The terrain is more varied on the Annapurna hike. In just a few days you hike through lush green forests, snow and the high desert of the Tibetan Plateau. The usual observation made by those who favor Annapurna over Everest is that "The scenery in the Everest region is all the same. It's just mountains."
To me that's like saying "I didn't enjoy that party last night. There were way too many pretty girls."
The circuit isn't really a circuit. It's more like a wishbone with the two pieces joined at the high mountain pass called Thorung La. Most hikers start in the southeast at Besi Sahar and go northwest to the pass, then down to Naya Pul in the southwest.
The horizontal distance is over 200 miles, but no one ever talks about the distance. The amount of time you spend hiking is dictated more by altitude than distance. You might only hike a few hours and cover a few miles if there is a major increase in altitude.
The trail and the surrounding villages are undergoing vast changes as roads are being built on both sides. On the west side it is possible to travel by jeep from Pokhara all the way to the foot of Thorung La. Two days can be lopped off on the east side. The ramifications of the changes was a subject of much conversation on the trail. I'll delve into the issues in future posts. But first let's hit the trail.
I could write at length about the miserable bus ride to the trailhead but my back gets sore just thinking about it. It took six long hours to get from Pokhara to the bustling town of Besi Sahar.
The trailhead is at the far end of this street. I walked the length of the town. And then back again. I left my camera sitting on the ground. This was to be a recurring theme on the trek. Amazingly it was still there. I didn't lose the camera but I lost an hour even before I hit the trail!In the background of the photo are the Middle Hills. The altitude in this region is between 700 and 4,000 meters (13,200 feet). In Nepal an altitude of two and a half miles is considered a hill.
There are buses and jeeps in Besi Sahar that take tourists up the trail. You can skip nearly two full days of hiking this way. Bus drivers were hailing me to get aboard but at that point I never wanted to sit on a bus ever gain.
The first day was not fun.
Just past Besi Sahar I walked past a bridge under construction. Jeeps drive through the stream for now, but this can be dicey in the rainy season. The existing bridge can be seen in the background.
The new bridge is being built from concrete, while the original was built from what appeared to be popsicle sticks.
I spent much of the first day dodging jeeps and buses. I did not go to Nepal to play Frogger. I had already done two hikes in Nepal so I knew it would get better, but if this were my first hike I don't know how long I would have continued. One of the many reasons I love Nepal is the clean mountain air, but most of the day I was breathing dust kicked up by passing vehicles.
Motorized vehicles cart tourists and students up and down the road, but this is Nepal, so even here much is carried by people. Further along the trail I came to a river beach where bags were filled with sand for use at construction sites. These bags made their way up the trail on the backs of men, not jeeps.
Dodging traffic on the road definitely sucked some of the romance out of the experience, but the effects were greater than merely spoiling my mood. Hiking in the Annapurna region is called "teahouse trekking" because you rarely have to walk more than an hour before you arrive at the next village, where you can find a teahouse or hotel.
These villages and hotels do not spring up haphazardly. The government decides where the hotels go. In a given village the hotels will have literally the same menu, with standard prices for food and accommodation. This is to discourage haggling and ensure fair competition for all the hotels in a given area.
While the road is a godsend to some villages and some people, for others it's the worst thing that could happen. As the road lengthens the villages along the way are shriveling up as tourists drive past. My first night I stayed in a village called Ngadi. I couldn't decide which of the guesthouses to choose until I saw a table full of pretty young girls at this one.
I took a room. They left.
This is the dining area at dinner time.
One of the joys of teahouse trekking is sitting at the table in the common room during meals and talking with other hikers. I was the only guest in the hotel that night. There are a half-dozen hotels crammed together on a narrow alley. I saw six tourists. It was only once I got well above the road and onto the trail proper that the guesthouses started to fill up.
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