Namaste and Hello to all hiking friends!

I just thought I should explain - - why did we go to the Annapurna Sanctuary on a TEAHOUSE trek? We USUALLY like to go with Peter Owens' whole crew, cooks and kitchen boys and tents and all.

There are many "Camping Treks". We did that last spring, when we went back to Langtang, and it was - very nice. But that camping trek was fairly expensive, and we weren't able to get anybody to come with us. So it was just the two of us. We love to go on the full camping trek, and it makes more work for more of Peter's good guys. But it doesn't do much good if we don't get a lot of people coming to Nepal.

When we decided to go to the Sanctuary, in November of 2005, we decided to go on the Teahouse version, to maximize the number of people who would look at the low price, and come with us. Getting more Americanos to go trekking, is more important than giving work to a few kitchen boys. That's what Nepal needs now. And that's what we got. The very reasonable price of $850 for the Teahouse version (versus ~ $ 1250 for camping) was probably instrumental in getting 3 more guys to come with us. Jeff, Arlo, and Vic were great hikers, and they had never been to Nepal before. So now we are encouraging them to bring their friends back to Nepal. I'm sure they will For info about this basic trek .
Besides, the Sanctuary has very good teahouses, we were told, and that is true. We stayed at about 11 excellent teahouses, and when we got to Tadapaani, all the good teahouses were full - and even the crummy one, that was the best one that SalaamSing could find, was not too bad. So, that's why we went on a teahouse trek. And in June, 4 of us guys are going back by Mountain Bike, to repeat the Annapurna Circuit - and staying in Teahouses.

On this trek, some of the hikers were in their 30's and 40's, and some in their 50's and 60's. You don't have to be very young or old to enjoy trekking in Nepal. You just have to enjoy good hiking.

Here are the links to Arlo Aude's photos from Nepal:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2Abs27Vi1cMX1A
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2Abs27Vi1cMXxQ

These are a couple good slide-shows.

Bob, Vic, and Jeff stand 12,000' below the summit of Mt. Annapurna	"Machhapucchare" translates to "Fish-tail Peak"	The Menu of a Tea-house, about 6 miles north of Chhomrong
Click on the images for a larger picture. Credits: Photos by Jeff Nilles

Menus and Dining in the Annapurna Sanctuary Area.

I am writing all this as a service for people who are going trekking by Teahouse, and haven't got a clue what is coming. Such as the 3 guys coming with me up to the Annapurna Circuit, this May. Peter Owens can give this info to people who inquire. Several people have asked me, as they were signing up for a Teahouse Trek, "What will the food be like in the Teahouses? What does a menu look like?" I told them what I recalled from our 2002 Teahouse trek. This was a very thin recollection, compared to a real menu. But I inquired, and did not find any menu.

Finally I spotted a menu in an old book (~1990), and the prices were not relevant, and the variety was small, and obsolete. They did not show pizza or beer or similar items, so it was not relevant to trekking in the 2005-2006 era. When we went up into the Annapurna Sanctuary in November of 2005, we got some photos of menus, thanks to Jeff Nilles. In each area (about 3 towns, each at the ~same distance from the road) ACAP (The Annapurna Conservation Area Project) sets standard prices and standard, basic menus. If you travel another day's hike up the hill, the prices go up - due to portering charges. So the prices can vary, and the variety varies. Some things that are on the menu, will not be available, and if a yak or some chickens have been butchered locally, that can be a "special" that you might want to order. These notes, and this menu, from Nov. 2005, are based on an exchange rate of about Rs 70 = $1.00.

All prices are required to be the "same", in any town, but the cooking can vary. So the art of choosing the best teahouse, with nice cozy rooms, and a good location, and good cooking, is a fine art, indeed. We believe our guides chose our tea-houses for the best food, and for good rooms, and the food least likely to poison us. Could we guess this ourselves? Not so well. We think a significant part of our Guide's value, is to know which tea-house has very good food. More later.

Price List: The first item to look at, is "Room Charge". These rooms are not very fancy, but they are usually clean and secure. Some are even quiet! And some aren't. The room rates are set low, based on the idea that you will dine at their Dining Room. It's not sporting, to room at one lodge, and go out to eat elsewhere. I mean, $1.30 for a room? That is negligible, and the food is usually inexpensive, too. This often includes a hot (solar) shower. If you have to pay for a bucket of good hot water, 70 cents ain't bad, either. Sometimes it gets up to $1.40.... comments later, when I write about lodging.

