Three Weeks in Nepal & Bangkok - Trekking Annapurna Sanctuary

For three weeks in November, I traveled solo around Nepal with some time spent in Bangkok before and after. I've always wanted to visit the Himalayas and November is the perfect time to trek. However, getting to Nepal is quite difficult from Toronto so I decided to break up the flights a bit and spend a couple days in Bangkok, from where there are direct flights to Kathmandu. Initially I wanted to do the Annapurna Circuit, but was a bit constrained with time so decided on the Annapurna Sanctuary trek. I would say that it was an overall well-rounded holiday, from sleeping on a cot in an unheated room with two strangers to ending my trip in a five-star hotel with no strangers in my room. This is going to be an extremely long blog post, so please hold on to your hats.

My flight path getting to Bangkok was a long one. Toronto to Vancouver, Vancouver to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Bangkok. I probably got to my destination 30 hours after I left my house. It was tiring but Thai Airways is awesome! The airplane food was actually pretty good, the seats are comfy and the entertainment system has a wide range of options. I'm really glad I remembered my noise cancelling earbuds, they really make a huge difference on airplanes. Another item I was debating bringing was my DSLR. Every time I bring it traveling, it's a love-hate relationship, because I'm so pleased with the quality of the photos but I hate lugging it around. I decided to leave it behind this time, so all the photos you'll see here are ~ shot on iPhone 6S ~.

Bangkok

I had two full days in Bangkok before I headed off to Kathmandu. Landing in BKK, it was pouring rain. I took the airport link to my hostel, which had a beautiful garden. It was near Ari BTS station, called The Yard (pictured below). They are eco-friendly and every morning provided breakfast that included yogurt that they make in house! Awesome. I love how accessible Bangkok is by public transport. It's pretty easy and inexpensive to get around, and if not by public transit, with the Grab app, which is like Uber or Lyft.

My first day, I went to Wat Arun with two girls from the hostel. It was a beautiful temple built with so many porcelain tile mosaics. It was early so it wasn't that busy with tourists. Afterwards, we walked around, had some Thai tea, lunch and parted ways. It was so hot, all the time. I went to the Grand Palace in the afternoon and it was really crowded with tourists. Walked around the, saw the little Emerald Buddha, found free drinking water (bless). The temple and palace are so opulent, there's a lot of sparkle and shine in Thai design. I got a bunch of mosquito bites and for some reason the Thai mosquitoes are so much more vicious than Canadian ones. Then I saw the Khon Thai Masked Dance show, it was included in my ticket to the Grand Palace so I decided why not. It was a traditional theatrical performance, about 30 minutes. Live music, dance and singing, based on Thai folklore. Interesting, but probably not something I'd go out of my way to see again.

Wat Arun

I wandered the streets after the show and it started to pour. It was pretty terrible stepping in all the puddles in my flip flops, and I was sliding around because flip flops have no traction whatsoever. At least I had an umbrella. I went to the flower market and another temple. After the rain subsided, I went to Wat Ratchaburana, while a service was happening. It was meditative to sit and listen to the chants. It's nice how the temples are all so clean and you don't wear shoes inside. Had a dinner of spicy and sour noodle soup with fish balls from a street food stall, then took a Grab bike back to my hostel. It was exhilarating being on the bike, it felt so fast despite only going 60 km/h and also a bit scary weaving through traffic. The real Bangkok experience.

My first impressions of Bangkok were that it wasn't as different as I had anticipated. The traffic was the worst part, but I didn't really have to deal with that because I'd take the metro or skytrain. In the areas that weren't filled with tourists, Bangkok felt a bit more subdued than I had imagined. It's the tourists that made the city crazy, not the city itself. It felt comfortable, I wasn't super outside of my comfort zone, likely because there was a lot of signage in English and people in the tourist areas spoke English for the most part. It made me realize how privileged I am to have English as my first language, because I can imagine it being so difficult to try and communicate in a language you're not really familiar with in a foreign country where the other party isn't so familiar with the language either. Just makes doing things so much more difficult, and so I always try to learn a few words of the main language spoken in the country that I'm visiting so show respect to their language and culture.

