Day 4 Dharapani (1,900 m)- Chame (2,700m) By the end of day four we reached Chame, stopping in Timang for lunch; quite a nice village. Along the way I'd met a really nice German girl who had actually had a guide and porter, something many agents had tried to get me to do and right now I was very glad I hadn't opted for. Chame is a pretty big village with internet and everything! Up until this point I'd let Tek pick the accommodation as everything is pretty basic...

When I first arrived in Nepal I'd been torn between doing the Everest base camp trek or the Annapurna circuit. Both reach the same altitudes of around 5,500m and depending on your chosen route can be 9-14 days. Obviously the Everest one is more famous but it is almost all high mountain scenery, whereas the Annapurna circuit has more variety of landscapes and indiginous people along the route. This swung it for me as I thought as a non trekker I may need some othe...

At 7.30 I met my guide Tek at the Yak & Yeti tour office and after all the toing and froing I finally set off on my trek. Thankfully Tek seemed lovely, very friendly and had quite good English. So we took a taxi to the bus station to catch a local bus to Besai Sahar the first checkpoint of the trek. The transport to begin the trek was an experience in itself. We took a local microbus, which as a standard just keeps the passengers coming, however we had a ri...

Pokhara is like a breath of fresh air after the mayhem of Kathmandu, it's a perfect tourist spot with lots of nice cafes, restaurants and bars and shops selling all your trekking gear and souvenirs but none of the hassle of the capital. Everything is based around the one main street running around the lake, there's SPACE- with real pavements with room to walk on and a huge road made for two way traffic (and the occasional cow or horse) things you never though...

So I eventually left Kathmandu, where the staff in the Shree Tibet guesthouse thought I had taken up residence and headed for Bhaktapur, which as another former kingdom of Nepal is again famous for its Durbar Square. It would bloody need to be impressive as an entry permit costs $25, but it was worth it, the temples are spectacular and the small town has a really nice feel to it. It's a real day tripper place so during the day the main squares are swarming with...