The most important item is filed under "Rice": "Rice Dal Veg." - that is Dal Bhat. The listed price is Rs 150, but a poor Nepali traveller will probably have to pay only half of that. We affluent trekkers can afford to pay $2, for an "all you can eat" feast of rice and lentils, pickles and veggies. And we did, several times. NOTE: eating any food that is hot or boiled or fried, is very unlikely to rile up your tummy. When hot rice is put on a dish that might be imperfectly cleaned, the rice will probably stay sterile. That's the theory we went under. On our treks, nobody got sick. But, we did eat at some of the best and safest tea-houses in town...

Now, starting at the top:

"Pudding": I did not really try the "puddings", but I had some puddings or sauces spread over pies. They were not fantastic, but they were tasty, and did add to the pie experience. Chocolate or vanilla, it was - fair. When accompanied by banana or honey, the puddings would be - tasty.

"Pie". The Annapurna Circuit (especially the western half) is called "The Apple Pie Route". They grow LOTS of Apples, down by Marpha. And they make good apple pies. We tried "The" Apple Pie in about 8 places, and there were several variations - sometimes a single little pie baked FOR YOU - sometimes a piece of a big pie. All were good. They didn't need chocolate sauce or vanilla pudding, but these made pleasant variations, too. Some places did not have "apple pie" but they had an "Apple Roll" - sort of a turn-over - and they were good, too. When we go around the Circuit in June, it's unlikely they will have any apples left. Once I had a "Lemon Roll", and it was tart and tasty!

A "Mars Bar Roll" is a turn-over crust, deep-fried, with a candy bar inside. If you have a sweet tooth, it will fill it! No, I didn't try one.

"Hard Drinks". About 2 or 3 days from the road, you can buy a 0.66 liter bottle of beer for prices rising from 150 to 200 rupees (depending on the porterage). After you get further from the road, you'll pay 120 to 180 rupees for a 0.35 liter CAN of beer. That's what you pay, for porterage. Similarly, 180 rupees for a small bottle of rum or whiskey is not a bad price. I like their Khukri rum, served with my lemonade powder. I carried a half liter, from Kathmandu. You may have some choice of the beer, Tuborg or San Miguel or Everest. It's all pretty good.

The "local wine" is usually a mediocre glass of rakshi, made from the local millet. It's usually been over-distilled until its alcohol content is down. Not usually impressive. It's worth trying, once, maybe, but I'm not impressed. However, when WE get around near Jomosom and Marpha, we can buy the well-known Marpha Brandy, made from those Marpha apples. Fairly tasty, and strong. (They also make Apricot and Peach Brandy). "Mustang Coffeee" is coffee with a shot of rum or whiskey. I hear it's good.

"Curry". Many of these dishes are quite good and tasty. If they have any chicken, they will probably have chicken curry. It's worth asking for. Note that chicken may be boneless, or it may have bone chunks and bone chips, hacked up in the Chinese style. Never can tell... If you don't like meat, you can see that there are MANY vegetarian dishes.

"Sandwich". I never tried their sandwiches, and rarely their bread.

"Breads" - Ah, now we are getting somewhere! Many places sell a "Tibetan Bread", which is a big 8" circle, with slits, deep-fried, and fairly plain in flavor, until you put jam or honey on it - GOOD! The "Gurung Bread" sold in the Annapurna Sanctuary Area, is a variation on "Tibetan Bread", with a little cinnamon and nutmeg, and I'll recommend that. In many cases, a "Corn Bread" is like a Tibetan Bread, dusted with cornmeal, and very tasty. In other place, "Corn Bread" might be a different concept. Well worth trying. The Pancakes are generally good, BUT I realized I missed having any butter or margarine. Next time I'll bring my own margarine. Chapatis are very plain breads.

