Nepal part one – Pokhara and Mardi Himal trek – 13th to the 22nd April

Having crossed the India-Nepal border and taken the bus from hell to Pokhara, our story resumes with our two intrepid adventurers (Bea and Hugo) staying in the Peace Guest House, tucked away up the hill away from bustling Pokhara. Our room overlooked the lake, the mountains behind, and the tourist haven of the lakeside area. 

The growing nausea from the bus didn’t subside, and despite our arrival coinciding with Nepali’s new year’s eve I was in no state to be partying. Bea popped out in the morning to do something, while I rested up in the room. Eventually towards dinner time I decide to venture to the nearest restaurant to try to eat some food. I bump into Bea and she joins me. My fried rice arrives and I make slow, unsteady, progress through it. I’m about a third through and Bea is mid-sentence when I give her a bit of a look and very hurriedly speed walk to the bathroom. I proceed to throw up fairly violently. Mostly in the toilet, and somewhat on me. There was no longer any doubt I was properly unwell. I returned to the room, washed my clothes and went to bed. Fortunately Bea knew some people in town to celebrate the new year with.

The next year, in the morning, I was feeling much better. I adjusted my watch to the new time zone; GMT +5.45 and +57 years. Let me know if you have any questions about the 2080s. Not much has changed but they live underwater… 

Sorry I couldn’t resist.

Bea and I quickly found two establishments we subsequently frequented regularly: firstly the cutest cafe serving a mixed fruit porridge for brekkie which was gorgeous, we had this every morning; and a climbing wall – both less than 100m from our guesthouse. Following our porridge, I took the chance to do my first bit of top-roping. Which was a lot of fun, somewhere around 10m up on my third climb after a bouldering session I felt like my hands and arms were gonna break – but they held on just!

With brekkie and some exercise done, we began our prep for trekking and unanimously opted to do the Mardi Himal trek over five days. The big job of the day then was to get our permits. We first met up with Bea’s friend who she introduced as Freezer – it turned out his name was Frazer but Freezer stuck. They were heading for a cycle around the lake after getting the permits so Freezer gave me a ride tandem-ing his bicycle. Now when I was a kid I could easily sit on the seat without trouble, but I couldn’t last the 15 minute ride – my core just gave in. We did eventually get to the office, but of course it was New Year’s day so it was closed. Very obvious on reflection but ah-well and hindsight is 20:20.

They went for their cycle and I explored a bit of Pokhara and had a gorgeous plate of noodles which I finished and didn’t throw up! Woo! The part of the city we were in was very touristy but very pleasant. Every other shop was a trekking shop, with cafes, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops mixed in.

The next day, we started with another porridge, obviously. Where Bea took the piss out of me for choosing black tea again from the menu with 20+ teas. We had been chatting to our guesthouse host who was also a guide and super helpful. He plotted us out a route and suggested we head to Lwang on the way back as it’s beautiful. We returned to the permit office and obtained the Annapurna area entry permit. The final paperwork we needed was a TIMs card which confirms you have insurance etc. However, despite everyone up to this point telling us we didn’t need a guide (including the permit office) from April 23 all foreign trekkers in Nepal require a guide to get the TIMs card. So we reluctantly hired one at a very reasonable $15 per day (our guesthouse host was charging $30). Bea bought us a map and we plotted our final route – great fun by the way, felt like a proper adventure. At this point we were all set. The following day at 9am we were set to head into the Himalayas.

Last minute I grabbed some altitude sickness pills, as a just-in-case. Bea forwent any such medicine however being Swiss she is experienced at altitude. We both picked up a filter water bottle each, which not to brag but I got us a fairly sweet deal on – pitting two shops against each other in a bidding war to the bottom. The thinking behind the bottles was, the further up the mountain you go the more expensive drinking water gets as it has to be carried up. So drinking the tap water instead saves you money, as well as plastic so a win win.

When we got back to the room we were, well, I was eager to try out the new bottles. We filled them up from the sink, cheers-ed and started drinking from our new free water source.

