Annapurna Basecamp Revisited

I've realized I've done quite a lot since I've come to Nepal and had to make a post about this amazing trip to Annapurna Basecamp. Here are some of the highlights!

1)we faced all kinds of weather: from hot scorching sunny days to crazy hailing/rainy days (which could actually crack open our heads), to freezing, hard-to-breathe high altitude temperatures. 

Cloudy weather on 1st day but the mountains still welcomed us :)

Beautiful sunny weather with a few clouds.

The settled avalanche in the back. Don't worry it was one from before.

2) we not only completed the trek but got approval from our porter that we would be able to guide this trek next time by ourselves and do the Annapurna Circuit trek which is about a 21 day trek :)

So the circuit is basically the outside of the map...we only did a small portion within the map.

3) our evenings were spent playing JHYAP (it's a card game :P), crazy 8 countdown, High-jack (I wish I videotaped this just to show you how competitive things got)

4) Our appetite (esp mine.haha) was way up there. we had huge plates of dal bhat and got seconds. Of course, i always finished my meals first....

5) We loved taking afternoon naps (esp ADAM)..we even took a nap at the lodge where we sat down to eat lunch. aah good times

6) Using the internet was a privilege 100 r.s/10 min [so a bit more than a dollar for just 10 mins of internet ]---we had to check the hockey scores!!!!

7) THE FOOD WAS DELISH! it was amazing that such rural areas had ovens, etc. We had pizza, pasta even at 4130m. 

The delicious pizza that was devoured by Shiv and I.

8) We even got to watch a bollywood movie at Chomrong ( WE ARE FAMILY--to which even adam almost started bawling :P )

9) The hot springs at Jhinu was heaven-like. We were not expecting this. We probably spent 3 hours there

Hot springs @ Jhinu

10) Everyone thought we were tourists NOT from Nepal so we always got people talking in Nepali about us until we said "dai, hami nepali ho" (we are nepali) LOL the looks on their faces were priceless!

11) I went 8 days without meat (that's def a highlight!)-first time ever

12) I realize I've talked about food a lot but it was brutal sharing a snicker bar among the three of us everyday (Since we only carried 8 bars). lol Sometimes it turned into an argument of who got the bigger piece. 

13) Ghost stories were forbidden by me because then I'd have to wake up either Adam or Shivani to go to the washroom outside!

14) Oh and no broken bones or immediate rescues :)

15) We loved seeing all these awesome signs :) haha too bad we didn't take pictures of all of them.

Jeez people take your"rubbise" with you

16) You gotta love all the marijuana bushes randomly growing everywhere. no big deal.

haha the biggest bush of MaryJ

17) Crossing the bridges was fantastic. *nervous face* 

haha, Dai holding my hand and taking me across. This one wasn't too bad but some others were high, super shaky!

18) Stairmaster for 1-2 hrs!

Yea, this was a great workout.

19) Ok the mules that carry the food and other equipment up the mountains had the straightest tails. I wonder if they were actually straightened!

The Mule and its straightest tail! seriously. i don't think even my hair gets that straight.

Last, got to the top, saw so many ranges -Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Machhapuchre, Annapurna and fell in love with Nepal even more. The landscapes, the mountains -everything was so spectacular. I'm not going to say it's an easy trek because as we were getting to Macchapuchre base camp I was 60% sure I wanted to go all the way up to ABC since I had a hard time breathing (altitude) and I ended up getting diarrhea too. However, I went with some amazing and supportive friends and porter who had the attitude of "why did we even come here?" and was able to do it! It's definitely worth going! Highly recommended.

Me at 4130m May 22, 2011 Annapurna Base Camp

P.S it's taking forever to post a video I took but I'll post it soon!

Unpathed waters, undreamed shores....

xoxo

Chandni