Started my five day trek on the Annapurna Circuit with my guide/porter. That is, he’s offered to carry my bag for me if I’ll carry his much lighter one. Sounded good to me! We swap from time to time, but he seems happy to carry mine. He’s guessing it’s about 13 kilos, which really isn’t that bad – but his bag is only about 5 kilos.
Today is the first really clear day I’ve seen in Nepal since I got here. There were some thunderstorms last night that seemed to have cleared the skies out. It was very nice to wake up this morning and see all the snow capped mountains from my hotel room.
So far the hike has involved a lot of climbing, but it has been very tolerable with someone carrying my pack. The trail started out as a dirt road, but became more of a mule track as we got higher. There are nice guesthouse all along the trail with comfortable mattresses, squat toilets, hot showers, meals, and electricity. So far we have passed mostly terraced farm plots that are used for rice in summer and other crops like wheat and vegetables at other times of the year.
My guide has been very nice, bright, and a good English speaker. He is from the country where his parents still reside but now lives with his own family in Kathmandu. He guides people regularly on the circuit I’m on as well as a more difficult and higher altitude trek to the Everest Base Camp. Today we climbed from about 800 meters to 1550 meters, the first few by taxi to get out of Pokhara and up to the Annapurna trailhead.
In the evening the guides got together for a private dinner, but not before making sure their clients received their dinners and had all their questions answered and needs addressed. I ended up eating and talking with a young American engineer from Minneapolis working in India for six months and his traveling companion from the UK whom only met for the first time a few days ago in Kathmandu.