"Potatoes". Often, you can get plain boiled potatoes to go with your curry, if you are tired of rice. Potato "Chips" are in the English idiom, French Fries. They are fairly good, but I might ask them to re-fry them a little longer. They fry them barely enough. If you need a French Fry "fix", there they are. We tried them several times. Up on the Annapurna Circuit, I had Roesti Potatoes, several times, and they were fried crisp, and quite tempting and delicious. I often split an order. In the Sanctuary, the "Roesti" potatoes were kind of mooshy and not crisp, and not such good flavor nor texture. I expect the ones on the Circuit will be better. The versions with Cheese can be very good; I did not try the "mix" or "veg." versions. Sometimes they have "Hash-Brown" potatoes, and these are very similar to what Roesti should be like. We had these a couple times, and they were very good. Great, with an omelette.

"Fritters". I was not impressed. Usually they gave you a couple meager slices of apple, dipped up in fritter batter and fried. They were OK, but not an impressive choice. Worth splitting an order? Just to try them out....

"Salad". Several people had salads with tomatoes or other greens, and they were VERY good. At any tea-house selling to westerners, the green veggies will be nicely washed in chlorine water or iodine water, and perfectly safe to eat. And usually very tasty. Nancy ordered a fruit salad in Birethanti, and we shared it around, and it was excellent, apple and orange and banana. Salads were available mostly below 8000', and also at Ghorapaani, a well-known tourist mecca.

"Rice". I have tried the fried rice plates, and they usually were very good. Especially, "Mixed" or with veggies or tuna. Caution: "Tuna" may be canned tuna, BUT it may be sorta sardines. Don't be surprised at what you get. It's edible, and tasty, but it is - a surprise.

"Cereals". I did not try the cereals. Is the "milk" from buffalos or yaks, or dried milk? Not sure.

"Cold Drinks". Yes you can get Coke/Fanta/Sprite, and sometimes that is a special treat. ALSO in some places, they have "Cold Lemon", for a reasonable 50 rupees. Sometimes this is strong and wonderful, and I'll buy 2 or 3. Other places, they have diluted it a lot, and I won't.

"Soups". There are many kinds of soups, and I tried many. The noodle soup is always good, with or without veggies. The garlic soup is good, the potato soup is good, and if you ask for "Potato Garlic soup", they are good at complying. They can figure things out. It does no harm to ask for a dish that's not on the menu. The cooks are very resourceful! You can add garlic to 'most any soup, and it tends to be good and rich. Sometimes the garlic is cooked; other times, it is pretty raw - and wonderful! The tomato soup is often made with real live tomatoes (not from concentrate, or dried) (even in November) and can be VERY good.

"Spaghetti". Most of the tomato sauces are made with real live tomatoes, and it is not as rich and "tomatoey" as the sauce that we'd expect, made from tomato paste or concentrate. So it's not exactly what we expect, but it is edible.

"Macaroni". This is made with good macaroni and cheese, and is tastier than the spaghetti, I think, if you like macaroni. I enjoyed it. The Yak cheese is a good generally tasty kind of cheese. More properly it is called "Nak Cheese" as a Nak is a female yak.

"Pakauda" is - supposedly some kind of deep-fried pouch? I didn't try this. Not sure what's in it.

"Hot Drinks" - there are many kinds of tea, depending on what you like. We often had a large pot of Lemon Tea, to split between 3 or 4 people, waiting for lunch, and that was very good. Nancy often had milk tea with ginger. For breakfast, I often had one milk coffee at the start, and a hot chocolate at the end.

"Momos". We had these a LOT - for lunch, or supper. They are made in 2 formats: pursed together in a circle; or folded over like "pot-stickers". Most versions were excellent. Tasty. We often split an order between 2 or 3 people. These were always a winner; (but one time we had them fried, and these were not quite so successful, as they were wizened up and a bit tough; not as tasty.) These are usually served with a bottle of catsup and a bottle of hot green chili sauce. If someone orders them for supper - and if they are good - as they often are - order some for breakfast!

"Popcorn". Tasty with rum punch, once in a while. (Just put some of your rum into a cup of hot lemon tea.)

"Noodle" - there are MANY versions of noodles, and fried noodles. Most are very good; some are wonderful. I remember one order of fried noodles up at Tukhure Pokhari, with veggies and tuna and cheese, and it was grand.

"Spring Roll" - this is a big deep-fried pocket or "turnover" of various veggies, etc. These were good. Jeff points out, there's always cabbage, and various other ingredients such as onion, "spinach", potato.

