Annapurna Circuit Day 1: Pokhara to Ngadi Lamjung

My alarm went off at 5 am which meant that it was time … time to pack up my backpack real quick and pray my taxi ride to the tourist bus park in Pokhara will arrive on time to catch the 6:30 am bus to Besisahar and start my solo trek!

I had been looking forward to this day for weeks but when I got up, I was nervous. What if I’m forgetting something? Did I take out enough cash? Are my permits and passport still here or someone mysteriously stole them in my sleep 😀 … all sorts of useless questions were popping out in my head. But I was ready, so damn ready!

I left a couple of bags of things I wasn’t gonna need on the trek with the guys at Forest Lake Backpackers Hotel (very highly recommend this place), cheered at the taxi driver who pulled over in front of the hotel with his rusty “I’m ready to fall apart” little car, took a couple of “This is it” photos and … I headed off.

I barely slept that night … from excitement and anxiety but mainly from the freaking millions of mosquitos who kept me up scratching myself like a stray cat driven mad by an army of fleas. I kept my smile on as the chatty taxi driver kept on asking me question after question but Gooosh “Can he just leave me alone and drive the rusty”. Who cares anyway where I’m from and if that’s my first time in Nepal, at 5:45 in the freaking morning LOL.

After about a 15 min ride, I was told me to get off at a muddy lot where supposedly the bus would arrive shortly. I could see some buses about 50 metres down the mud, I mean the “road”, so this had to be the place. After he tried to squeeze extra RS50 for the ride I knew what all the friendliness and curiosity was all about … to sweeten up the rip off at the end 😀 ! Well it didn’t work so I handed him RS300 the ride was pre-agreed to cost and with the RS50 I bought myself the biggest most delicious cinnamon roll from a guy who swiftly came up to me with a basket of freshly baked pastries.

As my good luck would have it, at the pastries I met Garance and Charly, the first two people I finally knew who were doing the circuit … pastries and French naturally go together so it came as no surprise when they said that home was France. Most importantly though I finally got some alleviation that at least at the very start I wouldn’t be entirely by myself, plus we bonded quickly over the haggling for the pastries so I knew we’d have some good times 😀 .

What was meant to be a “tourist bus”, aka the fanciest bus version there is, turned out to be another pile of rustic parts put together to form a 40+ seater for about 15 confused trekkers looking at each other with an eye-popping “WTF” expression especially when the bus manager (I’m not kidding, there was a guy who introduced himself as the bus manager who wasn’t the driver 😀 ) told us to load our bags on the roof of the bus for them to stripe on … that was the Nepalese version of bus storage! Haha “was he insane or just totally stoned he couldn’t think straight 😀 ?”. And make the kind offer even more attractive, it started to pour.

– “There’s a cover we’ll put on top” – the bus manager said as if that was meant to somehow make it ok 😀 .

I wasn’t gonna risk losing my bag right before the trek even if I had to hug my Osprey for the entire 4-6 hour bumpy journey that was about to begin. With a hilarious expression on my face, I demanded that I’m taking my bag on board and swiftly made it on, grabbing the first seat which had slightly more legroom.

– “Winning” – I thought.

But wait a minute … once everyone got on board the bus manager (still cracks me up 😀 ) came to me and asked for my seat number.

– “Was he joking again?” … the bus was half empty and everyone was sitting where they pleased and he was asking for my seat number? My seat number for this luxurious super formally operated bus scrap? – gotta be kidding me.

He had this super serious, “I’m the boss here” kinda look, ready to pick up a fight if he had to. He told me I had to move to any other seat other than the seat I had picked but why, he wouldn’t quite spill out. He mumbled something about me travelling solo and everyone else sitting in couples, he kept on repeating that every time I tried to simply understand why I had to move … he was trying to bring my water to boil.

“Was he being discriminative of females travelling alone?“, “Why, of the entire bus, only I had to move?”, “Did he pick up on me because I clearly was the only one with the big mouth” haha … he never said anything else but grumpily growled that the bus wouldn’t move until I change seats.

– “WTF, he’s actually for real“.

