ABC 8-22 Dec 2018
There is always a tour of duty when it comes to most anything, trekking in the Himalayan ranges not withstanding. Annapurna Base Camp is just one of those commonly trekked parts. It makes no sense for us not to trek ABC before we progress further.
And boy was I pleasantly surprised and happy to have on board with our small group, Jacalyn Chung, our good cycling kaki, and Shu Ning, Fann’s best friend; not to mention Nicole, who finally managed to find the time to join the Wong family for this trip, to experience together all the emotional roller coasters - serenity, exuberance, suffering, pain, fear and more that the mountains invariably served.
“Kathmandu has become more affluent, with more cars and more buildings and the people wear more stylishly, like adidas and all,” remarked Jacalyn as she beheld the Road side scenes on our way to Kathmandu Garden Home. Her last trek to Poon Hill was in 2007.The USD has strengthened against the Nepali Rupee. While last year this time US$1 would exchange for around 90 NPR, this year US$1 could fetch 111 NPR. Understandably the local merchants had to jack up their prices for their merchandise due especially for tourists like us.
Certain things remained similar. A 5Gb Data plan under Ncell still goes for 1050 NPR. But the stall keeper charged us an extra 300 NPR for the SIM cars which I didn’t remember having to paid for last year. So for NPR 1350 (S$16.80) we got everybody a 5Gb Ncell SIM curd, whole for some of us we paid 1800NPR (S$22h inclusive of the SIM card for a 16GB plan. Well, still not too expensive. The stall keeper reassured us, despite my insisting that NTC is better for Annapurna, that NCell has improved its service and now has signal all the way up to ABC. Well since he was so dead sure we might as well believe him. It proved retrospectively deadly wrong. NEVER buy an NCell SIM card for ABC. Moving forward, it will only be NTC SIM cards for us in the future, even for EBC region.
“I told him if we get no signal in ABC I will come back and kick his buttock,” I joked to Darric and Kong Wan.
Day 1
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8 Dec 2018
It's the time of the year again. No matter how much we suffered on our prevoius treks, we somehow still found ourselves ending up in Kathmandu, yet again. It is always great to be back into her embrace and back to the dusty alleys and small flavourful rows of shops, with motorbikes zooming haphazardly pass in all directions. Of course, a visit to Serene's shop (B&B Himalayan Trading) just a few doors down from Mountain Delights' office, is obligatory, and the acquisition of some cold wears before the trek begins. This round, Ram took special care of all of us, and loaned us quite a lot of equipment. That was really good.
Day 2
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9 Dec 2018
After a significant delay in Kathmandu domestic airport due to poor visibility in Pokhara, we finally were on our way on board the small Buddha Air plane to the gateway town west of Kathmandu. We literally hit the ground running - the minibus drove us to the starting point at Nayapul and soon we were on our way on the trek. Babu's plan was for us to reach Tikedhunga on this day. But the two hours plane delay meant that we could only trek as far as Hille for the day, 20 minutes short of Tikedhunga. But that was good enough for the first day...
Day 3
The tough trek from Hille to Ghorepani
After a significant delay in Kathmandu domestic airport due to poor visibility in Pokhara, we finally were on our way on board the small Buddha Air plane to the gateway town west of Kathmandu. We literally hit the ground running - the minibus drove us to the starting point at Nayapul and soon we were on our way on the trek. Babu's plan was for us to reach Tikedhunga on this day. But the two hours plane delay meant that we could only trek as far as Hille for the day, 20 minutes short of Tikedhunga. But that was good enough for the first day...
