Well, I should say Wend pulled it off, I just kind of tagged along really.
Loads to see along the way - the obligatory temples and pagodas, some unusual stupas adorned with prayer flag bunting and all-seeing Om eyes, and lots of little market squares.
These were rammed with folk peddling everything from pashminas and yak apparel to saris, copper urns and weird musical instruments. At one point a bloke even walked by with a wardrobe on his back, no idea how much he was asking, but as Wend pointed out, it'd never have fitted in our hand luggage anyway.
We also passed countless outdoor adventure type places, all advertising the ultimate Himalayan high. I'm sure they'd deliver, but a bit of originality with their names wouldn't go amiss. We saw 'Ultimate Everest', 'Everest Trek', 'Go Everest' and 'Everest Expeditions'.
Tempted to call in and see what kind of packages they were offering but a couple of things put us off.
For starters, we're not going to Everest. The trek up to base camp is only gets interesting after 2 or 3 days trudging across non-descript tundra, and, from what other hikers have told us, it can also become very crowded on the trail which kind of defeats the object really. More importantly though, these places all want ludicrous amounts of money for organising straightforward stuff like flights, accommodation and guides.
So instead, we've invested in a decent travel-book and a good map. If we need a guide there's bound to be a retired Ghurka hanging about who we can hire.
The Annapurna sanctuary, high in the Himalayan foothills is to be our final destination, and as long as we can avoid any unpleasant encounters with Maoist insurgents, it should be well within the capabilities of a couple of codgers like us.
Very excited, can't flippin' wait.
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