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When I first arrived in Nepal I'd been torn between doing the Everest base camp trek or the Annapurna circuit. Both reach the same altitudes of around 5,500m and depending on your chosen route can be 9-14 days. Obviously the Everest one is more famous but it is almost all high mountain scenery, whereas the Annapurna circuit has more variety of landscapes and indiginous people along the route. This swung it for me as I thought as a non trekker I may need some other stimuli to keep me motivated along the way!
So Pokhara is the starting point for the Annapurna circuit and I had arrived there with the intention of spending a few days getting my equipment and a plan together and then getting on the trek. Well a week later I was still there, enjoying the cafes, sunshine and bars far too much. By this point I'd talked to quite a few travellers who'd returned from trekking, picked their brains and quite simply procrastinated enough, so I decided to leave the oasis of Pokhara and just get going on the Annapurna Circuit trek.
When I'd first thought of going trekking the ideal plan was to meet up with some other travellers and team up, however it seemed no-one I'd met in Pokhara was doing the same trek at the same time. I had also reconciled myself with the fact that I needed as porter. In Kathmandu I had packed a trial trekking pack which was about 9kg -well that's what the guy at the hotel reception and I decided it weighed as the laundry scales didn't go that far. Anyway given that walking back up to the fourth floor to return to my room with the pack almost killed me I decided that doing this at 5,500 m was just not going to work. So I started getting prices for porters, only to realise there was a flaw in my plan- the fact that I did not have a plan!
I still had not decided if I would just do the basic trek, crossing the highest point and then decending to the nearby town of Jomson-10 days and then fly/bus back to Pokhara. Or if by this point I'd have turned into mountain woman and would want to do the full circuit- minimum 14 days depending on any side trips I would do. Anyway I realised this was going to be an issue for a porter as they generally do not speak any/much English so you need to arrange your itinerary before you leave so it can be translated to them and there are no misunderstandings. So after shopping around I discovered the price of a guide who can speak good English is pretty much the price of a guide - so I ended up booking a guide/porter for 1,000 RS (7 quid per day). In hindsight this was the worst decision of my trip- but hey you live and learn. So for anyone doing the Annapurna circuit- do NOT take a guide, it quite simply is not necessary, just pack less and go solo! But anyway after a week of procrastinating and a delay due to a national strike I eventually started out on the Annapurna circuit!
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