jimboblog: 2011

Hello friends,

Jen and I are in Nepal and are laying low in the city of Pokhara having just finished hiking the 118 mile Annapurna Circuit Trek through the Himilayas.

A lot of people hike this trail between 16 and 20 days but we took our sweet time and finished it in 30 days allowing for a few layover days here and there and a three day stint of food poisoning and pooping liquid from some suspected fried rice that tasted like a pair of Jen's leather sandals that were left in a duffel bag back at the start of the trek.

Which incidentally were all moldy when we got back.

Thorung La

The crowning achievement of the Annapurna Circuit is the Thorung La. mountain pass. 5416 meters, or in the real measurement system 17,769 ft above sea level. Now don't let this fool you because we did not climb 17,769 ft to reach the pass. The trail starts in a little town called Besisehar and is already at 4,377 ft. So we did climb 13,392 ft which is kind of bad ass and we did feel the early stages of acute mountain sickness (A headache) in the nearly 18,000 ft elevation with very thin air. I know, bad ass.

Dal Bhat

Anyway, the hike was a ton of fun involving lots of sweating, tripping, eating Dal Bhat and meeting all sorts of varying weirdos from around the world, our favorite being a man only known as 'The German Guy' who informed us of a not to be missed festival in Hanover involving firearms and drinking known as Schutzenfest. I don't think I got a picture of the german guy but he was great. Suspenders holding up his hiking pants and of course socks were worn whenever he had sandals on.

Jen and I stayed in many a village, saw many a snow capped Himilayan peak and encountered many forms of beast both wild and tame. Jen's favorite was the water buffalo, mine was the yak which by the end of the trip I had grown a beard long enough to be mistaken for one.