Wat Saket

The next day I went to the Thai Lion Air office to try and buy additional baggage because I was concerned that my carry-on bag would be too heavy. They told me that it was probably fine, and that I should go to the airport three hours prior to my flight to be able to buy the additional baggage at the same rate as on their website. Waste my time. I had already gone all the way there so I decided to explore the Sukhumvit area a bit. It's where the majority of hotels are, but not much else. I went to this mall called Terminal 21 and every floor was themed with a different country, and had Toto toilets in the washrooms. Very fancy. Went to Benjakitti Park with a huge man-made pond in the middle, rested for a bit because the heat was too much. Had some green tea from a street vendor. It's only in Thailand that I appreciate the amount of ice provided, I put the residual ice from my drink into my water bottle and it all melts. In the afternoon I took the rickety public bus to Wat Saket, a temple on top of a hill. Sat, people watched, meditated. Had some really good fried chicken at the base of the temple. I'll never forget it - so crispy, so tender, but the spicy and sour sauce is what makes it. Walked to find mango sticky rice but it was closed by the time I got there. There were a lot of Buddha statue stores in the area, selling small to huge statues. Very interesting.
Then I went to the Ratchada Rot Fai Train Night Market (pictured above), had dinner there. It was super crowded with hordes and hordes of tourists, I could barely move. It was sensory overload - lights, noise, smells. There were deep-fried scorpions, crickets, and all sorts of bric-a-brac for sale. Found mango sticky rice. It was ok, what's the hype, aside from the fresh mangoes? Sat on some steps to eat it and then was shooed away for being a fire hazard. Made my way back via Grab bike. Skkrt skrrted into the night.

The next morning I packed up and went to the airport. I met a fellow Canadian at my hostel who was on the same flight so we shared a Grab taxi to the airport (DMK). Much to my relief, they didn't even weigh my carry-on bag. Safe. All that worry for nothing. We got to the airport fairly early so I decided to wait in the lounge. Let me just say that this was the best airport lounge I have ever encountered because they had free 30 minute head and shoulder massages. I really needed one after carrying my backpack around. The flight was about three hours to Kathmandu.  

Kathmandu

Landed at KTM, paid for my visa ($30 USD for 15 days), went through immigration, customs, then outside. The scene was reminiscent of the airport in Lima, Peru. Hectic, bare people. Found a person with my name on a paper and drove into the city to my hotel. Turns out he would be my trekking guide. On the drive there, I immediately recognized I was in a place very different from home. Heavy traffic, motorbikes weaving in and out, so many people out and about. It was still pretty warm here. We got to the hotel, Elbrus Home. It's a simple place, but the owner was very friendly and I had an ensuite bathroom, which was appreciated. Went to the tour operator office (Heian Treks) to pay and they treated me to momos. Nice, first meal free. The hot sauce was bomb. After that, walked around Thamel and rented a sleeping bag. It was a down-filled sleeping bag, Goretex outside. This would turn out to be the most important item that I took with me on the trek. Went back to the hotel and fell asleep at 10pm. Must be the jet lag.

I had one full day in Kathmandu before leaving for the trek and wanted to make the most of it. The tour operator gave me a list of places to visit and suggested that I take a taxi from place to place. But no, I came here to walk, so walk I did. I didn't expect it to be so warm, it was maybe 20C in the city and so very smoggy, you could barely see the sky. My offline map took me on small side streets so I saw what city life was like. So many sights and smells – sometimes I’d get a waft of curry, other times I’d get a waft of gasoline. There are a lot of little corner stores, street food vendors, dogs running around, people going about their daily lives.

I walked to Swayambhunath (pictured below), also known as the monkey temple, and there were a lot of actual monkeys just roaming around. It was a lot of steps to go up to the temple. Once up there, I saw a lot of people selling souvenirs and I found it strange they were conducting business in a place of worship.

After that, I went to the National Museum of Nepal, which was a bit decrepit but interesting to learn more about Nepalese culture, art and religion. I really enjoyed learning about the religious significance of mandalas. They are geometric patterns in a circle that represent the cosmos and wholeness. They are present in many different religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism. On top of that, they’re so intricately drawn and beautiful to behold, an example below (not my photo).

