Annapurna Circuit (Part 2 of 4)

... and back to Nepal once again...

....OK, now in the second week of hiking, we're finally gaining some altitude... and we can see why they call the Himalayas (the hima (snow) laya (abode))...

More greetings for Kimbo.


The trail cuts through terraced rice fields


This section of the trail passes many buddhist villages. Prayer wheels and mani stones are a common sight along the trail.


A typical kitchen at a teahouse. What is a teahouse? Well... a teahouse consists of a converted home, with simple rooms with simple beds. Remarkably, the beds were consistently simple and comfy. We didn't have any complaints in that department. Also the food was very similar throughout the trail with very slow service throughout (order as soon as you get there) and the milk tea is delicious throughout. There hundreds of teahouses throughout the trail and surely more will pop up, as the tourist $$$ is so powerful in Nepal... where the per capita income is 1,100$, and even more powerful in these rural areas.


Make shift prayer wheels. I wonder if these work as well.


Check out the village of Braka! One of my favorites on the trail.

In Manang.... the "big city" in the area... there's an airport, and even a movie theater (serving popcorn)!


All powered by a generator...


The "old" trail... taken out by big landslide... it's quite common for the trail to cross the river because of such slides.


We had planned to head up to Tilcho Lake from Khangsar (a common side trip), but we got increment weather... so we bailed on the plan.


Too bad... as Tilcho Lake (Tal = Lake in Nepali) is the Highest and Biggest Lake... at least according to Sean's map... I think it's actually neither.

Here is the owner of the teahouse we stayed at while we waited for the snow to pass. It's amazing how many villagers speak English... a much higher percentage than folks in Bangkok for sure. During our forced rest day where we didn't even leave his teahouse... he entertained us with an animated story of when he encountered a snow leopard near by.

Yup... it snowed. I was a bit bummed while it was snowing (after all I only had running shoes), but it made the scenery 10x more beautiful, AND I got to show off my cool silver gaiters.

The scenery gets better and better... the higher and higher you go. Spent a night at Ledar. From Manang, you only hike for a few hours as you have to acclimatize slowly. Many folks start getting headaches around here.

Initially felt sorry for whoever left their wet shoes outside... but after a minute I found it quite comical.

Awww... a beautiful day on our way up to Throng Phedi.

Yeah, I broke my glasses... then got carried away with duct tape... Kim thought these looked pretty snazzy.

Sean became an instant chick magnet after his transformation.

Ammonite shells are found throughout the riverbeds on the hike... the owner of the Throng Phedi teahouse found this at a river bed nearby (at 16,000+ feet) pretty crazy to think that the world's highest mountain range was under water not too long ago. The Himalayas are one of the world's newest mountain ranges.

Stray dogs wander around the entire circuit... not caring about the altitude or cold.

For those too weak to carry on from Throng Phedi, there is a desperate (and quite stupid IMO) option of getting a donkey ride over the Throng La pass. We saw 3 folks take this option and only one of them made it... and we heard reports from other folks that the lady that made it was totally unconscious at the top. The other 2 basically passed out on the mule, and the mule guide wouldn't let them continue on.

At Throng High Camp... as you can see, we had an amazing day getting over the pass.


Throng La is just 3 or 4 false summits past this one...

OK... there are an amazing amount of Israelis on the hike. At the first checkpoint Israelis were #2 in number behind the French... but it was very close. Anyway... met a lot of great Israelis on the hike, but we also witnessed more Israelis having trouble on the hike than any other. Might just be a coinkadink but on this day in particular, the two girls that had passed out on the mules were both Israeli... and this guy with his shirt off at the top... we passed him revisiting his dhal bat soon after this shot was taken...

Weehaw!

And looking down at Mustang Valley.

After the snow, we crossed into a very different environment. The Annapurna Circuit is quite amazing in that you start in a rainforest -> alpine -> snow -> desert, etc... it must be an ecologist's dream.

P.S.... we're in Cambodia now... in Phenom Penh... headed to Lao in the morrow!