In the Himalayas

After two crazy days in Kathmandu where we were caught up in the middle of heavy demonstrations and realized that the country might be on the brink of civil war we managed to escape with a bus to Pokhara, a lovely lake side village. Demonstrations on the 1st of May was followed by full on strike which meant that everything was closed, and you could not get anywhere unless you walked or hired a horse! We waited for one day to see if the strike would stop but soon realized that this was serious and the Nepalese were not sure if there would be anything open this month! So to escape we had to hire a guide and head up to the mountains by foot.

Nepal is such a magic country. Wherever you look beautiful children and adults are going about with their daily tasks, looking like they have no worries at all even though their life in our eyes seem so incredibly hard, they do live in one of the poorest countries in the world, but they all look so much happier than us in the western world. Wherever you walk in the mountains children run up to you and put their palms together as they welcome you with "Namaste".

 

The first day was hard for a city person as we walked for many hours in 35 degrees without any shade. In the night we finished up sleeping in a small town Phedi, our first experience of a tea house: These are pretty much the same all over the himalaya, very basic with a hard wooden bed and often no blanket. You are lucky if you have hot water, but after a few days of trekking you soon forget what it is like to have a proper shower. Going to the loo means squatting over a hole in the ground and afterwards using a bucket to clean yourself.

We followed the famous Annapurna sanctuary trek which changes rapidly in color and climate. You can go from Alpine to sub tropical climate in half an hour. Every where you go you see the beautiful Himalayan flowers and are you lucky you can still capture the last Rohodendrons before they wilt. If you are after them blooming it is best to come in early march when lots of the trekk is in bloom. April is a good time to come even though it can get very hot but there are much less tourists which makes the whole experience more intimate and sacred.

We got up early so as to experience the sun rising over the brathtaking annanpurna mountains. Unfortunately I have a problem with my camera as I am using an old lens which makes the camera overexpose so sorry about the quality of some pictures. I should soon have a new lens.

http://http//www.annapurnatrek.com/Annapurna_trekking_map.html