"Egg". They had many kinds of omelettes. Most were very good. I liked their cheese. Some of the guys ordered a couple boiled eggs. Sometimes they came hard-boiled - sometimes soft-boiled. If you specified what you wanted, you might get pretty close to what you wanted. If not - send one back to boil some more!

"Pizza". They have many kinds of pizza, and good cheese. They are not very long on meat, so if you brought along some thin slices of pepperoni, to put on top, that could be very nice. If you order for supper (or breakfast), and they have plenty of time, the crusts may be lovely and crisp. If you order them for lunch, and you are in a hurry, don't be surprised if the crusts are barely cooked, and chewy, not so crisp. Jeff says the crusts were made with rice flour.

Options: House Specialties.
There must have been over 20 tea-houses in Chhhomrong. We stayed at the International Lodge, at the Top Of The Hill in Chhomrong, in a pretty good-sized town, and they had a freezer. Apparently the electricity from hydro is quite reasonably reliable. They had beef and chicken. Several people had a steak, and these were quite good. I had chicken enchiladas, and they were excellent. One guy had a "hamburger" but apparently it was made with ~ ham, or chopped ham, and was not a big success.

'Most every teahouse is likely to have daily special items on their menu, and inquiring is a good idea. Other places have a half-page or page or two pages of specialties bound into their menu. These can appeal to you. YOU figure it out! Just remember, if your buddy had something really good for supper - YOU can probably order it for breakfast! It's often a good idea to order an order of some item such as Roesti potatoes, or momos, to split. Just to try it out. Order what sounds interesting.

Teahouses like you to place your order on a paper order form, preferably an hour or two before supper; and if you want to get a decent early start in the morning, place your order for breakfast, right after supper. You can specify when you want your meal served. Then when you have finished breakfast, you can pay up and run. If you are planning to pump your own filtered water, it might be a good idea to request a big pot - several gallons per 4 people - so you can start pumping right after breakfast. (Or before.) In many places, tea-houses can be found every mile or two, but on some days, the water is kind of sparse, so you would bring not just 1 or 2 liters, but 3. The 2 miles stretch going up to Tal is kind of dry, and hot and sunny, for example. The 2 miles from Phedi up to Thorong La, and the first 3 miles down, is likely to be fairly dry, but I don't recall getting very thirsty. I guess I'd bring at least 2 or 3 liters, in case it got sunny. In the Annapurna Sanctuary, we rarely ran low on water.

The guidebooks recommend that if a group of several trekkers orders "many different items", that may take extra time, and take extra fuel to cook it. So if you can order several things that are "in common", that can save time and energy. For example, if 5 people order 3 different kinds of soup, and 4 different kinds of tea, and 3 different kinds of momo (or 3 different kinds of pizza) - they can all cook up in batches that will save fuel.

One of our guys developed a craving for pineapple juice. He found one brand of juice that he really liked. Every little town he came to, he bought a box. Basically, he bought the town dry. We finally decided to buy some comparable mango juice, and it was pretty good, too (even if it was a few months over its "Best if Consumed by..." date). We were able to buy bananas and oranges, along the trail - not bad, for November! These fruits were mostly down below 5000'. We found all sorts of tasty food. Nepal has all kinds of interesting food!

Portions: Usually we got a pretty good-sized portion, but I recall at the International Lodge in Chhomrong, the portions were about 50% bigger than normal. In many houses, 2 people might order 1 order of momos to split, and 1 order of Roesti potatoes, and a main dish for each person, such as fried rice, but in that place, that was too much food. We spent about 3 nights there, and we soon learned not to order quite so much.

Up at Gorak Shep, I remember, all the food was served sequentially, but for quite a while, the people who ordered dal bhat got nothing. THAT came out LAST. Don't be surprised at anything! This menu is PRIMARILY valid for the Annapurna Region. In other areas, it may vary a lot, but there will always be a lot of commonality. Can you imagine a Nepali Teahouse Restaurant without Dal Bhat? Nope! / Enjoy! Bon Appetit! / rap / Dec. 2005.

Comments invited!! / rap

Trails... in the Annapurna Sanctuary

The trails in the Annapurna Sanctuary are - generally very good. There are a few exceptions.

