Martin

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 as a series of shots which my mate Jason pasted into a panorama.

Our minibus dropped us off at Naya Pul after an 8 hour drive from Besi Shahar, I had a window seat to enjoy the hot sunshine and wave back at all the kids who waved at the bus. From Naya Pul we gained 1000m altitude in 2 hours to the town of Hille, then on the second day we made another 1200m or so from Hille to Ghorepani. These 2 days had some of the toughest ascents of the whole trip – it’s very different to the eastern side of the circuit cos you’re walking on stone steps rather than rocky paths. North of Hille there’s a famous stretch with over 3700 steep stone steps. By now though I’m feeling fit and strong and a steady pace gets me to Ghorepani, to the best teahouse of the whole trip.

If I could recommend 3 teahouses to stay at on the parts of the circuit we got to:

3rd Hotel Superb View, Bahundanda
2nd Hotel Lutse, Lower Pisang (with Mary the Irish proprietress who has taken quite the most beautiful photographs)
1st Sunny Hotel, Ghorepani.

In the Sunny Hotel we have an en suite shower, western toilet, a room named after a famous sherpa mountaineer and brilliant hot chocolate with rum. The view from the courtyard is a tantalising taster of what will await you at Poon Hill, with the whole massif from Dhaulagiri in the west to Machapucchre in the east visible if its clear (which it was) from the restaurant window. Best of all there was singing and dancing in the bar til late (9pm) to nepali pop music, with porters and sherpas dragging various attractive western women up to dance (I can’t remember if I joined in!!!). After the music stopped we chatted to the owner of the hotel, a retired Ghurka captain who has diving medals representing India in the Commonwealth games. All in all, I enjoyed myself so much that I got up in the night and peed in my pee bottle as usual, trying to pee against the side so as not to disturb Barry – I forgot I had the luxury of a western flushing toilet about 4 feet away.

The following morning we had a 4.45am wake-up call and by 6am we had completed a tough 1 hr climb up Poon Hill, along with maybe 200 people of all nationalities. At 3210m its not that high but people go there to see the sunrise. As the sun comes up it lights up the mountains, dozens of peaks all higher than 6000m, and including Annapurna South (7000m+) and Dhaulagiri (8000m+). First just the tips and then progressively the southern flank of the whole range gets bathed in light, and the sky goes through the full range from nearly black to red then back to deep sky blue. Its quite an experience and, frankly, it made every step and every ounce of effort since up in Yak Kharka worthwhile.

So plan B came off and Poon Hill was a real highlight of the trip.

On the way off Poon Hill we had our second encounter of the trip with the Maoist rebels who control this part of the country. We first met them on around Day 3 – they do not threathen tourists but they demand a tax of around 1600 rupees (£13) per person. For this you are given a receipt, and because our head sherpa Pasang was able to produce this receipt our group was waved through. It seems quite civilised, and at the moment the Maoists are in the midst of a 3 month ceasefire, but the insurgency here has killed around 12,000 people in the last few years and its a serious concern to the locals. Its not just the threat to their own safety but tourist numbers are down sharply on previous years.

The two days back to the roadhead at Naya Pul were pretty uneventful – we took a route back via Ghandruk so as not to retrace our steps. In Ghandruk was the last teahouse we were to stay at, and its traditional for the group to hand out tips to the sherpas and porters on the last night. Between the 8 of us we collected 35,000 rupees (around £300 or USD 500), and we distributed this among the 6 porters and 3 sherpas. I don’t know how much a porter earns in a year, but the GDP per head of Nepal is only USD 225, and we were told our porters were earning USD 6 per day for this trip. They don’t earn much for the tough job they do but I guess the flip side is that in Nepal they can make each dollar go quite a long way.

From Naya Pul we were in Pokhara within 90 minutes. Here we said goodbye to all the local support team except Pasang. Look how small some of these guys are and think about the last time you lifted 30kg.

Tags: Annapurna, Jan 2006 West Wales, Nepal, Oct 2005 Nepal, Oct 2005 Nepal, pokhara

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Oct 2005 Nepal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.