My Amazing Journey to Annapurna Base Camp -Day 2

6 November 2016 -Today will be the first day of my amazing 7 days trek! I probably slept for 4 hours the night before. The bed was comfortable, the room temperature was just nice, my body was a little tired but as usual when I am travelling to a new place, I have problem sleeping or probably I was just too excited and anxious of the next line up. Right after breakfast, Alana and I decided to have a quick stroll by the lake. It was very peaceful and calming effect over here in Pokhara. I love how everything are structured here. The weather was simply perfect when I was there. And the best part of waking up is to look out of my hotel room window as my eyes were feasted with beautiful Annapurna Himalayan range from Fishtail to Annapurna South. The panoramic view from the rooftop of any guesthouse alone is a joy to my soul. I can just stand and stare at her beauty for hours. However, my excitement was short-lived as I have bigger goal to achieve here. I am on my way for an amazing 7 days journey of trekking into remote areas at the mountains and hopefully at the end I will finally witness and placed my two feet at the Annapurna Base Camp! My mission is about to start and boy I was excited!!!  

The calm Phewa Lake at Pokhara in the morning sunrise

Alana and I just had our stroll beside the lake and we are waiting for our taxi to send us to the Registration office which only open at 10am.

look at Fishtail at the back of this Guesthouse..amazing!

Ready, D? Let's go !

Today mark the beginning of my trek and from this moment of, my mind was thinking one and only one mission which was to reach Annapurna Base Camp and return safely. Since everything was planned by Amigo Trek & Expedition, my guide Himal and porter, Basantha basically took care of our registration, lodging, meals, wellbeing and transportation. First we need to register at the Registration office just opposite the Police Station. Our driver droves us there which was just 10 minutes from our hotel. 

Payment for the permit fee is 2,000 NR  and it is included in the package (if you engaged the trek with a guide and porter. normally for 7-9 days trek it will cost you approximately USD500-600++). 

At the registration counter,,we are the first few that arrived for registration on the trekking permit and national park fees

The process was quick and fast to get the permit since we were one of the early birds, within minutes, we are off to Nayapul. After 10 minutes drive and on our way to Napayapul, as usual, our guide, Himal will always remind us by asking this favorite Q - You got your passport with you? . Even though I just placed my passport in my file case before I went into the car, I couldn't help it but to just unzip my backpack and check again if my passport was really there. ok it was there..but suddenly I heard Alana shouted and said that her passport was not with her. ok panic started to kicks in but we told her to calm down and help her checked all the bags. then she remembered the counter registration reception didnt pass the passport to her after getting the permit. So we de-tour and went to the registration office again. During that ride, silence was the only company we had..Alana was worried that she looked restless. Then we just kept consoling her. immediately upon arrived, Himal went to check and Yes it was there..thank god. Alana`s expression turned 180 degree from worry to sigh of relief. I will too if it was me. 

Then, our 2 hour ride was welcomed by the beautiful surroundings of paddy fields and snow capped mountains. By 1215pm we finally reached Nayapul.

At the back of a food stall where we stop for loo break

rapid river flowing fiercely. 

i love the sound of the river stream on a hot sunny day..make me feel like i am in a zen mode. 

Passed by hanging bridge with beautiful turquoise river

The First Check Post at Kaski before starting our long trek

Kids playing football

We walked and walked under the scorching hotsun till it was 2pm and we stopped for lunch at Syauli Bazaar and then continue our trek to this beautiful Gurung village. Along the way, seems like I am the only one was busy snapping picture and admiring the surrounding beauty. I will normally stop to check out the unique scene that i normally dont see it anymore or have not seen it before. The rest was busy walking and I normally will ask them to go ahead first when they turned to check out if i am far off behind. The beauty of trekking is everyone have their own phase. And you dont have to rush or go too slow unless the weather stops you. That's how you connect with the nature and admire the scenic landscape. My knees who have been bothering me prior to this trip for weeks seems to behave really obediently. I am more than pleased and grateful to the Almighty for this miracle. Either my glucosamine intake has been working or my knee guards did a little help or it was just the pain decided to go away and let me have my moment during this trek. I am equally blessed and grateful for this. 

met this lady sitting down and she said come..take a photo.

the mini waterfall.. yeah my frens asked you dressed to hike..why not? fedora hat by cotton on RM6 was a steal deal. 

