Sanctuary at the Top of the World

Sightseeing the magnificent, medieval, multi-tiered, pagoda-style temples in the Durbar Squares of the old cities of Kathmandu, Patan and Baktapur,
the great Buddhist stupas of Swayambunath ( the "Monkey Temple" ) and Bodhnath,
the major Hindu Temple of Pashupatinath with its burning gats on the Bagmati River
all World Heritage Sites.

Haggling for bargains in the crowded street bazaars of Asan and Thamel.

The splendid panorama of the Annapurna Himal from Phewa Tal in Pokhara.

Trekking through terraced paddy fields, picturesque hill villages, dense bamboo and rhododendron jungle and the deep gorge of the Modi Khola river valley.

Traditional farming methods and country life. Local cultures and peoples - Sherpas, Tamangs, Gurungs, Rais, Limbus, Chetris, Magars et al.

The spectacular Himalayan landscapes of the Annapurna Sanctuary - especially the magical moments when the summit snows flame red at sunrise and sunset.

The challenge and satisfaction of crossing the 5500metres Tharong La high pass on the circuit of the Annapurna Himal - one of the classic treks.

Quick Tips:

Get fit for trekking before your visit.
Wear strong, comfortable footware.
Use of ski-sticks / trekking poles is highly recommended.
Be prepared for extremes of temperature - sub-zero at night, 30s during the day.
Beware of risk from AMS ( Acute Mountain Sickness )
Avoid dehydration and sunburn / snowblindness.
Take care with food, drinking water, hygiene and sanitation.
Have well equipped first aid and medical kit.
Check for required vaccinations ( eg meningitis, hepatitis, encephalitis, rabies ) 6-8 weeks before trip.
Ensure travel insurance includes helicopter rescue.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking / trekking, mountain bike, bicycle rikshaw ( agree all fares beforehand ), tempo / taxi, tourist bus ( Public buses best avoided due to gross overcrowding ), domestic airlines, helicopter.

One of the many budget / no-star hotels / guesthouses in the popular Thamel area of Kathmandu. Good location.

Two wings with central courtyard and roof terraces. Basic rooms with double or twin beds and private shower / toilet. Rooms with shared bathrooms also available. New wing preferable to old one.

Friendly and helpful staff.

One of the many inexpensive but good quality restaurants in Thamel. Extensive Chinese-Thai menu. Good service - friendly waiters. Nicely decorated in Chinese fashion - predominately in red and yellow - propitious colours for good luck and prosperity. Typical table size is for 4 but a few larger ones available. Preferable to the other chinese restaurants in Thamel. My favourite delicacies are the tomato egg drop soup or chicken sweetcorn soup followed by chinese roast pork and plain boiled rice or american chop suey. However I much prefer a pot of Nepalese Dudh Chia ( milk tea ) to the insipid, weak as water, chinese tea.

The 6 narrow streets, that radiate from the open air fruit and vegetable market surrounding the 3-storey high pagoda at Asan toll are probably the busiest in Kathmandu and are lined with a multitude of shops selling all kinds of household goods, clothing and footware.

While items are mainly for local trade they include some of interest to visitors such as metalwork, woollen sweaters and rugs.

Prices are generally cheaper than the inflated ones of the tourist oriented shops in Thamel but hard bargaining is still required for best prices.

The Durbar Square (central square) of the ancient royal city of Patan is comparable to, but different from, that of Kathmandu and is also a complex of medieval temples.

Originally a separate entity, Patan is now a suburb of the ever expanding metropolis of Kathmandu and is easily reached by bicycle or tempo/taxi - a good day's outing.

Many tourists prefer to stay in Patan as it is quieter and less congested than Kathmandu.

Durbar Square is the central square in the old section of Kathmandu. It is also known as Hanuman Doka.

Enclosed by magnificent medieval, multi-tiered, pagoda-style temples with intricately carved, erotic, temple-struts it is a World Heritage Site and a mandatory first stop on any visit to Kathmandu.

