Martin

Thanks to Barrie for sending round some of his Nepal pics – I’ve picked a few to stick on here.

Just north of Pisang there’s a feature on the map marked as “small green lake”. When we got there we found it was, indeed, a small green lake

Barrie had some good pictures of the avalanche paths and mudslides we had to walk over coming back down from Yak Kharka…

I’m glad I didn’t look up the hill……..

A great pic of Machapuchure from Poon Hill…

and a pic of me dancing in the Nepali (??) style on our last night out….. having fun!

This was a truly fantastic trip. I would recommend a trek in Nepal to anyone – you’ll come back feeling invigorated and you’ll be helping the Nepali people who have gone through a shitty few years and who deserve some help.

In particular:

1. Don’t worry too much about the Maoist “threat“. There was no threat and we were dealt with politely when we came across them on the trek. Just be sensible.

2. Don’t worry about fitness. Provided you’re basically healthy and you take sensible precautions, you’ll come back from this kind of trip 10 – 15 pounds lighter, as fit and strong as you’ve been for a long time and maybe, like me, with a slightly changed view of the world. Have a look at the range of treks available with the UK firm I used (www.himalayankingdoms.com). 

3. In Pokhara I’d recommend the Snowland hotel, a full-body massage, and the Boomerang restaurant on Lakeside.

4. In Kathmandu you have got to go to the Thamel House Restaurant (pictured below) and order the 10-course set meal. It is wonderful. We also ate out at the more famous Rum Doodle and at Tom & Jerry’s, but both of these I could take or leave.

5. I’ll be back at some point and next time I’ll get across Thorung La. The trip on an organised trek is quite expensive at around GBP 2000 incl insurance etc, but I reckon it would be easily possible to do a month-long trek for half that price by going straight to Kathmandu and booking everything there. Next time I think I’ll do it that way, although for some reason the brochure price for next year has dropped from £1850 to £1650.

Poon Hill is a famous viewpoint on the Western side of the Annapurna Circuit, located just to the east of Ghorepani, and 2 days walk up the trail. I took this picture ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hi Everyone, hope you're all happy.....thanks for checking in and especially for your comments (and abuse). I'm sitting in a cafe in Pokhara, a fantastic city at the foot of the Annapurnas. It's been a hell of a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hello everyone, hope you're all happy..... We've had 3 really tough days but not in the way I'd hoped, and I'm bitterly disappointed to be back in Manang and heading back down the valley the way we came...... On Thursday just after ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hello everyone, Hope you're all well. I'm hanging in there... Kath, I'm sorry love but I can't access tiscali here for some reason. Today has been the 8th straight day of walking, we've covered around 100 miles and gone from 790m ... [Continue reading this entry]

Made it at last, and what's more my baggage is all with me (we lost Barry though). The last hour of the flight into KTM was spectacular with the whole Himalaya ranged outside the window for a couple of hundred ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hi there everyone and thanks for checking in. I'm supposed to be in Kathmandu but I'm not. The 9.30 flight to Doha last night was still on the tarmac at 11.30 when the engineers finally decided it wasjust too ... [Continue reading this entry]

Kath reckons if I've got a headtorch I should also also have an assistant torch and a number of other torches for actually illuminating things. The head torch should stay cosy in my bag and have cups of tea ... [Continue reading this entry]

In case you're planning a similar trip here's what I'm taking. This lot weighs in at about 25Kg total with 15Kg in a kit bag and 10Kg in the rucksack. My pal Larry owns most of ... [Continue reading this entry]