Oct. 26 to Nov. 16 by Joan

After we finished lazing around Pokhara, running a few errands and eating up a storm, we finally set out on our Annapurna hike, a 21-day hike we had planned to do from just about the start of our trip. In fact, we had timed all of our Asia tour so that we would end up in Nepal during October, the ideal hiking season.

We had gotten our permits in Kathmandu, which had been a total zoo scene (hundreds of people in line; lesson: go early). We had decided to avoid taking a bus to the trail head by starting on a spur route, through the town of Karaputar, instead.

The hike was incredible. We had awesome weather, gorgeous scenery, and plenty of apple pie and lasagna along the way. We met some neat people, including a Dutch expat who has started a dog rescue squad. We also met a lot of other tourists on the same route.

Some people don't like the Annapurna Circuit because there are too many people. We've heard it described, accurately, as a "tourist parade." You step onto the trail, and 10 French folks are ahead of you, and five Israelis behind. I mean, it's not wilderness. At all. But we didn't mind because we had been totally whipped by Tibet, and we wanted to do something fun, like a long hike, that involved lots of food, and even some English-speaking company. So the Annapurna Circuit was perfect for us. Don't do it if you want a wilderness experience.

If you want to read about the Annapurna Ciruit hike in detail, type Annapurna into any search engine and you can find a dozen first-person accounts. We won't go through our hike in detail.

But we do have a little advice for people who want to do it.

1. Maps. The topo maps for sale all over Kathmandu and Pokhara aren't really very good, though they make nice souvenirs. If you want a really good, detailed map, buy the book Trekking in the Annapurna. The maps inside have lots of landmarks, and more importantly, estimated times between villages. This is more helpful than knowing the actual distance.

2. Food. There is literally tons of food on the trail. You may find it useful to pack a few extra cookies, but don't go overboard, you can eat just about anywhere. You definitely won't need a stove.

3. Water. It won't hurt to bring some water purification tablets, especially if you find yourself on a spur to the main trek. Once you're on the trek, you don't need tablets, and you definitely don't need a filter. There are tea houses all over the place.

3. Lodging. There's plenty of lodging, so you'll be under a roof every night. You won't need a tent! But you will definitely need a sleeping bag. Don't forget it.

4. Altitude sickness. Every night, tourists meet up in the lodges and worry each other sick by talking about altitude sickness. Altitude sickness is a serious problem, but eminently preventable. As long as you don't climb too high, too fast, you should be alright. Trekking in the Annapurna makes recommendations about where to stop for an extra day or so in order to acclimatise. Take these hints! Also, you can help your acclimatisation by drinking lots of non-alcoholic fluids, to the point where you have to take a whiz a few times every hour.

Diamox, a drug for altitude sickness, is not a bad idea to carry, in case you do get sick. We hear you can buy it easily in Kathmandu, although we happened to get ours from some Kiwi doctors who were hiking the trail with us. We met several hikers who said they would not take Diamox if they got altitude sickness because they were afraid the pills would simply mask the symptoms, so they would feel fine, but then get sicker and die. The Kiwi doctors we met said this is not true. They told us Diamox actually speeds acclimatisation by regulating your breathing. We met several hikers on the big pass, Thorung-La, who got altitude sickness, but recovered with the help of Diamox, and most importantly, getting down fast!

The point is, you should take altitude sickness seriously, but don't get panicked. We spent weeks listening to other hikers panic and it was not fun.

Also: if you are really worried about altitude sickness, or even if you aren't, you can attend a doctor's lecture on altitude sickness in the town of Manang, which is near the beginning of the hike if you go counter-clockwise.

5. Summit fever. Try to arrive at Thorung Phedi, the basecamp for Thorung La, as early as possible. We got to Thorung Phedi at 10am and got the last! double room. After that, everyone else got stuck with dorms.

But then try not to worry as everyone around you panics. Most people are convinced that they'll never make it over the pass unless they start out in the dark, at some horrible hour, a early as 2 am! That's ridiculous. All night, we heard people leaving camp. First at 2am, then at 3am, etc. We left at 6:30 am, and were among the last. There were no crowds on the trail, and the sun had risen, so we could actually see. Moving fairly quickly, we made the summit by around 10am, before strong winds start whipping down the pass. If you're in halfway decent shape, you should do just fine if you leave at 6am or 6:30am.

6. Emergencies. We saw hundreds of tourists hiking alongside us, and we heard of only one who really got hurt and needed a helicopter evacuation. This woman, a Brit, made it over the pass, and got down the steep descent with little problem, but then stumbled on relatively flat ground just a few hundred meters from the first lodge on the other side of Thorung-La. She broke her leg in a bad way--we hear the bone was broken all the way through. Someone ran ahead to Jomsom to get a helicopter. But the helicopter would not come unless the person who called for it could give them a credit card with roughly US$3,000 in available credit. That is the amount for two hours of flight time, one from Kathmandu to Jomsom, and one from Jomsom back to a hospital in Kathmandu.

Since the caller didn't have a credit card number handy, the woman had to wait an extra day for her evacuation. The moral of the story is, carry a credit card, for that one-in-a-million chance that you'll need an evacuation.

7. Money. Bring enough, and bring it in rupees. The two of us together spent only US$15 to $20 between us each day, which included lots of food and simple lodging. However, we miscalculated and about halfway into the hike, we realized we had to slow down our eating in order to make it out without going broke. There are two towns on the trail where you can change traveler's checks, but we were out of those too. And there's nowhere on the trail--or in Nepal--where you can use a non-Nepal ATM card. Plus, there's nowhere on the trail to get a cash advance on a credit card. So budget well, or keep a few extra traveler's checks handy just in case.

8. Overstaying your permit. We got a three-week permit, which we think is a good idea. But we were having such a good time on the way out that we slowed way down, and took an extra night in a resort town, even though it meant we would be over-staying our trekking permit by one day. When we left town, we had to pass through a police checkpoint. They dutifully wrote down the date we passed, and the date of our permit's expiration, and didn't say a thing! Were we lucky, or is that normal? We don't know. We heard of some other trekkers who overstayed their permit by four or five days. They also had only one checkpoint to go, and when they reached it, they simply smiled, waved and walked on, even though the Nepali people were yelling at them to stop. They also had no problems.

If you'd rather be safe than sorry, spend the extra $5 and get yourself a four-week permit. That way you can relax and spend more time in the places you like.

next: onto Europe.

Nepal Main Page World Trip