While rooting through my travel diaries, I found one that I had written at the age of 11. It was written when I was trekking with my family in the Annapurna region in October 2004. We travelled from Besisahar over the Thorung La Pass to Jomsom. Here are some amusing extracts.
Friday 15th October 2004
'One early, sunny morning on Friday after arriving in Besisahar (from Kathmandu) and sleeping one night, the day before, we woke up to the mountains. It was a very clear day after a very horrendous storm the night before.'
'We followed the river through the valley of many hills. It was a fairly level walk. We finally arrived at a village called Bhulbhule where we had lunch. The balcony was overlooking the roaring, rough, rapid river. I had a big plate of chowmein with vegetables. In the afternoon we travelled another 3 hours. It was quite a steep walk up hills. We saw a river snake, a crab and many frogs as we passed lots of water.'
'I was very tired but I carried on till the top of the hill where we stayed the night at Bahundanda.'
Saturday 16th October 2004
'We set off at about 8.30 and started walking. It was 3 hours until we had a break. The scenery is absolutely 100% beautiful! The mountains are always so clear, with the river running through the hills to the mountains. I found out that I left my watch behind! Uh oh!'
'We stopped to have lunch at Syange. There was a hot spring there. Everywhere we look there's a waterfall/stream/river! We carried on for two hours up hill all the way! We turned the last corner and saw the village of Jagat on the hill top. The shower didn't work so we had to pour water on our heads! Oh well!'
Sunday 17th October 2004
'Today we are walking quite a long way for 7 hours to Dharapani. We had lunch at Tal then after lunch it was a very steep climb. We were very exhausted but we saw Dharapani in the valley below and sighed for relief. We walked past a rock on the way and we saw a big lizard in the sun. We think he was sun bathing! For lunch I had my first real meal of Dahl Baht. I got to eat with my hands!'
Thursday 21st October 2004
'We are having a rest day because we have to acclimatise. This is our rest day in Manang! We are staying in a hotel called Tilicho Hotel. In the morning we walked up a ridge along a path and we walked through a fence and we saw Tilicho Lake! There used to be a boating service across the lake. The mountains were really clear and they seemed so close.'
Sunday 24th October 2004
'Today is the hardest day when we go over the highest mountain pass in the world. The mountainous pass is called Thorung La. It is 5421 metres high! It was freezing cold and many people were feeling sick. It was bout 5 hours to the top and about 3 hours down to Muktinath. We had to get up at 4am and leave at 5:00. We had to walk up a hill in the dark with our torches! The hotel we stayed in was tiny and it only had 4 bedrooms so we had the whole lodge to ourselves! I was extremely tired when we finally arrived. Muktinath was a huge town and pilgrimage centre. There is many temples and monasteries. I feel so proud of myself.'