Starting up from the road and the trail head at Dhampus Phedi ("Phedi" = "The foot of the hill") the trail was moderately hard work, medium steep, with good footsteps and stone steps. Lots of ascent. After a while it levelled off nicely, on some terraced farmland. There were about 3010 stone steps up to Dhampus. As we had an early start on the day (our plane was not delayed, so we got up to Phedi before 10 AM) we did not wait and have lunch at Phedi, but started right up. We had lunch at a restaurant on the low end of Dhampus.

We were a bit surprised to find a new road carved into the hillside, and it went all the way up to Dhampus. Ah - progress! How can we tell the people of Dhampus, that they shouldn't have a road? We saw no vehicles on this road - I guess it was too new. Not even a tractor. The trails were generally good, up to the ridge at Pothana.

The next day, the trails were nice and gentle, over to Deorali. Then we started descending toward Landrung. It was a cool and damp area, on the west side of the ridge, and I found the stone steps terribly slippery. I slipped an inch or two, a dozen times, and sometimes 4 or 6 inches. I never fell, but I found it very scary. Even my walking stick had very little purchase. After we got down out of the shade, it was Okay. It must have been some kind of organic slippery stuff. We continued on past Thorka to Landrung, on mostly nice trails, up and down only a little.

I took an afternoon walk, after we got to camp, on the main trail toward Ghandrung. I descended about 2000 stone steps down from the Junction, to the bridge over Modi Khola. Pleasant, but a lot of work, to get back up to supper.

We started down from Landrung - about 500 stone steps directly down out to the bottom of town, and then a lot of up-and-down to get up to New Bridge. We asked, "How old is the New Bridge?" We were told, "About a month." I guess that make sense - it washes out every spring, and they have to build it new. But I am going to insist that they chain up the main beams on one end, so when the torrent comes down, they don't have to find new beams, but can re-use the old ones. The cross-beams are trivial...

The first 1/4 mile up from New Bridge is still (after many years) a rough, lousy trail, not well engineered or manicured. Then after the first few houses, the trail becomes pretty nice. It goes Up - and then back DOWN to the Kimru Khola. There's a lot of NEW steps down to a new bridge (~10 months old), because the old trail leading to the old bridge was wiped out by a slide, so they had to re-route it. Then a moderate ascent to Jinnu ( side trip down to the Hot Springs) and then a long hard pull - about 1800 stone steps up to Chhomrong. We got to our hotel at the top of town. The map plainly showed a 300' descent from town, to the river. But we could see that it was obviously a BIG descent, and sure enough, the next day, we had a 1000' descent (1040 stone steps) to the Chhomrong Khola (which comes down from Hiunchuli). Nice steps. But the maps lied a lot.

Then a couple thousand feet UP to Sinuwa, and then up further to Bamboo, Himalaya and Dovan. The trails were fairly good, but there were several hundred feet of descent to Bamboo. Quite a bit of up and down. I counted the stone steps.

From Dovan we eased up to Hinko's Cave; and then a lot of up-and-down on rough trails to Deorali, for lunch.

Above Deorali, there were assorted patches of up and down, and finally we came around a corner to Machhapuchhare Base Camp (MBC) at about 12000'.There was a lot of snow on the north-facing slopes, but the snow was mostly melted off the south-facing slopes, and we took a fairly easy trail up to ABC (Annapurna Baase Camp.) A couple of our guys stayed up there, overnight, but Nancy and I came back down to MBC for the night.

The trails down were not too bad, but we couldn't hurry much. Down by Deorali, there was a set of steep steps up, followed by a steep set of stone steps down, that were perched on top of a newly-built rock wall ( which dropped off on both sides). Wild!

From Dovan - the same old trails down to Chhomrong.

We left Chhomrong and headed south - then at an obscure corner, we turned West, and continued on a shallow downgrade with nice farming along the way. We traversed SW a couple miles.

Finally we made a steep descent to Kimru Khola (just before we got to a huge slide area) and then ascended the other side.

After lunch at the last tea-house, we ascended a couple hours in the dark woods, and arrived at Tadapaani. (NOT the same as Tatopaani.) There was a tiny bit of drizzle, but we sat around a wood fire in the courtyard, and smoked ourselves up, until it was time for supper.