Day 3
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10 Dec 2018
Starting the trek on this day from Hille instead of Tikedhunga meant we had a longer distance to cover. But by itself, the trek from Tikedhunga at 1480m, up the steep 500m ascent to Ulleri at 1960m and finally crossing the Ghorepani gate and arriving at our Sunny Guesthouse at 2874m, meant that the more 1400m ascent and covering a horizontal distance of 14.7m was tough. It took us about nine and a half hours to arrive at Ghorepani, by that time most of us were really tired. Memories came flooding back to those of us who have trekked this part previously. And many dejavu moments were encountered. A tiring day like this really needed to be balanced by an early night's rest, because we needed to gather at 5am the next day for our climb to Poon Hill before we commence the ACTUAL trek from Ghorepani to Tadapani. It was no wonder that many of us started feeling winded, even though it was only the second day of the trek...
Day 4
Early morning Poon Hill trek... followed by the trek from Ghorepani to Tadapani.
Starting the trek on this day from Hille instead of Tikedhunga meant we had a longer distance to cover. But by itself, the trek from Tikedhunga at 1480m, up the steep 500m ascent to Ulleri at 1960m and finally crossing the Ghorepani gate and arriving at our Sunny Guesthouse at 2874m, meant that the more 1400m ascent and covering a horizontal distance of 14.7m was tough. It took us about nine and a half hours to arrive at Ghorepani, by that time most of us were really tired. Memories came flooding back to those of us who have trekked this part previously. And many dejavu moments were encountered. A tiring day like this really needed to be balanced by an early night's rest, because we needed to gather at 5am the next day for our climb to Poon Hill before we commence the ACTUAL trek from Ghorepani to Tadapani. It was no wonder that many of us started feeling winded, even though it was only the second day of the trek...
Day 4
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11 Dec 2018
Poon Hill was definitely one of the highlights of the trek. To be able to see all the peaks up at 3210m at sunrise was a great morale booster, especially for the few of our team members who were new to the trek. Half expecting a tough trek once we descended back to Ghorepani, had our breakfast, and commenced our day's journey, I was pleasantly surprised by the serenity, the almost mystical feel to the great part of the first half of the day's trek as we walked through Rhododendron forests, through misty ridges, and in the cool, quietness of the morning. Serene got her E. coli food poisoning and poo-ed in her trekking pants that early morning, and had to miss Poon Hill. But she soldiered on for the rest of the day's trek after an injection and starting on antibiotic. In my memory, the day's tough part was the sharp descent down to Banthanti River and the sharp up to Tadapani. Seven hours and fifteen minutes and 11.9km after we started, we arrived at one of the most magnificent sunset views at Tadapani at 2630m. A long day indeed. But a very enjoyable day of trekking.
Day 5
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12 Dec 2018
Chhomrong was at a lower altitude of 2170m. I really secretly disliked the idea of giving back all the altitude that we painstakingly surmounted. But the Himalayan ranges were just like that - you gained some, you lost some. 10.2km horizontal distance hiked and seven hours in total, we set food on the soil of Tadapani. The night before, Babu reassured us that, after the two cold cold nights in Ghorepani and Tadapani, our night in Chhomrong would be milder as it was at a lower altitude. But alas, it wasn't that much a difference. I had a good laugh when Jacalyn complained that it was sooooo cold at Lucky Guest House when she tried to take a hot (or rather, cold) shower at the guesthouse. Ah Li was starting to having her own symptoms of food poisoning with severe gastric cramps, and had to receive her injection and medicine at Chhomrong...
Chhomrong was at a lower altitude of 2170m. I really secretly disliked the idea of giving back all the altitude that we painstakingly surmounted. But the Himalayan ranges were just like that - you gained some, you lost some. 10.2km horizontal distance hiked and seven hours in total, we set food on the soil of Tadapani. The night before, Babu reassured us that, after the two cold cold nights in Ghorepani and Tadapani, our night in Chhomrong would be milder as it was at a lower altitude. But alas, it wasn't that much a difference. I had a good laugh when Jacalyn complained that it was sooooo cold at Lucky Guest House when she tried to take a hot (or rather, cold) shower at the guesthouse. Ah Li was starting to having her own symptoms of food poisoning with severe gastric cramps, and had to receive her injection and medicine at Chhomrong...
