G2Tour.com: Great Getaways

Time: September, 29 – November,12 / 2010, 6 weeks.
Regions of trekking: Round Manaslu, Tsum Valley, Round Annapurna, ABC.

The route consisted of 3 parts

• Round Manaslu trek + Tsum Valley detour + Manaslu base camp detour (3 weeks) ;
• Round Annapurna trek + Ice Lake and Milarepa’s Cave detours (2 weeks);
• Annapurna Senctuary or Annapurna Base camp trek, АВС (1 week).

Required mandatory permits and papers, and other unavoidable expenses:

• Round Manaslu trek: Trekking permit Manasulu area – 8 days, $80. Restricted aria on Manaslu path: from Lokuwa till Bimtang; Trekking permit Tsum Valley – 7 days (min), $35; entry fee MCAP – 2000 rupees. (If you are going Round Manaslu rek only, you needn’t a TIMS ).
• Round Annapurna trek and Annapurna Senctuary (ABC): entry fee ACAP – 2000 rupees; TIMS – $10 (to group, through trekking agency; individual – $20).
• Trekking guide, Round Manaslu trek: a licensed guide , working in trekking agency accredited in TAAN . In our case – $ 20 per day for the group, we were paid for 24 days, including a way to the start point and return way to the KTM, plus a couple of days  to unanticipated stops and delays. Before our trip we arranged all the details of our trek with Etic Himalaya Trekking Agency (Dhan Prasad Gurung, can recommend), they prepared all nessesary permits and papers for us the same day we arrived to KTM.
• Transport: from the KTM to Arugat Bazaar (start point of Manaslu trek) we rode the local bus – 300 rupees per person. It had been  from 6-30 am till 14-15 noon. On the way back I flew from Pokhara to KTM at  local airplane, $ 92, 23 minutes. There are options for way back to KTM:  tourist bus “Green Line”, $ 16-20, including lunch (6-9 hours, normal bus, sometimes even with a working air condition) or local buses, the price – how you negotiate, the time – how it got, at least 8 hours.

Equipment. Gear. Things.

I trekked without porters. All gear carried myself. Backpack was about 15 kg at the beginning , then a little less.  Equipment (except personal clothing): a sleeping bag (downy, 15F); inflatable mat, mug and spork, both titanium, flip-flops for the shower; sandals (proved useless – threw out the first week, thanks God, they were old), first aid kit (many things were usefull, vitamins and isotonic salt, especially); bath stuff; trekking poles (very useful thing, without them my knees would be worse), trekking boots (anyone who says that special trekking boots are not necessary and all that – good luck, my opinion – it is  most comfortable boots for the track, assuming that you have used special  trekking socks), all sorts of electronic devices: GPS, mobile phone, chargers, batteries, e-book, a compact solar panel, headlamp, and 2 pairs of glasses from the sun, some of which – special mountain; rain cover (never used, but maybe I just got lucky with the weather), a thin rope 5m for drying clothes.

What  I am missed: a small compact gas stove; liner in a sleeping bag;  ginger powder, or root; a local GSM SIM card and recharge cards, paper book LP (was loaded to e-book, sometimes paper is better).

I would like to say special  praise of my equipment:

• Deuter backpack, lite model with women’s suspension. Highly recommend: from all of my backpack (more than 10) this is the most comfortable. Deuter have a good suspension, quality of materials and fittings – perfect, nothing broke, despite the light version of the backpack. Rated 5 out of 5.
• Black Diamond trekking poles. Lightweight with excellent reliable locking mechanism. Poles will save your knees from injury, especially if you have a heavy backpack. And you have to have a pair of poles!
• Asolo trekking boots. Ode to my boots I can sing forever: excellent, reliable, comfortable boots for trekking in the mountains. Perhaps, hiking shoes could be enough: I was lucky with the weather and there was no heavy rain and snow.
• Marmot sleeping bag. Super lightweight and compact (down). Where it was warm, I just used it as bed linen, for hygienic purposes.
• trekking socks from “Decathlon” megamarket. Cheap and works perfectly. Recommend, as well as the other (some!) clothes from Decathlon.

The route of the trip. Overnight stays.

The route of the Round Manaslu is well described in Lonely Planet “Trekking in Nepal”, as well as Round Annapurna trek and Annapurna base camp. Details on the trekking in the Tsum valley can be found, in particular, in the travel notes of Australians ( April 2010) or in the booklet about Tsum Valley.

My trip route:

Manaslu region: КТМ – Arugath Bazar (overnight in guest house) – Lapubesi (overnight in tent at camping place, no electricity) – Dobhan (overnight in guest house, satellite phone available, no electricity) - Philim (several guest houses and camping places, satellite phone available, no electricity) – detour to the Tsum Valley - Chumling (only one guest house, satellite phone and electricity available) – Chhokung (chek-post,  there no guest houses, shop, satellite phone in the shop, electricity available also. we stayed overnight in local house) – Mu Gumba (monastery, only 12 young monks and 5-6 old monks and lamas living in poor living conditions; available guest rooms at the monastery) – Chhokung (Stayed overnight in local house of the Mu Gumba’s teacher) – Lakuwa ((Lokpa), guest house, small shop, satellite phone) - back to Manaslu trail – Ghap ((Prok), very simple guest house with camping place, no electricity, satellite phone available) – Lhogaon ((Lho), only one very simple guest house with camping place, no electricity, satellite phone available) –  Samogaon (large village, 6-7 guest houses, couple of shops, several check-post, electricity, acclimatization detour to Punggen Gumba (actually, there no any gompa),  and Manaslu Base Camp (actually, MBC settled at  4950m, not 4400m, according a map), satellite phone) – Samdo (couple of guest houses with very expensive prices of food, “snickers” – 150 rupees each, possibility of acclimatize detour at the Tibet border direction, step by stap by yak’s caravans route) – Dharmasala ((Larke Phedi), new one guest house, kitchen and comfortable dining room, tasty and expensive food (close to Moscow’s prices), stunning views, mountain stream, anxiety about tomorrow – all these you get  in assortiment) –  Larke Bhanjyang pass (5106) – Bimtang (two very simple dirty guest houses, kitchen and the opportunity to get something to eat, after 4 hours of grueling ascent to the pass and 4 hours of the same descent – a very welcome) – Thilche (guest house in very end of the village, telephone service) – Dharapani (this village at the Annapurna Circuit, all civilization stuff are available).

Round Annapurna and ABC: Dharapani – Chame – (via Upper Pisang) – Ghyaru – Manang (3 nights) – Thorong Phedi –  Thorung La pass – Muktinath – Kagbeni – Marpha – (via eastern bank of the river) Koketanti – Dana – (turn toward АВС trek, past Tatopani) Shikha – Ghorepani – Chhomrong – Dobhan – (to АВС and back) Deurali – Chhomrong – Jhinu – Dhampus – Pokhara.