Descending from Tadaapani we soon descended about 280 stone steps and 400' down - and right back up. We had a brief rest at a small teahouse which was poised at the top of ONE CLIFF, and at the bottom of some other cliffs. Looking down, we could see the little town of Ulleri, where we would be in a couple days! Then we made a lot of easy long ascent up to the teahouses at Deorali. Nice trails. Pleasant area. From Deorali, we took a long, nice up-and-down traverse to Ghorapaani. It was pleasant and we even had some views of Dhaulagiri (which is often shrouded with impenetrable clouds.) Then a moderate descent into Ghorapaani.

We planned to start out at 5 AM to ascend Poon Hill, for the early-morning views. But at 5 AM, there was no view. Solid cloud. I went back to bed. Then at 6 AM, Kul Rai rapped on my door - it was nice and clear! I pulled on my clothes and boots fast, and charged up the hill. By the time we got about 1/2 way up, the sun came up nicely and shone on Machhapuchhare - then shortly on Annapurna II - then 10 minutes later, on Dhaulagiri, and Ghustang, and Tukuche Peaks. It was very good viewing. We kept ascending slowly, and kept taking pictures. After awhile, the sun was up nicely, and we turned around and went back down to breakfast. The guys who went up to the top of poon Hill had no better views than we did.

The descent from Ghorapaani started out nice, and gradual. We stopped for lunch at Banthanti. Then after lunch the trail descended more steeply. Lots of steps down. We stopped at a Tea-House in Ulleri, the small town where we stayed 8 years earlier. I tried to find the back-yard where we camped in 1997. But I could not recognize any such place. We looked up the valley toward that tea-house near Tadapaani (the one at the top-of-one-cliff and the bottom of another.) Above that hill stood - Annapurna II. (When we looked up that valley, 8 years ago, we just saw a lot of clouds, and a nice rainbow.)

Starting down from Ulleri, we moved along nice and slowly, descending a few more thousand stone steps. It took 2700 steps to get down to Tirkhedhunga. Soon we were passed by an old, stooped woman. We politely asked her age - she was 90. She walked right past us and kept going. It's not clear how far she was going. She was walking with her grandson, and another woman. Many school-children were going down to school, and most were very polite, and walked along with us, and watched us - and giggled politely - and then scurried off fast down to school.

Below Tirkhedhunga, there were still a couple thousand steps DOWN, and hundreds of steps UP. But gradually it all flattened out, and the hiking was pretty good. Down below Hille, the old woman had gotten tired of walking - we finally caught up to her. Her grandson picked her up and carried her piggy-back, and they went in to town much faster than we did! We crossed the good old truss bridge at Birethanti (with Machhapuchhare looking over our shoulder) and pulled in to a nice hotel.

The next morning, the hike down to that "new bridge" was quite brief, and we wound up at the highway, and got into cabs to Pokhara.

Most of the trails were quite good, and only a small part was rough or steep or slippery. So long as you like going up and down the "Gurung Staircases". Most of the bridges were very good. Not weird or scary. Most of the footing was very good, except in the few places mentioned.

I would recommend this for some GOOD, HARD hiking.

The total number of stone steps was about 35,500 total, up and down. I kept count, every day, but I did not necessarily note the numbers down at night. From Ghorapaani to Birethanti was about 8820 stone steps down, and about 800 UP. Jeff and Nancy each had an Avocet recording altimeter. They tended to agree that the total ascent was about 25k or 26k feet. And the descent, the same. Pretty good work for a 14-day trek.

Side trails: Suitable for an afternoon hike after you get to camp: At Pothana, there were no side trails to speak of, just the trail ahead. At Landrung, I descended almost a mile to the river, Modi Khola, but it was a lot of work. At Chhomrong, Kul Rai took some of the faster hikers over to a quarry, on a day hike. In general, from there up to MBC, there were no significant side trails. At MBC, you could hike up onto the "hill" behind the Tea-house, and look over the edge of the lateral moraine. But I didn't have time to do this. At ABC, there was some area for wandering around, or up, but the snow was half-crusty, and half-soft under the crust, so it was not easy to wander around. I wandered just a little.

At Tadapaani and at Ghorapaani, there were small opportunities to wander around. At Ulleri, not a lot. At Birethanti, the trail up the valley was something I had checked out 8 years earlier, and it was very pleasant.

Best regards - I hope you go out and enjoy it! / rap / Robert A. Pease / Trekker.