Day 6
Chhomrong to Dovan.. oh man, it's starting to be really cold.
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13 Dec 2018
After a whole day of trekking in the woods the day before, on this day, we really found ourselves totally immersed in the deep deep valleys and surrounded by the shades of the tree canopies. The sky was overcast and the cumulus clouds were thick and dark above us. It was a cold and eerie day. I really disliked trekking in the shades of the valleys because there was no sun, and it was cold. The fact that there was not enough sunlight to power our solar panels didn't help. As we trekked, we could see that the dark rain clouds were gathering strength and covering the peaks. By the time we made the sharp descent and sharp ascent up to Sinuwa at 2360m we were breathless from the climb. Another 2 hours to the village of Bamboo at 2335m brought us face to face with our first rainfall of the trek. And boy did it rain! We made it just in time to the guesthouse in Bamboo for lunch while waiting for the rain to peter off. It was a cold day. Made worse by the rain and cloudy gloomy sky. There wasn't any sight of the warm sun. Dhovan (also known as Dovan or Dobhan) at 2600m was our final destination for this day. I could still remember stumbling into Dovan to see a very rudimentary guesthouse and preparing myself for a miserable cold and wet night. I didn't recall any one even mentioning showering from this point onwards...
Day 7
Dovan to Deurali. Unbearably, un-showerably cold... I forgot how much I hated the freezing weather...
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14 Dec 2018
Throughout the trek, I remembered Darric and Kong Wan recalling themselves shivering in the deep cold of Deurali during their last trek to ABC on their previous trips. And the impression stuck in my head. I knew Deurali was going to be freezing. The equivalent of the rain in Dovan the day before was the snow in Dovan. What a swell day we had on this day's journey, especially after the village of Himalaya, when the terrain finally opened up and we began to encounter a snowy landscape. Almost immediately after Himalaya, we came upon frozen ice on the trails. Man, was I glad we all brought our shoe spikes because they all finally became life-saving for us. Deurali at 3200m meant we made a net ascent of 600m on this day and finally went above 3000m (apart from that day we hit 3210m at Poon Hill). The climb was tiring and the exertion made us breathless because of the thinner air, and for a great part we were still shrouded in the forest. But later on after Himalaya we were finally out in the open, and my heart opened up. However, the sunlight was still severely lacking, and most of our power banks were only at 2 bars even after a whole day of trek with the solar panels fully opened. 9.6km horizontal distance and four and a half hours of trekking made this the shortest trek in the whole trip. We arrived at Deurali early for once. And even had a chance to take a nice afternoon nap...
15 Dec 2018
A freezing sub-zero morning with a surprisingly clear sky greeted us this morning. From the word go, it was snowy trek almost all the way Deurali upwards. Babu instructed us to don our shoe spikes right from the beginning and that was definitely the correct call, without which our progress would have been painfully slow having to ice skate across frozen paths. The weather was hovering around the freezing point throughout the day. Ah Sing's SMUX friends whom we met the day before told of snow storms and negative 18 degrees temperature when they were at ABC just two nights earlier. The mountain gods must have been very kind to us on this fateful day as we enjoyed the icy trail with no slippage and mounted both Machhapuchchre Base Camp and our final destination at Annapurna Base Camp at 4130m. The sight was breath-taking, being in the basin of ABC with all the famous peaks surrounding us 360 degrees. I doubted if anyone was complaining. This WAS the sight that we trekked days for to behold. And after 12.8km and 7 hours and 20 minutes, finally we made it.
