Annapurna Circuit Day 12: Kagbeni to Marpha

My alarm went off at 5:30 am and Gooosh, I was excited. Sure I had woken up this early to go see the morning ceremony at the monastery in Kagbeni but arriving in Marpha was the reason I had my smile on as soon as I opened my eyes that morning.

Marpha is the apple capital of Nepal. It’s the region where all types of apples call home and it’s where locals along the trek have been saying I would find the most delicious apple treats – from natural apple juice and brandy to my favourite dried apples, apple pie and crumble (nom!). So yeah … I was ready for my next treat, so much that I could already imagine myself ordering the largest piece of crumble the minute I check into a place and stucking my little brought-from-home fork right into it 😀

First thing in the morning though I headed to the red monastery to watch the morning prayer. It’s a ceremony which happens every morning and from what I later found out, it’s performed only by the students who attend the monastery. The actual ceremony didn’t surprise me all that much as it reminded me of similar rituals I have seen in Indonesia but I still found it pretty interesting to observe. The room was full of about 20 students who were all sat down on the floor doing the prayer guided by their master whilst two other boys were on cleaning duty and were sweeping and mopping the floor and surfaces.

You should have seen the diligence of these boys!! They honestly were taking their task so seriously, even more so than some of the praying boys who would rush back off to bed if they could, yawning as if they were doing some sort of internal competition on who’s gonna yawn more times within the minute 😀 You should have seen the burst of energy as soon as the 45min prayer was over and they could finally rush out for a Tibetan bread with tea for breakfast.

Once the ceremony was over I took a final walk around Kagbeni in search of the town guard 😀 Yes, you read that right! Dyana and Andy had met her the day before and I wasn’t leaving before snapping a photo of her. She was an enormous, gorgeous looking, fluffy from top to bottom SHEEP standing atop of the stairs in front of a yellow gate at the entrance of the old town where she had been standing since yesterday when we arrived. She was standing up and lying down again but she was literally not going anywhere, hence her nickname “the guard” 😀 She honestly looked beautiful, had perfectly rounded horns and inquisitive slim face totally in contrast with her puffed up furry body. She liked the attention 😀 I swear I thought she was posing for me when I tried to take a few photos of her. No offence to everyone I’ve taken photos of so far but she was my absolute best model LOL Just look at her 😀

Kagbeni to Jomsom

I peeled my boiled eggs to take away, had some tea with Dyana and Andy and it was time to say Goodbye. From here on, our plans were starting to differ quite a bit. I wanted to continue onto Marpha and all the way to Nayapul to finish the trek, whilst the guys wanted to start taking it very slowly, stop just to chill in a few places on and off the circuit trail. We knew we weren’t gonna meet on the trek again so we hugged, promised each other to meet up and celebrate in Pokhara after the trek (which we did <3) and I headed out.

The trek from Kagbeni to Jomsom was 10km, entirely on the main road with only the occasional sideway I could take to step off the road for a bit. Having come to Kagbeni via the main road route though, I didn’t mind having to do it again to Jomsom because the road really wasn’t that busy.

The only slightly annoying thing about this section of the road though was that it was pretty well covered in little stones which were ricocheting right into my face whenever buses or motorbikes were passing me by. Watch out for this especially if you don’t trek with sunglasses just like I didn’t.

Apart from my surprising encounter with two cows and one Westerner with his guide who were headed in the opposite direction, I didn’t meet anyone else on the trek to Jomsom. It was the perfect time to reflect and just be on my own and I was loving it. Sure, I was missing my trekking buddies from the last few days (a little bit haha) but I was enjoying my “me” time even more 😀

Arriving in Jomsom

When I eventually made it to Jomsom after 2 hours of walking, I immediately got a super nice vibe. Jomsom is still a small town but by far the largest along the trek (it’s even got a tiny airport) so when I entered the village, I kinda got the “city vibe” straightaway 😀 People were dressed up nicely, most of the girls were taking casual walks holding hands dressed in stylish dresses and wearing heels. There were a big school and a beautiful monastery, along with a whole row of little shops and guesthouses. The place was buzzing, people were smiling and it felt welcoming and friendly. I liked it!!