My porter Basantha (left) kept looking if the man made swing are safe..I, just wanna be a kid again .. :P

The thing about food in Nepal it is nothing short of delicious and yummy..but the preparations will takes time because they dont normally pre-cooked, all are normally cook upon order so your food are served hot and I guess to avoid wastage. While waiting for my dhal bhat, I just walk around and saw this young kids wandering around on a Sunday afternoon. 

kids at 

my Dhal bhat meal. bottom of the cracker / appalam is a scoop of rice. :) 

Then we continued our trek after meal and rest. The journey today took almost 5 hours where there a lot of uptrend passing by paddy fields and small villages which really reminded me of my Mount Sapa trek at Hanoi, Vietnam in 2009 only now the weather was super hot. But it is far more better than if its raining.. haha

paddy field

dont worry for loo break.. you can always stop at any stalls or some of Himal's friends house.where toilet is outside of the house.. haha

then it was terrace of paddy field.

I love this quaint Gurung village settlement.. from the fence, the house, the roof..back to basic

the lady in red on the left is heavily pregnant and look like it due soon but she is one tough human and still do what she has to do. we used to see this in Kampung but now are working mum in corporate world.

then there are more kids we met along the way.. particularly this boy named Raj. speaks good english and chatty..haha

Himal unleashed his childhood dream.. 

If you want to experience the countryside of Nepal, this will be another alternative. The farming land with their culture and almost back to basic area. 

stop for the view. just 2 hours ago, I was there in that tiny houses settlement on my right. 

 a local old man sitting down relaxing. 

from cows to horses to mule, these animals are the source of their farming sustainability. 

its a house with dried corns ..not sure for deco or to feed the chicken

the long trek we had and it is now so small as we reached the other side

ascending and descending//so we knew if we are going downhill then soon we will going uphill 

all those blue rooftop of houses in Ghandruk

and we are almost reaching to Ghandruk where we will be staying in tonite. A little jaded. 

100% yak wool..but surprisingly the prices here are super expensive compare to in Thamel. Lucky I didnt get any from here since I will be trekking but I realized that when I was in Thamel at the end of the 2 days trip. 

This tree ooze such remarkable artistic 'scratch'

And finally after 5 hours, we arrived at this beautiful village of Ghandruk about 1,940m. slightly cold especially it is started to get dark. 

local old lady smiling even though she just climbed few hundred stairs..Nepalese are friendly. all you need is to greet Namaste to break the ice!

Finally arrived, we will be staying in this Guesthouse. Hotel Mountain view

Check in process was quite fast too as Himal already booked the room in advance for us. 

Unpacked and since the whole afternoon we trek on a scorching sun and drenched in sweat, i decided to take a shower. 

I braced myself to take the cold shower as there were no water heater. Oh my, it was a wrong move but since I already decided I just hold myself and within minutes, I was shivering and my whole body shake uncontrollably.  Alana could even hear me shivers from outside of the bathroom. thank god my hair is short so it dried faster.. but boy I didnt expect the water was this cold..burrrrrrrr....was quite hungry and cold, so we decided to head to the restaurant for some hot drinks. I normally dont drink tea/coffee but over here it was exceptional and I had hot ginger honey lemon tea before our dinner an hour later. The wait was real..hahaha  

i ordered vegetarian momo.. it was sort of dumpling with cabbage and carrots in it.. quite nice. but i couldnt finish it, lucky Himal and Basantha was there to finish it up even though they dont eat with us. the porters and guides only eat after their guests finished eating. its their culture to let the guests eat first. 

Alana already went to bed as she was jetlag. I on the other hand couldnt sleep so was chatting with them and did some sketches and penned something for my travel journal..because wifi doesnt work here hahaha

Then about 9pm, I decided to go to bed. so I went to rooftop and the skies were filled with stars but it was so cold and windy that i couldn`t set my go-pro properly as my hand were shaking. within few minutes after admiring the beauty I decided to go inside my room. and that was my Day 2 of this amazing journey to Annapurna Base camp.. 

Till then, will update on Day 3 soon!. if you missed..the link for Day 1, please click HERE. 

My Amazing Journey To Annapurna Base Camp -Day 1

Namaste! This word was frequently utter from my mouth and overly heard during my amazing journey of trekking to Annapurna Base Camp just few weeks ago. I was in Nepal from 5th Nov 2016 until 14th Nov 2016 and as much as I am always thankful  & grateful with all the gifts, talents, skills and every good things that God have given to me, I am still over the moon with my recent winning prize. All thanks to Allianz for this all expenses paid trip to the land of the most friendliest people with craziness imaginary landscape of the sacred snowcapped mountains. I am at this very minute while writing this post, is still at the state of disbelief. I might have done something really noble to deserve this because it was an eye-opener, life-changing, surreal, inspiringly ignite every cells in my body and soul to absorb this powerful cosmic energy and feed into my brain that flow gently and willingly into my veins. As if the fresh air of that Himalayan range that I breath during that moment was carefully preserved in a storage tank in my aorta and it never will fade unless my time in this world are up.

So what really happen there in the remote wilderness of the holy mountain and the birthplace of Buddha? Well if you are in the mood for something interesting in your life, then walk with me in this journey because I can be your storyteller..and this is my #devijourney2annapurna story. :) . Ready? 

some of the items that i brought along but was filtered by my guide upon arrival in Pokhara and ended up most of the items are left behind at the hotel.