Kumari - the "Living Goddess" resides in one of the temples.

The Old Royal Palace forms one side of the square and is now a large museum open to the public.

The adjacent square of Basantapur is an extensive open air "antiques" and curio / souvenir market.

Freak Street, the old haunt of the original hippies, is at the far end of Basantapur from Durbar Square.

Sitting on the temple terraces is an ideal place for meeting other tourists and trekkers. First time visitors can expect to be beseiged by rikshaw drivers, shoe-repair boys, khukri ( the famous large curved knife of the renowned Gurkha soldiers ) and jewellery sellers, freelance guides and students practising their English ( and looking for sponsors to pay for their education).

Regrettably the Kathmandu Municipality have recently introduced entrance charges for tourists to Durbar Square.

Known also as the "Monkey Temple" due to the hordes of monkeys frequenting the temple and its surroundings, the huge stupa of Swayambunath perched high on a hilltop on the outskirts of Kathmandu provides a fine outlook over the city and the great white wall of the Himalaya lining the northern horizon.

Gained by a short walk from Durbar Square, followed by a never ending flight of stairs, Swayambunath can also be accessed on its far side by taxi or tourist bus.

An archetypal structure with its hemispherical base, all-seeing eyes of Buddha on the four sides of a rectangular column looking to the four points of the compass and conical spire bedecked with fluttering prayer flags Swayambunath is a major venue for both tourists and the Nepalese.

On the outskirts of Kathmandu, close to the international airport, Pashupatinath is the main Hindu Temple with its burning gats on the banks of the Bagmati River.

Access is only permitted for Hindus but views of the extensive temple complex are gained from terraces on the opposite side of the river.

Situated on the outskirts of Kathmandu near the airport and within walking distance of Pashupatinath the great Buddhist stupa at Bodhnath is one of the largest in the World and the centre of Tibetan / Sherpa culture in Nepal. The circumference is ringed with prayer wheels and merit is obtained by making a clockwise circuit of the monument - even more if done prostrate! It is bad luck to go in the wrong direction.

The outer rim of the courtyard enclosing the stupa is lined with stalls selling handicrafts and other curios / souvenirs.

Easily accessible by bicycle, taxi or trolley bus from Kathmandu the centre of the old royal city of Bhaktapur with its cluster of tall, medieval, pagoda-style temples is now a conservation area. Renowned for the intricate wood-carvings on the ornate temples - in particular the "Peacock Window".

Hiring a mountain bike from one of the several hire shops in Thamel or Basantapur ( off Durbar Square ) is inexpensive and enables day or half day trips to worthwhile objectives on the outskirts of Kathmandu:-

1) Budhanilkantha - statue of the "Sleeping Vishnu" on his bed of snakes. ( 1/2 day )

2) Temple of Bajrajagoni at Sankhu. Can also visit the Changunarayan temple and Gokarna country park on route. ( 1 day )

3) Medieval city of Bhaktapur ( 1 day )

4) Daxinkali - sacrificial temple for chickens and goats on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The temple at Chobhar Gorge can be visited on route. ( 1 day )

Annapurna - " Goddess Mother of the Harvests " - is, like Everest, a secluded peak. Although its 8000 metre summit may be glimpsed from Phewa Lake in Pokhara, protruding on the far horizon between the protecting bastions of Hiunchuli and Macchapuchre, a six-day trek over terraced hillsides strewn with picturesque villages and through the deep, dark gorge of the Modi Khola is required to reach the yak pastures and vast, glacier-filled amphitheatre ensconced at the foot of the world's tenth highest mountain.

Named "the Sanctuary " by Colonel Jimmy Roberts, the pioneer and founder of organised trekking in the Nepal Himalaya, this was the site of the base camp of ( Sir ) Chris Bonington on his successful assault on Annapurna's massive South Face.