A freezing sub-zero morning with a surprisingly clear sky greeted us this morning. From the word go, it was snowy trek almost all the way Deurali upwards. Babu instructed us to don our shoe spikes right from the beginning and that was definitely the correct call, without which our progress would have been painfully slow having to ice skate across frozen paths. The weather was hovering around the freezing point throughout the day. Ah Sing's SMUX friends whom we met the day before told of snow storms and negative 18 degrees temperature when they were at ABC just two nights earlier. The mountain gods must have been very kind to us on this fateful day as we enjoyed the icy trail with no slippage and mounted both Machhapuchchre Base Camp and our final destination at Annapurna Base Camp at 4130m. The sight was breath-taking, being in the basin of ABC with all the famous peaks surrounding us 360 degrees. I doubted if anyone was complaining. This WAS the sight that we trekked days for to behold. And after 12.8km and 7 hours and 20 minutes, finally we made it.
16 Dec 2018
Mountain trekkings were like these. One would descend the distance of two days of ascending trek in one day. Sometimes even more. The weather had turned a little warmer over the past couple of days, and the snow-covered grounds we had on our way up was now snow-free. Descending was SUPPOSED to be faster than ascending. But not when we had to detour because of avalanche, and when the team was tired. It was a delightful push, albeit a mad one, to try to make it to Dovan for lunch and finally to settle down that evening at Bamboo. Despite the best of plans, oft things did not work out as per scheduled. We only manage to grab a late lunch at 2pm plus at Himalaya and the decision (sadly) was made to call it a day at Dovan at 2600m, 15.2km horizontal distance and 8 hours and 20 minutes later. Going down to Bamboo would have meant another one and a half hours more of trekking at Singaporean pace that would mean trekking in the dark. By this time, merely 3 days after we last set foot on Dovan, the guesthouses were already shutting down for winter. Out of 3 or 4 guesthouses, only one was left opened. And the whole place was deathly quiet, except for us and another few straggler trekkers...
17 Dec 2018
From Dovan 2600m downwards towards Chhomrong, we had to pass by Bamboo 2335m where a few days ago we were hiding from the sudden downpour. 13.km and 8 hours of trekking again in the valleys and back in the thick Rhododendron woods with the sun right in front of us meant, again, no charging on the solar panels on our backs. We were resigned to that fate by then, whatever little sunlight that hit the panels would suffice just to take us another day more to charge whatever we could. The only thing that made us keep pushing was the thought of the famous hot spring in Jhinu 1736m to soothe our aching muscles and joints. Talking about the power of motivation...
Day 11
Jhinu back to Sauli Bazaar.. even the last day was not exactly a relaxing trek ok!
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18 Dec 2018
It was warm at this altitude. No longer had we the snow, the cold nor the frozen icy trail. The thick down jackets were off and the middle and outer layers were mostly hanging tied to our waists. Most of us were trekking either in T-shirts or one base layer on top. Instead of going through the Gurkha village of Ghandruk, Babu opted to skirt around the mountain and walk us along the tiny narrow but delightful trails on the side of the slopes. A lovely weather for a nice loooooooong trek. To motivate us, Babu announced that he would get the bus to come up higher at Sauli Bazaar to fetch us instead of making us walk all the way back down to Nayapul. However, we were shocked to find ourselves still trekking 12.7km horizontal distance. But the pace was definitely faster, as there was much lesser ups and downs, merely Nepali flat. We made the distance in a short 4 and a half hours, just nice to cross the finishing line at Sauli Bazaar for lunch. What a lovely end to our ABC trek!
19 Dec 2018
Back to the warm civilisation of Pokhara. Compared with dirty, dusty Kathmandu, Pokhara is a slightly more organised and developed town. Without a doubt Pokhara's economy runs on tourism and even myself and the children, who last stepped foot on Pokhara's soil 6 years ago, found that it has changed. Now it is inundated with Chinese restaurants, and many shop displays were adorned with Chinese words, and shop keepers would shout out; "你好！" whenever we walked past. Pokhara has changed. It is no longer the Pokhara that Kong Wan and Ai Lin knew 19 years ago; not the Pokhara that Serene, myself, the children and Jacalyn knew 6-7 years ago. And perhaps not even the Pokhara Darric knew a few years back. But one thing hasn't changed. Pokhara paragliding is still a famous activity here. And Nicole suggested that we all really should take to the sky...
