Last summer, I was in France having the time of my life on a study abroad trip, and this summer living in Nepal with my mom's family has been yet another summer for the books, chock-full of amazing memories and people.
Perhaps my favorite memory so far this summer was my week-long trek with my dad from Phedi to Annapurna Base Camp. Even though we were walking up and down hills about seven to eight hours a day, I'm pretty sure neither my dad nor I lost that much weight due to all the food we ate. One fact I did not know before my trek in Nepal is that the food in the villages along the way is actually pretty good and cheap. Here's a detailed list of what I ate during my week-long trek in Nepal.
Day 1: Kathmandu to Pokhara
This wasn't technically the first day of trekking because we didn't do any hard-core walking. But we did take an 8-hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara, which was pretty traumatizing, so I decided to include it.
The food at the bus stop halfway through the ride was way better than I expected. It was a buffet-style meal with fried rice, stir-fried noodles, pakoras, potatoes, yellow lentils, and fish. You paid the restaurant owners after you went through the buffet line and served yourself. The meal was cheap (only 800 rupees for two people aka less than $8!).
When we finally got to Pokhara, we were convinced to stay at a hotel called Snow Leopard by a man who waylaid me and my dad after we stepped off the bus. This hotel turned out to be nice and relatively cheap. It was 2000 rupees per night (less than $20) for a top-floor room, which came with two beds, AC, WiFi, a TV, and a western-style bathroom with a hot shower. After we settled in a bit, we walked around Pokhara looking for a place to eat dinner.
We decided to have dinner at Moondance. If you're ever in Pokhara, I definitely recommend eating at this restaurant. It's a bit more on the expensive side comparatively to other restaurants in the area, but that's because of the great service, decor, and food. And when I say expensive, I mean less than 3000 rupees for two people who got one appetizer (Cajun Fries), two drinks (Himalayan Red Sherpa beer and lemonade), two entrées (Sizzling Chicken Fajita, pictured above, and Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork), two slices of lemon meringue pie, and two lattes. All of that for less than $30 in the U.S. would be a steal.
Day 2: Pokhara to Landruk
We woke up at 5 am and ate breakfast at Snow Leopard before heading out.
I had milk tea and banana muesli with curd for breakfast. I honestly didn't like the muesli that much, but I think it's because I let it sit too long, and the muesli got really soggy. After breakfast, we took a taxi for about an hour from Pokhara to Phedi. The last part of the road that we drove over was partly washed out by a river, and our taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of a small stream that had washed out the road, so that was a wet start to our trek.
We walked what felt like a million uneven stairs from Phedi to Dhampus, the next village on our trail. I got a leech in my shoe on the way, which was not ideal. But by the end of the trek, I would end up walking a million more stairs and getting several more leeches, so this day wasn't too bad looking back.
The village after Dhampus is called Pothana, and that's where we stopped for lunch. At this point, we had been walking for about three hours. The place we stopped at was called Green View Restaurant, and I ordered the lemon tea. The owners were very nice and had a three-week old kitten named Nyowkey.
#SpoonTip: Even though we were sweaty and the tea was hot, tea is the cheapest drink you can get on the trail (about 70 rupees depending where you are), and the water is boiled beforehand meaning that it's more safe to drink.
For the main course, I ate stir-fried noodles with egg, and it was delicious. After Pothana, we walked through a few more towns to Landruk, which is where we spent the night at a place called Captain Laliguras. It was a nice lodge with hot showers and great views of the Annapurna mountains in the morning. We met a middle-aged French man there on his way back down to Pokhara who had been trekking for two months!
For dinner at Captain Laliguras, we had chicken fried rice and lemon tea. Afterwards, my dad and I split a Cadbury chocolate bar we brought along as a snack, and we went to sleep around 9 pm.
#SpoonTip: Bring snacks during the trek. You will not regret it, especially if you're like me and crave something sweet at least once a day.
Day 3: Landruk to Chhromrong
We woke up again at 5 am and had a beautiful view of Annapurna South from the lodge.
We were lucky the sky was so clear that morning because during monsoon season, they're normally all cloudy.
For breakfast, I had toast with honey, a veggie omelet, and black tea. We walked from Landruk to New Bridge and then to Jhinnu, which took a few hours.
At Jhinnu, we stopped at a place called Namaste Lodge and got some refreshing (and expensive) cold drinks. Each drink costs around 300 rupees (a bit less than $3), which in reality isn't too bad. But when you put it into perspective, 300 rupees can almost get you a room overnight, which is about 400 rupees for two twin beds. However, this juice is delicious and super sweet, and I need a burst of sugar when I'm walking for hours on end.
After this short break, we walked from Jhinnu to Chhomrong and stayed at the Excellent View Top lodge at the top of the hill, which was my favorite place to stay on the trek because the food was delicious and the room was pretty comfortable.
For a late lunch, I ate potato egg curry with rice and a cup of lemon tea (if you haven't noticed a trend yet, I drank a ton of tea during the trek). This lunch was the best meal I had during the trek, and it looked beautiful.
For dinner, my dad and I shared a veggie pizza with a side of fries. The pizza was decent with a nice and super crispy crust.
For dessert, we ordered apple fritters drizzled in a light coat of honey. I've never actually had an apple fritter before, but I don't think this was quite it. Their version was just a deep-fried circular apple slice with no substantial or flavored batter covering the slice. Not too bad but not my favorite.
Day 4: Chhromrong to Himalaya
Excellent View Top lodge lived up to its name because at 5 am, there were no clouds in the sky, and the view of the mountains was beautiful. We could see Machapuchare and Annapurna South in the distance.
