Annapurna Trek: Unforgettable memories
Simara: My Facebook wall was filled with pictures of friends going out. Even though I did not visit, looking at the pictures of various tourist places gave me the feeling that I was there.
Suddenly, I received a message from my friend, ‘We are going to Annapurna trek, do u want to go?’ I was very happy after reading the message. Without taking a time I replied saying ‘yes, I will go’. I don’t want to miss such an opportunity. And the preparations for our Annapurna Base Camp (ABC Base Camp) trek started.
On the one hand, I was happy that my friends remembered me, on the other hand, I was very excited to go trekking.
The day of trekking was approaching. I left for Kathmandu with three friends from Bara. The remaining three friends were in Kathmandu.
Shopping was still remaining for trekking. We were going to a cold place and have to walk a lot. We had to carry clothes and shoes according to that. And to do all this shopping in Kathmandu, we first went to Kathmandu without going to Pokhara. The next day after reaching Kathmandu, we went out to the market at 1 o’clock.
First, we bought trekking shoes. Then we went to buy a thick jacket. While we were looking for the jackets, the shopkeeper asked a question, “Are you going to Annapurna base camp?” friend answered by saying ‘Yes brother’, the shopkeeper said, ‘A foreign tourist who had just returned from Annapurna Base Camp came to the shop. He got a lot of mouth sores because of the cold.’ As soon as I heard this, I got scared because I tend to get sick a little more because of colds.
Keeping in mind what the shopkeeper said, we went back after buying clothes including jackets. After eating at night, when I was going to bed, I remembered the shopkeeper’s story again. I came out of the home excitedly but that thing was causing fear. On the other hand, my friend Nirmal was not getting any sleep about excitement of going to the base camp.
In the morning we woke up at 5 o’clock and left Kathmandu for Pokhara. Even after reaching the bus counter, I was still remembering what the shopkeeper said. The courage to go to Annapurna base camp was disappearing. Many things started playing in my mind. I tried to make an excuse with my friend by saying, “I don’t feel well, my stomach hurts a lot.” My friend understood the excuse that ‘nothing is happened to me, I said so out of fear’. Finally, I gathered courage and boarded the bus. And we left for Pokhara.
I visited Pokhara for the first time. All the fear was disappearing from my mind due to the beautiful view of the mountains. We took a car from Pokhara to Ghandruk. It was night when we reached Ghandruk. Oh, even in the dark of the night, the mountain was shining like a Moon.
I felt as if I could touch the mountain with my hands. The mountains in front of the eyes and the cold weather of Ghandurak had vanished all the fear that had arisen in the mind. If this place is so charming, how Annapurna will be like, I also gradually became excited.
As the enthusiasm increased, the morale dropped to zero after hearing another incident. The manager of the hotel said that a policeman died due to breathing problem while traveling to Annapurna base camp. I was scared after hearing that. But after reaching here, I did not want to return home and decided to reach Annapurna base camp no matter what.
We spent that night in Ghandruk and woke up at 7 am. The sight of the sun rising was very charming. As if the white mountains are wearing a yellow veil. Tourists from abroad came to see that scene and enjoy the environment of Ghandruk.
The locals of Ghandruk said that it takes three days to reach Annapurna base camp from Ghandruk. You have to walk at least 6 hours a day. We had to reach Chhomrong from Ghandruk on the first day.
We left Ghandruk for Chhomrong at 10:30 am. It wasn’t even 30 minutes after we walked that Shobha sister, who was walking with us, got tired. She just returned from Qatar. She was not used to walking that much. Shobha Sister’s bag was carried by friends. We were relaxing, taking pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way and having fun
Everyone was hungry. While we were going up and down of the hill, we saw that there is a hotel near the bank of the river. We had dinner at that hotel. Being a Himalayan region, food here was very expensive compared to other places. Price of Plain food was 500 to 600 rupees per person.
It was evening when we reached Chhomrong. A friend had already talked about a room in the hotel. We showered after keeping the stuff in the room. Oh yes, here you have to pay for taking a bath with hot water, separate money for charging your phone, separate money for drinking hot water.
The source of income was different according to the place. But we didn’t have to pay money because our friend was well acquainted with the hotel manager.
Our second day journey was from Chhomrong to Himalaya Hotel. So, we all ate and went to bed early. The next morning, we left Chhomrong at 7:30 am. After walking for 45 minutes, we reached Lower Sinuwa.
An hour later we reached Upper Sinuwa. After reaching Bamboo from Sinuwa, we rested for a while and waited for our friends who were behind. Bamboo was at a height of 2310 meters. As soon as my friends came, we reached Dobhan after two hours of walking from Bamboo.
After an hour’s walk from Dobhan, we reached the big waterfall. There was a temple near the waterfall, the management there had banned the sale of fish and meat above the temple. Friend Sunil and sister Sobha were behind. Shobha sister could not walk, that’s why Sunil was supporting Shobha sister. By the time they arrived, we started taking pictures.
When they didn’t come even for about an hour, we started getting scared. After a long time, Abhisek said, “You guys go ahead and I will find them and bring them.” The four of us went forward. An hour later, when we reached the Himalayas, we saw that Shobha sister and a friend named Sunil had already reached the Himalayas.
They came from a short way that the guide told them on the way to give us a surprise. Now we started getting more scared, Abhisek’s who had gone to look for them had not returned. It had been 30 minutes and the friend still hadn’t arrived. It was night, we were about to go to find our friend and suddenly we saw him running. We were happy as soon as we saw our friend.
On the third day we had to reach Machhapuchhre base camp and reach Annapurna base camp. We woke up at 6 a.m in the morning, had breakfast and went for our destinations. Machhapuchhre base camp was at a very high altitude. After walking for an hour, we reached Deurali.
We rested for 15 minutes at Deurali and walked. We reached Machhapuchhre base camp at 12 o’clock. As soon as we reach there, we put on warm clothes. We made videos and took photos. It was very cold and windy. Suddenly it started to snow.
The closer we got to the Annapurna base camp, better the scenery was. We were all happy to see that. We reached Annapurna base camp (4130 meters) till evening while taking photos and having fun. Seeing the mountains in front of my eyes felt like a dream. The night was falling, after 30 minutes, the hotels were full due to the season. Some tourists even slept in the kitchen.
It was not difficult for us as we had already booked. We went to the kitchen hall for dinner. The kitchen was warmer than our room. After eating I went inside the room. Breathing was becoming difficult due to the ‘high altitude’. I took medicine and fell asleep soon.
In the morning I was feeling a bit relaxed. When I got up and tried to wash my face, the water was all frozen. We washed our face with warm water. After spending some time in the arms of the mountains, we prepared to return from Annapurna base camp with unforgettable memories. We did not want to return soon, but due to health issues we had to return.
It didn’t take us that much time since it was down time to return. Our plan was not to go to Ghandruk but to go to Jhinu and do hot spring. After reaching Jhinu, we went to hot spring.
After having dinner after hot spring, we boarded Car for Pokhara. I had a walking stick which I carried from Ghandruk to Annapurna Base Camp. I thought that I would take home and return, but when the driver refused, I had to leave the stick and walk away. It took us two hours to reach Pokhara from Jhinu. After reaching Pokhara, it was planned to stay there for one day. But I had to go back.
Fewatal (Lake) wandered around for a while. On the same day my four-year BBS results came and I passed. That day was very happy for me. I returned home with the memories of Annapurna Base Camp and the joy of passing the exam.