The lodges along this popular route had mushroomed since my first visit ten years previously but thanks to the strict controls imposed by ACAP ( Annapurna Conservation Area Project ) the standards maintained are higher than other regions of Nepal and compare favourably with those of alpine huts in Europe. Inspectors check the general cleanliness of the lodges and their surroundings and also their foodstocks to ensure all items on the extensive menus are indeed available. The use of wood fires is banned and there is a depot for hiring stoves and the purchase of kerosene.

Altitude is the only difficulty in reaching the Sanctuary although no crossing of any high pass is required. On both my visits trekkers were encountered in distressed conditions from attempting to go too high too fast - one American was sure that if he pushed on the effects would wear off. Every year, despite widespread warnings, there are fatalities in the Nepal Himalaya from AMS ( acute mountain sickness ).

The final two days above Chomrong, the highest permanent settlement in the area, are through dense, bamboo-and-rhododendron jungle lining the sheer-sided walls of the Modi Khola Gorge, with views ahead of the giant 7000 metre Gangapurna, before one emerges into the spectacular beauty of the Sanctuary.

October to December, the post-monsoon season, is the peak trekking period when the weather should be clear and dry but the walk-in on my return visit was in heavy, prolonged rainfall - it was the worst autumn weather in 25 years causing havoc with the still-to-be-harvested grain crops. The floor of the Sanctuary was covered in two feet of fresh snow while the Tharong La high pass on the Annapurna Circuit was temporarily blocked by the unseasonal snowfall forcing commercial trekking groups on fixed schedules to turn back and retrace their routes.

In the afternoons mists tend to swirl up the valley but in the evening can clear, like a curtain being drawn, to expose the nearby Macchapucchre, the "Fishtail-mountain", with its summit snowfields aflame in the sunset. An equally dramatic view can be obtained in the mornings when the great South Face of Annapurna I glows golden in the sunrise.

Many trekkers miss out on these magic moments by staying at the lower Macchapuchre Base Camp and only making day-trips to the Sanctuary. They benefit however by avoiding the bone-biting, sub-zero, arctic temperatures which prevail in the ice-bound basin under star-spangled, Himalayan night-skies.

Across the jumbled moraine of the South Annapurna Glacier a dangerous gully, bombarded by a constant fusillade of stonefall, emerges onto a level terrace and a 2000foot climb gains the domed top ( c5000 metres ) of Rakshi Peak - a snow summit not requiring a climbing permit. The ascent can usually be done in a single day from base camp but with its heavy cover of deep, soft snow I had to make a high camp and take two days ( possible thanks to my trekking crew ). The vantage point high in the centre of the Sanctuary provides a 360degree panorama of the encircling mountains and a proper perspective of their true immensity.

Starting from Hiunchuli, the western sentinel above the narrow gateway to the Sanctuary, a tremendous ridge of ice and rock sweeps round the skyline encompassing the graceful Annapurna South Peak, the jagged, black pinnacle of Fang, and culminates in the formidable ramparts of Annapurna I. Nearby towers the aptly named Tent Peak ( nepalese name Tharpu Chuli - one of the so-called "trekking" peaks requiring a $200 climbing permit ) while the sacred and unclimbed Macchapuchre presents a shapely silhouette as the eastern sentinel above the gateway.

The profound silence is violated on occasion by the reverberating roar of avalanches as huge blocks of snow and ice crash, amidst billowing clouds of spindrift, to the glacier far below.

On the return journey to Pokhara a detour can be made from Chomrong through the major Gurung village of Gandrung, with its maze of narrow, paved alleyways and stone-built, slate-roofed houses surrounded by orange marigolds and superb outlooks on Annapurna South Peak, Hiunchuli and the twin tops of Macchapuchre ( maccha - fish, puchre - tail ).

Reference: High Adventure around the World

The 220 mile trek around the great, semi-circular, multi-summitted Annapurna massif takes some 20 days to complete and is one of the classic journeys through the Nepal Himalaya.