I took a pause to look around the village when out of nowhere I saw a familiar face rushing towards me. NO FREAKING WAY!! There he was, one of the Nepali guys we met in Thorong Phedi was walking towards me. We both smiled ear to ear and hugged until we figured that we really were at the same place at the same time. I gotta say that it really made me happy. Out of nowhere, at some 2,700m in Nepal, having just spent the last few hours trekking on my own, I had gotten to Jomsom and had managed to make such a connection with someone I first met a few days ago that the second we saw each other we were hugging and laughing and chatting as if we were best friends. It was just such a sweet moment 🙂

Shortly after we hugged Goodbye, the same friendly face would run out of the bus to Kathmandu to take my Facebook so we could stay in touch!! You really never know who you’re gonna meet and who you’re gonna bond with when you travel alone and that’s a big part of why I love solo travelling so so much.

The few hundred meters of passing through Jomsom got me chatting to a couple of local guides who seemed pretty amazed when I told them I was trekking alone and had just done the pass and a French girl I saw at Applebee’s cafe in Kagbeni who was doing a 10 days hike in Upper Mustang with a guide who was rushing ahead of us.

On the way out of Jomsom I was amazed by the group of people, both men and women, who were relentlessly working on building a road on what was the town’s main street. Women were picking up rocks from the street and filling them up in baskets for the men to carry where they were needed. This was the first time I saw women and men working together on something.

After a lovely chat with the locals at Jomsom’s only bakery, it was time to head out of town and onto Marpha.

Jomsom to Marpha

“F*cking trail” – I was screaming out loud a few minutes after I checked in at the ACAP check-in point on the way out of Jomsom and had taken the trail showing up on Maps.me as the way to avoid the main road. I took a dirt path to the left of the main road, alongside the river to get on the trekking trail. Having walked on the main road to Jomsom, I was looking forward to this trail and not having to turn around every time a bus was passing me by.

I was overjoyed with excitement until I got to the point I had to cross the Kali Gandaki river. Kali Gandaki is a bustling, super rapid and on the first look not the cleanest of rivers. I had to cross her so many times already that by the point I was standing in front of her again, we had already developed a pretty strong love/ mostly hate relationship 😀

There I was excited to cross her and get on with my trek until I realised that the bridge I was supposed to get on to go over was blown away by the strong wild (imagine the velocity of that) and was now lying on the other side of the river. I walked up and down the river for 15-20min, trying to figure out a way to cross it from jumping from rock to rock, trying to come up with some imaginative ways to fly over it without going bottom or face down into it but there just wasn’t a way, not if I didn’t want to risk proper soaking myself in God knows how deep a water. I felt defeated! Majorly frustrated that I had to turn around and go on the main road, I sent one final “Damn it” to the universe 😀 and turned around.

The main road to Marpha was sh*t, and that is putting it lightly! It was muddy, full-on under construction and anything but scenic. It was so damn windy at times I was pretty convinced that it’ll actually blow me into the disgusting river. The only thing that was still holding me grounded was the over 10kg Osprey I had on my back 😀 For once, I was actually grateful that I had backpack stripes cutting through my shoulders and load so heavy I was bending forward to transfer most of it onto my hips. It was that or literally being blown away.

The road was clear and I didn’t even have to check Maps.me for the directions that often. Yet, there was the skinniest most snappy old local man I had seen since on the trek who was rushing ahead a few meters in front of me and for some reason, I wanted to keep up with him. Can you actually imagine I was having to keep up with an old guy but honestly he was so fit and to my surprise, Jomsom to Marpha was the usual commute for him so he knew it perfectly?! I was loving this little “catch me if you can” game we had going on. He had pointed me to the way to Marpha when I asked him at first if I was headed in the right direction and from there it was on 😀 He rushed, I rushed. He slowed down, I did also. At times, he would even turn around to check f I was keeping up. It was sweet.

On the way, I passed by a couple of really authentic pretty villages which funny enough, reminded me of the Meditteranean with their white houses and wooden window shutters. After Jomsom, locals were becoming so much friendlier all of a sudden and I was loving this change.

A few hundred meters to Marpha, I started to rush like crazy. The worst thing about the main road isn’t the traffic or the dust but the awkward realisation that I can’t just squat and pee whenever my bladder is about to explode. I mean, I could but I’ve been caught up “in the moment” before and I didn’t quite fancy a repeat 😀 So when I saw the apple gardens and eventually the gate to the village, I felt relieved.

