annapurna circuit

The annapurna circuit trek was amazing. The pictures are only the tip of the iceberg, and dot really show the amazing scenerey we experienced over the coarse of walking 15 days. i met up with a friend that i had met in southern India, as we were both headed for Nepal, and it has been nice to have someone to do the treck with. We went from lush tropical valleys to barren passes up at 18,000 feet. Acclimatizing was not too much of a problem, as we took it at a reasonable pace, neither Of us had any real problem other than occasional headaches. We did learn that a person died on the high pass a few days before us, because he tried to go too fast. On the way down we witnessed the wreckage from a plane that crashed at Jomsom airport a couple weeks before, the pieces were all over the mountain. In the past i have complained about bus ride in india, but they have absolutely nothing on nepal. On these buses, I cant sit down, because there is literally not enough space for my legs, cant stand up, because my shoulders touch the ceiling, and the road does everything it can to keep you airborn, or smashing your head on some horribly placed object next to you. I end up either sitting in the isle with bags and farm product, standing in the door or trying to lean on something, for the 4-8 hour rides. On one particularly horrible ride, as we were packed in full enough that you cant move anything but your arms, I had no less than 5 people becoming sick around me, and spent most of the ride passing out and puke bags and then throwing filled ones out the door, giving away my own stash of tissues, and trying prevent this one woman from throwing up on my backpack more than she already had. We finally got to Pokhara, and relaxed for 3-4 days, before heading back to kathmandu. Yesterday I arrived in Lukla, which is home to the most dangerous airport in the world. This is the one that most people fly in in order to trek to or climp everest. My friend Ryan and I elected to walk in. The walk was full of excruciating ups and downs, which we did in 5 days, rather than the recommended 7-10. So far it has been cloudy, as the monsoon is rolling in, though still extremely beautiful, better than annapurna in my opinion. It is mind-blowing to be above 10,000 feet and in the clouds, surrounded by rainforest, walking past ancient looking stupa's and temples. Today we head out for another 15 days, we will go to everest base camp and some other peaks, although there is a pretty constant cloud cover, it stays at a lower elevation, so in a couple days we will be above the cliud layer, and should get some good views of everest