Like a Swiss clock the erupting noise from the street woke me up at precisely 7:30AM. Went to a cafe nearby for breakfast before I ventured out to the temple district of Kathmandu. Later I took a Tuk Tuk to the other end of the town, Patan. This is the oldest part of Kathmandu and has an extraordinary Nepalese architecture as well as museums and thousands of little vendors in alleyways like labyrinths, selling all kinds of crafts. It's a place where you still...

Another ice-cold night mastered. With double blankets! ;) Slept well and my knees recovered too. At least to the point that I could use 'em for today's 4 hours of ups and mostly downs. As we slowly make our way out of the Himalayas we loose altitude bit by bit. Which is good because the days and nights are getting warmer again. Early afternoon we arrived in Jhinu and got rewarded for our tough Trek with a visit to the cozy hot springs down by the Modi Kho...

Fairly easy hike today. Since we covered a long distance yesterday we only needed about 4 hours to make it to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). Stopped by Machhapuchchhre Base Camp (MBC) for a lemon tea and to catch our breath. One can tell the air is getting thinner. Even today we still had to cover more than 2700ft elevation gain. Francis and I didn't feel any altitude sickness. But others were not so lucky. And then we finally reached the Base Camp (12,390ft) WE ...

We got up early for a tough day ahead of us. Including a stairway of 3280 stone steps! and a elevation gain of 4200ft ! But with spectacular views along the way and a hike through a huge rhododendron forest. Arrived in Ghorepani (Alt. 8400ft) in the afternoon, exhausted but happy. OK, mostly happy about the end of today's hike ;) Since none of the Sunny Hotel rooms have heating and temperatures dropped to freezing point everyone huddled together in the tea ho...

Got picked up by my mountain guide Bunu and our porter Tulsi (estimated age: 13!) Needless to say none of us would let her carry our bags. But WTF, shouldn't she be in school? But then again, later that day we saw another teenage girl carrying a 30kg! rice bag up the mountain. Nuts! Then we headed for the airport to pick up the other traveler Francis and were on our way to the starting point of the trek to the Annapurna Base Camp or "ABC" about an hour away f...