OCTOBER 2019
On one of our last evenings before leaving Switzerland our friend Ueli (@stutzueli) suggested to come visit us in October 2019. We weren't sure where we would be by then, but Nepal seemed to be quite realistic. And so it happened!
As it was clear that we would not be cycling together we chose to do a multi-day hike: We trekked to the Annapurna Base Camp and back. It was right at the end of the rainy season and the first two days led us through lush and humid jungle up and down endless stairs and most of the time it didn't felt like we were trekking towards some of the highest peaks on earth. It was on the second morning when we first saw a snow covered peak for a few minutes when we started realizing what would expect us at the Base Camp.
We knew they surrounded us, but we couldn't see them. Every day at around 10 o'clock thick clouds started to roll in and by noon you could hardly see more than a few hundred meters. So everything was grey by the time we reached the Annapurna Base Camp on 4100m asl. We didn't mind because we knew we would see the mountains the next morning and finally get to experience this magical view of all these massive peaks and glaciers.
Like everyone we set the alarm before sunrise the next morning, left our freezing cold room and stumbled to what we found to be the best place to soak it all in and just enjoy the views. There's definitely a reason why the Annapurna Base Camp is also called 'The Sanctuary'. As we weren't in a hurry we left the base camp later than all the other tourists not knowing how far we'd get that day. That's when we ran into @itsnafisha and @sohill27 who didn't know where they'd spent the next night either. Each time we met again that day we motivated each other to keep continuing and so after 10 long and exhausting hours we finally reached Chomrong in the dark.
Sore and tired we decided that we would take it easy the following day and just hike to the next jeep pick-up stop, where we'd share a lift back to the city together. On the 3 hours hike with (again) endless stairs down we met @uniswooo and @huangchienting who joined our group, eager to get back to Pokhara with all it's luxury as soon as possible as well. This meant riding on a terrible (sometimes almost non existent) road for 3 hours.
Happy to be back to reasonable prices for food and beer we enjoyed dinner together talking about life in Nepal, Taiwan and Switzerland.
