Annapurna Circuit- Journey of Blessings!

                In November 2021, I had the privilege of going on Annapurna Circuit Trek for 16 days. This was the time when the world was on the recovery path from the COVID-19 pandemic. Worldwide vaccination rate had improved close to 60-70%, Maharashtra had started reporting daily COVID patients’ count in two-digits. So although uncertain conditions, things were getting hopeful. How I decided to go on this trek is a story for another day, but the decision was made, initial hurdles were crossed, and I started preparing for this trip.

                The trek started from landing at Kathmandu. When we landed there, we got to know that US citizens with OCI cards as well need a visa. When I filled up all the information and submitted the form it gave me a warning in red bold capitalized letters- “DUE TO PANDEMIC, ARRIVAL-ON-VISA FOR ALL FOREIGN NATIONALS HAVE BEEN SUSPENDED!” I had a panic attack, and thought I had to return from here. That’s it, I should have checked this basic information beforehand. But to my amazement, the immigration officer came to my rescue. He said, “Mam, don’t submit the form, just take a screenshot of your form and go to that counter.” I did what I was told and got the visa approved. Second shocker was at the immigration counter. The officials handed us the form for reporting our stay, purpose for the trip AND a checkbox to do home-quarantine for 14 days! I was hesitant to check that one but was told that this is a formality and everyone arriving here is known for going for trekking and yet fill that form. Well, when in Rome…

                After passing such initial hurdles, we drove to our hotel Dom Himalayas in Thamel. Thamel, is Mecca of trekking gears shopping. We rested for a while and went on a quick walk to get a glimpse of what it meant. One could see all the big brands outlet stores there- North Face, Columbia, Sherpa, Marmot & so on. Along with that you can find the majority of local shops flowing with “first editions” of these brands which were replicas of branded items but at really cheap pricing. We made a note to do some shopping here once we return from the trek. Returned to the hotel to meet our local tour guide to discuss the itinerary. With that we called it a night and decided to have an early morning start.

                Our itinerary included a route that had driving from Kathmandu to Dharapani, a small village at elevation of 1900 meters/6,430 Ft. Actual hiking route was Dharapani-Chame-Lower Pisang- Manang- Rest Day at Manang- Tilicho Base- Tilicho Lake (4,950m/16240ft )- Yak Kharka- Thorang Phedi- Muktinath at3,750 Mt/12,320 Ft(en route crossing Thorang La pass at 5,416Mt/17,770 Ft) and then driving to Tatopani-Pokhara, flying from Pokhara to Kathmandu. Resting at Kathmandu for getting RTPCR done and then fly back to Mumbai. Original plan had an additional Poon Hill trek after descending to Muktinath, however, we decided to take an additional day at Tilicho base and not hike anymore after descent.

Many have asked me about food, accommodation facilities and overall difficulty level of the trek. So I will start with food, as you might know I love food!

This route had many small villages along the way, equipped with famous Teahouses! A Teahouse could be considered as a place which provided basic accommodation with a restaurant. Funnily enough all tea houses had the exact same menu throughout the route. As if all of them came together and finalized that this is it, we cannot provide any further options and settled on a common menu. So after a while, we stopped even looking at the menu card and ordering Nepali staples like Daal-Bhat or Veg Thukpa (noodle soup). Nepalis swear by Daal-Bhat. There is a popular saying amongst Nepali porters/guides-“Daal-Bhat power 24 Hr! Around the mountain, no toilet, no shower!” They prefer eating that every single day for every meal. This popular dish is served with papad, locally made pickle preserved in vinegar and some sabzi. Dal is predominantly made with black udid & sabzi is a combination of cabbage, carrots & potatoes. Although fulfilling, overall it lacks the spice level that Indian taste buds are used to. Our experienced teammates had suspected this, so they had taken “shengdana chatani/lasun chatani” to give us that satisfaction. I am a foodie and was blessed with the teammates who respected food and prioritized it all along the trek. They carried chivada, chakli, a variety of ladus including “Aliv ladu” for elevation, chatanis, even Gul-Poli!! My friend is a great cook and loves to cook while trekking as well. So he treated us with Khichadi and Pohe a few times as well. This was possible, because many nights our crew were the only people staying at the tea house. So they would allow my friend to use the kitchen.