Carving columns at Durbar Square

After visiting the museum, I wandered over to Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site, that is the front of the old royal palace. I love me a world heritage site. It's a large open area that used to be the palace area. There are a lot of temples and palace structures, many of which are closed to the general public.

The palace itself is now a museum. There were a lot of photographs about the earthquake and how it affected the residents. There was one exhibit with notes written by citizens reflecting on the day the earthquake struck. It was sad but also showed the resilience of humans.

A lot of Durbar Square was under reconstruction, because it was severely damaged in the 2015 earthquake. There were people working on the square as I strolled through the area and a huge banner that showed China's aid to renovate the area.

One place that was fairly intact was the Kumari Ghar – where the living goddess, the Kumari lives. There is a little Nepalese girl from the Newar Shakya caste that they find and put through a rigorous selection process. The one who passes is believed  to have the divine female energy, “devi” residing within her. She is taken away from her parents and has to live in that house until she reaches puberty or gets a cut. Then, a new Kumari is selected. It’s kind of bizarre and very interesting, I wonder how this would work in the modern world, where she needs to have a life after she is Kumari, and how living out her formative years in a strict religious upbringing would affect her personality and demeanour in the future. I was in a book store and saw that one of the former Kumari's wrote a book and she graduated from university with a Computer Science degree, so it seems like the former Kumari's now live a regular life after their time as the living Goddess. I hung around Kumari Ghar for a bit, and the Kumari came out and looked at the crowd for a couple of seconds. That means we got blessed.

After that I walked to the largest Hindu temple, Pashpatinath (pictured above). It was about 5:30pm, the sun had set. Walking through the city was hectic, so many people, sounds and things. It was interesting seeing students come out of school, all of them were wearing uniforms, a sea of navy blazers, white shirts and ties. I walked through a market area and bought some almonds, thought I would need them on my trek. I got to the temple and got swindled. There was a tour guide out front who I thought worked for the temple (the entrance fee was 1000 rupees which is equivalent to around $10 USD, which is pretty pricey considering the cost of living) and was being nice, explaining the history and showing me the different areas of the temple. I saw bodies getting cremated, apparently this happens 24/7, but interestingly enough there was no smell. He brought me pretty close to the cremation area and I was able to see up close the bodies getting burned. It was weird. There is no smell because they use a lot of incense. This can't be positively contributing to the air quality. I also witnessed a service that had song and dance to glorify Shiva. To be fair, I got a lot of knowledge and he took me to some good view points, but it was totally unwarranted. When I confronted the guide about it, he said that he doesn't tell people he is a tour guide. It's not his style. I angrily told him off but still gave the tour guide pretty much all the cash I had left ($4 USD), because I felt like he earned it (though dishonestly!!) and then walked back to my hotel because I didn’t have enough cash to pay for a taxi. Wandered down some dark alleys, can't say it was a super pleasant walk, however I did get a samosa from a street vendor for 20 rupees so that was pretty great.

Pokhara

The following day, after a bumpy seven hour long bus ride, I got to Pokhara, gateway to the Annapurna mountain range. There is a beautiful lake there (pictured below), and you can see the edges of the mountains. My guide took me around, there really isn’t much to see save for the lake and souvenir shops, restaurants. I had a night here before embarking on my trek.

Trekking Annapurna Sanctuary

My itinerary was for an eleven day trek, but I only had time to do ten. The trek would take me to Annapurna Base Camp (4,130m) via Poon Hill (3,210m), through lots of lush forest. We took a taxi to Nayapul (1,070m) and then began to walk, walked for three hours, had lunch at a teahouse. Dal bhat (lentil soup and rice), chicken and curry. This is what I ate for the majority of my time in Nepal. It’s the most quintessential Nepalese meal, so much so that they have t-shirts that say “Dal bhat power 24 hour”. Is that a Kanye reference? Nepalese people love their dal bhat. After lunch, walked some more. It was a lot of steps, I had envisioned more trail, but a lot of the path was laid with stone steps. View highlights were lush hills and small waterfalls. I expected the accommodations to be pretty poor based on what I heard, but it was not bad. There are many teahouses along the way. The first night I had a room to myself with a cot and an electrical outlet. The views were great, but it gets dark so early (also I was exhausted) so I found myself sleeping at 9pm. I noticed that the porters, both male and female, carried really heavy loads, 30kg on average. Some of them were wearing flip flops. It's incredible how strong and nimble they are.

