When it comes to trekking in Nepal, it’s always just more than just Mount Everest Base Camp or EBC.
After days of research during my volunteering trip to Nepal, teaching elementary school, I decided to go for Annapurna Circuit instead of EBC.
Read also: Best Adventure Tours & Trips.
Why Annapurna Circuit?
And there are a good few reasons for that, but the three main reasons would be – it’s cheaper, I can get there by bus by myself, and there are fewer crowds.
I had no experience in multi-day trekking, but the recklessness inside me told me I should go despite the odds.
What are the odds? It’s the monsoon season when I went there. The worst season, or so they said, to go trekking anywhere.
During the monsoon season, rainfalls are at their peak, it’s muddy everywhere, rivers are overflowing, and the highways are often collapsed due to landslides.
But the best thing about trekking in the monsoon season is that there are even fewer crowds.
Everything could be cheaper after negotiation; in fact, most of my night stays in tea houses in Annapurna Circuit are free of charge. All I have to do is dine in the tea house for dinner and breakfast.
How It’s Like?
Let’s dive into the condition of the Annapurna Circuit trek during the monsoon season. It’s much less dangerous than what I’ve heard. This trail is located in the rain shadow region.
I’ve got huge rainfall on my first 2 days, but there was no rain at all for the next 12 days. Even if there is, it happens at night time, always.
We had to traverse through the “river” in the middle of the trail, which emerges due to water overflowing in the nearby river.
That got our shoes all soaked in water, but we had to carry on with the ridiculously heavy footwear.
Another great thing about trekking in the monsoon season is that you do not have to worry about all tea houses getting full, and you have nowhere to spend the night. That happens quite often during the peak season.
That means you get to choose which tea house to stay in.
After the first two rainy days, the weather becomes so pleasant that you couldn’t help but stop from time to time to take the scenery and views in. There are quite a lot of waterfalls too.
If you never crossed a suspension bridge before, Annapurna Circuit is a great place to do it!
Hanging over 20m above the rushing river below, the suspension bridge will surely give you a shot of adrenaline on your first try.
Thorong La Pass – The World’s Tallest Mountain Pass
It took us 12 days to finally reach the world’s tallest mountain pass, Thorong La Pass, at 5416m. We took half-naked photos with the board, along with some trekkers we met on the way.
After the summit, the trail quickly takes us down more than 1,000 meters down to the next town. We eventually took the bus ride from Jomsom to Pokhara, which took us around 12 hours.
An unforgettable ride, but not a perfect end for the trip as we could have reached in 7 hours if everything went smooth.
After the trek and a few days’ rest in Pokhara, I go backpacking around Nepal.
But if you’re planning to go trekking during the monsoon season, note that Lumbini and Chitwan National Park might not be available, as floods happen very often there.
Another interesting adventure in Nepal is climbing Mera Peak (6,476 m).
Written by Yen from Swing Abroad
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Tim Kroeger, founder of Universal Traveller, leverages extensive experience in luxury travel and tourism to offer firsthand insights into emerging hospitality trends.
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