HIMALAYAS!

"There's a path here lined with marijuana... should we follow it?"

... and so our trek started - following hippies through rice paddies and banana groves.  With the sun shining and trees blooming, we had no idea that 2 weeks later we would be up at 4am climbing a white mountain through a white snowstorm into the white sky.

The idea with the Annapurna Circuit is that you walk along a mule path that goes between little mountain towns.  Whenever you get to a town, there are local people with guest houses ready to accomodate you.  The big thing happening on the Annapurna Circuit right now is that they're trying to turn the mule path into a road.  This road upsets the trekkers and the people in the tourism industry, but the traders of the area are very happy at the idea of getting supplies more quickly.  I really don't know what I think about the road.  Of course, there's something inside of me that says "this is wrong" when I hear explosions and see huge boulders tumbling down the mountain.  There's also something inside of me that says "this is beautiful" when I reach a mountain town full of friendly Tibetan faces who could never imagine a corrupt city life.  However, time never stops, and you can't stop the inevitable thought that "this is the past, and this will change."  In either case, in Manang someone told me that the Buddha advises not to worry about things that you can't control, such as modernization and the building of roads.

Anyway, this was our schedule (which you probably don't care about... I include it here only because some of the town names are cute). 

Day 1 : Besi Sahar to Bahandanda
Day 2 : Bahandanda to Chamje
Day 3 : Chamje to Karte
Day 4 : Karte to Chame
Day 5 : Chame to Koto
Day 6 : Koto to Manang
Day 7 : Rest day in Manang
Day 8 : Think about leaving Manang
Day 9 : Manang to Yak Kharka
Day 10 : Yak Kharka to Thorung Phedi
Day 11 : Thorung Phedi to Muktinath
Day 12 : BUS from Muktinath to Jomson, BUS from Jomsom to Ghasa
Day 13 : BUS from Ghasa to Tatopani, BUS from Tatopani to Pokhara

This is how it started: At the Shiva Ratri festival I met a guy named Leo from London.  I told him that I needed a trekking partner.  Though he had never been hiking before, he said he might come along.  A few days later, he showed up to meet me at the Pharping monastery and we set out for some fun in the Himalayas.  I was actually really lucky to have found Leo, because we got along extremely well.  Doing this trek alone or with anyone else would have been boring at best and a disaster at worst.  I definitely found the perfect trekking parter.

The first day was Leo's favorite day, and you can definitely see that by the look on his face while he's standing next to this waterfall.

MY favorite part of the trek happened on the second day between Bahandanda and Chamje, where we stopped next to the river for half the day.  We sat there watching a big vehicle sitting precariously on the side of the mountain and shaving huge boulders off the cliffs.  At first, I was really scared about the car-sized rocks that were splashing into the river.  Then, I realized that they were doing it on purpose... but I don't think that made me any less alarmed.  Here's me and Leo, chilling next to the river:

As we climbed higher into the hills, things changed quickly.  Farming stopped, people and buildings became more Tibetan and Buddhist, and life became colder and windier.  Here are some pictures of some of the Tibetan Buddhist things we saw.  There were lots of piles of rocks with Tibetan writing on them.  I thought it was really funny, because if such a thing existed in the U.S. they would probably take it and put it into a museum or something.  The Nepali people just put it in a pile...  Also, whenever we walked into a new town there would be a gate with prayer wheels, like the one in the picture.

During the daytime and evening, the weather would get a bit cloudy.  I actually really didn't mind it, though, because that just meant that you would be surprised by spectacular views like this in the morning.

One of the best parts about this trek was the people you meet along the way, including both travelers and locals.  We traveled at about the same (ssslllooowww) rate as these two lovely people: A man from Switzerland and a Dutch woman.  To give you an idea of what their attitude was like - The Swiss guy had recently been in Cambodia for 2 months, and we asked what he did there... He was like "Ach jaaaa, youuu knnoooow.  Seeeting und vaaatching the graaass groooww."  What a great guy.

This, my friends, is the Humde airport.  Like, they land planes here.  I really wonder how successful that is.

This is the welcome gate to Manang, which is the "big city" on the trek.  Most of the trekkers we met think of Manang as where things "get serious."  When you get to Manang, you start to think "oh, we're in the mountains now."  People usually take a rest day in Manang to acclimatize.  Acclimatizing means letting your body get used to the change in altitude and the associated decrease in oxygen available to you.  If you don't take this break, you risk getting altitude sickness, which means headaches and vomiting.

Just to be safe (or maybe out of laziness and really enjoying our time in Manang...) Leo and I took a couple rest days.  These are some pictures from the hotel that we were staying at.  I think you'd spend an extra few days here, too, if you had the chance.

Manang was a really happening city.  This is a picture of us at the cinema about to watch a scary movie.  We actually went to two movies while staying in Manang.  The first cinema was a little room underneath someone's house that you got to by walking through icy alleys blocked by mules.  The room had a TV and some ridiculous posters.  This picture is of the much nicer cinema, where they had a projector and everything.

This is life after we finally left Manang.  Everything was muuuuuch colder and windier after Manang.  As we went higher, the lack of oxygen made it much harder to breathe.  We found ourselves moving more slowly and breathing harder even without doing much physical effort.

The guest houses and restaurants after Manang were less fancy.  This is one of the tea houses we passed by.

I thought this was cute... Since there is nothing in the mountains to use as offerings, they paint their offerings instead.

This sign says "landslide area"... However, that doesn't mean "this is a landslide area, so you should not go here."  It simply means "we want to put a sign up, but you're still expected to walk here and possibly die."

This is a Yak.  There are lots of them in the mountains.  People eat them and wear their wool.

Here we are at the entry gate to Thorung Phedi.  Thorung Phedi is the base camp for the hike up to Thorung-La pass, which is the highest point on the trek.  

Going to the Thorung-La pass requires waking up at a ridiculous hour in the morning and climbing a snowy mountain in the dark.  People do this because the morning is much better weather - There is very strong wind in the afternoon and a possibility of storms that makes it dangerous to be up at 18,000 feet with no shelter.  So, we followed suit and got up at 4am.

Down below you can see the last tea house before we got to the pass.  Imagine working here: Every morning, they hike up with heavy bags full of tea and food to give to trekkers who pass by.  I think this was about the time where we started walking slower, taking more breaks, and thinking nothing aside from "there... is... no... oxy... gen... up... here..."

Ta-da!  Here we are on the pass, with a mess of prayer flags.  People like to put prayer flags in high places, because the wind blows through them and spreads good will.  

This is the way back down the other side of the pass.  This ended up being a looong 12 hour day for us before we got to Muktinath.

These are the Jeeps that we took to Pokhara from Muktinath.  It was a painful journey on rocky roads.  I spent most of the time praying that our vehicle wouldn't fall off the mountain roads.  If I were to do this circuit again, I would probably walk instead of taking a jeep.