Annapurna Circuit (Preparation)

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: HARD (FOR THE NON-CRAZY FIT ATHELETES/ VETERAN TREKKERS)

The Info:
We found about this trip on Groupon. The company we dealt business with was Trekking Guide Team Adventure (P.) Ltd and the organizer of it all was Kabi Raj, the executive director of the company. We bought the deal many months before the trip and we exchanged emails numerous times regarding the trip eg. what to bring, what is the itenery etc. It is a 15 day trip altogether. Here are some details if you are interested about the hike :)

TREKKING GUIDE TEAM ADVENTURE (P.) LTD
Kabi Raj Nepal (mobile: 9841927878)
Telephone: +977-1-4218807
P.O Box: 8974 CPC 599
Email: info@nepalguidetrekking.com
Website: http://nepalguidetrekking.com/    or    http://trekkingguideteam.com/



The People:

This is Kabi, the organizer of our trip

This is Shiva, our guide for the trek.

This is Nama, our porter, he has worked in Malaysia for 8 years and though he couldn't speak English, we could communicate via Malay

This is Suvash, he was our guide for our sight-seeing trip of Kathmandu valley

Personal Tips for Preparation:
For our packing, I realised researching on the internet has given me the impression that Nepal is super cold. However, that is the truth if you are going in the winter which seems to be the case for most tourist in forums and such; recommending to bring down jackets, wool socks etc. Where I'm from, I've never heard of a down jacket and never had wool socks..... Oh well, so I brought 2 jackets, a raincoat, rain pants and a windbreaker if ever should I need to overlap them and make myself look like a stuffed marshmallow. On the contrary, in September, it is quite warm indeed. I wore T-shirts and long pants on most of my hike, although I did wear two jackets, rain pants and gloves at the base camp but other than that, it is not that cold in September.

Also another important tip is to bring ample supply of money. As you go up the mountain, supplies of course gets more difficult to reach those checkpoints and hence, more expensive. You should have at the very least 13,000 rupees per person (this is only for the hike itself and I spent it very frugally) with you to help with water, food, lodging and other basic needs.

There is electricity and hot shower and some places have wifi but it also depends on your luck. If there are many people, these sources of power may be insufficient. You can charge your phones in the guest houses as well but some may charge you for it. I am unsure of the power of their electricity for charging as I never used it. I don't think it's necessary to bring so many extra batteries. I thought I would need them, I brought like 3 sets but I didn't touch any of my extra batteries.

Also, I would highly recommend to bring lip balm, deep heat rub. Due to the chill and high altitudes, my lips became dry and quite prone to crack, the lip balm was useful. As for the deep heat rub. Need I say more? It's going to be quite a tough trek that would challenge both your physical and mental strength but at least you can massage your muscles. It really helped during the trek. You may also find purification tablets to be of some use. Purification tablets are tablets that you add into your bottle filled with stream water and it will kill the micro organisms living in it so you wont get ill by drinking such water. However, I hears it tastes horrible. I did not use it myself but some trekkers do. This can save you a bit on the costs.


I think these are the most important to know for the journey. The others like packing list or training is pretty much standard stuff :)

Oh, and one more thing. I think it's nice to learn their language :) Got this from a menu.