That night I was once again terribly unwell. My body spent the night voiding itself with great vengeance and furious anger. It had been a while since I’d thrown up and shit at the same time – but by the grace of god there was a bucket to hand in the toilet. This went on pretty much all night. I’m not sure how but Bea didn’t stir once despite my ordeal but she slept through it. The next morning, I tell Bea I’m not well. This was an understatement. But we couldn’t work out why I was unwell, we’d eaten and drunk all of the same food / drinks that day. Bea then takes my new water bottle apart only to discover hers contained a bag that mine didn’t (in the filter). My bag was in the bottle and not in the filter itself. The cause of my troubles became clear.

That morning I was really considering cowboying up and going on the trek, but Bea very kindly and sensibly suggested we push the trek back a day, which we had no trouble doing.

By the next morning I’d made a fairly full recovery and after our morning porridge we set off by taxi to the starting point of our hike – the town of Kande. I’ll include a link to a trekking map of the Annapurna region if interested.

I’d managed to pack my five days of hiking gear into my trusty 22l rucksack – which I was pretty chuffed about. The first day of the hike, we kinda went for it. Hiking for 6ish hours from Kande (1700m) to ‘forest camp’ (2500m). While it was a long walk the first day with a lot of stairs it wasn’t too bad. The next day however my legs were not happy with me. But I was gonna drag them up whether they liked it or not.

When we got to our camp I was surprised at how established it was. I was expecting tents and temporary structures, but the guest houses large permanent brick buildings with electricity, wifi and even hot water. As we ascended these luxuries decreased, especially the hot water.

The following day we had a shorter 4hr stretch taking us from ‘forest camp’ to ‘high camp’ (3600m) skipping over ‘low camp’. When we got to our guest house I was absolutely puffed, and maybe a tiniest bit light headed. I kept thinking back to the signs in Pokhara which advised only ascending 300-500m a day (having just ascended 2km-ish in 2 days) – but who has time for that! By the next morning I’d acclimatised and felt ready to press on up another kilometre of altitude.

So far the route had been lovely, trekking through various forest types. The first day through an ancient looking mossy forest. The second day we started in a similar wood but then entered the higher altitude rhododendron forests flowering with pink and red blossom. (Fun fact: the rhododendron is Nepal’s national flower.) The forests were gorgeous however mostly the weather had been cloudy so only the immediate hills and peaks were visible (just).

I was finding my appetite hadn’t returned fully yet, and I was struggling to finish my meals. Partly because the idea of food disgusted me to my core, but also because the food on the mountain wasn’t well, it wasn’t my cup of tea. Let’s say that.

With all of the food being carried up the mountain I understand the limitations that puts on food. But the approach taken on the mountain was a completely standardised menu everywhere. I’m not joking anywhere you stopped, they had the exact same menu – without deviation. Worse still it was a very large and diverse menu and this really was its’ downfall. It meant you had loads of places cooking lots of things badly rather than a couple of things well. I also wasn’t feeling great stomach wise so that may be a factor. I did end up finding the noodle soup to be the most reliable option.

Also by this point we had made quite a few friends doing the same trek as us. There was only one way up the mountain so you inevitably pass each other multiple times during the day. Which was lovely really. In the evenings in the guesthouses we would congregate in the common room huddling around the wood stove, or under blankets. After dinner, the tea was poured and the cards dealt.

The third day was our final ascent and the plan was to climb for sunrise (as the days are clear in the morning up there). So we got up at 4am and set off just with our water bottles (leaving our bags for collection later – we weren’t staying at the top). Pretty soon after setting off we left the treeline behind and welcomed the snow. This obviously was a double sock sort of hike, not that I thought that far ahead! 

On this final leg, I found myself frequently out of breath on the final ascent. At its worst I would make 5 / 10 stairs before needing to catch my breath. But after taking several sit downs on the path I made it up slowly but surely.

Bea on the other hand glided up the mountain, relentlessly, as if it was a mere mole hill. From then on she became known as the snow leopard. A nickname she’s asked me to try and introduce to her friends.

The walk started in complete darkness with head torches donned, as we ascended the tips of the tallest peaks (Annapurna in this case 8000m+) were gently illuminated. The light gradually built, until suddenly sun rays shot across from behind the peaks to the east to crown Anapurna’s peaks in a molten gold tone. Genuinely it was one of the most stunning things I’ve seen. At this point it was a competition between the altitude and the view to take my breath away.