Dal Bhat

Every day was more of the same, walking for 10 to 20km in the jungle. It was a lot more lush than I had expected, I think I was thinking about high elevation from the get go. I quickly got into the habit of getting up early, walking for a couple hours, breaking for lunch, walking a couple more hours and then usually we would reach our destination a few hours before sunset, chill, have dinner, then sleep at 8pm.

There are a lot of villages with teahouse lodges along the way to Annapurna Base Camp and the path was quite clear. At the beginning, I wanted to walk more and go to the next village because we had so many hours of daylight left, but my guide said it was important to ascend slowly to properly acclimate to avoid altitude sickness. Guess it's best to listen to the experts.

Typical views along the trail - teahouses, mules

There wasn’t much to do in the evenings, I’d chat with other trekkers or read a book. There were a lot more people trekking without a guide than I had expected. The tourist demographic was predominately Chinese, Korean and British. There were a couple nights I had stayed in the same teahouse as a large group of rowdy tourists and it was really just crazy how thin the walls are. You can hear the person in the room next to you zipping up their sleeping bag.

I read Siddhartha and found it very fitting, because I was on a “self-discovery trip” and Siddhartha was the same, seeking enlightenment, though for him it was a journey over many years. It was also cool to have more context on the Buddhism because I was in a country with a lot of Buddhist influence. For example, I saw some art depicting samsara at the National Museum of Nepal and that was a recurring theme in the novel. The novel was very complementary and reinforced that individuals can rely on their intuition to guide them to their own meaning in life, and define for themselves what is important, not necessarily relying on doctrines or gospel to tell you what should be important.

Views from Poon Hill

On the third day of trekking, I went from feeling great to feeling pretty terrible. We woke up at 4am to trek up to Poon Hill to see the sunrise. I had some Himalayan coffee the night before and though it was excellent, I think it messed up my sleep. It was beautiful, albeit crowded. So many people, so much chatter, it was difficult to enjoy a peaceful moment. After sunrise, we hiked back down, had breakfast and walked for a couple more hours. Somewhere along the way I developed a huge headache but I was only at 1,800m so unlikely that it was altitude-related. My head was pounding as I walked and that evening I slept super early. Felt much better the day after. We got to the village we would be staying at around noon. Maybe this was a lesson in humility because I think I can walk more, then my body aches and I should listen to it rather than push more. After all, I am on vacation.

As we climbed higher in elevation, the vegetation got noticeably less green, the land more barren.

To be honest, there were times I felt pretty done, but I think it was more so a mental thing. Mentally exhausted because I was hiking alone. It’s nice to hike with friends because you can chat and push each other, but I was just hiking with my guide, usually ahead of me and it felt a little bit isolating at times. However, other times I did enjoy just being with myself and my thoughts. I guess it's all about finding the right balance, you know?

Side note, I am really glad I brought water purification tablets because drinking water would run about 100 rupees per litre, and 150 for hot water. I love drinking mountain water, so I filled up my bottle at every stream I came across, like the one pictured on the left. One of my fondest memories is drinking glacier water, it really tastes like what you'd think mountain run-off would taste like. I wanted to take it home with me.

Speaking of things I wanted to take home, I met a dog (see below) when I was walking around Machapuchare Base Camp and he followed me along the ridge trail for a while. It was a bit hard to walk on the grass and he would stop and make sure I was ok. I'm not sure if he belonged to the teahouse owners or something but I really wanted to adopt him. SO CUTE!!

My guide, Indra

When we entered the Annapurna Sanctuary area, you can’t eat or bring meat into the area (canned fish is okay) because it’s believed that it’ll anger the Gods. There were also signs saying please don’t spit or leave trash on the trail. There was noticeably less animal poop here. Nice.

