Preparing to Trek the Annapurna Circuit

Local Bus on the way to Annapurna Himilayas. Best seats are on the roof

 It is always funny what you imagine in anticipation of a new experience. I've realized that this fantasizing is what leads me to most new places that I go.

I had thought of Annapurna, a 55 km stretch of mountains almost as soon as I thought of trekking in the Himalayas. The largest mountain is Annapurna I, standing at 8091m and the 10^th highest peak in the world. The main draws for me were the long length of the trek and the accessibility of tea house lodges along the way. The teahouse are small lodges and means you don't need carry weeks worth of food and other gear. They are a major source of income for the small mountain villages along the circuit. Annapurna is one of the most popular treks in Nepal but this was reassuring for an independent trekker like myself.

I started posting on a traveller's billboard in Kathmandu and searched online to find someone to trek with. While I waited in the city, I started to wander and explore. The air in Kathmandu is thick with pollution and dust. Like many people here, I walked with a cover over my mouth and nose while walking and dodging the traffic.

After a few hours of wandering, I realized I was close to the trekking permit office. Here all aspiring trekkers must to register with the Trekker's Information Management System (TIMS) and for the Annapurna Conservation Area. When I went into the crowded office, I was approached by a young French guy named Paul and a girl from New Zealand named Emily.

Paul, Emily and I decided within a minute to do the trek together. This was the start of group of 5 different people from 4 different countries that would travel inseparably the next three weeks.

Bus Stop in Kathmandu

The next day we rushed around the city to buy knockoff trekking gear. My biggest purchases were a $30 down jacket which has since started to fall apart and a set of gloves and trekking poles I've sold to another trekker.

Emily and I went out to the city bus station and found that all signs were written in Nepali. Nepali looks to me like Hindi and is completely indecipherable. A middle aged local man named Khil stopped to help us and facilitated the whole process. Emily and I were guarded around Khil, expecting him to ask for money in the end. Once everything was done, he only wished us good luck as we left. We were elated at what a nice encounter it had been. We decided to eat something quickly at the bus station (foreshadowing....) and found Khil eating at one of the stalls.

I was determined to buy him lunch so we stopped and ate bhaji with other fried food. Khil was a soldier for the UN and had served in the DRC and told us stories about fishing in Lake Victoria. He wanted us to come visit him, his wife and son when we came back. It was a very relaxed, unique conversation. I tried to pay when it was time, but he insisted on buying our meals and said when we are in Canada I can pay for the food.

We left the bus station feeling full, satisfied and happy to be surrounded by Nepali people. Emily would get terrible food poisoning from the food later in the evening. 

In anticipation of Annapurna I imagined an uphill hike in sunny weather. I picture big valleys, little villages and snow-capped mountains. What I couldn't imagine was the huge range of landscape covered. We would hike from tropical forests to far above the tree-line and most of the way back down again. In one day, we would hike a vertical 1 km up to 5416m and destroy our knees on 1.6 vertical km right back down. It was truely a trek where everything would change day to day.