Pokhara-Phedi-Pothana-Landruk-Chomrong-Deurali-ABC-Chomrong-Pokhara

So we had planned to do around 10-14 days of trekking but after ditching our guide and realizing we could cover a lot more ground in a day with out him we managed to hike what takes most people 14 days in only 7....

Day one of the trek started with a nice large breakfast in Pokhara and then a taxi ride with our guide from Pokhara up to Phedi, which is the normal starting point for a 14 day sanctuary trek. Ramo, our guide, who seemed fairly awkward and quiet when we had first met him turned into quite the chatter box once we started hiking up the trail... We only hiked for about 2 hours until we stopped for lunch in the town of Damphus where we started to feel the sticker shock as prices rose dramatically. Since all of the food must be hiked in by porters to all the guest houses along the trek, the further you go the higher the price is for food but accommodation stays pretty reasonable through out. After eating a small lunch Ramo decided he wanted to take a nap and we waited around for about 2 hrs until he was ready to go again. And I use the word "go" very loosely as Ramo didn't really "go" anywhere. His hiking pace was about 1/8 of my usual pace and although I understand it is really important to hike slowly out here ( both for acclimatization but also just for general fatigue) at times it was really hard to follow him at such a gruelingly slow pace... We made it to the town of Pothana where we had to pass through the ACAP check point and prove that we had paid the entrance fee back in Pokhara and Ramo told us that this is where we were going to stay for the night. Mind you it was only 1:00 in the afternoon and there was plenty of hours to cover more ground left in the day. We reluctantly settled into our little guest house and watched numerous other trekking parties continue on down the trail.

The next morning we were treated to some excellent views of the mountains in the distance and after another small breakfast we headed off. Ramo's pace had picked up a little today and I was feeling good that we were going to cover more ground then the previous day. This day we ran into a larger group of porters who were carrying up gear for a camping group that was going to be out for 3 days.

The amount of gear these poor guys are forced to carry up these unimaginably steep hills is really ridiculous. One guy had 3 folding tables and a dozen chairs strapped to his fore head and another had a huge 3 burner camping stove and had 2, 5 gallon, propane tanks... I was really glad that we decided to carry our own gear along the trek forcing someone else to do it just doesn't seem fair. I can't tell you how many times I saw porters with huge rolling suitcases on their backs or loads that weighed well over 100lbs and most of them were only wearing cheap rubber sandals or canvas shoes that provided them no support and no insulation from the snow further up..

Anyways, day 2 turned into another short day with us only stopping in Landruk for the night and had put us a full day behind the schedule I wanted to be keeping and most other groups seemed to be able to do. Another thing about Ramo is that the whole time we are trekking he had been telling us how much he didn't like ABC and that he thought the snow would be too dangerous and too high to hike through and the views weren't really that good... When we had talked to other groups who had already been up there this all proved to be false. He seemed to be trying to convince us to branch off onto another trail to cut our trek shorter or he just really didn't like his job... This had made me very frustrated since we weren't originally going to hire a guide anyways and he seemed to be just a big waste of our money.

The next morning we had more fantastic views as we were getting closer and closer to the mountains and we spent a lot of time taking pictures. Ramo had started complaining about chest pains this morning and that he just wasn't feeling well. The first part of the day was pretty easy trekking and was mostly down hill towards the river. So we took it pretty slow feeling kind of concerned for Ramo and realizing that he might have just not been feeling well all along and thus explaining our slow pace... We had lunch in Jihnu, which has some popular hot springs near the river, and then began the slow 2 hour climb to Chomrong where we stayed the night.

That evening we met a couple from Germany who came to Nepal to kayak and it was nice for someone to actually understand what we meant when we said we were raft guides. We talked about rivers for quite a while and also me a really nice girl from South Africa who had been trekking for 21 days and was still heading up to ABC. Teresa and I ordered a bottle of Rakshi with dinner, which is a local wine made from millet. Turns out we really really don't like Rakshi and had a really hard time giving it away to anyone except some of the Nepali guides who actually loved the stuff. We also met two young kids, whose dad is a trekking guide, and spent a couple of hour’s playing card games with them. This was a really great thing since they taught us 3 new card games bring the total number of games we knew how to play up to 4!