I ate toast with fried eggs and a bowl of porridge for breakfast. It was nice of them to cut the crust off the toast though I would've eaten it either way.
We also tried the "Gurung" bread with honey. It's basically just deep-fried dough, and it tastes pretty good when it's fresh and warm.
After we were done eating, we packed up our backpacks and headed out from our lodge. There was a tourist checkpoint near the bottom of Chhomrong, and then we were on our way to Sinuwa. We happened to meet two American guys from Atlanta, John and Alex, and one guy from South Korea, Kyo, who were also trekking to Annapurna Base Camp. They were faster than me and my dad, but we saw them again at Dovan, the town after Sinuwa, and we ate lunch with them.
I had veggie and egg fried rice with lemon tea for lunch.
Our last stop for the day was called Himalaya, where my dad and I stayed at Himalaya Lodge. The group of guys went on to Deurali, the next town, but we ended up seeing them again and again in the upcoming days.
For dinner I ate daal bhaat and tarkaari with paapad and achaar and more lemon tea. It was pretty good. The daal was yellow lentils and the tarkaari I believe was iskush, a type of Nepali squash. Paapad is a crispy Indian bread. This lodge was my least favorite of all the lodges we stayed at. It was a damp and chilly night so the room, the bed, and the blanket were damp, and I slept with all my clothes on plus an extra pair of pants and a jacket.
Day 6: Himilaya to Annapurna Base Camp
We did not eat breakfast at Himalaya because we woke up early per usual around 5 am and the lodge owners were not awake yet. They still weren’t up a half an hour later, so I woke them up to pay and get out of there. We walked to Deurali and ate breakfast there.
In Deurali, we ate breakfast at Dream Lodge, and I had porridge and black tea. Porridge really started to grow on me during this trek. After Deurali we made our way to Bamboo, and from Bamboo we walked to Machapuchare Base Camp.
At Machapuchare Base Camp, I ate noodles with veggies and guess what, more lemon tea. From Machapuchare Base Camp we headed to our final destination, Annapurna Base Camp. We were lucky because the skies really cleared up in the evening.
In this picture, you can see the beautiful Machapuchare mountain. Machapuchare means "fish tail" in Nepali, which makes sense if you look at this mountain's double peak at a certain angle.
For dinner, I ate veggie momos and drank lemon tea. Momos are a type of steamed Nepali dumplings that are so good and so easy to make. My mom and cousin make them all the time when we are in the U.S.
Day 7: Annapurna Base Camp to Sinuwa
We woke up at 4:30 am hoping to see some mountains but unfortunately, it was very cloudy. However, it started clearing up around an hour later, which is when I had the chance to take my cover picture of the porridge with the mountain.
For breakfast, I had a cup of black tea and porridge because I’m apparently a porridge addict now. Alex, one of the guys from Atlanta that we met on the trail, took this prime porridge selfie of us two, which really captures the happiness porridge brings to my life, and bonus, you can see Annapurna I in the background.
After, I finished eating, my dad and I started the trek back down. The way back down was a lot easier and faster than the way up because we had gravity working with us.
We stopped at Dovan again for lunch. It looks about the same as my day 5 picture at Dovan, but this time I got chicken fried rice not veggie and egg. We ate lunch with John and Alex again.
We parted ways with them at Sinuwa where my dad and I stayed because they were on the move, and we were tired.
At Sinuwa, we stayed at Sherpa lodge, and I ate rice and veggie curry with a side of paapad. It was a good, simple meal perfect after the long day of walking I just had.
Day 8: Sinuwa to Jhinnu
In the morning, I had more porridge and black tea.
We walked from Sinuwa to Chhomrong and then to our last destination of the day, Jhinnu. At Jhinnu we went directly to the same lodge where we had stopped and got snacks at on day 2, Namaste Lodge. This lodge had by far the best room we stayed in. Since it was off-season they offered us the room on the second floor for a deal – only 500 rupees! It had a nice western-style attached bathroom with hot water and two comfortable twin beds.
We went to the famous hot springs at Jhinnu and sat in the water with some other trekkers we had met on the trail. I can't explain how good the warm water felt on all my joints. We stayed there for at least two hours!
For lunch, we ate back at Namaste Lodge. I ate stir-fried noodles with chicken and a cup of lemon tea, which was all quite good.
For dinner, I made a huge mistake. I decided to go a different route than the way that I had been eating the whole trek, which was simple foods that are pretty common in Nepal. Instead, I decided to get a bean and cheese burrito. I wish I was joking when I say that it was one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten, but it was one of the worst things I have ever eaten. The sauce was a combination of ketchup and spaghetti sauce. The tortilla was soggy, and the cheese just tasted wrong.
Day 9: Jhinnu to Pokhara
Breakfast at Jhinnu was the last meal that I ate on my trek. It was a veggie omelet with a cup of black tea.
After Jhinnu, my dad and I took a different way back and caught a taxi at the roadhead at Siwai. We were lucky because it was the only taxi that we saw for the three hours it took to drive back to Pokhara and we didn't see any buses for almost an hour.
All in all, my trek in Nepal is and will be one of my favorite and most memorable memories in my life. The aches, sunburn, and numerous leeches were all worth it to see the amazing Annapurna mountain range up close and personal along with all the beautiful scenery along the way, as well as the great people we met. If you ever have the chance, take a trek in Nepal because the food isn't half bad, and the memories you make will last a lifetime.