Annapurna Circuit Day 3: “Mishouh” to Dharapani

Woke up with a weird worry that it was raining. I’ve been dreading the day when we’d have to start the day with the raincoats and trek through puddles of mud uninspired by the horrible cloudy weather.

But luckily … this wasn’t that day! As the alarm went off, I could hear what I thought was rain knocking on the roof but for my relief, it was just the bustling river waking us up to remind us she was there.

We headed out at about 6:50 am ready for a big day ahead of us! The final goal for the day was Dharapani and we were ready for it, fully energised by the sweet goodbyes we had with our hosts.

The first aim on the long 18km stretch to Dharapani was Jagat. We knew it shouldn’t be that far if we took a shortcut of a ton of stairs. It was gonna save us the walk on the main road so we scouted for the shortcut until we saw a sign for Jagat on the side of the road just a few meters past our guesthouse (Boomerang Hotel on maps.me). People were so damn right when they were saying that it’s a ‘stairs shortcut’ because it bloody was just stairs … all the way until Jagat. Sure it saved us the main road which was awesome but it sure didn’t save us the sweat or the occasional swear word coming disgracefully out of my otherwise well-behaved mouth 😀 ! It was so hard and it was just way too early in the day for that kinda big effort haha Oh well, who said the mountain gives a sh*t.

– Still can’t believe this is real and not a picture – we stopped to admire the views in a complete stunt of the vast green layers of sheer mountains right ahead of us. It genuinely looked like a picture. So perfect that it just didn’t seem it could be real but it so was.

I was slowly getting into my meditation mode when I saw my trekking buddy Nouh playing with his earphones evidently needing some music to keep himself going but when I suggested that it’s totally ok with me if he needed to get into his bubble and put some music on, all he said was “Nah, I’m good with the sound of the river“. We both were. We barely talked, we didn’t need music or audiobook to distract us. We wanted to be 100% present and remember the noises and the views as they were unfolding before us. It was simple and incredible.

We didn’t see any people until we got to Jagat. When we eventually got to the village after about an hour, we were welcomed by a girl who quickly ran up to us to say Namaste evidently excited to see some strange looking foreigners both loaded up like donkeys, especially Nouh who seemed as if he was carrying on his back half of everything he ever owned 😀 including some chunky ACTUAL paper books because you know … it’s easier to carry THEM than a tiny ‘made for travel’ Kindle 😀 (Sorry, Nouuuuh 😀 )

I must admit that when we got to Jagat I regretted not staying in the village overnight because it was so unbelievably beautiful. It was bright, colourful, tucked away at the bottom of a gorgeous valley and right to the side of the bustling river. I wished we knew it was just an hour further up from where we stayed that night but at least it’s something you can take away from our experience. So … definitely trek all the way to Jagat and sleep there! You’ll thank me later 🙂

I almost couldn’t believe a place so pretty could exist this far into the trek. I would later realise that the colourful houses are a signature feature of most Annapurna circuit villages on the east side of the trek but that morning I sure was taken by how cheerful Jagat looked.

Not rushing to leave the village, we stopped for a quick 10min break before heading off to the next goal which was Tal. There was an option to stick to the main road or take a trekking trail or should I say a ‘poop trail’ 😀 all the way to Tal. I had honestly never seen this much poop in my entire life and I have spent a fair amount of time in my grandma’s village back in Bulgaria when I was a kid and have been around the stables quite a bit but this was something else 😀 The trail was narrow and ‘beautifully’ covered pretty much all over with surprises. That of course was a good conversation starter haha

– What could possibly leave sooooo much sh** behind? 😀 – we were truly intrigued.

– Could it be cows or even yaks? Or maybe some otherworldly huge goats? 😀 – mistery haha

We were having our ridiculous poop debate whilst trying carefully not to land two feet into one of the hand-sized excrements. I walked behind Nouh who at one point had totally given up on the effort to keep his trekking boots poop-free. I couldn’t stop laughing at him and his pointless efforts to clean up his shoes every now and then. Guys LOL

Despite the giggles and much-needed distraction, the hike was tough. The stairs shortcut to Jagat was only the start of what turned out to be a whole day of stairs, sooooo so many of them. But the views we were constantly getting rewarded by were totally worth the sweat and the shaky legs. We passed through lush rainforests with the strangest and most gigantic rocks I had seen on the trek. They were so massive that we even had to go underneath them because they were sticking out so much that they covered the entire path. It was soooo damn cool.

Occasionally we were getting overtaken by the most stubborn cows that would just not move out of the way to let us pass. Obviously they had the “I’m a holy cow in this country” kinda mentality 😀

– Maybe these crazy authoritarians were the source of all the poop – it had to be them 😀

The rocks not only came with a fair share of thrill from us having to go underneath them and through tunnel-like sections but also huge salamanders who were using them to hide from the sun and all disturbing trekkers. It was the first time I had seen salamanders, certainly as many and this enormous. Really cool creatures but poor things, we scared the sh*t out of them so we quickly took some snaps and moved on to let them enjoy their afternoon sunbathing sesh 😀

A few hours into the trek we saw the most stunning views we had seen since the start of the trek. As I lifted my head there it was … the most mesmerising spiky rock I had probably ever seen screaming to be looked at and admired. The river was running right beneath it making up for truly stunning gorges on both its side with waterfalls rushing down the valley in between beautiful green mountains. It almost made me sick when I focused a few seconds afterwards and saw huge machines halfway through the rock breaking through it to make a God damn road. This was the first time on the trek I felt genuinely outraged. Something so pristine was being literally drilled into in favour of mass tourism and accessibility. It made me sick but I forced myself to stay present and not let anger get to me so I cоuld take in what’s left from the untouched views.

