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At the top of Thorong La Pass: 5,416 meters (17,769 ft) |
This is a photo blog of my Annapurna Circuit trek from April 17-28, 2022. There were seven of us in the group. Meet the team:
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From Top Left: Arun, Awadhesh, Anu, Vibhakar, Jai (me), Meenal and Samir |
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Great view of The Annapurna Massif from aircraft. (Courtesy Solundir - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17635720) |
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Our trek route. Color coded to show the daily itinerary |
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Daily Elevation and Distance Profile from my Garmin. We covered 78 miles (125km) and climbed 28,836 ft. |
April 16: Arrival at Kathmandu
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From left to right: Meenal, Anu, Jai (me), Awadhesh and Samir |
Day 0 (April 17): Drive from Kathmandu to Dharapani
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We stopped frequently to enjoy the waterfalls and other scenery along the way |
See the above video clip for a glimpse of the road conditions. This was a relatively better section of the road.
Day 1 (April 18): Dharapani to Chame
- Start / End Elevation: 5,952 ft / 8,451 ft
- Distance Covered: 10 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 3,386 ft / 889 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 8,546 ft / 5,880 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:30 am / 2:15pm / 6:45 hrs
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Manaslu Mountain |
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There were other buildings in front of this school which got washed away |
Day 2 (April 19): Chame to Upper Pisang
- Start / End Elevation: 8,451 ft / 10,346 ft
- Distance Covered: 9.4 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 2,638 ft / 722 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 10,354 ft / 8,411 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:18 am / 2:35pm / 7:17 hrs
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What are they plotting?? |
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Sections of the trail had sheer cliffs on one side. The river is called Marsyangdi. We walked along this river for most of our trek. |
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We saw great views of Annapurna II (7,937 m / 26,040 ft) - alas! not tall enough to join the exclusive 8,000+ m club |
Paungda Danda is one of the most recognizable features of the Annapurna Trek. The western face of this mountain rises dramatically 4,900 ft above the river. It is locally referred to as "Swarg Dwar" (Gate to Heaven) because they believe that after death, spirits must ascend this wall in order to reach heaven.
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Dramatic Swarg Dwar (Gate to Heaven) |
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We stopped for lunch at a place called Dhukur Pokhari at 12:15pm |
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Dining room of our "Hotel Sweet Home" guest house. All guest houses have these sunrooms with spectacular views. In the evening they use wood fire heating to heat up the room. |
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View from the guest house roof top |
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Beautiful stupa |
We sat down for meditation for 10-15 minutes in this peaceful chamber |
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These prayer wheels and engraved stone tablets can be found everywhere |
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These are the types of guest houses we stayed in. Some of them even had attached toilets! |
Day 3 (April 20): Upper Pisang to Manang
- Start / End Elevation: 10,740 ft / 11,605
- Distance Covered: 12.1 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 2,913 ft / 2,080 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 12,294 ft / 10,740 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:30 am / 5:20pm / 9:50 hrs
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Views of Annapurna II |
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We passed many such gates decorated with prayer flags |
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Look at the black and white contrast between the two mountains. Also the one on the right is much shorter but looks taller. That perception changed as we climbed up! |
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Time for some fun pictures. Also notice the (perceived) relative heights of the mountains now. |
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choo choo.. |
Guess what this is? It is a ladder!! I climbed up one of these but coming down was not easy so I simply jumped :) |
From Ghyaru we continued on to Ngawal village |
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Village of Ngawal (11,500 ft). We had 'high' lunch here |
We finished our lunch at 2:30pm and then continued our march towards Manang. As always, the weather began to look threatening in the late afternoon.
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Mountains getting covered with clouds |
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It began to look somewhat ominous |
Vibhakar, Arun and I were in the front. Vibhakar spotted a place selling buckthorn juice in Braka village, and we stopped by to try it. Soon the rest of the group joined us. Meenal was really tired and had a bad headache, so we almost hired a motorcycle to take her to Manang but then Samir convinced her to walk instead. She showed amazing grit and managed to cover the rest of the distance on foot.