Slept at 2am the night before my flight as I was doing last minute packing and managed to submit last minute contests entry.. hahaha.. woke up at 645am on 5th Nov 2016 (Saturday) and initially I wanted to take Putra LRT to KLsentral but since I check the traffic was smooth and I have almost 15kg load to carry, so i was thinking why not just Grab a taxi. Book a Grabtaxi and that rm17 ride to KLsentral with a friendly driver was an ease. Since I have prebooked the Skybus via AirAsia portal (slightly cheaper too or else it will be RM12 one way now from KLSENTRAL to KLIA2. As I ride on that bus, my mind was filled with anticipation and curiosity. I am afterall was mentally & physically prepared of what I`ve signed up for. I must admit that I was little worried as the time to depart getting nearer...many have asked me 1001 questions of me going there all by myself. I am fine going there without any company because I used to travel alone and I love meeting new friends but I did ask myself..what if after all the training and preparations, but at the end if mother nature didnt allow it..am i going to disappoint a lot of people out there? especially to the sponsors, my PT, my family or even myself... Lucky that I didnt allow that pressure to haunt me for long. I kept myself occupy with other important things and perhaps that was the whole idea to keep myself distracted with all this elements of 'what-if'. The fact that my knees was in pain and I've been resting for the past 3 weeks before my departure date had also added the worry pills even more. 

I reached KLIA2 at 930am but to my horror, the queue for the baggage drop was crazy. As I was lining up and waiting, I've noticed that the queue are not moving and tourists group from China was everywhere on each lanes. I met a teacher from America, Cole who happen to have the same frustration and thank god after 45 minutes of waiting, we managed to slip into another lane that was opened for us to drop our check-in luggage. ok sigh of relief and I went to check out the Premium Lounge as my UOB credit card entitled me for a complimentary access. Nothing special so i just chilled for a while before entering the international departure hall. Here goes..my adventures has finally begun...

let's go.. you may check out #devijourney2annapurna in my instagram feed for all the preparations, training and hiking before embark on this amazing journey!

Oh ya, Malaysians who plan to visit Nepal must obtain a tourist visa. You may opt to apply earlier at the Embassy of Nepal in Kuala Lumpur or upon arrival at the Kathmandu International Aiport. I've applied earlier as I have a domestic flight to catch from Kathmandu to Pokhara on the same day. I am quite skeptical if i could make it on time as I only have 1 hour time frame upon touch down. read further, because there were infact some drama upon arrival at Kathmandu..hahaha. Put that aside, to apply for a visa is quite simple-just download the form from this LINK , print and complete the form and bring along your original passport, 1 passport sized photo with cash payment of RM95 (depends on currency rate) to apply. I applied for 15 days tourist entry visa and it was ready within 2 working days.

So as I entered the International Departure Hall, I bumped into Cole again with another 2 Nepalese. We were chatting and it was really sad to hear their unfortunate stories of how they have to run away and back to their homeland due to corruption, abuse and being bullied here in Malaysia.

Well, I am all set and then guess what..flight was delayed..(GREAT!) , so my 4 hours 25 minutes flight time was filled with listening to music, eating, dozing, drawing and thinking if i could make it for my domestic flight to Pokhara that afternoon. Once a while, I did peep by the window for some amazing snow-capped mountains view such as below :

The Himalayan range from few thousand feet above

All white and blue

The separation of snow capped mountains and the green depicts the difference of the 2 zone significantly.

AirAsia flight also has been known for delayed flights recently...👀😛

my notebook are filled colorfully.

The flight touched down at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu at 230pm. First thing first, I head straight to the baggage carousel and I waited and waited and waited for almost 1 freaking hour for my backpack to finally decided to 'show up'. My domestic flight to POkhara by Yeti Airlines would be at 340pm. 

my e-ticket for the domestic flights which was also sponsored by Allianz.

I still remembered to this very minute how the place get really crowded and people start swarming the place. All i could see was boxes of flat screen television and huge brown boxes wrapped with transparent tapes..either tv in Malaysia are selling way cheaper than in Nepal or am I missing something here? Anyway, while waiting, i tried asking around where is the domestic flight entrance and most of them told me that it will be on another building and need a little walking.. ok i kept looking at my watch and this is really not good. I am pretty sure I am going to miss my flight unless the flight are also delayed. Mind you that that will be the last flight of the day so if I really couldnt make it, I have to start thinking of Plan B, which to purchase the next available flight (only next morning) before taking a taxi to town and stayed for one night there. oh my..$$$ .. so i prayed hard that please there'll be miracle for me on that day. True enough, finally after an hour (3.30pm!!!!), my backpack arrived and I quickly ran toward the exit door only to be held by the guards as they will be checking our boarding pass and luggage tag to see if its a match. Probably because a lot cases of people taking someone else televisions ..i think so.

