Kathmandu WHS visits with cultural guide on Pashupatinath Temple, Bouddhanath stupa and Basantapur Durbar squares and buys necessary equipments for the Annapurna Circuit Trek.

The day begins with drive to Besisahar – Bhulbhule about 6 hrs from Kathmandu. We take lunch at Besi Sahar and continue for a further 1 hours drive to Bhulbhule a small village situated on Marsyangdi riverbank. Settle in the Lodge with room allocation and take shower and rest.

Take early morning breakfast and the luggage preparation for the porter and starts the trek to Nadi Bazar that takes about and half hrs as an easy trail and the 2h climb up to Bahun Danda, a beautiful village where we take our day lunch. Then it’s down, across terraces and over small streams, before the Ghermu village that located on riverbank of Marsyangdi and following it upstream for the village of Syange.

Second day of the trek, we cross the Marsyangdi River through a suspension bridge, rejoin the road, and ascend steeply up to the Jagat village. We continue our journey up to the Chamche village where we take lunch. After lunch, we cross again the river and trek up to the Tal village where we stay for the Night.

Today, we proceed through the right side of riverbank by crossing Kawal khola and after few minutes walking we reach to the place where very beautiful Mani wall are constructed. We continue up to the Chaijo where we can see a big landslide but we cross the river through a suspension bridge walk alng lefthand side of the River up to the Kyodo and finally to the Dharapani Village where we take our lunch. We can see first glimpse of the Manaslu Mountain and it is the junction of both Annapurna Circuit and Manaslu Circuit. After 2h trekking, we reach the destination of the day Baggarchhap. Installation in Lodge and rest.

Today, the rough and rocky trek trail climbs alongside the Marshyangdi river towards Tengjya village (2360m) and Kopar village (2590m). We proceed towards the Chame Village, the capital of Manang District from where we can see Annapurna II.

As usually, we begins the day with early morning breakfast and starts slowly walking through the dense oak and pine forest by crossing many suspension bridges. It starts to pears to see the massive black rock mountain of Paunda Danda at an altitude of 3040m. We climb again towards Pisang village, which is situated at an altitude of 3300m.

The trek trail always follows the Marsyandi River high elevation banks and there are two ways to the Manang. From Pisang we enter in the rain shadow areas of the Annapurna Massif. Northern trail climbs through Gyaru, Ngaru and Ngawal villages and it rewards better views of annapurnas, Gangapurna including other southern Himalayas of Annapurna massif. Similarly second path, which follows densely forested plain path through Hungde airstrip is very easy to trek. Both trails rejoin at Munji village and continue to the village of Braga (3475m). The Braga village is very famous for its monasteries hanged on the cliff and dated back to 5th Centuries. Legend says that Melarepa once medited in a cave here in Braga. After the visit this beautiful monastery, we will reach to Mangang Village around half an hours of walking where we spend our 2 nights acclimatizing.

Today is the rest day after weeks long trekking. We will make altitude gaining day excursion in a cave monastery, which is situated above the village. We can meet, interact with the old lama and get blessings prior to cross the Thorung-la (5416m) after 2 days later. This place provides excellent view of Gangapurna Mountain and Gangapurna Glacial Lake as well as view of whole Manang Village too. After an hour-long stay in the monastery, we descend to the village and make some village exploration before evening gathering in the restaurant hall of the Lodge in front of wood fire.

Today, we gain approximately 750m elevations to reach up to the Ledar Village (4250m). We begin our journey as before early in the morning leaving the Manang village crossing through the Tenki village by leaving the Marsyangdi River. From Tenki village, the vegetations are steadily more parse and the trail follows Jarsang Khola valley towards the direction of Ledar Village.

From Ledar, the trail descends few meters down to the River and cross the river we then climb up again for the Thorung Phedi, which is situated at an altitude of 4420m. We take our day lunch in Phedi and we continue further more climbing up to the High camp at the elevation of 4600m. Before decades ago, there were no lodges available on high camp and all trekkers should stay at Phedi and climb the Thorung-la Pass early in the morning so that one can reach the pass summit before noon to avoid high-speed wind coming from the direction of Jomsom/Muktinath.

The journey for final day of the Thorong-La pass (5416m), the highest point of the Annapurna Circuit Trek, begins early break fast in Lodge. About four hours climb up to the pass which is clearly marked by the Chortens, prayer flags and sign boards on the pass, you reached the top, you are rewarded by the magnificent view from the top. We will spend little moment on the pass by taking some group photos or have some rest.
We then descend towards the Mukitnath Village, which takes around 3h to reach the sacred site of Holy Muktinath Temple. We visit the site and walk down to Ranipauwa for overnight say in lodge.

Today, we trek down to Lupra village, which is very old village of Thakalis, and visit an old bon monastery (pre-Buddhist) dated back to XI century. We take our day lunch in this village and trek down to the river and rejoin the road to Jomsom. Before crossing the Kaligandaki River, we take direction of THINI GAON. This village is also known for the ethnic Thakalis (traders) and we will stay in Homestay there. The village committee has launched home stay service recently in May 2018. Welcomed by the committee members and allocation of rooms. We then hike up to the Dhumba Lake- very beautiful lake up above a Bon Monastery. Tharus Cultural Show at evening in Homstay Village of Thini Gaon.