There are like always many ways to do the Annapurna Trail... (link) I think the most famous one is starting in Besisahar or better said Bulbule (which is connected to Besisahar via Bus). Coming to Besisahar is a 6 hour bus ride from Kathmandu (which could take much longer => in my case 10 hours).
In the following small clip you can get an impression how a bus ride on a bad road in Nepal could look like.
But luckily the bus ride to Bulbule took only around one hour, so that we (Benjamin, Charline and I) could start trekking in the morning time that day.
The trek was really interesting, we went through nice looking rice fields in very humid and hot weather.
The next day, scenery changed already as we climbed higher and higher. There was still jungle, but getting more and more cooler and more pleasant in terms of temperature. It was also nice to watch one of the dozens waterfalls on the way of the trek.
The trek itself was sometimes single and sometimes double trek, but most of the time just frequented by people and animals and no cars. I really enjoyed it being outside with little influence of modern life.
On the trek itself were more and more people trekking, which was sometimes a bit annoying for me personally, cause I wanted to enjoy the beauties of nature without naive American "Awesome"-Screaming...
The accommodation on the trek was most of the time very basic, but really good. The rates for staying one night were between 1-2 € a night! Additionally you had to pay around 10 € for food a day (or even less, when you were feeling sick all the time, like me ;-) => So be really careful in Nepal with food and drinking water, I was not even able to eat Dhal Bat, I had rather taken boiled vegetables with potatoes and plain rice, which was better for me.
The Lizards you could see an the trek were double the size I knew so far => they looked almost like small Caymans.
Benjamin standing in a small wild growing hemp field...
Charline and Benjamin on one of the hanging bridges.
Even the weather was not perfect, it did not allow us so far to have a view to the Annapurna range, except this little shot, where you could see on of the smaller Annapurna peaks (less than 8000m).
Mr shepherd with a small lamb. => By the way, I think in Nepal most of the young men are listening to Death Metal, and most of them know "lamb of god", Pantera, ... - so this is always a good start for conversation with locals.
I really like this picture, where you can see the amazing power glaciers have in forming rock. So far I only saw such a nice polished rock in Odda (Norway).
That day I was again lucky to have a short view at one of the Annapurnas...
The higher I was getting the scenery was getting more and more beautiful.
A lot of tourists from all over the worlds were not only enjoying the scenery, wild growing herbs gave them the possibility to enjoy even other pleasures on the trek...
Some kms before Manang there was a small airport, which was maintained during the days I passed it...
It was more and more common now to see less buffaloes and cows, but instead of them Yaks, aren't the cute?
From Manang I decided to go up to Tilichio Lake, from where I wanted to cross directly toward Jomsom.
The altitude was going there up to 5000 m, where the lake was located. On the way to the lake the scenery was again changing - now it was looking like being on the moon - huge landslide areas with magnificent rock formations could be betrayed on the way up to the lake.
Arrived at the lake, which I did with Julien from France and Smadar from Israel, we had at the tea house there a cup of tea, before we Julien and I walked a bit on the glacier next to the lake. When we did so, there was one huge Serac falling into the lake, witch an amazing smash - I am really sorry, that I was too slow with my camera and couldn't offer you this nice impression.
Around 3pm Smadar and Julien went down and I stayed alone at the tea house from where I wanted to start next morning towards Jomsom.
The ceiling of the tea house...
The guy from the tea house, just one minute before he left down to the base camp.
Due heavy snowfall and hard challenge to stay on the track I decided to return to Tilichio lake after 3,5 hours wandering in the snow. => If you plan to do this part of the trek, take at least a tent and a stove, maybe even a guide with you - cause it might get pretty dangerous if you don't have a GPS with you.
End of the Story: so I was happy to be one day after Julien and Smadar at the base camp as well ;-)
Here you can see some blue sheep's, which you can find quite often in the mountains of the Annapurna reservoir.
Some nice blue mountain flowers...
And after 2 days less good weather with no views to the mountains, a picture, which shows the Gangapurna.
Nicely lucking copper reached water.
This nice rocks were just behind Thorang Pedi, where most people are staying a night, before climbing Thorang Pass the next morning.
I decided to stay that night at Thorang La Base camp, which you can see here, when I started around 6.30 am.
The climb up to Thorang La was pretty fast, after 1,5 hours I reached the pass, and even had time to take nice pictures of the peaks around the pass.
Here we go: Thorang La...
And the steep way down towards Mukthinath and from there to a small place 1h before Jomsom the same day.
The kids at the place where I stayed that night.
Two cool cows checking out which is more powerful than the other.
And again very nice mountain views close to Jomsom.
All on the way of the trek you could see solar stoves, which were barely used (I even would say never), most of them were donated by foreigners trying to do something good to the local people, with the end, that these stoves were rusting with no use... I think again a wonderful example of useless voluntary work, which helps the people more who are donating (to polish their Carma) than actually the people who would need it.
In Jomsom I decided to take transportation instead of walking the rest of the trek towards Pokhara, as on the trail were now a lot of Jeeps and buses driving.
As I couldn't pick a flight, I decided to Jump into a bus with some guides and porters from other tourists I met on the trek last days. => Maybe this was no good idea ;-)
Anyhow the ride took me instead of 10 hours almost 30 hours as three times the bus broke down and the buses are not synchronized at all => Donating in better roads instead of bullshitting with solar stoves would be something where local people would have a real benefit from - but if these people ho are donating are only taking tourist jeeps or even planes, they just have no idea about people needs!
Anyhow after 30 hours I reached Pokhara, very touristic, but nice. Unluckily the weather did not allow me to have a view to the famous Annapurna range from Pokhara ;-(
A good place to stay in Pokhara is the hotel "Lotus Inn", where you get clean rooms in nice athmosphere at low prices. => hope2cuagain@hotmail.com
Summary:
- The trek is nothing for people who seek loneliness, as there are really a lot of tourists on the trek, which makes it on the other hand easy to find people to chat, when you are travelling alone.
- Do the trek from Besisahar towards Pokhara, cause it is less traffic on that side of the trek.
- I would again do the trek without guide and porter, but some people were really suffering under the high altitude - therefore it might make sense. I spoke to many guides and porters and will mention two which I would recommend to you www.3sistersadventuretrek.com (the only trekking company owned by ladies) and a nice guy called Khem: Khemsubedi5@gmail.com.
- Try to do the crossing from Tilichio Lake towards Jomsom, and plan 2 days, take enough food and a guide with you, for these two days.
- Be really careful with the food, especially on the trek, take enough Immodiums with you and disinfect drinking water with Iodine or Chlorine.
- Be prepared that the ATM in Jomsom is not working (why always me ;-), therefore take enough cash with you => 1500 Rupies per day is enough.
