📸 — Day 1 & 2: Annapurna Circuit, Nepal

We spent four days looking for a good guide and after interviewing a few… we found our guy!

We felt it was important to pick someone that was knowledgable of the area, spoke good english and would be fun to hang out with for a few weeks. Prem was the forth guide we met and we are so grateful to have found him! After meeting at the trekking shop, he took us to a local tea house that Maeghan mistaken as a crack in the wall… which it was.. and the woman who lived there served us some local tea. After we went for some lunch and Prem taught us how to properly eat Dhal Bhat (the Nepalese staple dish) using our hands.

Great guy, knowledge and a lot of fun ✅✅✅

The next day we geared up for our hike — Annapurna is the longest trek we had ever done, prior to this, the Salkantay trail in Peru for 5 days was our closest comparison. We had donkeys carrying our group’s bags on that trip and Maeghan insisted to save our energy we should hike with a porter as well.

Sonam (Muscle man porter), Prem (Awesome compassionate guy) and us crazy Canadian’s set out on our adventure.

Day one started off with local transit from Kathmandu to Besisahar, where the trail initially began. In recent years a road has been built but it’s condition is not so fun to drive on. We started with a local bus there, and then a 2nd bus that we are pretty sure should have retired in the 80s… to get us to the start of our hiking trail.

Day One Summary:

Start time: 8:30am
Total distance: 130 km (Car transport)
Kathmandu → Ngadi

Day Two Summary:

Start time: 7:50am
Total distance: 15.2 km
Ngadi → Gherma

See more on our website www.alittledetour.ca🌏✈️👫

Learning to eat Dhal Bhat with our hands.

Bus station at Kathmandu.

Tons of people piling in and out of vans. They wait until they are full and head out. There is always a bus going where you want to.. but the departure time is TBD

We let the first bus go (limited leg room) and then piled into the next van heading to Beshisar. Many buses read “Buddha was born in Nepal”.

We had a little more leg room, but the van for more than 15 people all packed in tightly.

The road was so dusty and the van was so hot.. you had to decide if you wanted to inhale dirt, or get some cool air into the van. Also, many construction and transport trucks drove by and all had their own unique colors and designs. It reminded Maeghan of Nicaragua and the Chicken Buses.

We stopped for lunch after a few hours on the road. We met some local kids applying temporary tattoos. Maeghan decided to give one of them her quartz stones she found hiking in Kuala Lumpur, and in return she came running back and wanted to give Maeghan a tattoo.

The generosity continued when Oli came and the kids gave him one as well. We were the only tourists around.

The bus ride continued until we reached our final stop. There we had to jump into a second bus… which was the last one of the day… and only locals rode it going home for the weekend.

The road was TERRIBLE. Driving cliff side on an already rocky and uneven road made it hard to breathe sometime.

The pictures are all blurry, but the ride was something else. We were crammed on with the locals all going home to their villages for the weekend. There wasn’t any space to sit but the local “old” woman invited Maeghan to sit at the front on top of the engine beside the drive. All smiling and nodding.

Olivier managed to get a seat close by, but as people started to clear out able to get a proper seat further to the back.

The road was even scary for some of the locals who held their breathe or closed their eyes… but Maeghan was convinced that sitting in the front was easier…. even if the bus driver’s wheel was shaking and could detach at any moment.

We reached the first check point and had our hiking permits stamped. After that, we settled for the night before beginning our first hiking day.

The accommodations are basic. A bed, sometimes you get power, and almost always you have to walk outside to the squatting toilet.

Our first night was comfy, and had great views of the river and surrounding rice fields.

DAY TWO: The hiking begins!

The one sad thing about the trail (beyond the road) is the amount of garbage you find in piles around. There isn’t much infrastructure for recycling here, so you have to think twice about simple things like getting a bottle of coke with your lunch. Where is that bottle going after?

Looking back towards Kathmandu, you can see the smog that follows. Looking ahead, the skies are much more clear — its crazy

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The trail had many people marking their name… so Maeghan decided to join in with the mud.

We arrived to our sleeping destination and Prem took us out to the local village for a walk around. We saw schools that were building built (kids often walk hours to school from surrounding villages up and down the crazy hills) and the incredible farm land that surrounded us.

Locals playing soccer in the evening. School is from Sunday to Friday — so tonight was their night off.

Goat houses… they lift them off the ground so their waste drops and keeps their cage clean. Walking by you heard quite the racket.

Our teahouse for the night.

It was funny, many places had power outlets that were at the light switch level… making it really difficult to power anything — your phone would be dangling mid-air at the end of the cable.

We were stoked to get a seated toilet in our room.. but the seat itself wasn’t hooked to the toilet… that proved to be common for the rest of the trial.

See more on our website www.alittledetour.ca🌏✈️👫