Tea-houses - - Lodging - - in the Annapurna Sanctuary Area.

I already wrote up my report on the MENUS for the Teahouses, and the very good food and the Restaurants in the Annapurna Sanctuary area. So you should have read that. Now I'll comment on the lodges themselves.

The price for lodging in a double room is typically a couple hundred rupees, that is, about $3, in 2005. The lodges are not allowed to charge you more than the standard rate, so there is not much reason to make the place really fancy, except to make you want to stay and eat their good food. Most of the places were very good, quite nice. (The sole exception will be discussed.)

The cost of a hot (well, warm) shower is generally included with the room, except when we got up high. Up high, you might have to pay $1.40 extra for a bucket of hot water, which you dilute with cold water, and sprinkle over your carcass, and rinse yourself off. I was happy to stay dusty, as I didn't get very sweaty, up high.

Up high (generally above 6000'), there was a fee of "50 rupees for heat" in the dining room. Typically, they would put a big kerosine stove, roaring away, under the main dining table. Then the table has long tablecloths or coverlets, hanging down, to keep the heat in. You put your legs under the covers, and it's pretty cozy. So long as you don't mind a little kerosine smoke. We were cozy, as the outside temperature was perhaps 35 degrees, and inside, about 50 degrees. Under the covers was 70 or 80 degrees. If it got colder, this heat would be CRITICAL for our comfort. As this trek we were on was all-inclusive, SalaamSing cheerfully paid this fee for us. But if you are trekking on your own, 70 cents ain't a bad price.

Variation: Some places had the old style heating, with charcoal fires. We were very careful, to watch each other, and be aware of the possibility of carbon-monoxide poisoning. But we didn't have any real problems. I guess it is not GUARANTEED that running a charcoal fire inside, will be sure to give you carbon-monoxide poisoning. At one place, they had a catalytic kerosine heater, so no flames would be there. But when the reaction went out, it stank of raw kerosine, until they got it re-lit!

Electricity was provided, with lights in each room, at most towns, until we got up above 11,000'. It ran all night long in most places, as it was hydro power. They have BIG streams, with LOTS of flow, and LOTS of drop, in that area. A little shack on the low end of town usually housed a nice Pelton wheel and generator. Sometimes you could even see street-lights left on in the day-time, because the cost of turning it off would be much more than just letting it run. In some lodges, the excess electricity at night would be used to heat the hot water, so a hot shower in the morning was a dandy treat. We were able to charge up the batteries for our cameras and camcorder, about every 3rd or 4th day, quite adequate.

In Pothana, we spent our first night, in the "Annapurna Guest House". The hotel was not very new or fancy. The walls were made of thin boards. But it was clean, and nicely painted, and all the rickety-looking boards were nailed down tight, so it was OK. We considered that our guide might book us into a place with mediocre rooms, to get us the best food. This hotel was on the south end of town, whereas on the upper end of town, there were many campers, and much carousing, late at night. Our place was quieter. The electricity, however, was provided by a diesel-powered generator, whose noise we did get used to. It ran until 10 PM.

In Landrung, we stayed at the Sherpa Hotel. It was the first lodge in town, at the top of the hill, on the south end. Pleasant. Good food. The walls were thick stucco or concrete or whatever. Relatively quiet - - except, I heard that Pung - - - - - PUNG - - - - - PUNG - for several hours, at an 8-second repetition rate, as the condensation on the roof of the top floor would drip down, and hit on the edge of the roof at the first floor, and made a big PUNG. (We saw other houses, later, where the lower roof was set inside the upper roof, to avoid this.) Our room had a private shower, and a flush toilet, western-style. Okay!

In Chhomrong, we stayed at the International Lodge, at the ~ top of the hill, at the south end of town. The dining was EXCELLENT, as we already stated. We spent 2 or 3 nights there. We were able to leave off laundry to be washed, and when we came back down 5 days later, it was all washed and dried. It had GREAT views to the north. Two toilets and 1 shower for about 18 rooms... quite adequate.

In Dovan - good.

In MBC (Machhapuchhare Base Camp) we stayed at Shangri La Lodge, at the high (left, west) end of the area. The walls were thin, but, what do you expect at 12,000'? Most of the fooding was excellent. We stayed there 2 nights. No electricity.

