e. mom, dad, Gary, Mary and Mike) our apologies as this will be a mostly informative blog – but we’ll still try and spice it up as best we can.
(**Current exchange rate: $1USD- 70 Nepali Rupees)
THINGS TO KNOW PRE-TREK:
Pokhara: whether you want to do the circuit or something else like the Sanctuary Trek (Annapurna Base Camp Hike), you’ll start in the touristy town of Pokhara. About 8 hours from Kathmandu, tickets should cost about 400 rupees from KTM to Pokhara and then pay no more than 150 rupees from the bus station in Pokhara to Lakeside, which is where you’ll find about 3,000 hotels all vying for your business. We did our hike in early June, which is the slowest month of the year, so bargaining was pretty easy and we got a nice room with cable TV and a hot shower for 400 rupees per night. While in Pokhara, make sure to eat at Pokhara Pizza, on the north end of Lakeside – great pizzas for about 300 rupees!
Another thing you need to do in Pokhara is get your ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area Program) trekking permit (cost is 2,000 rupees pp) and a TIMS card (police check post permit) which will cost you around $20USD. For both of these you’ll need 2 passport pictures (so 4 total), copies of your passport and I would recommend a taxi just to take you to both places – ours cost us around 250 rupees total return. Keep in mind that the ACAP and TIMS offices are only open at specific times, so check once you get in and make sure you have time to get these required permits (penalty cost for not trekking with these is double the price).
What do you need to pack for the trek?
Anything and everything related to trekking that you might need you can get in Kathmandu in the Thamel district. There are also some trekking shops in Pokhara as well, so whatever you need to get, you can get it here. Cheap.
Sleeping bag: A lot of places will provide you with a sheet to cover the mattress and that’s it, so a sleeping bag will be necessary. The colder and higher altitude regions will provide blankets, but that extra layer you get with your sleeping bag will be worth it. We had two-season bags and they were fine.
Clothes: I would pack a pair of light hiking pants, a hiking shirt, two pairs of hiking socks, good hiking shoes, sunglasses and any hat or bandanna that will help shield you from the sun. For when you’re not hiking, I brought a pair of shorts (or another pair of pants) and a clean set of everything else. Keep in mind you can wash you clothes during the hike, so you don’t need to “overpack” and carry around unnecessary weight.
Micropur chlorine tablets: These can be bought at any pharmacy for about 300 rupees for 30 pills and one pill is good for 1 liter of drinkable water. I would plan on drinking at least 3 liters of water per day so budget accordingly. These are also good because you don’t end up buying water all the time and having to dispose of the plastic bottles. We carried our Nalgene bottles and one plastic bottle for the whole trip. Many of the cities along the hike also have clean water stations where you can fill up your bottles for around 40-60 rupees per liter.
Other items: Bandaids, talcum powder (great for blisters – keep those puppies dry!), toilet paper, duct tape (again, good for blisters), hand sanitizer, sunscreen, soap, book and/or deck of cards, quick-dry towel.
**Note: the majority of these things could be bought while on the circuit, but be aware that prices on the trek will be significantly higher than in Pokhara or Kathmandu.
Map of the trek: Although the trail is well marked, it’s still nice to have a map of your trek and it’s fun to track your progress. Most maps also have side treks and alternative routes as well. Maps cost around 300 rupees.
Camera and camera charger: There are places along the hike to charge your camera battery. Some places further away will charge anywhere from 50-100 rupees per hour, so think this through. Our hotel in Muktinath and Ghorepani both had outlets in the rooms and you could charge for free.
OUR TREK
Besisahar to Nayapul
For starters, you’ll need to catch a tourist bus from Pokhara to Besisahar. They leave at 6:30am from the Tourist Bus Station and you can buy tickets from ticket offices in Pokhara. We made the mistake of trusting a taxi driver on what time the buses left, and got there at 7am and then had to pay 350 rupees to Dumre, then catch a connecting bus for 250 rupees more to Besisahar. Don’t do this!!! Just get your ticket the day before and get to the tourist bus station on time.
Don’t do this hike in the opposite direction (Nayapul to Besisahar) – the day you cross the Thorung La Pass (5,416m) will be the most miserable day of your entire existence. You need to acclimatize anyways and trying to do the circuit clockwise will result in you doing a 1,500m ascent in one day which is a sure-fire way to get HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema) or HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema). Don’t be that person.
We ended up doing our hike in 14 days and here are the towns we stayed at each day. We were averaging around 17-20km per day.