Once in Marpha

Marpha looked nice, even though it was pretty deserted around 1 pm when I arrived. There were barely any people on the streets and the handicraft shops were closed. A German couple I had bumped into a few times already was rushing to the next village Tukuche because the weather was supposedly getting worse but I wanted to stay in Marpha.

I could feel that there was more to this place than I had seen so I wished them all the best and checked into a place called Paradise Guesthouse, at the non-negotiable rate of RS 300 per night. What a big smile and friendly face – I thought when I saw the man running the place. He told me to make myself at home and strangely I really did feel like I was home. Maybe it was the positive vibe of the place or the fact I had been looking forward to Marpha since the start of the trek or maybe it’s all to do with the apple crumble I ordered as soon as I checked in 😀 Let’s be honest here, it’s probably the latter.

I took the nicest hot shower in days, ordered some veggie curry and indulged in my crumble whilst reading my book and chatting to this crazy solo travelling Irish guy in his mid-40s (I guess) who I first met in Kagbeni and who was feeding my curiosity with all sorts of adventurous stories from his travels. Who knew I’d meet him quite a few more times whilst on the trek 🙂

But now it was time to get out there and explore Marpha. The village was so unique. It’s a place largely influenced by the Tibetan culture where a lot of Tibetan refugees had set up handicraft shops to earn their living and even the sheer opportunity to be able to talk to these people and learn about their life was making me so grateful and happy to have stayed in Marpha. Round 3 pm all the shops had reopened and the streets were buzzing. Kids were running around, Tibetan ladies were offering me to go look inside their shops and men were perfecting their crafts right on the street. It had gotten busy but in a very nice happy way.

I was strolling the streets when a beautiful Tibetan lady got my attention. We started talking about her life in the refugee camp about 20 min walk from Marpha, her family, and how with the winter coming she struggles to keep all her children warm. It wasn’t a cold day that day but I had heard stories about how cold it gets so high up in the mountains. She asked me if I maybe had any clothes I could give her in exchange for something from her shop. I stood there thinking about what I can possibly give her. I had the bare minimum and had a few more days from the trek to be giving away my jacket or fleece. I rushed back to my guesthouse and brought her the beautiful warm headband I had bought in Pokhara but never used since it never got that cold. If anything, it was at least gonna keep the ears of one of her daughters warm.

It was something so little but I genuinely couldn’t give her anything else that was gonna keep them warm. I had mainly packed trekking leggings and shirts which weren’t gonna cut it when the temperatures go down below zero. She was so grateful when I handed her the headband and wished her all the best! She wouldn’t let me go without giving me something in exchange though so I smiled at her and asked: “May I take a photo of you, that’s all I’d want”. She posed for a couple of photos, I wished her the very best again and was on my way.

I was stuffing my face with dried apricots I had just bought (nom nom!) when all of a sudden I screamed with excitement “Nouuuuh”. My trekking buddy from the first few days was walking towards me having caught up with me after doing the famous trek to the Tilicho lake. I couldn’t believe I was seeing him again. He looked tired and majorly sunburnt and had the sweetest company with him, Adelie <3 , aka the only other solo trekking girl who I first met at the Ice lake a few days ago.

We were happy and grateful to have seen each other again! We had dinner together, catching up on all the things that had happened since we last saw each other whilst trying out some Tibetan dishes that were typical for the so-called Thakali cuisine of the region. It was the perfect most unexpected way to finish yet another day on the Annapurna circuit trek, now reunited with my trekking buddies (even though just for the night) <3

Daily Costs

• Room – RS 300
• Boiled eggs – RS 250
• Veg curry – RS 350
• Dried apricots – RS 300
• Thakali soup – RS 150
• Momos – RS 250
• Apple crumble – RS 200

Day 12 Tips

• Wake up early and attend the prayer ceremony at the monastery. It’s free and it really is a pretty nice cultural experience.
• Put your buff on for the way from Jomsom to Marpha in case you have to trek on the main road as well.
• Follow Maps.me but be cautious as it can clearly catch you out some times.
• Once in Marpha have some crumble and stock up on dried apricots. Honestly, they’ll be the perfect healthy snack for the rest of the hike.
• Talk to the locals in Marpha! You can seriously learn so much about the culture and life of the locals.
• Enjoy it and stay present! Namaste 🙂

Day 12 Gallery