Annapurna Circuit

The self-entertaining hostel model works so well because it keeps the budget community tight knit.

You have travelers organizing their own fun, pooling resources for cheap group tours to Everest Base Camp or the Annapurna Circuit.

Right.

They're pooling their money.

I hope you'll do some preparation.

You won't just arrive as somebody who has done the Annapurna circuit.

And I did it back in my 20s.

So this was many, many years ago.

I think that's really common.

And I will also tell you that just to continue my little story here with Nepal, we were the only group.

When you do the Annapurna circuit, you kind of end up moving at the same pace as a lot of other people because there's only so many guest houses at the same time.

And we were the only group.

And I think I had the next one on there.

It was so this is called Tenzing, which I just found out about to my my Malaysian friend pointed out to because he'd been doing a lot of traveling through Nepal and the Annapurna Trail.

I think he wanted to go to base camp.

He was just saving up for it.

But you did mention in the book that you went to Nepal.

Was it the Annapurna circuit?

Yes.

Actually, that does count, doesn't it? I would say that's pretty high altitude.

And on several of those trips over to Asia, I spent time in Nepal.

And one of those trips was a trekking expedition.

And I did the Annapurna circuit, which is just a gorgeous 21-day circuit in Nepal and really loved that and Again, just there's something special about being in the mountains and being disconnected from the rest of the world, especially in those days.

You know, that hike was in the 90s where we really weren't connected nearly as much as we are now.

And there are a lot of Tibetan people in Nepal as well.

And, uh, so we thought, and my husband hates long flights, so we thought, "Well, if we go, we have to stay for a, [laughs] for a while." So in 2011, we went and stayed for almost three months and did several treks, Annapurna Base Camp, and Annapurna Circuit, and Everest Base Camp, and, uh, Upper Mustang.

And, uh-

Wow.

Forty years? Um, then, uh, some news in from Ally in Sussex.

"My wife Wendy has hiked two thousand meters up the Annapurna trail in Nepal today." That's very good.

Uh, Nicky in Devizes has had a microwave jacket potato with beans and cheese for lunch.

All the news now flooding in.

... it's like if you look at, like, hiking trails, like, uh, uh, well, the well-known ones, like let's just take the Tour du Mont Blanc, uh, or maybe even the West Highland Way, I mean, these also used to be just shepherd roads.

Even the Annapurna Circuit is, in Nepal, is there to connect village to village.

Does it feel that you are then a little bit, like, 150 years back in time because y- y- because you are the f- maybe one of the first people to look at these trails in a, in a more modern way and, and, and look at it as a recreational project?

Uh, yeah, in some cases, yes.

Uh, you've done quite a few treks.

Which ones were th-those again?

I've done Annapurna Circuit in 2006, so that was at the time when the, you know, there were less roads, so it was like the original route-

When the circuit was still full