The next morning Ramo informed us he really wasn't feeling well and we made the decision that he should hike back down and Teresa and I would continue on without him. We also paid him almost the full amount for 10 days of trekking ( which we later really started to regret) and informed the agency we hired him through that we were going on with out him. They had wanted us to wait there another night and said they could have another guide up their by that evening but we were tired of wasting time and things up in the mountains were really expensive so we declined.

That day we almost tripled our normal pace and made it all the way up to the town of Deurali. We had planned to stay in the town of Himalaya but when we got there all of the lodges were full, which is really unfair considering the larger, organized groups have their porters run ahead and book up all the rooms for them... so we had to continue on another 2 hrs further to Deurali. About an hr out of Himalaya it started to rain and then turned into a really hard sleet, making the final slog across a small glacier and up the hill to Duerali pretty miserable. After a large dinner of Dal Bhat and some great conversations with a younger girl from the UK , the girl from South Africa and two really nice older ladies from the UK we were off to bed.

Day 4 was probably the most dangerous day on the trek since we had to pass through a large area that frequently has avalanches. I had already seen about 5 avalanches from a distance on this trek and judging by the amount of snow we had gotten over night things were going to be interesting today. We got out nice and early to try and cross the avalanche zone before the sun had a chance to warm up the slopes and make the snow even more unstable. But it wasn't long before we could hear the roar of avalanches breaking off of the peaks above us. The second one we saw was only a couple hundred meters ahead of us and although it was pretty small it really got our adrenaline rushing. The next one was the largest I had seen so far and was a good distance behind us but definitely could been seen and heard for miles. After a lot of rushing across snow fields and up the steep hills we made it to MBC and we were safely out of the avalanche zone.

By this time the sun was out and really warm and we could really just relax and enjoy the beauty of the mountains that were all around us. We were now at about 11,000 ft and coming from Pokhara that is only about 500 ft that's quite an elevation gain. Although Teresa and I really didn't feel much of an effect from being up there we talked to a few who definitely were feeling the affects of the altitude. After enjoying a cup of tea we decided to continue on the final 2 hrs and 3,000 Vertical ft up to ABC.

The last stretch was absolutely amazing. The sun was out and the trekking was pretty hard but it was all really enjoyable. By the time we made it up to ABC the clouds had begun to roll in and it wasn't too long until it began to snow some more. I made the short walk from the guest houses out to the glacier expecting to see a smaller unimpressive glacier similar to the one we had crossed a day earlier but what I saw was absolutely amazing. Literally a massive river of us that flowed down from both sides of Annapurna 1 and continued down towards the valley. I stood there for over an hr and just watched and listened to the ice moan and groan as it chewed its way through the mountain side and smashed massive boulders into bits. It was one of the more amazing things I have seen.

That night during dinner we met a couple from Canada, Caitlin and Drew, and we discovered we really had a lot in common with them. After discovering that Drew was also a river guide and Caitlin was working for the company as well we talked for most of the night. They had been at ABC for 3 days now and had been hiking for 20 some days before. They were planning to hike down and out to Pokhara in only two days. We planned to do it in 3-4 days but after hearing that it was possible to do it in 2 we wanted to give it a try and get a head start on planning the next leg of our trip.

Most people say the view at dawn from ABC is what makes the whole trek worth it and I was really excited to see it. Maybe too excited since I woke up at 4am to also see the mountains by moonlight (which made Teresa really happy with me fumbling around in the dark to get out). I stood out there for about 45 minutes, freezing my ass off, until it started to get a bit lighter and I noticed clouds rolling in from down in the valley. Thinking that we were going to be sopped in with clouds for most of the day Teresa and I talked about staying up there for another night and not missing the view of the mountains from ABC when it was clear. But things took a turn and in about an hr the sky was completely clear and everyone was rushing outside, cameras in hand, to get a view at one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen.

