We just returned from an amazing 11 day trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary. Starting in Phedi we made our way from guesthouse to guesthouse, village to village, massala tea to massala tea, getting higher and higher on the way ;) Unlike most other tourists we were carrying our own backpacks and didn't have a guide in order to be more independent and spontaneous. While some other trekkers were rushing up and down the whole trek in 5-6 days we were more relaxed and took 11 days round-trip. In the beginning we had some long days but further up we only gained a few hundred meters altitude per day to avoid altitude sickness (which worked fine). The further up we got the busier were the trek and the lodges. On Machhapuchhare Base Camp (one stop before Annapurna Base Camp) we even had to sleep in the dining room as big groups had fully booked the lodge.  But the guesthouses are well prepared and used to that and provided some good beds in the big dining hall. The porters had to sleep on the table, though... We were often little shocked about how much the porters were carrying up the mountains for quite a small wage - and amazed to see them happily playing volleyball outside all afternoon.

On day six we arrived at Annapurna Base Camp at 4200m in the Annapurna Sanctuary. Surrounded by several 7000+ meter peaks with the Annapurna I (8091m) as the dominant mountain we felt really tiny ;) You only get those great views onto the mountains a few hours a day before the clouds take over in late morning and sometimes even earlier. We've been quite lucky to have several hours to enjoy the scenery in the morning. During the night we enjoyed the clear starry sky with the moon in the middle shining on the white peaks around us - very romantic indeed ;)

During the trek we met some great guys that were on a similar schedule and shared some very nice moments including long cold afternoons playing games and drinking masala tea together. Our Ozzie friend Khristo 'the bishop' tought us to play the most popular Nepalese board game 'Tigers and Goats'  and we even played against some Nepalese guides - which ended in a tragic German goat massacre ;)

On the way back we followed an advise from our French friend Nini and stayed in a lodge off the main trek called 'Little Paradise' with our German friends Christian and Melanie. The name of this place is well chosen as you can see on the pictures - on the top of the hill with a great view on the mountains around, they are growing their own honey, tea and vegetables -whenever we ordered some food they went off to the garden to get some. On our rest day we had the chance to visit a remote village where people aren't exposed to tourists yet as much as on the main trek. A very nice experience with a short visit to the local primary school.

We didn't think about the fact that we were in Paradise and ate an Apple... a terrible mistake as the night after there was a thunderstorm that lasted several hours. Today we had a organizing day - we're taking a bus tomorrow morning to Chitwan national park and shall report from there.