Annapurna Circuit!

Not sure where to begin explaining the last month of our adventure. We arrived in Kathmandu a few weeks ago and it is absolutely crazy. Let's just say that Bangkok is tranquil compared to it! We set off on a 20 day hike through the himilayas. The first few days were cloudy, but the views of the mountains and foothills were unbelievable. About 4 days into the hike we got our first view of the himilayas. They make the rocky's look like tiny bumps. Along the way we stayed in small tea houses. They were anything from a basic bed, to a very cozy lodge. The most challenging part of the hike was acclimatizing to the altitude. We walked very slowly, and stayed 2 nights in one town to acclimatize. It was at 3500 meters, and the day we were there it snowed like crazy!!!

The big obstacle of the hike was the Thorong Pass. This is the highest mountain pass in the world, at 5416 metres. The hike was only about 20 km the day we did the pass, and we had to wake up at 3:30am to start the crossing. It took us 4.5 hours to climb up to the pass, and this was only about 5km in distance, and 1 km vertically. This walk up was breathtaking in every way. We would walk about 20 steps and then take a rest. To put this in perspective, at 3500 metres we got out of breath just changing positions in our sleeping bags....

When we reached the pass we were exhausted, but the views were perfect. It was the most perfect blue sky and we could see the Annapurna mountain range, as well as other mountain ranges. We only stayed at the top for about 15 minutes as I (Laura) had a hard time breathing since i had a decent chest cold and it was also about minus 10 degrees with the wind chill. We still had a 15km walk down, taking us down 1.6 km vertically.

After the pass we had another 7 days of walking, however they were easier as we were on our way down. The views still were amazing, but completely different than the other side of the mountain ranges. We travelled through the deepest valley in the world that was very desert like and extremely windy. We still had the himilayas towering above us.

We ended our hike in a small town and then bussed to a place called Pokhara. This was easily the best experience of our lives and definately the highlight of our adventure so far!