Annapurna's tail. Himalayas. Nepal.

                                   The ability to understand depends on experience, not on efforts. (Svetlana Martinchik)                                               

...it was a start of my 94 days travel around the world. Why Nepal?

I decided to fast for 20 days, to clear up my body and feel like 19 years old boy. I asked myself: "Where is the best place to fast?" and got the answer.

Why not? Fresh air, clear water and pure nature are the best for it. Moreover I decided to hike and check out my limits and feelings. I must say it wasn't easy at all, but it wasn't easy at all for my friend Dan, who didn't fast. We experienced the same difficulties along the way. So, I can't tell exactly, but I think my body used it's own reserves to fulfil the lack of food. 

Would I do it again? No. It's too much when you are fasting. It's better to do it at home and do what you want but not to climb the mountains where you have to go (because you were planning to do so). I think it's good for the body, it gets rid of all the rubbish faster.

What would I recommend is to do it in a soft tropical climate, where there is the ocean, nice breeze and a lot of your favourite books if you like to read. It can be just any hobby.

I'm still fasting in Pokhara and it's 4.5 days left. I lost weight, all my belly fat and feel light. My shorts are falling down without the belt and my arms and legs are skinny-twise as skinny as they were. That's it about my fasting experience, lets start our travel story:)

I started my 94 days travel at Proserpine airport, Australia. I decided to do of at least one photo masterpiece from each day. Sometimes it's difficult because the heavy cameras are packed in a bags and they are on the horse (I don't know what would we do without the horse) and we were taking pictures with our pocket cameras or cell phones.

I'm going to post some of the photographs here and you can see the rest in the photo gallery just under this text.

Thamel. Kathmandu.

We've met with my best old friend Denis in Kathmandu. When we were studying at school we were playing in a Punk/Rockabilly Band with the name Wild Pig Pepo. It appeared that we didn't loose that cool spirit at all and it made our journey unforgettable. We had the same good vibes like we had 25 years ago. That's awesome!

Here is Dan.

With this guy everything is possible, he is an amazing friend, best dad ever for his kids and a great actor.

Thamel is the old district in Kathmando with the narrow streets, old buildings and a lot of shops. We stayed in Thamel Hostel, it's close to everything and not so far to the government tourist agency where you can  get a permits if you are going to do some tracks in Nepal.

The price for the tourist buses to Pokhara are $10 and the bus stop is quite close to the hostel. In the morning we took a bus to Pokhara and with one traffic jam came to the town close to the evening time.

Pokhara.

Pokhara is the second biggest town in Nepal and it's beautiful, especially the Lakeside district. If you don't have any gear to travel, there is a lot of it sold in a shops: gas burners, shoes, walking sticks, backpacks, rain coats, warm cloth's, knives etc. They do sell really good topographic maps too. All of it is cheap but it's gonna be enough for your trip for sure.

If you don't have a time for everything-you can fly on helicopter to everywhere and it's not too expensive too. There are a lot of activities which are offered by the travel agencies and a lot you can do it by yourself.

For example, I found the rental white water kayak place and rented he longest kayak for a day to go wherever I want on the local lake. It's only 1000 rupees/day in comparison to the boats: 500 rupees/hour. You can even go fishing, if you find the rod.

Scooter is a good thing to zoom around and you can hire it here too. Even if you are staying here for a week-there is always something to do.

We slept overnight and hired a taxi to go to Nayapul where we were going to start walking.

Nayapul-Gorepani.

                                                             It's silly to carry heavy backpacks if there is a jeep to rent and the road.

Yes we did have a heavy backpacks. I did have a camera with three lenses, tent, gas burner etc and Dan had his food, because we were going to go on the lake and camp there without any lodges. He also had a lot of stuff you can eliminate in a rough steep mountains but he decided to take it with him.

So we walked from Nayapul to Birethani and decided to find a Jeep. I found it in 2 minutes and we saved of at least two valuable days. The driver took us up, and where the road ended, we started to walk. It was Ullery village. The path to Gorepani was quite steep and it wasn't easy for the first day walkers.