Day 13
Pokhara back to Kathmandu.. White water rafting on the Trishulli River!
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20 Dec 2018
I must set the record straight. Kong Wan was the brilliant one who highly recommended doing a Grade 3 white water rafting on Trishulli (Trisuli) River. The last time he and Ai Lin did the same was 19 years ago, when Trishulli was still a Grade 4 course. To those of us who never did white water rafting ever before, our concept of water rafting was 'row row row' in the river water for half an hour or forty-five minutes then job done. But were we in for a shock, and a very cold one at that. We found only one raft in the river - ours. Because it was winter and hardly anyone did water rafting during winter, except for those who were a little short-short in the brain, and/or those who were ignorant of what to expect. Three full hours of freezing walls of water, with constant fear of falling out of the craft, some mad paddling to quickly escape some rapids, a lovely outdoor Dal Bhat buffet self-serviced lunch over a fireplace, plus a long long bus ride back to Kathmandu in the dark - all made this day a very memorable one.
I must set the record straight. Kong Wan was the brilliant one who highly recommended doing a Grade 3 white water rafting on Trishulli (Trisuli) River. The last time he and Ai Lin did the same was 19 years ago, when Trishulli was still a Grade 4 course. To those of us who never did white water rafting ever before, our concept of water rafting was 'row row row' in the river water for half an hour or forty-five minutes then job done. But were we in for a shock, and a very cold one at that. We found only one raft in the river - ours. Because it was winter and hardly anyone did water rafting during winter, except for those who were a little short-short in the brain, and/or those who were ignorant of what to expect. Three full hours of freezing walls of water, with constant fear of falling out of the craft, some mad paddling to quickly escape some rapids, a lovely outdoor Dal Bhat buffet self-serviced lunch over a fireplace, plus a long long bus ride back to Kathmandu in the dark - all made this day a very memorable one.
21 Dec 2018
We have always enjoyed visiting Boudhanath Stupa. To those who were new to this magnificent stupa, it was an eye opening visit. Secretly, for myself (and maybe even Kong Wan), I researched and knew Boudhanath was THE place to find a good Tibetan singing bowl. It would not be the cheapest place, but at least the quality would be assured. My dream came true here in Boudhanath, thanks to our lovely girls.
In summary
... A trip of adventures
It never occurred to my tiny little narrow mind that Nepal was more than just trekking. It was a country that offered much in outdoor activities. I must really thank Kong Wan and Nicole for injecting the additional paragliding (recommended by Nicole) and water rafting (highly recommended by Kong Wan) activities into what originally was meant to be merely a trekking trip.
I was very happy to be able to embark on the trek with each and everyone in the team, to be able to make it up to our destinations despite several suffering from joint pains and, as described by Jacalyn, ‘muscle pain like knife stabbing though the thighs...’. And as always, gritting our teeth through the deep cold at Deurali and Annapurna Base Camp with Kong Wan, who hated the cold as much as I did. I was relieved to see how independent the children were in surmounting all the usual issues during the trek- cold, fatigue, slippery ice, illnesses and (different) food. In my heart I knew they were ready for any future trek. Impressive were new trekkers like Shu Ning and Nicole who adapted very quickly and tolerated the conditions well with little complaints. More impressive was Jacalyn who showered us with her laughs, her humorous verbal jabs and her Ipoh snacks, all of which lifted our spirits during the tough times. Despite her hoping for a helicopter that never landed, each time she sighted the red choppers in the air, she made it across the finishing line at Sauli Bazaar, and became a certified Annapurna Base Camper.
Although they were icings in the cake, the paragliding and water rafting activities were gigantic glaciers of icing, in no way any lesser than the trek itself. And they made the adventure complete.
As we dined with Ram on the evening before we departed, and Kong Wan and I inundated him with questions in our quest for more information regarding future higher conquests, our hearts were at ease, knowing that for this year, everyone’s job was done.
Till our next trek.
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