everyone are swarming the area at the baggage carousel

I did asked the guards where was the domestic flight building only to have a disappointed reply so I just walked out and realized there was this one old man stood there asking me 'taxi?'. i asked him "where's the domestic flight entrance as I have a flight to Pokhara" . So he asked what time is my flight. I said now 340pm. He then straight away said " Girl, you have to run as fast as you can as it will takes about 5-7 min distance and he then waved his hand forth and back (a sign which I understood pretty well), i said thank you before running as fast as i could with my 2 bagpacks and my eyes were wandering for that domestic flight departure building. I was panting, thirsty and tired. My mind was kept hoping and praying at the same time. Please god, let me catch this flight. As i was wandering and looking lost to look for that building, i kept a positive mind and asked around so that I didnt missed the path. Finally from afar i saw the domestic flight building and ran across a short cut, crossing over a fence at the parking lot and upon reaching the entrance, I just mentioned to the guard that I have a domestic flight to Pokhara now and placed my backpacks on the baggage scanning machine. As I carried my backpacks and looking for Yeti Airlines counter in that quite small airport. The minute I saw that counter, I quickly drop my bags on the floor and head towards the counter and while panting, I said I have a flight to Pokhara now. The counter lady was really helpful and thank god for that. She asked me to show my e-ticket and that was the only time that I couldnt search it in my organized document folder..Pffttttt...but she was quick to reach out the walkie talkie and told the other side to HOLD THE FLIGHT while she prepared the boarding pass for me. It happened so quickly that I didnt know if luck was really on my side or there was really an angel taking care of me. Apparently, the flight has not take off and she told me to carry my bags as handcarry and run straight to gate counter 2 and handover the boarding pass to me. I could only repeat the word thank you to her many times as i quickly took my bags and rush to the boarding gate. Oh man, another baggage scanner machine..the guard found out something and told me to explain what was it. I said that was my monopod and i am sorry but I am catching my already delayed flight to Pokhara now. He just looked at me..paused and then said oh okay..you may go. As I reached the gate after got my boarding pass stamped, I was told by the security there to hop on a charter bus. What a relief and I am really thankful that I managed to finally catch my domestic flight as I hop on the bus with 30 not so happy passangers looking back at me. Hey..i literally felt that i was part of a tamil/bollywood drama wei..and it is just my first day in Nepal!

The plane was small but enough to place my backpacks at the legroom and it was about 45 minutes time of self reflection i had in that place. Looking back, I could have missed the flight and on my way to Thamel town with USD140 gone for the next flight ticket purchased. Yeah I am forever grateful that it turned out to be just fine..so fine just like the view that i captured during that flight.

seductively dangrous.

Relief face expression hahaha

They served salted peanuts, soft drinks and mineral in this flight. only 1 stewardess with 2 pilots. take off and landing was smooth. :)

Upon landing, I was welcomed with amazing view of the Himalayan Range of snow capped mountains and slightly chilling at the Pokhara airport. I searched for the exit and there stood a guy holding a place card with my full name written on it.. aahhh must be my guide Himal. After brief introduction, he told me that the hotel will be just few minutes away and that I have another lady joining me for this trek. cool!

I will be staying just 1 night in Pokhara and will start my trekking the next day from Nayapul (2 hours drive from Pokhara). Himal introduced me to Alana (girl from Australia) at the hotel. Then, he told us that he need to explain and filter some of our stuff that we will bring during the trek as light and only important warmers are the key of this trek. And since i didnt have any passport sized photo to apply for my permit, he told me that he will show me the nearest photo shop after settling down all my stuff. Didnt want to waste any time, we unpack and repack our stuff. we combine into 1 bag all our important stuff for our next 7 days trek while the rest we just kept into another bagpack to be kept at the hotel.

After that I went with Himal to the nearest shop to get my passport sized photos taken. Then, I decided to walk around alone to get some postcards before taking my dinner at this cosy restaurant just opposite the famous lake. I starting to love Pokhara for its calm and tranquility but I will save this as I will be back to Pokhara after my last day of trekking.  

my parents received the postcard on the day I arrived KL while another postcard to myself was not delivered...my fault..i didnt state Malaysia in the address. pfffttt...

my dhal bhat...check out at the amount of rice that  I eat almost daily for lunch during this trip..hahaha..time for wifi weeeeeeee... hehehe

the room in Fewa Inn, Pokhara.

Then I went back to the hotel room, took my shower and went to bed as it has been quite a lot to digest today. Tomorrow will be the beginning of my trekking to Annapurna Base Camp.
So stay tune for my next update! it going to be amazing! till then, Namaste!