My trek to Annapurna took place directly after my trek to Goyko Ri around Mount Everest in Nepal. Here’s the story from when we returned to Kathmandu.

Back in Katmandu

In between Gokyo Ri and Annapurna, we had one day in Katmandu. What would you do with your one day in relative civilization, probably not what I did? We got up a little late, giving our bodies a chance to recover and then promptly headed to a police station in hopes of getting my police report my camera that was stolen before my trek to Goyko Ri. After wasting close to an hour, we were told that the big boss was not available and to come back another day. This wouldn’t help as we will be on the mountain for the next seventeen days. So we headed back to the original police station. Filled out yet another form, twice, and then met with the same result. No signature. It was quite frustrating.

We then took a diversion and became tourists. We visited the Pashupati temple, the holiest Hindu temple in Katmandu. Talk about the “Circle of Life,” they have both cremations and weddings going on at the same time. If this wasn’t enough, they also had wild monkeys running around.

After the temple we headed to an Internet café. We were supposed to head to the “hub,” so I could upload quickly. The hub was closed and the café we visited did not work out too well. I was able to load some text and one tiny photo in an hour of trying. It was the icing on another bad day.

The bright spot of our day was eating at a local Indian place in Padam’s neighborhood. We had chicken Tandori, real chicken. Not scraps of meat like on the mountain as well as garlic nan, curry, and cokes. It really hit the spot.

We were supposed to take his family out to dinner, but it was getting late and we still had a list of chores to do before heading back to the mountains. We had to hire a porter, get a permit (turns out we had to wait till tomorrow for it), and get bus tickets. Once all this was taken care of Chuck and I went out for an Italian dinner.

Last Day and on Our Way (3/11)
We got up early to head out to yet another police station, this time it was the tourist police. After what looked like promising cooperation and yet another form, they also said the boss wasn’t around, this time in a meeting and to come back after my trek. It’s amazing anything can get done in this country.

After the police station, we headed for the bus. Not a tourist bus, unfortunately, the only way there directly was a local bus and it was full of all the pains of a local bus: bad seats, frequent stops, and haggling by locals to ride for a few kilometers. It reminded me of a larger version of the buses in Tanzania.

We passed one non-picturesque village after another until we finally got off the main “highway” and things looked like they would improve a bit. This was a false hope as the villages got dumpier and dumpier as we progress to Besisahar. Although larger than the other villages, Besisahar looked just as bad. The best line from Padam today was when settled down he said we should get mosquito medicine after I specifically asked him if I should bring it and of course he had said no. (Turns out we didn’t really need it).

Had a nice dinner with a Spanish trekker and his guide. After dinner we went to my room and watched another bad movie on my laptop, at least it passed time. After the movie I went right to bed and slept great, as we were under 3000 feet in altitude.