Kalilandia

Manang - Yak Kharka - Thorong Phedi - Thorong La pass - Muktinath - Jomsom Final battles with cold and height  Day 9, 4050m, Yak Kharka & Day 10, 4450m, Thorong Phedi. I am deadly exhausted from the height and the cold. Unlike the days before, 4 hours of walking those days leave me completely smashed. Another endless day sitting in the cold dining hall of the lodge. Paradoxically, these are some of my most enjoyable days. Everyone is in the same boat and I meet friends in every lodge now - at some point one starts coming across the same trekkers in every village. My path crosses with new friends above 4000m, too  - Magnus and Mischa from Germany (and some Himalayan dogs), who would also be around after the end of the circuit in Pokhara and Kathmandu, as there is nothing like sharing a moment with someone who has gone through the same craziness you have. It is so liberating to have nothing to do, you are free to give your full attention to the people around you. I prom

Chame - Upper Pisang - Manang New notions of Cold It is above 3500m. I have been on the trek for a few days, but it feels an eternity. There is no salvation from the cold. Cold has a new meaning for me, a new power, too. I hear myself using indecent words more frequently as I successfully build my lifestyle in the cold. I see my breath while falling asleep in the room, my phone cannot stay turned on outside of my sleeping bag, I have become intimate with my water bottle, which I fill in with hot water to put inside the sleeping bag every evening. I have overpassed all personal records for speedy teeth brushing, figuring out how to take a shower with some different heating solution in every lodge, and running outside to my room wet after a shower in 5-10 degrees below zero. If one surrenders to the unusual conditions, where one is entirely dependent on the nature, the basic sanitation and the lack of distraction, they end up connecting with part of their primal nature. So do I -

We are sometimes naive enough to think that we can get prepared for anything, if we try hard enough. The truth is, we are never truly prepared for any experience until we actually face it.  I did read a substantial amount of blogs and guides about trekking in the Himalayas, I even did short treks in the Bhutanese Himalayas a few years back. However, nothing could prepare me for doing the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal - neither for its challenges, nor for its marvels. Kathmandu - Besisahar - Chamje - Dharapani - Chame  The perils of riding Nepalese vehicles The first few days of my journey are mainly marked by excitement. I am cheerfully approaching every part of the beginning. As I leave Kathmandu at 4:30h in the morning, we already have a little accident - my taxi hits a motorbike on the street..."bla bla bla Namaste bla bla bla Namaste", everything is arranged peacefully between the drivers. I find myself in a local van, where I am the only foreigner, except for