Stunned and pretty amused at that point, having put on a show for the whole bus who at this point were probably thinking that either me or the bus manager had lost the plot, I moved so as not to delay the start of this enjoyable journey for everyone and with the widest smile on my face picked a seat further at the back. – The seat remained empty for about 2 hours so I was pretty convinced the manager was just being a douche … until, at the break, about 3 hours in I saw an older lady and a girl about my age sitting on the very spot I had first picked holding the cutest little baby.

– “Aaaargh, so this is what it was all about.” – I said aloud as I started playing with the kiddos’ tiny little fingers. They needed the slightly extra space to put their huge bags of rice in their feet and to pass the baby between each other during the ride.

– “Why didn’t the manager say so. He had a decent enough English to explain that. I wouldn’t have said a thing if I knew.” – I felt silly at first but let go quickly. When I travel alone I toughen up immensely. I’ve learnt that you either stand firmly on your ground or people (especially men) get the impression you’re fragile and vulnerable and God knows what misadventures can come along with that. So I didn’t let myself feel bad about it and just went back to my seat.

The journey was actually reasonably comfortable … I was millimetres away from a window that had a few layers of dirt and I would hit my knees at the seat in front every time the bus made a jump into many of the bumps on our 4.5-hour journey but it was scenic but I tried to ignore the unpretty and focus on what’s ahead.

At the break, an evidently overly prudent American girl managed to stress me out when we queried each other how much cash we’ve taken for the trip. Running out of cash in the middle of the mountains where I had no real idea of how expensive things are or how long I’d stay there was pretty much one of the worst situations I could find myself in so she had me. I panicked … I had only budgeted RS1,700 per day for 18 days so had exactly RS31,000 on me (about $280). She and her friend were told to bring RS50,000 each because evidently most people don’t finish the trek because they rush it because we get tight on cash.

– “What if that is me?“, “What if I have to stay a day extra or worse yet everything turns out to be way more expensive than what I’ve read the average cost should be“.

I panicked even before the trek had started. I should’ve trusted my gut and my preparation but as soon as we arrived at Besisahar, I asked the driver to stop at the ATM to take out more cash, extra RS20,000. As it turned out, I didn’t use any of this extra cash but at that point, about to get into the mountains all alone, it gave me a peace of mind and that was all I needed.

Once at Besisahar, at about 10:30 am, I had to put my charm to use and figure out which way the other guys were heading. Turned out that most people were taking a jeep to Bhulbhule. – “Are they crazy, they haven’t even started the trek and are already looking for the jeep?!“. No way I was doing that. Luckily there was another solo traveller I had spotted on the bus (Heeey Nouh), and a couple of German guys who were trekking to Bhulbhule. They checked our permits at the ACAP check-in point and the 4 of us headed on. The sun was blasting already so I knew we’d be in sweaty mode all day.

And I wasn’t far from the truth 😀 A couple of hours into the trek and we were dripping. I was literally using my buff not so much to shade myself from the sun as much as to wipe the sweat off my forehead. I could feel the sweat drop travel down my back and soak my trekking trousers wet. Disgusting, I know but “disgusting” is exactly how I quickly had to learn to be ok with feeling.

We passed through some cool wobbly bridges, went up stairs (dozens of them), through wet bushes making us all worried that we might get our first leeches invasion right from Day 1. A lot of people say that the way to Bhulbhule is dull because we’d have to go on the main road but luckily we didn’t listen to any of this ill-advice because the scenery was truly beautiful and the section that we had to cover on the main road was tiny and really not that frequented by jeeps or motorbikes. I definitely felt like I was trekking and I was loving it.

We were passing through some villages, saying Namaste to the locals who would smile and occasionally wave at us and even yell worryingly after us when we took the wrong path a few times. Never leave the navigation to the guys was what I had to learn quickly on that first day 😀 !

Halfway through we caught up with Garance and Charly who turned out to be trekking it as well so from travelling solo I ended up with 5 other people that day. Luckily the Germans rushed off at one point and it was only 4 of us because honestly keeping a party this large wasn’t easy or fun 😀

We got to Bhulbhule at around 4 pm. It took ages considering we didn’t even make a proper stop for lunch. I devoured a leftover half a burger as we walked and Nouh bought a huge bag of 10 packs of cookie on the way so he indulged in those to keep the energy going 😀 He would lose count of the packs of cookies he had gone through by the end of the trek haha

Bhulbhule was the first slightly larger village we saw on the way but also the first we could noticeably tell was ruined by tourism. People weren’t friendly or welcoming when they saw us. In fact, they were so grumpy they wouldn’t even negotiate on the price of what were particularly shocking rooms smelling of mould and pure dirt.