Day 1: Besisahar to Bahundanda – 17km, 820m to 1310m
Day 2: Bahundanda to Tal – 17km, 1310m to 1700m
Day 3: Tal to Thanchowk – 16km, 1700m to 2570m
Day 4: Thanchowk to Ghyaru – 24km, 2570m to 3730m
Day 5: Ghyaru to Manang – 16km, 3730m to 3540m
Day 6: Manang to Thorung Phedi – 15km, 3540m to 4450m
Day 7: Thorung Phedi to Muktinath – 16km, 4450m to 5416m (Thorung La pass) to 3800m
Day 8: Muktinath to Marpha – 22km (we took the alternative route through Lupra), 3800m to 2670m
Day 9: Marpha to Ghasa – 24km, 2670m to 2010m
Day 10: Ghasa to Ghara – 18km, 2010m to 1700m
Day 11: Ghara to Ghorepani – 13km, 1700m to 2870m
Day 12: Ghorepani to Poon Hill – 45 min (sunrise), 2870m to 3200m. Ghorepani to Ghandruk- 12km, 2870m to 1940m
Day 13: Ghandruk to Birethanti – 10km, 1940m to 1025m
Day 14: Birethanti to Nayapul – 1/2 hour, 1025m to1070m
We met a girl that did the entire circuit in nine days and a different girl that did the same circuit in 28 days, so take as many break days as you need or go as fast as you want – you’ll only be limited by how you feel or how well you can entertain yourself when you arrive to a guesthouse for the night. Our hike took 14 days and we hiked at a comfortable pace, starting at around 7am and usually getting to our destination town around 2 or 3pm. Since you may not know how long you will take from the outset, here are a few tips for planning your time and money.
Tip #1: Choosing guesthouses. These can range from really crappy spider-infested attics with bucket showers in towns that don’t even make a dot on the map, to normal, comfortable double rooms with running hot water in the larger towns.
The advantages of the smaller places are that you get to know your hosts pretty well since you will be their only guest (if you do the circuit in the off-season), the rooms are usually free (if you eat there – not like there’s anywhere else to eat), and you get a much better idea of what life is actually like for people that live along the circuit.
But let’s be honest – a hot shower on a cold night in the Himalayas starts to sound pretty good after a few days. The nicer guesthouses seemed to be charging about Rs. 50 per person or so – I think the highest we paid was Rs. 150 for two people in Ghorepani. But if $2 for a nice room and a nice hot shower is too much – you’re nuts.
Since it was low season, we had people approach us when they saw us coming to get us into their guesthouse, though we’ve heard that in high season (April/May and October), you might be lucky to find availability, so your options may be more limited in those seasons. **One of the best guesthouses – Bob Marley Hotel in Muktinath!
Tip #2: Choosing food. Before we left for the trek, we’d heard all about dal bhat, the staple Nepali dish that should be consumed every day for simplicity for the cook as well as a good, balanced diet. But we found that dal bhat was normally one of the most expensive items on the menu (probably because the locals have learned that everyone talks up this dish as the “essential staple food” of the trek), which was a little odd. (Example: Dal bhat in higher altitude villages reached up to Rs. 450, while fried potatoes with egg and vegetables were about Rs. 280).
Instead, we opted for other carbohydrate-based dishes that could be grown locally so there would be little waste and hopefully no “donkey cargo” fees.
Muesli with milk in the morning and potatoes with fried egg and vegetables quickly became our staples and were much more affordable.
All of the menus have been put together by ACAP and prices are set, so there’s no bargaining. This is probably a good idea for the locals, although we did feel at times the prices were set a little higher than they should have been (a piece of plain toast for $3USD?), but I guess they know better than we do.
Also keep in mind that every beer or soda you consume on the trek has to be hauled in and out by donkey caravan – not that you shouldn’t do it, but maybe do it in moderation. Besides, beers are usually Rs. 300 per bottle and Cokes anywhere from Rs. 100-300.
Tip #3: Spend the majority of your time on the eastern side of the pass. Approximately 60,000 people cross the Thorung La pass every year, which is a lot of people. But if you compare that with the bazillions of people that do some sort of trek on the western side – it’s like virgin land.
Not only was the weather better, the views were better, the locals friendlier, the trails more isolated and the landscapes more varied. We had set our minds on doing the entire circuit, but with hindsight – we probably would have done a couple great side trips on the eastern side (the world’s highest lake – Lake Tilicho – is a great one) and then flown back from Jomsom as soon as we finished the pass. Nothing wrong with the western side, but its beauty did pale in comparison.
Tip #4: Be very careful if you are using a guide or porter. We met enough people that had hired crooked guides to scare us off from this prospect, though those that had researched carefully and/or taken word-of-mouth recommendations loved their guides.
It can be a really enriching way to see Nepal, you don’t have to worry about wrong turns or where you’re going to stay, etc., but you MUST choose wisely.
The one good guide service we heard about (and remembered the name of) was Three Sisters based in Pokhara – they train women as guides and it’s really popular with women travelers.
