Cam t'Asia

Just over a week into our Himalayan trek , I had a bad night. I was awake and in the bathroom every hour throughout the night, so I didn't sleep much. Constantly leaving and coming back into the room woke Jon and Heather up, and I took some medication at their behest. In the morning, I didn't feel any better, so we decided to spend an additional day resting in Yak Kharka. I stayed in bed most of the day, only emerging from the bedroom to try to eat. One of the toughest parts about the trek was the cold. During the day, the cold wasn't a big deal when we were hiking. In fact, I was hiking in a t-shirt when we were 3500-4000m up. However, it got cold fast if we were in a shady spot or if we stood still for too long. The teahouses had small fireplaces for heat, but they only put fires on at night, so during the day there was no way to get warm. This was amplified tenfold when I was sick. I was in bed under several blankets with most of my clothes layered on, but it was st...

The Annapurna circuit is one of the most popular treks in Nepal, after Everest base camp. The plan was to follow a river upstream for about 10 days, go over one of the highest mountain passes in the world (~5400m), and then come back down and, at some point on the way down, grab a bus back to Pokhara. I had never done anything like this, and was excited to start. I met up with Jon, Heather, his cousin, Krista, and her boyfriend, Matt, in Besisahar after a fun morning on the bus . From there, we set out on the trek after a quick lunch, en route to Bhulbhule, our first stop. There was a road from Besisahar all the way to Manang at ~3500m, so we had the option of taking a Jeep or another vehicle to shave a few days off the start, but opted not to. We were very glad we chose to walk the whole way, as every day was different, gorgeous scenery, and climbing gradually not only helped us acclimatize, it also helped get our legs into shape. We did have to walk the road sometimes, and other t...