My shoulders were already starting to hurt from the backpack I hadn’t put down for more than 10 min the whole day. I needed a shower and to desperately get out of my boots so negotiating with rude Nepali locals wasn’t something I wanted to deal with so when a rather smiley guy came to us saying he can give us free much nicer rooms in the next village Ngadi Lamjung 10 min further on the trail, we didn’t question it and just followed on.

I and Garance could barely keep moving enthusiastically at this point, sweaty, tired and hungry. When we got to the village, magically the free rooms happened to be at the very same house of the “rather smiley guy”. What a surprise 😀 Sadly the free rooms came with an overpriced food menu so we had to turn down the offer and go look for something more reasonable! At that point, the host’s smile transitioned into lowered eyebrows and a grumpy tone of voice so we were out.

Just across the road though, the smile of the lady at a place called Hotel Green View stole me away. All I needed at that point was just to stay with someone genuinely nice, regardless of the conditions or the price. And she, her husband and 3 daughters were it!! I didn’t mind the squat toilet or the cold shower so long as after an exhausting day there was a nice Nepali family to smile back at.

The rooms were basic but we got them for free so we couldn’t quite expect much. I took a quick cold shower, did some laundry and rushed to order dinner. As if the husband knew that after a whole day of trekking I needed a laugh 😀 … after I ordered the veg curry, he rushed out to me holding a giant green leaf, looking like spinach, marching and near-shouting “this is vegetable, this is vegetable … for the curry“. I burst out laughing.

– “What did he mean?“.

I was too tired to hold off my somewhat rude reaction when the guy was trying to tell me that all that they’d put in my and Garance’s veggie curry was this giant leaf 😀 . I evidently didn’t have my expectations straight LOL so we changed our order swiftly to the traditional Nepalese dish Dal Bhat which is a set of rice, curry, the legendary leaf and some pickle. When we got the food the conversation quieted down and we got into the good work for the day … devouring the food in minutes 😀 God, we were hungry, so hungry that we quickly confirmed the rumour that you do get a second serving whenever you order Dal Bhat (24 hour power they say 😀 ).

… stuffed and happy again, by 8:30 pm we were in bed drained but relieved that Day 1 was over and now in the archive.

Daily Costs

Room – free
Taxi to the tourist bus park – RS 300
Bus fare from Pokhara to Besisahar – RS 500 (seems to be a fixed price)
My yum pastry – RS 50
Dinner – RS 400 (negotiated down)

Day 1 Tips

Just as you start the trek, take the trail to the right of the main road, i.e. don’t start off on the main road. You’ll cross a bridge right at the start. If you don’t, then you’re on the wrong 😀 This is where people get it wrong and start suggesting that it’s not worth it to trek this first day. Well, that’s bullshit because the trail opens up to some gorgeous views.

If you’re travelling solo, find a buddy for this day to test the waters and ease yourself in. If you do the trek outside of busy season like I did (in September), chances are you’ll be meeting the same people you first started off with at various points along the way so it’s nice to see a familiar face.

Start negotiating! Sadly the locals will try to overcharge for the food from Day 1 to compensate for the free room which is fair but as a reference, a Dal Bhat at a local restaurant in Pokhara is around RS 200 and at a low altitude as Ngadi Lamjung they were already charging us RS 500 for the same dish so just be mindful because the price does go up the higher the altitude.

Highly recommend moving on from Bhulbhule and continuing to Ngadi Lamjung and staying at Hotel Green View. The rooms were way nicer than those we got offered in Bhulbhule and we had WiFi. Certainly, do not stay in any of the places overlooking the river in Bhulbhule because they’re mouldy and honestly, disgusting and overpriced.

This was the only day on the trek I wished I had a mosquito repellant on me because the little bastards ate us alive so bring a tiny bottle with you if you tent to get an allergic reaction to the bites.