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Meenal entering the gates of Manang. Tired but unbroken. |
Day 4 (April 21): Manang Acclimatization Day
- Start / End Elevation: 11,600 ft / 11,600
- Distance Covered: 2.8 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 1,424 ft / 1,424 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 12,700 ft / 11,530 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:50 am / 12:10pm / 4:30 hrs
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Sunrise typically happened at 5:30am and I was always ready to capture the magic |
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You can clearly tell who is the boss - the mountain lighting up first is the tallest |
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All villages have colorful houses. They look so pretty especially in the brown and white backdrop of the mountains |
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Gangapurna Lake which is no longer.. |
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This entire valley was carved by that tiny looking Mersyangdi river! Time and persistence indeed move mountains |
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Gangapurna glacier to the left - unfortunately it has been receding due to climate changes |
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Very distinctive shape of Annapurna IV (7,525 m / 24,688 ft). It looked deceptively close and accessible |
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Did I just punch through a rock?? 😆 |
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I have to have this trick shot in every trip |
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We had to spend a long time at the top so might as well have some fun! |
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This is not easy even at ground level, let alone at nearly 13,000 ft |
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Prayer flags blowing in the wind - looked really pretty |
Day 5 (April 22): Manang to Shree Kharka
- Start / End Elevation: 11,660 ft / 13,300
- Distance Covered: 5.74 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 2,080 ft / 443 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 13,300 ft / 11,660 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:15 am / 12:00pm / 4:45 hrs
One of the many steel bridges we crossed during the trek as we zig zagged across the river |
Look at that wingspan! |
Vultures feasting on a carcass - looks like they have pulled out a sinew |
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I found some random wheel as we got close to Shree Kharka and decided to test my strength ;) |
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Just wow! |
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Colorful monastery just before Shree Kharka |
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Typical room layout during our guest house stay. Basic but comfortable. Here we stayed at the Tilicho Peak guesthouse |
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Soon after we arrived it started snowing heavily. We briefly stepped out to have some fun |
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Rest of the day was spent playing Antakshari, dumb charades and cards |
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Sunset hours |
Day 6 (April 23): Shree Kharka to Tilicho Base Camp + Tilicho Lake (Highest Lake in the World)
- Start / End Elevation: 13,300 ft / 13,600 ft
- Distance Covered: 4 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 1,108 ft / 853 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 13,932 ft / 13,324 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:25 am / 11:30pm / 4:05 hrs
- Distance Covered: 6.84 miles
- Total Ascent/Descent: 2,821 ft
- Max Elevation: 16,310 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 1:00pm / 5:30pm / 4:30 hrs
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We were greeted with a long climb just as we started the day... |
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...but that did nothing to dampen the spirits :) |
Surprisingly, there was a lot of misinformation being passed around by other guides and hikers during the trek about blocked routes. Apparently the lodges on alternate routes were spreading rumors to get more business their way. One such half-truth rumor was about a destroyed bridge en route to Tilicho Base Camp. Turns out the bridge was intact but the section of the trail after the bridge was indeed washed out. As you can see in the picture below, instead of simply catching the trail to the left, you had to go right, loop around under the bridge and then meet the trail. This was somewhat tricky and treacherous as there was little margin for error. One false step and you would go plunging down in the Marsyangdi river.
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Zoom in to see the trail path at the end of the bridge |
Steep climb full of slippery scree with no margin for error. Somehow it didn't feel very scary though and I crossed with ease |
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Bird's eye view of the whole section |
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Hard work was always rewarded with spectacular views |
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Zoom in to see the amazing erosion patterns and also how the trail has been cut into the steep slopes. Heavy winds/landslide and quickly that small level section as we will find out later |
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Long moraines, erosion patterns and rocks ready to slide on the left side.. |
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This was a unique area where we walked through a tunnel like section |
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Annapurna range in the distance |
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Look carefully. This landslide area has been fortified by creating a wall of rocks |
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That little cave mouth is made by a glacier! |
We arrived at our destination (Hotel New Tilicho and Restaurant) at 11:30am.
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We immediately saw a flock of blue sheep. They were happily grazing around on steep slopes. However, these sheep are not blue at all. Not sure why they are called blue sheep |
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As we gained height we felt we were seeing eye-to-eye with the mountains but of course this was just an illusion |
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Now we are close enough that we can almost touch these glaciers |
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This was definitely worthy of a head-standing ovation ! |
Day 7 (April 24): Tilicho Base Camp to Shree Kharka
- Start / End Elevation: 13,600 ft / 13,300
- Distance Covered: 4 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 1,080 ft / 1,270 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 14,032 ft / 13,300 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 1:20 pm / 4:30 pm / 3:10 hrs
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Vibhakar, Awadhesh, Samir, Meenal and Anu got really creative at the lake and took dozens of pictures in all different poses |
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In the meantime Arun and I walked around to nearby area and enjoyed the view |
As the group was heading back, winds picked up and kicked up a dust storm. We had lunch and then headed out for Shree Kharka at about 1:20pm in heavy winds. We crossed a few landslide areas successfully but then came across an area where a 20 ft section was practically wiped out and there were small stones falling from above. We hurriedly made our way across somehow while being pelted. It was a scary experience.
