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Mark Moxon's Annapurna Circuit Experience (Stage 2)
The west side of the Circuit is a completely different
experience. The track leading down from the pass, the Jomsom Trek, has high
quality hotels, comparatively incredible food, a warm climate and fairly easy
downhill walking. I felt like I'd arrived in paradise: I had trekked the
eastern path, I had struggled over the pass, and when I hit the other side I
reverted to character. I didn't so much walk the track as travel it.
From the pilgrim town of Muktinath (where we spent two
days), through Kagbeni (one day), Marpha (two days), Kalopani (one day) and
Tatopani (two days) we loafed around, ate too much, drank the pleasantly priced
beer and totally failed to take the walk seriously, considering the length of
the challenge. My writer's block, which had set in along with the AMS in
Manang, completely failed to lift and I spent hours sitting around reading,
relaxing and thinking. It was a holiday. It was luxurious. It was fattening.
But it was ultimately relatively boring, and I found myself, not for the first
time, wishing I was in India, back where the madness is mundane, the insanity
inbred and the lunacy legendary. How strange.
But Nepal's landscapes more than make up for any lack of
incredulity. From the dizzy heights of the pass to the sheer valleys of the
east side, the mountains never ceased to amaze me, with their wispy cloud
vents, snow-blue peaks and sharp contrasts with the sky. But statistics, of
which there are millions in Nepal, can be misleading in making the mountains
sound out of this world. For example on Sunday 19th April I read the following
in my guidebook: 'It's at around this point, the bend in the river between
Kalopani and Larjung, that you're at the bottom of the world's deepest valley.
The two highest peaks in the area, Dhaulagiri (8167m/26794 ft) and Annapurna I
(8091m/26545 ft) are 35km (22 miles) apart on either side of the valley. You're
standing at an altitude of about 2540m/8333 ft, which is 5.5km or 3.5 miles
below the summit of Dhaulagiri.' This sounds much more interesting than it
really is: the reality is a wide valley with a couple of distant peaks on each
side. Deep doesn't mean steep.
And then there is the dubious help offered by the various
hotels around. Take this quotation from the Kalopani Guest House Menu:
FROM GUEST HOUSE
DAIRY
Kalopani is a
beautiful place to be spent for short trek. This place is popularly known for
spectacular Sunset view over Mt. Annapurna I & Nilgiri. You can enjoy with
the changing colour of the Himalay's. From here you can make 2.5 hours. Titi
lake for splendid view of Mt. Dhaulagiri. For the peasant lovers you can visit
the Dhungang Area. Kalopani Jungle has lost of wild life. For resting a day,
you can visit the Bhudurtsho lake wich can cost 5 hours. From here you can
organize Dhaulagiri Ice fall trek as well Dhaulagiri & Annapurna Base Camp.
For more detail please contact the management.
Thank you!
Grammar is evidently an optional extra when you're writing
in a second language (though I can't be too critical, seeing as that's the
philosophy I use with French, and it works fine for me).
At least the hotels on the west side had good standards of
food, which more than made up for the less inspiring scenery. In Tal, on the
east side, we had discovered bugs in the tomato ketchup bottle; when we
complained to the lady owner, she examined the bugs and said, 'It's OK, these
clean bugs from ceiling, not dirty bugs from floor.'
On the west side, we got our food in sizzling platters. It
mirrored the east-west divide rather well, I thought, as I trundled on to the end
of the track in Beni before boarding the bus to Pokhara.
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