It's easy to navigate in this mountains if you have a nice map and a compass. I also had a satellite map on my phone, just in case we get lost in the villages with their narrow roads. 

It was raining nearly all the way to Gorepani. We made it just before the dark and stayed in a lodge with occasional electricity, Wi-Fi and 1 hour firewood barrel stove. The rest of the lodges were occupied. Fine! Of at least it's not raining on a sleeping back at night.

Poon Hill.

We didn't want to go on a Poon Hill because we were going to Khopra anyway and there is much much better view from it. 

Because we decided to have a day off from walking, there was nothing to do and it was a sunny day. It was a reason, that we changed our minds and walked to Poon hill where you can see Annapurna and Dhaulagiri from the both sides.

The road was amazing with the nice sceneries.

It was cloudy on the top, so it's better to go there on early morning or in a midday when the sun dissolves the clouds. You can see more of the pictures from there in the gallery.

Gorepani-Khopra Danda.

                                                                                              It's silly to carry heavy backpacks if you have a horse and the road.

Yes, we took a horse, thanks got. We would take a helicopter too, but there was no one. Anyway, we started our two days trip to Khopra. Our gide/horse owner was running like the mountain goat and it was difficult for us to keep this pace. His horse with the real name: Mountain Bike also liked that speedy pace and when we asked to slow down the horse became angry and started to bow his head. I don't know how many days would it take for us to walk there with our bags...So, to take the horse was the best decision of our trip (I don't count the helicopter).

We saw the wild monkeys on the way and our guide Goutam said that there are some bears and tigers in a jungles. It's a shame that we didn't see them.

We finished our day in Chistibang Community Lodge. It was nice and it was only 2.5 hours to reach Khopra in the morning from there. Normally it takes 3 hours but our Goutam/mountain goat who was 65 years old couldn't walk slower. Oh well, this mountain people are all like this.

Annapurna's tail. Khopra Danda. 

It was my aim-have the best view ever and live there for a week to enjoy the scenery, breath mountain air and feel the fresh wind. We were going to the lake which was on the 4600 m altitude but didn't make it. The reason was simple-both of us had a small symptoms of mountain sickness.

We didn't have a time to get used to high altitude because Dan had to go back home soon. Anyway, we enjoyed what we had and it was fantastic. We were staying on the mountain ridge which goes straight from the South Annapurna top and it looked like Annapurna's tail.

It's awesome, when you put the tent up and all surroundings are covered with the clouds. You don't know exactly what is around you at all and when you wake up in the morning the big WOW comes out from your mouth when you unzip your tent. That's how the magic happens.

It looks like it's sunny place. It's not. Mostly Khopra are covered with the clouds and it's misty, wet and freezing. You need to hunt for that good weather window to enjoy the sceneries and take a couple of shots. We were staying there for three nights and decided to go down. As I said above it's better to fast in a tropical climate too. Oh well, I'm not perfect and sometimes making the mistakes like all the people do.

I must say, if you want to stay in Khopra Lodge, you need to book in advance, because it's becoming more popular and it's nearly full every day during the season.

Khopra-Pauduwar-Tatopani.

We packed our bags and went down walking in the clouds. There are two ways to go to Tatopani. The first one is to go through Pauduwar and the second through Chitre. We went through Pauduwar and it was the right decision beacause this village is very old and beautiful. 

We stopped at one of the lodges for a night and next morning got to Tatopani.

Tatopani located on the bank of Kali-Gandaki river and has an amazing view with one of the snowy peak in the middle. There are the nice hot springs too, so I would definitely recommend to stay here overnight and relax. There is a lot of food and Denis enjoyed Mo-Mo (local steamed dumplings).

Our trip was coming to the end. Dan went to Pokhara and I went there two days later.

We saw lots of people with guides. It's more pricy and less freedom. Try to do it by yourself. It's not difficult in Himalayas (unless you have a heavy backpack) and it's a challenge.

The true life begins out of our comfort zone. Just do something new, push your borders, go over your limits and never ever give up! 

See you somewhere on the intersections of this beautiful planet.

Love You

Dimi Kash