After taking more then our share of photos we hurriedly decided to head down that day as well and packed up our packs wanted to cross the avalanche zone early. Going down is a lot easier then going up and we made it through the avalanche zone with little effort and only seeing two avalanches that morning, north being higher up on Annpurna 1. This day was going to be our longest day of the trek, covering what most people do in 2 days; we did in 9 grueling hrs. We met up with Drew and Caitlin on the way down and more or less walked to Chomrong with them.

For most of the day it was raining and wearing all of our rain gear and hiking as fast as we could manage we both got pretty nasty and sweaty. (Mind you I haven't taken a shower at this point since 6 days ago in Pokhara) After descending 1,000 ft down from Sinuwa and climbing about 1,500ft back up to Chomrong the only thing I wanted was a nice warm shower.. That and some of my grandma’s chocolate cake... So we found a hotel that claimed to have hot water (none of them really do) and after unpacking and trying to dry some close I took the coldest shower of my life. Now since traveling in Northeast India and Nepal I have gotten pretty good at taking the cold water shower and making it almost bearable but I swear they actually put in an extra effort to make the water that cold... The hotel also had a group of local performers and dancers come to put on a show that night but after hiking for 9 hrs and countless amounts of elevation gains and losses the only thing I wanted was to sleep. Fortunately I was able to fall right asleep even though the drum circle action was taking place right outside our window...

The next morning we got an early start again and met up with Drew and Caitlin for the final 7 hr hike down to Nayapull and a Taxi ride away from Pokhara. This day would have been really easy if we hadn't pushed soo hard the day before and everyone was hurting a little. Hiking through the towns on the way down seemed to be a Maoist strong hold and there were Maoist posters everywhere. It made me a little nervous thinking that they may pop out at any moment and ask of for a "donation" with semi automatic weapons in hand. Luckily the only harassment we faced were the bratty kids who run up and ask for candy and then yell at you or try to hold you back when you say no.

There seems to be a problem with groups of westerners who come trekking and bring along bags of candy and pens to give out to the kids along the way. At first this sounds like a sweet and innocent gesture but when you really think about it all they are doing is encouraging these kids to beg. When ever they see a white person now the first thing they start to yell is "sweet? Sweet?" and they get really pissy when they don't get one.

Anyways after about 7 hours of hiking along the river we made it out to Nayapul and did out best to negotiate the Taxi driver down to a reasonable rate and all 4 of us crammed into the compact little car and we went racing down to Pokhara.

On the drive down we noticed a definite step up in Security as we passed numerous military vehicles with m16 toting officers aboard. We even had to go through a check point as we made it into Pokhara.

We found out that things had really started to heat up with the Elections right around the corner on the 10th and the violence had really escalated with numerous bombings and strikes and killings in all of the different parties involved. There is a nation wide "strike" from the 9th-11th where no vehicle movement is allowed anywhere in the country to help reduce the possibility of more violence.

The Maoists have also pledge to restart the war if they don't win the election and have gone to threatening people who won't vote for them. They claim they will be watching the polling stations and will "punish" anyone who won't vote for them. Here in lakeside Pokhara, which is almost all tourists, there have been numerous vehicles driving through with loudspeakers and banners supporting the Maoist party.

We are trying to weigh out our options of either getting out of the country before the election on the 10th or waiting to get out just after. Since we definitely won't be able the 9th-11th and possibly longer it may be hard to get a flight out before that won't cost an arm and a leg but waiting too long could prove to be even worse.

We have a travel agent doing all of the running around for us today finding out different prices to different options so we probably won't know what we are doing until at least tomorrow. Other then that everything feels really normal here in Pokhara with even more tourists then when we left. They say that most often when the strikes happen you won't even notice it in the tourist’s districts and life carries on as normal but only time will tell.

Right now we have a lot of options as to where we are going next so stay tuned to stay updated!