Trek The Unknown

“Ni shuo han yu ma?” (”do you speak Chinese?”) These were my 1st few Chinese words speaking to a a Chinese girl since I left china. I was very excited to be able to understand her answer: “Dangran, wo shi zhong guo ren!” (of course, I’m Chinese!). We then moved back to English, because it’s just easier….

I told her I haven’t met any Chinese people traveling before her. She said it might be because I can’t tell the difference between them ,Korean and Japanese travelers. She is defiantly right, but still I can tell which language they are speaking. I heard only Japanese (or that might was Korean, but defiantly not Chinese).

Another reason I didn’t expect to find Chinese travelers was this: When I was in China, my hosts told me that the way the Chinese people are traveling is by large groups of people and sitting on the bus for a few hours, seeing the place, taking some pictures and going back home…

also, I heard from my hosts it’s sometimes very hard to go on your own to travel with no group and they have to give some kind of a deposit in order to get out of the country.

I met this girl In Pushkar, India. This is not the sightseeing-through-a-bus-window kind of place. also, she was traveling by herself…

My point is that this encounter with that girl maybe shows about the changes the Chinese society is going through in terms of the way they travel. Chinese people starting to travel in a way that western nations are traveling. Of course she was only one Chinese girl, but this might be marking the beginning of a phenomena (or maybe they were really many Chinese travelers around me, I just didn’t pay attention too ).

what’s your opinion? I’d like to hear your view especially If you are Chinese….

I finally feeling I’m on my way home. last night I arrived to new Delhi in India, after flying from Kathmandu. We flew with “royal Nepal” which has VERY bad reputation of canceling flights and regularly delay them.

Surprisingly enough, we had a delay of only 45 minutes! This is quite something for Royal Nepal!
on 1.12.07 , their only plane is going again for repairs , so no flights then.

Arriving to India also remarks something else for me. As the title says, it’s my 20th country I’m visiting.

Here are the countries I’ve visited. It doesn’t mean I’m an expert in all of those. It just mean that I left the airport and spend time there (transit at the airport doesn’t count), sometimes just going through but usually not.

North America

1. USA
2. Canada

South America

3. Peru
4. Bolivia
5. Chile
6. Argentina

Europe

7. Germany
8. Italy
9. France
10. Greece
11. Poland
12. check republic
13. England & Scotland

Africa

14. South Africa
15. Swaziland
16. Ethiopia

Asia

17. China
18. Nepal
19. India

and of course: 20. ISRAEL!

How many countries more I left to visit?

The “Annapurna circuit” AKA “around Annapurna” is one of the most popular treks here in Nepal. Being around here in Nepal, everybody are talking about the “around”. It’s a pretty hard trek, but more because of it’s length and not because of the climbing skills you are required for (no climbing skills required!).

It can be done in 15-17 days, depends on your pace. I heard of people doing it in 10 days (nowadays, it’s possible to get a jeep and drive some of the way and save a couple of days) and older groups of people doing it in 24 days.

Views in the trek are magnificent, it’s surrounding one of the Himalaya beautiful ridges.

The starting point of the trek is in a town called Basisahar (can be spelled in some other ways, depends on the map you are using) and ends in either one of 2 places, Beni or Nayapool. It’s all depends on how much walking strength you have

Basisahar is in the middle way between Kathmandu and Pokhara, so you can begin your ride from either of the two cities.

These 2 places are where it’s possible to take a bas back to Pokhara after finishing the trek.

In each and every day of the trek you have the possibility to sleep in a guest house, so camping is really not necessary and there is no need to carry a tent with you. If you do want to do some camping, you are most welcome. Tent, stove and all other additional equipment is then required , of course.

Many people say that living costs on the trek are very expensive. well, if you did stay in the Thamel for a couple of days, costs would be around the same.

Room charges are relatively low and gets to their pick almost at the pick which is high camp guest house at high camp after throng phedi. it’s the same price you will pay for a a guest house in the Thamel area in Kathmandu (320 rupees). The deal is that you pay almost nothing to the guest house for sleeping but in exchange you buy your food and meals from them. If you decide to eat your own food, room charge will be higher and sometimes double.

Get ready because this trek is going to be one of your major life experiences! not every day you get a chance to be out of civilization for 2.5 weeks.

One very important thing, these days a road is being built to most of those villages around the trek. In 4-5 year most of the circuit could be done buy driving and not walking. I’ve been told that the trekking committee or other Nepali organization are looking for new trekking routes in order to overcome this problem.

So…go now!

If you have some more questions on this trek, just add the questions on the comments, I’ll add it up to this post. I might be forgetting some points you are pondering about.

After trekking for a few weeks it’s time to relax. So I’m taking the time to explore Pokhara and it’s surroundings. I went with a friend to the world peace pagoda (or stupa , as they call it here). This stupa was built by Buddhist monks in order to promote world peace.

We combined 2 activities in one and started our visit with sailing in Pokhara’s lake. We took a rowing boat from the lakeside area. The aim was to row the stupa’s bank and from the to climb up to the stupa.

Renting a boat costs around 350 rupees for 4 hours. 4 hours would be enough time for you to row one way, climb to the stupa, going down the hill and row back. rowing to the stupa’s bank would take 30-60 minutes. It’s not an easy task as it seems. If you don’t feel like working hard, (or if you are not to many people on your group), hire a driver too. That will cost an extra 50 rupees.

Climbing is not to hard. It took us 40 minutes to climb. The view from up there is amazing, although we had a cloudy afternoon. If sky are clear the view from there is breathtaking. A whole chain of the Annapurna range is seen! I just saw it in photos though…

going down is easier of course, takes around 30 minutes. the problems was we had to row back, and we didn’t really feel like after that mini trek.

A different option for a visit at the stupa would be, taking a boat with a driver from the lake side bank. Rent the boat just for an hour, since you won’t need it on the way back. The driver would take it back. Climb the hill and later take the trail leading to the main road of the lake side in Pokhara. I haven’t done it but talked to people who said it’s pretty straight forward, so don’t worry about this.

here’s for world peace!

hey!
Last Thursday I came back for a 2.5 weeks of trekking at the annpurna circuit trek.I’m currently in Pokara resting This trek was absolutely amazing. Everyday I wrote about the happenings that day, so I can update it in my blog. I will update all the info later , so you can get it from 1st hand and can plan your own trip to this great trek!