Annapurna Circuit (Part 1)

28th Dec 2017, Temperature falling in Katmandu, Nepal. And I decided to go for an adventure trip this coming new year to make it memorable.

I am a foreigner here and have been traveling to Nepal for the last 15 days; I went to Pokhara, Chitwan National Park, Nagarkot, and some other tourist places again. Again, because I went to all these places in 2012 with my wife, these places are not attracting me much. I want to do something new. Something adventurous. So I thought of going for tracking, and why not? Nepal is one of the best places in the world for tracking!

I contacted a local tour guide in Thamel, Katmandu, for the paperwork I need to complete for the tracking. They will help me get all the government passes, and as this is my first time tracking in Nepal, I want a guide to accompany me.

I met my new friend Diego there. He also plans to go for tracking, and that’s why he came here. He wanted to go to the Everest Base camp, but I talked with him and told him that I would go to 14-15 days of Anapurna Tracking; it’s more versatile than the base camp. He was open and agreed to go to Anapurna, and I got a companion.

5:30 am 1st Jan 2018. I am Late! I have to prepare, pack, and check out of the hotel and wait in the pre-selected place for our guide, Kami. He will pick us up from there, and we will start our journey to Anapurna. 6:30 am I met Kami, and we took a taxi to the bus station; from there, we took a minivan to Besisahar, A small city in Lamjung District; we reached Besisahar around 3:30 pm.

Until now, I haven’t known what I will experience in the next 15 days. I asked Kami where we would stay tonight; he replied, “Bhulbhule.” I don’t know where it is, so I googled and found it’s around 9 km walking distance from Besisahar. I was already feeling tired from the 8-hour journey in this minivan. The van was full of people, and now I have to walk 9 km on the mountain road with my backpack. Only then will I start to realize what I have done!

Diego was calm, fit, and used in this situation. He did some ice mount tracking before in Argentina. This is his first time in Nepal, and he seems to enjoy it.

We took a 15-20 min break and then started walking. This was our first day on the Anapurna track; I saw a beautiful river with a hanging bridge on the way. The calm nature already amazes me.

It was cold and downing. We walked fast so we could reach our tea house before dark. After 3 hours of walking on the mountain road, we finally reached our destination that night.

We are welcomed with my favorite hot honey lemon tea. For dinner, some soup, rice, dal, and vegetables.


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