Porters are another thing entirely – we would have felt bad doing long 20km days if we’d had a porter, because he would probably be exhausted carrying all our stuff all day. We just really liked the freedom of being able to go, stay, rest, eat, skip a meal, etc. that you wouldn’t get if you hired help. However, we did go the wrong direction on a few occasions, though we were quickly put on the right route by helpful locals. Not sure if we got lucky with the omniscient locals or not, but we never got too far without being redirected.
Tip #5: Budget. Gone are the days of $1 rooms and $1 meals. I would recommend about $15 pp/day for a good budget. We were barely making it (and sometimes going over) with $10 pp/day and that was with no beers, basic meals, and most of the time water and an occasional cup of tea. $15 USD will be a good budget that will allow you to splurge some days, but should more than cover basic meals in more expensive places like Thorung Phedi.
Tip #6: Finding the right trail. A lot of times, you’ll be hiking on roads, i.e. the main road they’re building around the entire circuit. Try and go off path – sometimes there will be a hiker’s trail just across the river so you can avoid the plain road and all the Jeeps that pass you, covering you in dust. Consult your map for these.
Tip #7: Timing. They say June is a bad month because of the clouds. Some hikers have blogged that this couldn’t be further from the truth and that it was beautiful the whole time. This must be an isolated experience because we saw clouds every day. It is not clear like in the peak months, but we were rewarded with beautiful views throughout the hike, but beware that this is low season and there is a reason for it.
And just to personalize this blog for any family or friends that have no clue what a Ghorepani is (which, by the way, is a where not a what anyways), here are a few Annapurna circuit highlights for us:
On our first night we made it to a small village just before an actual town called Bahundanda when rain threatened. A little lady came out of her house and offered us a free room if we bought dinner from her, and as the skies opened up – we gladly accepted. Our room was pretty much as basic as they come, and even had a large, ugly resident spider… with an enormous spider sack underneath her!
Neither of us had any interest in removing the spider – nor in sleeping with it. We tried to explain to our host lady about the spider, expecting her to brush it out or something, but she went upstairs to our attic, grabbed the thing with legs sticking out of her fingers, and said “is OK!” and took it outside.
Well, it was okay – until the spider was back in the exact same place after dinner. Apparently we were in its home.
Interestingly, on our third day of hiking as we started to get out of the tropical jungle and into deciduous trees and slightly cooler temperatures, we spotted huge green fields across a large suspension bridge. We followed the trail across the bridge to find the green fields were vast fields of marijuana. In large quantities, they were actually kinda pretty! For the rest of the day and a few other days at the same altitudes, marijuana was found everywhere. It grows on the circuit like, well, weeds.
Day four was the Big 3-3 for Aaron. It was one of our longer hike days and it ended with a 300 meter hike straight up that was pretty tough. To top off the birthday experience, our lodge didn’t have running water, but our host lady was nice enough to warm us up some water on the fire so one of my birthday gifts wouldn’t be pneumonia.
We were the only guests at the time, so we got the best room in the house that showcased the Annapurnas (Annapurna II and IV) with windows covering nearly one entire wall. By the time we got there clouds were covering all the peaks, but when we woke up that morning it was crystal clear – so that was my best birthday gift.
I also got a nice fried potato egg dinner and a surprise Snickers Roll (Snickers rolled in Tibetan bread and fried) with candles that Lyndi had snuck in for dessert (try asking your host lady to bring out a Snickers Roll and light the candles after dinner with no common language. It only kind of worked).
On Day 7 we finally summitted the Thorung La pass. We were both anxious to get it over with – we’d been at over 4000m altitude for three days and were eager to get back to where our lungs could take a break for awhile.
The morning was crystal clear, there were no other hikers in sight, and after the initial one hour of switchbacks to High Camp, the path became more gradual (and thus more enjoyable) until we saw the tell-tale prayer flags signifying the top.
Due to dull headaches, we didn’t stay up there too long, but long enough to grab plenty of photos of the panoramic views of the Himalayas all around us and enjoy the peace and solitude you can only find at nearly 18,000ft.
It’s a good thing we had stunning views from the pass, because from Poon Hill – most hikers’ highlight – we saw absolutely nothing.
Poon Hill is a 3,200m peak close to Ghorepani that is littered with trekkers and guides every single morning. We got up at 4:15am, trudged up a hill for 45 minutes in the dark, and were greeted with thick fog and soon – pouring rain.
It turns out that morning was one of the worst storms Nepal had had that season. Flights all over the country were cancelled, sheets of rain pummeled us at the top, and not a single mountain or molehill was spotted from our stupid effort. Figures.
There were many other highlights, a few low-lights (read: leeches), but most of all it was a huge accomplishment for the two of us. The Annapurna Circuit was something we had wanted to do for years, and having it now in our rear view mirror is a great feeling.
