Fish Tail Pokhara

Oh God, I thought I'd left behind schoolyard quarrels on this career break! I got back to Kathmandu and spent a lot of time trying to help the two local Nepali employees sort things out in this, their first season, which is turning out to be very busy. Due to their busy schedules, it's been very hard to get the two of them together and every time I spend a session with one of them I get a litany of complaints about the other! "He said this...", "He always does that", "He never does the other....

* These are our daily journals from our Annapurna Trek 5/16/2009 - 5/27/2009. They are quick notes to help us remember our fabulous journey.

Note: 3.3 feet = 1 meter

Day One: A beautiful and sunny, blue sky day. Only trekked for about 3 hours. Trail was fairly easy but still challenging and gave us a taste of what our days ahead would be like. Lots of stairs!! Saw men in the river fishing using electrical current to kill the fish and then nets to scoop them up. Ganesh says this...

We flew up to Pokhara to be greeted by more sunshine and great views of the Annapurnas and Dhaulagiri. However after a day spent pottering on the lake and having second thoughts about our decision not to trek up to the Annapurna Sanctuary, the weather finally broke. (So it would have been a good idea to take some pictures when the sun and mountains were out......) Furthermore the three day bandh (strike) called by the maoists had really stopped all buses, taxis etc moving to and from the trai...

Flight to Kathmandu was pretty bumpy but when we came through the clouds to view the valley for the first time, WOW! Most beautiful landscape we've ever seen - its still monsoon so everything is bright green - absolutely fabulous. Arriving into Nepal is like landing on another planet compared to India, the people are so friendly, helpful and welcoming. Within a few hours of arriving we have booked an 8 day 7 night trek on Annapurna circuit on west side of Himalayas. We have come to Nepal out ...

Woke up very early to meet my guide & depart for Pokhara, Nepal's "other big city" (it's more like a glorified mountain town.) Janu is his name, and he is an amicably smiley and soft-spoken fellow, if a bit difficult to strike up conversation with. We walked to the bus park together and hopped on the rickety tin can that was to carry us for seven hours into the Himalayan foothills; it wasn't as miserable an experience as it probably sounds largely due to the awesome scenery and goofy sita...

We head to Pokhara, the entry point for all trekkers into the Annapurna mountain range. It's a tourist town with bars, trekking shops and internet cafes. We stay at Fishtail Lodge, a hotel on the shores of Lake Phewa. It's former guests include Prince Charles. Dave is still suffering from a dodgy stomach. He blames India! We meet our guide Yogesh and sherpas Hari and Ravi. A likable bunch. We take a taxi to Nyapul and then begin the long walk into the mountains. We make it to lunchtime before...

I saw the Himalayas!!! This morning we woke up early to fly to Pokhara, at the base of the Annapurna range of Himalaya mountains. Our flight on Yeti Airlines was very late, but finally we took off for our very short flight (only 25 minutes). We had to get seats on the right side of the plane so we could the amazing view of the youngest and highest mountains in the world. It was a clear sunny day, so we could really see them. We had to take a rope barge to our hotel, which is by a big lake. Af...

Today we went Trekking - that is what people in Nepal call hking. We first drove to the mountains - they call it a hill here but in the States it would be a mountain. Then we went on 11km trek up and across the mountains. We watched paragliders taking off, which looked like fun. On the way, we walked through a lot of villages. It was a half day of school today - every Friday is a half day, then there is school on Saturday, then they have a full day again on Sunday in Nepal. We saw a lot of ki...