You can see how a thin trail has been created through some landslide sections |
Day 8 (April 25): Shree Kharka to Yak Kharka
- Start / End Elevation: 13,300 ft / 13,216
- Distance Covered: 6.5 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 1,605 ft / 1,939 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 13,569 ft / 12,587 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:30 am / 1:00 pm / 5:30 hrs
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Water is usually running 24 hours in these places with the faucet always running. However the extreme cold sometimes freezes the pipelines |
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What a welcome :) I found a pair of horns and decided to charge.. |
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Ready for a flying start... |
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We climbed up to upper Khangsar and saw incredible views of Khangsar, Gangapurna, and Annapurna II, III and IV mountains |
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Channeling my inner Shahrukh Khan.. |
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We saw a lot of Yaks and blue sheep |
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We came up and down on the trail to the right. The trail on the left is coming from Manang. The two will eventually meet |
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"Peak" performance? |
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Blue sheep which are not really blue |
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Finally reached Hotel Throung Peak at about 1pm |
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Going toe to toe for injury... |
Day 9 (April 26): Yak Kharka to Thorong High Camp
- Start / End Elevation: 13,200 ft / 15,816
- Distance Covered: 5 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 2,907 ft / 292 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 15,816 ft / 13,197 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 7:00 am / 12:00 pm / 5:00 hrs
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Beautiful sunrise - spectacular as always |
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They had a carrom board! Samir and I played a bit while waiting for our breakfast |
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To infinity and beyond! |
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We reached Throng Phedi at around 10:30am. This is where the last hard climb begins |
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We spotted a rescue helicopter. It landed at a small guest house up the hill and then took off in a few minutes. Not sure if it was rescuing someone or dropping off a VIP |
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The infamous climb begins |
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Steep slopes |
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I was pacing Arun and Vibhakar and we made it in just 55 minutes. We were quite surprised when the climb ended because we were expecting it to take two hours. I guess we underestimated ourselves :) |
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There is only one guest house here. Fortunately we had reservations but we still had to share one triple room. Some people have to sleep in the dining area. |
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Samir and Anu arrived shortly thereafter. Awadhesh and Meenal took another 10-15 minutes |
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Standard dal-bhat plate we at everyday |
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It was a very steep slope. At one point Prakash challenged me to run up and we both got out of breath in just a few seconds |
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Breath taking climbs are rewarded with breathtaking views! |
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Cairns (tower of rocks) are used commonly to mark trails |
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Nowhere else on earth can you find such majestic mountains |
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Well above the treeline, nature's canvas now only has grays, browns and whites |
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It snowed quite heavily and we were worried about tomorrow's Throung La pass climb |
Day 10 (April 27): Thorong High Camp to Muktinath via Thorong La Pass
- Start / End Elevation: 16,000 ft / 12,530
- Distance Covered: 8 miles
- Ascent/Descent: 1,700 ft / 5,240 ft
- Max / Min Elevation: 17,769 ft / 12,397 ft
- Start Time / End Time / Duration: 4:00 am / 12:45 pm / 8:45 hrs
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4am was a popular start time. You can see other headlights in the distance |
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Mountains look really eerie in the dark |
Almost an alien landscape |
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There was barely any trail visible. The poles (seen on the left) acted as our guide |
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Can you feel the ruthless, unforgiving vibe by looking at the picture? |
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That's Thorong Peak behind me. Deceptively close and short. |
We finally reached the top of the pass at 8:07am. It took us nearly four hours.
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I saw, I climbed, I headstanded |
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"Peak"-a-boo :) |
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Believe it or not, there is a tea shop at the top of the pass. Talk about High-Tea! |
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Cheers to the team |
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We braved the cold to take off our jackets and show off the T-Shirts. It was meticulously planned. |
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Long, never-ending descent. For some reason everyone was quiet the entire time. I guess we were all reflecting on the trek |
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Despite my bad toes I got bored at times and sprinted down only to stop and wait for the rest of the group |
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End of the trek! We visited the famous Muktinath Temple and decided to call that the end point. |
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Coincidentally we saw a "Finish" banner on the road. It was for a trail run but still it was very apt for us |
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The entire team. Pramod got AMS at Thorong High Camp and had to head back, accompanied by Nabhraj. They are missing from the picture |
Day 11 and 12 (April 27, 28): Muktinath to Jomsom; Jomsom to Pokhra
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Jomsom is a really small airport. This is the boarding pass we received. It is completely blank! |
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Dhaulagiri - another member of the elite '14 peaks' group of 8,000+ meters |
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This is the entire plane! I am in the front seat. |
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We stayed at Bar Peeple in Pokhra. It was a nice resort |
Boat ride in Lake Phewa |
Climbing up to the Peace Stupa. It was a good 1,000 ft+ climb but was really really pretty |
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We felt we were in a rainforest |
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Peace Stupa |
2 comments
Jai, I relived many moments as I read through this. Very nicely captured and lovely photos too.
ReplyDeleteWell written, while reading feel like doing it again! Awesome pics 👌
ReplyDelete