On the seventh day of trekking, we made it to Annapurna Base Camp (4,130m). Again, woke up at 4:30am to make it for sunrise at ABC. At ABC, I was greeted with a 360 degree view of the Annapurna mountain range, I was so close. The rising sun gave the mountains a reddish hue and it was so magical to witness. There were fewer people here compared to Poon Hill, so a bit more conducive to quiet contemplation. I also noticed people coming in on helicopters. How luxurious. Had some coffee at a lodge, then returned to Machapuchare Base Camp for breakfast. Then we spent several hours walking downhill, back from whence we came. It was exhausting, I don't think we have walked that many hours in one day up until now.

Sunrise, Annapurna Base Camp

The next day we walked more and stopped at Jinhu, where there are hot springs. There were three pools of warmish water next to the river. It was interesting how it didn’t smell of sulfur. A lot of locals were bathing there, probably the guides/porters of tourists. We walked some more, left the forest and on to the road back to Nayapul. From there, took a taxi back to Pokhara. I had a really good meal when I was back in Pokhara, fried momos with chili sauce and a Nepali style kathi roll with potato and paneer. It was a lot of food, but it was definitely better tasting than anything I had during the duration of the trek so I was ravenous.

Another seven hour bus ride later, I was back in Kathmandu. I tried to spend the rest of my cash, and was pretty successful after converting some of it back to USD. Spent my last forty rupees on some tangerines. It’s illegal to take the currency out of the country and you won’t be able to exchange it anywhere else.

The next day, I had the morning before I left for the airport so I had some more Himalayan coffee, walked around Thamel and bought some souvenirs. Bargaining is part of the culture, the best way to do it is to ask around for the price of an item and then try to save a couple dollars based on the lowest price you found. I noticed it’s a lot easier to do it with higher cost items, like cashmere sweaters and scarves. Unclear about the quality of them, though since Thamel is the tourist area and they could easily import these items and pretend they’re handmade in Nepal.

Crossing the streets of Kathmandu was a bit of a nightmare, I learned you just have to put your hand out and make the cars and bikes stop for you. There were no traffic lights around, so hectic.

Back to Bangkok

Got to the airport, met this American couple who founded a meditation not-for-profit (https://mindoasis.org/) where they have live meditation coaches and a meditation community. Very cool. I headed back to Bangkok and was super hyped about staying at The Lancaster, because it was fairly inexpensive for a five-star hotel. I was really looking forward to a bit of luxury after sleeping in cots with no heat for the past ten days. I arrived in Bangkok and felt a cold coming on. At least it was post-trek. Didn’t do much, researched Ayutthaya and had some street food. It’s wild how you can pretty much choose at a street vendor at random and it’ll probably taste good.

The Lancaster

My last full day in Bangkok I went to Ayutthaya, about two hours from Bangkok by train. It was really cool taking the train because it was only 20 baht and I saw a lot of life by the railway that I would not have otherwise seen. A lot of communities are built alongside the railways, and some of these people live in extreme poverty, however it seemed there was a sense of community. I read a bit into them, and saw some articles about how gentrification of the area would lead to the displacement of many of the slum’s current residents. Such an income disparity exists and it was really staggering to see such luxury and such poverty exist so close together.

Wat Mahathat

There are a lot of ruins of temples built in the 13^th century here, and now they’re UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There were so many in a fairly close proximity to one another, I rented a bike and biked around the city. It felt great to be back on a bike! It’s not too busy in Ayutthaya so I felt pretty safe biking around.

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

The next morning I went for a swim, packed up and headed to the airport. Long way home. BKK to Shanghai, Shanghai to Montreal, Montreal to Toronto. The Shanghai to Montreal flight was the most uncomfortable I’ve been in a long time. Thirteen and a half hours with my legs squished up against the seat, unable to sleep, sore throat killing me. Definitely caught a cold. My knee was hurting from all the downhill stairs on the trail. Shanghai airport was also moderately confusing to navigate because despite having a connecting flight, I had to go through immigration, obtain a transit visa and then go to another part of the airport for my connecting flight. On top of that, people don't speak English and there isn't clear signage on where to go if you're connecting, so it made things even more confusing.

Overall it was a great trip. I did a trek for ten days, was patient with myself and my environment, saw the views and reflected inwardly. There were times I felt great, and other times I didn’t feel so great, but I did it! So grateful for the opportunity and the time to be able to do this trip, and I would highly recommend visiting Nepal, and would definitely want to go back and explore more of Thailand.