Early days on the Annapurna Circuit

In the dawn the river and sky are a mix of soft shades of pastel pink, blue and grey-white. There are hints of pink reflected in the river.

It is a short three hour walk to our next accommodation.

Along the way Santosh, one of our guides, tells us that the colours of the Buddhist flags - white, blue, red, green, yellow - represent water, sky, fire, forest, earth - the five elements.

Jadon tells Santosh that the correct thing to say when you see a beautiful woman is "wah-wah wee-wah".

We climb up from the river to a small village and from there we ascend a hilltop to our tea-house. There is a lovely view of surrounding hills. The river is a few hundred metres below and you can see it well from inside a small dining hall which overlooks the valley. But the weather is so nice that we prefer to sit in the courtyard.

view from the dining hall

I sit in the shade of a tree out of the hot sun. There is a haze in the air obscuring the view. Before lunch we have a feint view of part of a snow covered mountain appearing over a hill but after a while it disappears into the haze.

In the evening I head down to the village. I walk along a path and come to a spot where I watch the sunset behind the hill that holds our accommodation.


On the way back I come across a small shop and decide to buy a pair of thongs (flip-flops).

The woman wants 350 rupees for them. I am sure this is overpriced so I offer 200. No, she insists, 350 is the Nepali price. I don't want to argue. It's only five dollars and it's worth more to her than me.

As I leave the store a young man asks me how much I paid – eager to learn how foolish I am at bargaining. "One hundred rupees" I tell him. He smiles and laughs.