Trekking in the western Himalayas.

Last Friday morning, my Sherpa guide Ganesh picked me up from my hotel and we took an eight-hour long busride to Pokhara, 200km west of Kathmandu. The city is the jumping off point for excursions into the Annapurna Conservation Area, which belong to the Himalayas.

The plan: four days on a circuit through the mountains, up to the viewpoint of Poon Hill, famous for its views of the looming Annapurna peaks.

Day 1: Ganesh and I hopped a local bus, which took us on a 2-hour ride to the town of Nayapul. From there, it was a short half-hour's walk to the trailhead at Birethanti. After eating a huge lunch of dhal bhaat, the first of many over the next days, we started the route.

Locally-made buffalo cheese in Birethani. I snacked on a wedge of these by the fire later up in Gorephani.

The first two hours of walking were pleasant and easy. We walked over streams, rickety bridges, and flat fields, with colorful glimpses of village life.


After that, the route began to climb. And climb and climb, relentlessly, unforgivingly. I dragged myself up, step by laborious step, stopping every few minutes to find my breath before continuing again. Ganesh was so patient with my sorry state.

Up and up and up, with hardly a few feet of flat ground anywhere.

The steepest section came right before our stop at the town of Ulleri, making a climactic ending to the day. Hiking in Nepal is unique in that villages dot the mountainsides the entire way up. For this reason, camping is almost unheard of, even for the hardy. Every hour or so, we'd arrive at a small town with lodges (or teahouse, as they call them) and restaurants run by locals. They were always clean, the dhal bhaats were always delicious, and the hospitality was always warm.

A typical town with plenty of accommodation.

A happy arrival at Ulleri for the night.

Day 2: Since we covered more ground on Day 1 than originally planned, we had a short day today of only three hours of walking. Again with the relentless uphill steps, though they were markedly gentler climbs than yesterday.

Dhal baat, which comes in a different form everywhere.

We reached the town of Gorephani at noon. I befriended an American couple, and we whiled away the rest of the day around the fire in our teahouse.

Interesting tidbit: some of the lodges had internet access. Imagine, up at 3000 meters! Ganesh told me that there's even internet at 5500 meters at Everest Base Camp. Just can't get away from it these days.

Day 3: This was the big morning. I stumbled out of bed with a wake-up call of 5am, grabbed my headlamp, and we joined a train of other fellow trekkers for the 45 minute climb up to our destination of Poon Hill. When we reached the top, at 3210 meters, it was still pitch-dark outside. I picked a spot, sat down, and waited for the sun to come up and illuminate this:

Annapurna South on the left. Mt Dhaulagiri on the right.

First rays of sunlight coming over Annapurna South.

Macchapucchare ('Fish Tail') peak on the left.

Close-up of Mt Dhaulagiri.

Just to prove that this was real!

I'll let those pictures speak for themselves. I'll just say that it was unreal. It was like one of those perfect images that you see in glossy travel magazines, the ones that you just glance over and immediately forget about because it's hard to imagine that anything that pristine could possibly exist in real life.

Well, it does, and here's a panorama video of it:

Walking from Poon Hill back into Gorephani at around 7am.

When we left Gorephani after breakfast, we ascended for a little while longer. The clouds were just settling in.

Porters carrying their loads, sharing our path.

My awesome guide Ganesh and I, at the highest point of our trek.

Meghan and Galen, the American couple I befriended along the way.

A peek at the Annapurnas through the thick clouds.

Then the descent began. We walked through snow for hours.

Spring is coming. Flowers poked out through the snow.

As the elevation decreased, we entered into thick rhododendron forest. The red blossoms were everywhere. They formed a red sheet over the trees and lined the footpath for miles.


By the end of the day, we had walked about eight hours, a solid five of which were downhill. We spent the night at the town of Ghandruk. Ascents pain the heart; descents pain the legs. I could feel the soreness building up as I went to sleep.

Day 4: I awoke not being able to move my lower body, and was worried about the final descent back into Birethanti. Thankfully, the soreness went away as we started walking, which is fortunate, because if we went any faster than we did today, we'd be jogging. We reached the end of our journey by noon.


The visibility up on Poon Hill was breathtaking, Ganesh was a fantastic hiking companion, and the feeling of being back inside nature was incredible. A truly memorable four days in the Himalayas.