Coming to accommodation and facilities. This seemed like a luxurious trek, I will tell you why. We had porters to carry our luggage, so all we had to carry was the day pack. Since there were tea houses along the way, no one had to carry cooking supplies or worry about reaching the base camp to set up the tent and cook to be able to have food. We didn’t even have to worry about drinking water. There is drinking water available everywhere. Tea houses charge you to give hot water which is nominal. Our guide had provided purification drops as well and the overall observation was that the tap water was good enough for everyone to be used as drinking water. We had rooms with attached toilets for most of the night. Having said that, taking shower was a luxury. We took showers in Kathmandu, Manang and then directly in Multinath! So yes, that gets tricky and wet wipes and deodorant became our reliant friends! Toilets are Indian style toilets and while hiking you as well can find basic toilets with some shade/metal sheets and & or some privacy. So we didn’t have to suffer with usual issues while trekking for multiple weeks and that’s why I felt that this was a comfortable trek.

Coming to the difficulty level! I want to tell you that if I could do it, you can do it, but that would be misguided. Because, I think every trek heck, every day on the trek is different and how your body, mind and breath is going to act up is always different. This is a trek where we walked anywhere from 15 to 26 Kms every day, back-to-back for 9-10 days, at an elevation ranging from 6,400 to 17,700 Ft. The route is laced with landslides, patches covered in ice making it dangerous as on the other side there’s roaring Marshyangdi river ready to catch anyone who would slip, and in general treacherous rote. Acute Mountain Sickness is real. I personally witnessed multiple people going through it. So don’t take it lightly. It can appear out of nowhere and gets worse rapidly causing fatality, if you push yourself through it. Per my understanding, no one can train for it, predict it, so you HAVE to go there and experience it for yourself. Although you can take all the precautions, follow what locals are recommending and trust yourself to go through it smoothly. In short, I believe don’t compare notes with anyone, trust yourself, prepare enough and go for it, if at all that’s what you want to do. It was difficult to breathe through the nose and hike after Tilicho base, but one gets used to breathing through the mouth fairly quickly. Thankfully, I didn’t suffer from any AMS symptoms and many are saying that’s due to my regular Yoga practice. Which could be true but then, fellow trekkers who were not Yoga practitioners didn’t suffer either. So don’t hold yourself back considering anyone else’s fitness level.

Another question I got asked upon my return was how I prepared for this trek. Honestly, this was all of a sudden plan. So I didn’t have much time to prepare for fitness. I am used to walking and that’s what I did. I bumped my daily walking to 10 Kms every day for close to a month prior to the trek. I started hiking to local hikes twice a week during this period. And Yoga is always my go to practice for stretching, and relaxing.

This had been a breathtaking experience in every sense! I was reminded of my blessings at every step. There was certainly some energy, some Guardian angel looking over me to keep me safe for sure. There were sooo many things that could have gone wrong and yet they didn’t. Ranging from flights running late, missing luggage, sprained ankle, AMS, bad weather, falling sick, slipping and falling into Marshyangdi, mind and body simply giving up when going got tough, to pandemic causing getting quarantined, or worse travel bans, I could think of n number of things going wrong and jeopardizing my grandeur plans of completing this trek. There were patches when I would be walking for hours by  myself, not a single person in the vicinity, admiring nature and solitude. Couple times I felt like I was lost and didn’t know how to proceed further. Either because there was a river that had to be crossed showing no easy pass or it seemed like a landslide path was washed away showing a dangerously slippery path disappearing in a majestic waterfall! However, every single time some or the other person would appear out of nowhere to guide me to get through that patch. It could have been coincidence that I missed seeing those people due to switchbacks and thought I was all by myself on that path. Nonetheless help appeared when I needed it. Similarly that protecting energy kept me safe through numerous falls through ice/snow/scree and kept me scratch free. I was completely aware of this trek being a privilege. My husband and kids encouraged me to go on this trek, and cheered for me throughout this journey. Without my husband’s support this journey was not possible. He single handedly handled kids schools drop offs-pickups, cooked three meals a day without compromising on nutrition! He was up in the nights when I didn’t have any range worrying for my safety and would pick up my phone at any odd hour of the day without showing any negativity or worry in his voice, so that he could keep motivating me to complete this trek. I missed him and kids the most and would have loved to have them with me on this journey for sure. Apart from them my whole family, in-laws, close friends were my cheerleaders. They kept on checking on my progress, prayed for me and definitely everyone’s blessings helped me. One of my friends kept on dropping food for my husband and kids every single weekend, without me even requesting such. I feel utter gratitude to have such loved ones in my life. For some, going on a trek is just packing bags and leaving whenever they want, whereas anyone raising a family of young kids could relate to my emotions why I feel that it was a privilege and a blessing! Thanks everyone, thanks Universe for making it happen.

  If you’ve any more questions on this trek, please feel free to reach out to me.