I'll start from the beginning...

I should of noticed earlier, the emails I was sending to the trek company were not being ansswered properly and some of his answers were contradictory..I had made the bad mistake of letting my charity organise my trek through someone they knew.

My Everest trek in contarst was a totally professional affair..very organsied and quick in resp0oomndiong to my questions. I had asked to be placed with a group but found on my arrival in Besi Shahar it was just me and a guide...they hadn't advised a porter hadn't been booked, so I had all my gear! I kicked up a big fuss threatening to cancel and get money back until they finally got me a porter in the next village...atr this point I really was hestaistant about how the whole trek was gonna work out, but thought it was my only chance to get around Annapurna, so I had to grab it...

So it was just me and two Nepalese guys...I felt like a Victorian explorreer with my man servants setting out to search for thr Yeti or something! The Annapurna circuit trek has been open to foreigners since the late 70s and the first 5 days are spent goin up and down (and up again) valleys over gushing himalayan rivers on suspension bridges...at this point, it really wasn't a great rek, the secenrey didn't compare to the Everwest treklk at all. Trekking in Nepal is pretty demoralising as well you spend all this energey goin up a mountain to have to go down the other sde to gte up the other!

As we left the green valleys the landscape changed to an arid dry landscape, backed by snowcapped mountains...kinda reminded me of the Conaan films...temples and monastries percvhed high on mountains. I was half expecting to encounter scantily clad amazonioan warriorrs (perhaps the first sign of the altitude affectng me!)

Manang vilage at 3500m is very close to the Tiibetan border and ios pretty much Tibetan itslef, cos people have migrated over in past times...its full of windy alleys and set in a valley . We stayed here to acclimatize, you rest and do a trek to altitude and then come down again (did same at Everest)..so we climbed to 4000m to get an pretty cool view of the valley.

It was after this I got a headache onthe back of my head..it got pretty bad and apparently this is the one that can kill ya..I had similar in Everest but they went, this just seemd to get worse. So to help it I took a pill Diamox I took at Everest to help with Acute Mountain Sickness, the only side affects I got then was tingling in my fingers, so thought I'd be fine... I woke up in the middle of the night to go the toilet to find the whole room totally blurred! it really did freak me out, thought I was goin blind...coupled with the headache, I knew I had to descend as quickly as poss..

So next day, with the whole of my world totally blurred, we descended a 1000m over 7 long blurry hours..we had to do the same the next day as well. To make matters worse my stomach was very upset as well, I was doin No1's out of my No2...:O shocking and not nice when you have to coruch to do it!!! On day three coming down my eyesight finally started to shoiw signs it was coming back... I've gotta say those two days were soem of the scariest in my life. I was pretty much alone and freaking out, cos I knew we were days away from anywhere. It took us 5days in all to gte back to a Katmandu.

The LP recommends some clinicn for foregners here, so headed to one for a full check up...I had also developed some pretty horrific headaches as well, partly ewyes strain adn tension. I've also been an eye clinic as well, got the all clear, my eyes are fine...he confirmed the tsbley had caused me to lose my sight! The Acute Mountain Sickness can hit you anytime apparently, even tho I'd just come back from Everest, I dunno if my body was jst telling me to slow down or something..I haven't stopped since I got to Nepal.

Anyhow...I'm not that concerned that I didn't get round all of the Annapurna, from the landscape I saw and pictures I've seen from others, it didn't compare to the landscape of the Everest trek.

I've been chilling in Katmnadu for a few days now, just sorting all my things out for Goa and eating good food. Can't wait to just chill on the beach with the missus...

UPDATE 20 Nov

There's been a riot in the city today...you could hear police fring in the distance. All the shops shut up quite early aound the hotel...it was in protest against a couple of Maoists who were found mudered the other day. Best thing to do in these situations is stay off the streets, but it seems to have calmed down now.

UPDATE 21 Nov

Last blog from Nepal...the city has calmed down now from yesterdays riots so all set to get my plane back to India. Gotta stay in 'lovley' Delhi for the nght and then get two planes down to Goa ( I was gonna get a train, but they are notoriously late and it takes 37 hours when its working!!) Ddn't wanna chance Vic getting stranded by herself. I'm gonna do the return journey back toDelhi by train tho, I'm gonna break up the journey adn stay in Mumbai aka Bombay aka BOLLYWOOD which is about a third of the way up.

Just a few last words on Nepal; a place I would deffo reccommend people to vsit, the peoppel are freindly, the secenery is amzing and the lifestyle is pretty cheap. Gotta say I've really enjoyed my tiem here, I've fitted in loads (maybe too much) and took a lot from teaching here as well. Its a pity things went a bit t*ts up the last couple of weeks, but you can't have everything...

Pete