Happy New Year!!! Here is a picture of the perfect white yak to bring everybody luck in coming months.

While trekking the Annapurna Circuit, we met Glen, an IT professional turned Tibetan Buddhism teacher. He is a classic Contemporary Nomad having lived only five out of the last twenty three years in his native Australia. Admittedly, it is almost impossible trying to force Glen’s life in a few paragraphs, and so it leaves me only scratching the surface. Glen started out like many young Australians after completing their education: go abroad, work and travel for a while and move back to Australia. It wasn’t until eight years later, however, that he returned back home. Continue…

We were very lucky to spot a herd of over 30 Himalayan blue sheep. Speaking of blue isn’t that sky insane. I know it looks fake, but that’s without a polarizing filter or Photoshop alterations. There’s nothing like the sky without pollution!

The second leg of the Annapurna circuit is a spectacular 5-day stretch across the Manang Valley. This portion of the circuit begins as you walk out of the Continue…

The Annapurna Circuit was only opened to tourism in 1977. What started out as “teahouse trekking” where tourists stayed in simple teahouses and ate local dishes, has become an almost luxurious experience. I’m using the word “luxurious” in a relative sense because we expected Continue…

Tony and I had been walking for seven hours and were only 45 minutes away from Tal, where we would spend the night, when we ran into a very upset French couple. “Za Maoists are about ten minutes from ‘ere and are demanding money!” the Frenchman exclaimed and told us that they had to pay the equivalent of $20 each (100 rupees for each day of hiking on the circuit). We were left standing alone on the trail with a sinking feeling in our stomachs because we had heard about violence Continue…

Our first leg of the Annapurna Circuit is a 5-day stretch along the Marsyangdi River. Beginning in a region of terraced fields and Gurung villages, the narrow path leads through a series Continue…

The first and most important item on our what-to-do-in-Nepal list was hiking the Annapurna Circuit, one of the most popular trekking routes in the world. Luckily, we’ll be trekking somewhat out of season, so we hope that we won’t be plodding along the trails with a million other tourists.

The Annapurna range, part of the Himalayas, is surrounded by the Annapurna Circuit, an epic trail of Continue…