Starting amid lush, sub-tropical rice-paddies the route follows the course of the Marsayangdi Khola (river) on primitive trails through small farming settlements and alpine forests of fir and pine to the arctic tundra of the yak pastures surrounding the medieval village of Manang nestled beneath the huge ice-fall tumbling from the giant, 7,000 metre Gangapurna.

Beyond Manang, the crux of the trek is the high-level crossing of the snow-covered Tharong La to reach an arid, wind-swept, mountain-desert region in the upper valley of the Kali Gandaki.

From the sacred temple at Muktinath, the return leg heads down-river on the trade route from Tibet via the caravanserai of Jomson and Tukuche through the deepest gorge in the world between the two 8,000 metre peaks of Annapurna (the world's 10th highest mountain) and Dhaulagiri (the world's 7th highest mountain) to finish at Phewa Tal (lake) on the outskirts of Pokhara - the second city of Nepal.

It was my first visit to Nepal and on our trek starting point at the ancient royal city of Gorkha (origin of the illustrious Gurkas), I suffered from both anticipation and apprehension of what was to follow. The thought of being up to 10 days away from the nearest roadhead was daunting - in Scotland and the Alps, the most had been only a couple of days. Another member of our group, Judith, a doctor from the USA, was also concerned and her backpack was extra heavy with medicines for all eventualities.

As we headed up the scenic valley on narrow trails beneath high rock walls and lofty snow peaks, criss-crossing from bank to bank on long, swaying, suspension bridges, the tension in our party increased as we progressed towards the huddle of flat-roofed houses of Manang. Rumours circulated of an early snowfall blocking the pass, disconsolate trekkers were met returning having been defeated by altitude sickness.

Our group leader, Phil did not help morale; "If you don't make it over the pass you won't see your kitbags (carried by our porters) again until Kathmandu!".

My daysac was therefore at its heaviest for the 1,000metre climb over steep scree and snow slopes to the col at 5,500 metres - some 2,000 feet higher than my previous best on 4,800 metre Mont Blanc.

However, by late evening, everyone, including Jack, a 60-year-old Irishman, had successfully struggled into the walled, fortress-like camping ground at Muktinath. We had enjoyed perfect conditions but others have not been so fortunate. On a previous occasion a party of four Sherpas had died in a vain attempt to secure help for their group snowbound on their attempt at crossing the pass. Poorly clad porters have also succumbed to exposure and hypothermia.

From the pagoda-style temple with its sacred water spouts and natural gas flame a dramatic view unfolds of the barren moonscape of the upper Kali Gandaki valley and the huge, white dome of Dhaulagiri looming far to the south.

The numerous small, simple lodges in the Kali Gandaki valley originally served as overnight staging posts for porters and pony caravans carrying goods on the trade route to and from Tibet but are now the haven of 'tea-shop' trekkers and the route between Pokhara and Jomson, the most popular in Nepal, is now known as the 'Coca-Cola Trail'.

A long uphill slog from the riverside at Tatopani to the col at Gorapani is alleviated by superb views of Dhaulagiri and its neighbouring Tukuche Peak rising sheer above the valley floor. Poon Hill, a short climb above Gorapani, provides an even better vantage point to witness the great peaks flame red in the rays of the rising or setting sun.

However the finest panorama is saved for the end of the trek in Pokhara. On a clear day, from the dam on Phewa Tal, the entire northern horizon is lined with mighty peaks ranging from Dhaulagiri in the west through Annapurna South Peak, Hiunchuli, Annapurna I, Macchapuchre (the 'fish-tail' mountain), Annapurna III, Annapurna II and Lamjung Himal terminating with Manaslu Himal in the east.

As is customary, our trekking crew and porters were well rewarded with generous backsheesh (money presents) for their stalwart efforts in ensuring the success of our trek while our sirdar Ang Jangbu drew lots to allocate the donations we also made of clothing and trekking gear. Most, but not all, of Judith's medicines were used to treat local villagers in evening surgeries at our camping places.

Reference: "High Adventure around the World"