The last update to Tom's trip indicated he was doing an acclimitisation trek called the Annapurna circuit. I am wondering if he is altitude affected already as his blog is not all that easy to decipher. As best I can tell however he completed the circuit although not without incident. The key points i could decipher include;
- Getting food poisoning the day before the scheduled departure which meant an additional day layover prior to commencing the trek 1 day late.
- When he did get started he did 3 days trekking in one day to catch up lost time, this did not impress his Sherpa guide who clearly made his displeasure known.
- As if food poisoning was not enough, it would seem Tom also caught a bout of the flu which he is battling to get over.
- In summary the acclimitisation trek took Tom in stages to 5200 metres and back again over the 12 days, after which he was again back in Kathmandu.
It would appear he then had another short break prior to heading off for Tibet, hopefully without the flu. Tom reported the trip to Tibet was uneventful and they travelled in a relatively comfortable mini-bus to the Tibetan border. The border crossing did have a few snags as the immigration officials checked their baggage and even cameras for any pictures of the Dalai Lama. Of course Tom had taken a photo inside a temple which did have a picture of the Dalai Lama on display.....he was asked to delete the photo.
As ususal...for the full account of these events go to Tom's blog - http://kowp.com.au/category/blog/
Stay tuned for the next installment.