At ABC (Annupurna Base Camp) - I'll get comments from Jeff & Vic & Arlo, as they stayed there, and I didn't.

Descending, we stayed at Himalaya. Pretty good. We had spaghetti with meat balls, because Peter Owens gave us some meat balls to use up. Otherwise, un-distinguished. Yes, they had electricity.

Sinuwa - we arrived after dark. Good supper. The showers were said to be quite hot, in the morning, because at night, when nobody was using the hydro-powered electricity, they heat the shower-water. Good fooding. Then we descended to Chhomrong.

In Tadapaani (a full day's walk west of Chhomrong, and a day east of Poon Hill) we sent SalaamSing ahead, after lunch, to try to find the best possible lodging and dining. He did the best he could, but apparently all the good places were full, so the place we stayed was - - fairly crummy, and the food was not great. SalaamSing apologized - but we just allowed, that this was a good CALIBRATION, because every other place we stayed at was nicer. But we just went to bed after supper, woke up, and started hiking right after breakfast. At night, it was dark, so we could not see how crummy it really was. Anyhow, nobody fell through the floor. What was the name of this place? Mercifully, we forget. No electricity.

At Ghorapaani, we stayed in the big, neat, clean, well-lighted Sunny Lodge. The rooms were nice, and there were a lot of them. Perhpas 30 or 40? It was quite pleasant. They did also have 2 western-type toilets, on our floor. Nice for a change. We went up at 5 or 6 AM to Poon Hill, for the sunrise, which was quite nice. (But even if you stayed in town, in the courtyard of the hotel, the viewing was quite nice.)

Next, at Ulleri, we stayed at a little place right by the main trail, right next door to a couple herds of goats. They did not disturb us, but they were amusing to watch when they went into their pens, and went out in the morning. Food was good. The lights had power all night.

Down at Birethanti, we stayed in the second floor of a nice lodge. The dining was on the second floor, but after our dinner, we went down to the covered patio (which was labelled as a "Dinning Room" - how appropriate!) and danced and sang and drank beer until after 9 PM. In the morning, we could still see Machhapuchhare looking down at us, in the distance.

NOTE, "-thanti" means a place with lodging, which is why so many little villages have -thanti in their name. THEY had a lodge, many years ago.

We went down to the Fairmont Hotel in Pokhara. BACK TO - civilization. Nice enough.

BACK TO the Potala Guest House in KTM, for one night. Nice enough. But as we were coming back from our last morning shopping trip, the door refused to unlock. My key just turned and turned, and nothing happened. The MAIDS' key did not work. (That's when I got nervous.) The manager's key did not work. The Locksmith's tools did not work.What finally worked was - hammer and chisel.We grabbed our bags and fled to the airport!

*** IMPORTANT!!!! At all these places, the managers and cooks were very nice people, and pleasant, and responsive, and helpful. We just love wandering around Nepal, and meeting such nice people. If they didn't have any huge mountains, we would still enjoy going back. This was our 9th trek in Nepal. / rap & NJP.

Lodging in Bangkok.
If you go through immigration and customs, there are MANY good, inexpensive hotels to stay in, and wonderful dining. But on the way OVER, we had only 8 hours between planes, so we just stayed at Louis Tavern, a set of Day Rooms, INSIDE the airport. About $60 for 6 hours. It is somewhat quieter than the alternative, which is just - napping on the carpet, with your head on your knapsack. Either way saves a lot of trouble and time, compared to going through immigration, both ways.

On the return, we had about 12 hours at Bangkok. We planned to go over to the Amari Hotel, which is a mere 100 yards out the airport. If you get it booked in advance, you can get a rate of $100. If you just walk in, it costs double that. But they have a good restaurant. Many flights to the US leave early, but that's OK.

Weather. We had great views of the peaks, every morning. We had a very light dot of sprinkles in Chhomrong, Dovan, and Tadapaani. But that was after we were in camp, so we couldn't really complain. There was usually increasing cloud in the PMs, but that also made some beautiful vistas. Sometimes glorious.

The lodging around the Annapurna Circuit, when we went around in 2002, was - comparable. Some was very nice, some not so impressive. But all was - at least pretty good, ranging up to - Really Nice! We are looking forward to going around again in 4 months. By mountain bike. Want to come with us?

Comments invited. / Best regards. / rap

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