[I have a couple of photos included but Bea has most of them, as soon as I have them I’ll upload]

I reached the upper view point a good thirty minutes behind the snow leopard. The view point was lively despite it being dawn, most of our friends arrived pretty much at the same time – some before, some after. The icing on the cake was the tea houses serving hot tea at an extortionate price of 200rs (around £1.50). But of course I would have been happy paying £150 up there. I ordered my tea with two Bristolians who we’d met and played some pool the day before*. I reached into my pocket to pay and pulled out my healthy wod of cash, only to discover it was all 5s and 10s. I only had 170ish rupees!!!! Disaster!!! Thankfully the Bristolians bailed me out, subsidising my tea. We exchanged snacks and soaked in the views.

*yeah seriously, they somehow lugged up a full sized six legged pool table 3000m up the mountain. I have no idea how they managed it either but that is a phenomenal shift anyway you look at it.

By this time the day had broken and the full Annapurna range was illuminated as well as the famous ‘fish tail’ peak of Mardi Himal – a very holy mountain and currently un-sumitted (which makes sense when you look at it). As you would expect, the Himalayas were stunning. And much like a well earnt beer, a well earnt view amplifies the experience.

After some obligatory photos, we began our much easier descent. Where we really went for it. We’d already done two hours up to the top, and then we proceeded further five or six hours right down to Sidhing (1300m). After a night there including a much needed hot shower, we then did our final trek to the absolutely stunning village of Lwang.

Getting to Lwang was a bit of an adventure, crossing multiple suspension bridges across the river valley and going completely off the main road to take the more direct route through the fields and forests instead. With only a few navigational mishaps we arrived for a late lunch. Unlike the camps Lwang was a proper village. All the houses were of traditional construction and best of all the guesthouses were gone and replaced by homestays. All of the houses had small but very productive veg gardens, all connected by little paths and steps around the adorable village.

In the village there were 26 homestays, we stayed at number 8. It’s the first one we came across. Immediately after being welcomed by the family, they asked what we wanted for lunch. Without a menu to order from we were lost but went with their suggestion of fried rice. The cooking process started by them heading into the garden and harvesting the veg to make our food which was a real treat. Of course the fried rice was delicious, so fresh, the best food I’d had in days. Even better was the steady supply of outstanding tea coming our way! It was some of the nicest tea I’ve ever had.

This did make sense as the village was surrounded by tea fields. We popped up to the top of the hill where the most aesthetic tea fields were for a few snaps. Once again the snow leopard was unchallenged whereas our guide and I took a slower pace.

On the way back down Bea and I started a little race down the stairs. While not sensible it was quite fun. While I may not be quick on the way up, I’m willing to go recklessly fast on the way down, especially if it means winning a meaningless competition. What I didn’t account for was the hard nosed physicality and shamelessness of my competitor, who instead of letting me overtake opted instead to push me off-piste. Forcing me to dodge a tree and then a bench while desperately trying to slow my momentum and keep my footing through the rough foliage. I know the FIA will be investigating and I’m sure they’ll finalise a suitable time penalty.

Later in the evening the homestay filled up with perhaps 8 Nepali trekkers returning from the view point (a journey that took us two days which they did in a day). Once settled they fired up the grill and had a BBQ and quite a few beers on the patio. They invited us to join (sadly no veggie options).

The next day we caught three consecutive buses to get us home, said goodbye to our guide and returned to the comfort of the Peace Guesthouse. Before I move on I can’t emphasis how beautiful and quaint Lwang was. Its up there with my favourite places I’ve visited ever. Peaceful, quiet and stunning. Nothing to do but the sort of place you could retreat to for a few days to recharge.

Bea and I were parting ways the next day, Bea to start her next two week trek round the classic Annapurna circuit and me heading to Kathmandu to rendezvous with a friend. This time I opted for the most luxurious bus I could find, at triple the cost of the basic bus – but a small price to pay for not choking on dust or standing for the 10hr ride. A final treat Pokhara offered me was a clear (the first I’d seen in Nepal really) revealing the majestic mountains that overlook the city – I’ll include a photo I took from the bus.

Next stop Kathmandu.