A mixture of excitement and nerves was floating around in my belly when I woke up on the morning in December when we were to fly to Nepal. This did not subside and by the time it was take off I was vomiting into the airplane sick bag. These sick bags were not the best and it started to leak onto my pants. Was this the premise for how the rest of Nepal would be? I hoped not.
December was not the most recommended month to visit Nepal to hike the Himalayas. We had packed our gear all prepared for winter but this hike would surprise us in more ways than one.
We had planned to head straight to Pokhara after landing in Kathmandu and then to get our permit for hiking straight away on the same day. For B the thought of this was so stressful (as we had not had much luck on other trips where we planned to do this), but for me I knew we could do it.
We had already got our visa for Nepal when we visited London in mid December from the Nepalese embassy there (Visa for Entry to Nepal roughly 40 USD).
Landing in Kathmandu it was easy to head to the domestic airport and catch our flight to Pokhara. We only had planned 1 hour between landing and flying a 25-minute flight. This worked out perfectly as it was easy to get through security and onto the flight.
Flying across Nepal was beautiful, you could see the Himalayas the whole way there and they served you water and sweets on such a short flight. In Pokhara we were greeted by our hotels transfer, we asked him if he wouldn’t mind taking us to the hiking permit place. Thinking this would take over an hour we didn’t know if he would be keen or not.
Again things seemed to work out easily. We headed to the permit center and within 10 minutes we were walking out with our permit for the Annapurna trek. (You need both the TIMS card roughly 20 USD and the ACAP visa which is roughly 27 USD and 4 passport photos).
Day 1 - Nayapul to Ghorepani
The next day we woke up early and took a taxi to the start of the hike in Nayapul (Rs2100 1.5hrs). When we arrived there we found out it was possible to take a jeep up further Ulleri (Rs3000 2 hours approx.).
Along the way we checked into the Annapurna mountain range and collected various locals who join us for the ride up the hill, thus allowing for some interesting times in the jeep and many laughs. From Ulleri 2070m we began our hike to Ghorepani (2900m). This took about 5 hours and many snickers bars.
Once we arrived we booked in at a teahouse right by the entrance to Poon Hill so we could leave at 5am in the morning to hike up for the sunrise. (This was the only night on the whole trek we felt cold, so it is a good idea to hire blankets). The teahouse was peaceful and we ordered a scrumptious dinner and breakfast ready for when we returned the next morning.
Day 2 - Ghorepani - Poon Hill - Tadapani
Christmas on top of Poon Hill (3,210 m), this took longer than the 45 minutes suggested and many steps later. Watching the sunrise over the Himalayas was amazing, the bright oranges allowed for a wonderful Christmas morning wakeup.
After Poon Hill and a hearty breakfast we started one of our longest days of hiking in the Himalayas or so we thought …
