In the bus.

And we bought lychees from e locals who were selling em through e bus windows.. But mine were damn sour ah.. And so I gave them away to other locals at the end of our bus ride at Pokhara.

Met up with Shermin and Winston at Pokhara and had a nice steak dinner before our trek.

Sacred animal roaming the streets.

Day 3: Trekking day 1! From Birethanti to Ulleri.

Our entire Annapurna trek will begin at Birethanti and end at Jomsom, covering abt 80 km. Its a trek tat has its ups and downs literally and the altitude gained was only 2.7km, so for the most part of the trek it was pretty warm, esp during the day. We took a bus ride to Birethanti and will take an internal flight from Jomsom back to Pokhara. Along the bus ride we saw lots of women and students walking along the road to destinations or schools tat seem to be no where near e vinicity. Bet they all haff thunder thighs.

Alighting from the bus, we met our porters and got ready for our trek, i.e. emptying our bladders, applying sunblock, putting on caps/hats/shades etc.

One little Nepalese gal.

One little ladybird.

Waterfall along e way.

Group photo at the waterfall.

It started to rain damn heavily in the late afternoon ah.. Sad to say the spirits were more than a little dampened. In fact all of us agreed e most difficult part of e trek was the very first day- sucky weather and a continuous upward climb throughout. But I guess e main reason is coz we are not mentally prepared enuff heh.

The rain comes and goes, and e gals making steaming faces.

Our accomodation for the night. And e fact tat its e sulkiest tea lodge (it's small, dark and crampy) of all the tea lodges tat we stayed didn't help e dready feeling. I shared a room with Winston for the night.

The common shower room. With no light bulb or hot water. Hence explain y some of us forgo e showering.. Shan't mention names here haha..

Day 4: Trek to Ghorepani

On e morning of trekking day 2, we met up our beloved canine companion! He was walking in e opposite direction and on seeing such a beautiful brown mongrel, who can resist not petting him? And he happened to like us too coz he started to follow us instead, even thou we haff not started feeding him at this stage yet.

Group shot.

Dual shot.

Triple shot.

Ghorepani- our destination for the day.

Our room is so much bigger, cleaner and even smells nice ah.. haha.. Compared to e previous lodgings, this is 10 stars liaoz. There's a nice big, clean shower room (where u bath) and another clean toilet (where u do ur business) on every floor. E perfect place to do ur laundry also heh..

Day 5: Trek to Sikha and annual volleyball meet!

The next morning, we were all drying our clothes/towels against the furnace before setting off.. Nepalese weather is pretty regular with light showers in the evening and early morning so its pretty humid.

Group shot.

Our canine companion is an inquisitive adolescent male mongrel and he loves to explore everywhere and teasing the cows/ponies/donkeys.

Our canine companion.

Group shot.

The stick with a stump which Dennis is holding contain tobacco and is used to terminate leechs.

Lulin torturing a leech and slicing into pieces and see if they can regrow by mitosis..


Lunch at our destination, a tea lodge at Sikha. But Siva G, our guide, ask us if we prefer to rest or go watch an annual Nepalese sports meet after lunch. We chose the latter since he mentioned it was very close by, taking only 10min to reach there.

But Siva G forgot to mention tat it is Nepalese 10min. Conversion rate is at 1:3 so it took us some Singapore 30min ah. Hence explained e berms and slippers/sandals which are lucky to survive e trip.

On reaching there, e village is really bustling with activity ah.. And the locals were so friendly they actually invited us to sit beside e court as guests of honour haha.. Notice how our dog stick to us throughout regardless of how many other pple there are.

These Nepalese players are damn pro ah.. And e gals only haff a common topic after the tournament.

On our way back to our tea lodge, we noticed a grp of children have gathered to play volleyball, after inspired by their seniors. And our dog is running around teasing e horses.

Day 6: Trek to Tatopani and HOT spring.

One big buffalo.

Many big buffalos.

A gathering of a huge crowd beside the river bank which our guide later explained to us its a funeral procession.

The guys.

Day 4 of our trek see us making the steepest climb yet and its damn tiring and difficult for some of e gals ah.. So e guys lent a hand to e gals. Scary also coz we were climbing along a narrow pathway along a cliff.

We only realised our faithful canine companion went missing at a rest point when our guide asked us where he was. As mentioned earlier he like to run off and explore other side tracks or trepass into other pple's houses/backyards scavenging for food but he never fail to return back to the company. We were all pretty sad but maintained hopes he may find our scent. From this vantage pt u can see that he is pretty much missing.

WS with his constipated face.

Getting pretty windy..

Bah bah white sheep..

Our accomodation at Ghasa.

Day 8: Trek to Tukuche with our dog rejoining heh. And the highlight of the trip- River Crossing!

And we continued our trek..

The guys were trekking infront when there was a commotion behind and looking back, our canine friend came running towards us ah.. He's so damn happy to see us ah.. Leaping up to each of us with delight ah.. Well ofcoz we were all very happy to see him too.. So adorable heh..

Lunch! And extra serving for our dog heh.

Green plains.

Same nice green plains.

And here's e sedimental plains which we WANT to cut across- our guide at first wanted to go around it coz we will need to cross 2 freezing cold rivers with strong currents and abt 10 feet wide each. But on seeing our galang porters chionging ahead, we decided to go for e short cut and have e experience of a life time..

More sedimental plains due to e season. After e monsoon season, this entire valley will be flooded.

Mountains!

Mountains!

The majestic mountains!

Day 9: Trek to Marpha and Jomsom and jeep ride to Kagbeni.

Green plains.

Dog's turn.

Harvesting season for the barley fields.

More barley fields.

Majestic dog.

Our dog not only offer us companionship but when ws' jungle hat was blown off by the wind down into a lower plateau, he went all e way down and retrieve it leh.. Kaoz.. Already nueing how to fetch without teaching! Smart dog ah.. Damn smart! In return, we feed him and fend him off numerous big black territorial dogs along e way. But at any pt of time even e most monstrous gigantic dog will never bark or bare its teeth towards human ah.. So they usually keep a distance away when we separate the beasts with our sticks. But there's no way our dog can make his way back alone liaoz haha..

Terrace fields.

After reaching Jomsom, we decided to take a 2 way trip to Kagbeni via jeep and so we can catch the flight back to Pokhara the next morning. This picture does not show the other 2 Nepalese women who were also cramped up in the jeep with us like refugees.

Kagbeni is one of the poorest villages with mud houses and lots of livestock roaming ard.

Lady milking a cow.

2 bulls locking horns over a cow?

Bah bah black goats.. Spot the billy goat!

Finally.. on our very last day of our trek.. at 2.8km attitude, the weather is more like air con liaoz..

Altogether now.

Group shot.

Wonder how they manage to get the words up there.. Some condor hero?

Mountains.

More mountains.

Day 10: Internal flight back to Pokhara

The Gorkha airlines heh.. First time taking a small jet like this.. A 20 seater plane ah..

Terrace plains taken from the plane.

Later that day, we went boating at Phewa lake.

Spices in Pokhara town centre.

Day 13, 14: Kathmandu and flight back home.

On our return flight from Kathmandu to bangkok, we realised the security is especially tight. And en we realised the reason why- behold Jimmy Carter, 39th president of USA, once the most powerful person on Earth heh.. Previleged to shake hands with him heh..

And so end this pictorial itinery! And I must declare that I passed my ippt! Muhaha.. Tatz without much training ah.. But perhaps I really did build up thunder thighs from e Nepal trip ahha..