We were quite a few kilometres into the hike so we had to make a stop for lunch. We were getting exhausted from all the stairs. We needed food. The only sort of close-by place we could stop at was a village called Sirantal. Looking at maps.me there was supposed to be only one place where we could eat, called River plate guesthouse & restaurant. Sounded fancy so we had our hopes that it’d be open 😀 When we got to the village, it looked pretty deserted. In fact, I don’t even remember seeing anyone. Right at the end of the village we found the guesthouse.

There were two old ladies sitting outsides evidently not doing anything. The place looked closed for business. There definitely wasn’t a sign of any guests or anyone actually working in the place. The next place we could eat was another hour away so we had to eat here however much it would have cost us to get some food.

– Namaste?! – we entered the place looking for someone who actually worked in the guesthouse. The ladies nodded at us but they didn’t speak any English or seemed thrilled to see us there so we had to find someone else who’d be a bit more excited by the sight of us 😀 But there was no reply …

– Namaste?! – we kept walking around the garden and peeking inside the house to find someone … as if we knew someone else had to be there.

We weren’t giving up so eventually, a young Nepali guy, equally unexcited to see us there, came out of the house with a questioning look as if trying to say “Isn’t it obvious we’re not open“. It sure as hell was obvious but we had to eat. There was no way we could walk further and wait for another hour for someone to cook us something.

– Is it possible to make us something for lunch, anything?” – we weren’t fussy. We had already learned the lesson that in places like this we get what we’re given without asking too many questions.

The guy kept repeating that they’re not open because they didn’t have any staff. But the ladies were literally not doing anything … hmmmmm

– Why couldn’t they cook for us? – I couldn’t get it. We were gonna pay quite a bit for anything as simple as a bowl of rice with some curry, yet they couldn’t be bothered.

– They’re busy – he said 😀 Doing whaaat?! They literally were sat on their chairs staring at the nothing ahead of them.

I wasn’t going away without food (call me stubborn or just starved haha) so after a fair amount of negotiation with the guy, he agreed to ask the ladies to make us some Dal Bhat for RS 400 each. Dal Bhat it is!! We needed nothing else.

The ladies got to cook and we moved some furniture around to set ourselves somewhere to eat. Since the place wasn’t working, they didn’t even have a table outside for us to sit on so we set it all up leaving them to focus on their task at hand. An hour and a half later the seemingly disinterested ladies pulled off such a delicious Dal Bhat. One of them served it to us smiling ear to ear (where did that smile magically come from?! 😀 ). The guy even offered us some extra picked bamboo and crisps and a refill. Such an unexpected change of enthusiasm and service compared to the negotiation we started off with. We were stuffed and happy.

We headed off for the final stretch to Dharapani and at around 4pm were finally there. I didn’t like this village. People seemed unfriendly and too tourism-minded, negotiating hard on the room rates with a pretty rude attitude in some places. One woman even wanted to charge us RS 1000 per room. Pretty mad!

– I can’t do it. I need a Western toilet. – Nouh was continuing to crack me up fanatically looking for his sit-down toilet 😀 Nothing wrong with that but I still crack myself up when I remember us hopping from place to place with the one and only first question “Do you have a Western toilet?“. I was having my fun giggling by the somewhat funny expectation that these people must have accommodated for the luxury of a Western toilet so I stayed on for the amusement. Eventually, we did get a free room with a Western toilet and even a hot shower … winning!

I finally took a delightful properly hot shower and could even wash my hair (talk about going basic :D), did my laundry and sat outside to chill in the garden whilst reading my book and waiting for our hosts to prepare dinner. It was the end of another day on the Annapurna circuit and I was just happy.

Daily Costs

• Room – Free
• My legendary boiled eggs – RS 200
• Dal Bhat – RS 400
• Veg egg curry – RS 450

Day 3 Tips

• Start Day 3 from Jagat to enjoy the peace, quietness and colours of the village.
• Wherever possible, take the trekking trails (even if covered in poop 😀 )
• As you’ll be trekking through the rainforest, this is one of the days you could end up picking up some leeches along the way so make sure to check your legs and boots every now and then to get rid of the bastards before they’ve had a feast on you. Luckily we didn’t get any leeches that day.
• There aren’t many places along the way to grab food so plan where you’ll make a stop for lunch and negotiate hard if they tell you they’re closed. There’s always a way especially if you offer them extra RS 100.
• The source of all the poop btw turned out to be tourist horses
• Enjoy it and stay present! Namaste 🙂

Day 3 Gallery