Returning Home

From the itinerary: Return to New Delhi and overnight at JW Marriott before returning to London at 8:40am on Etihad Airlines

All good things, and some things that aren't so good, have to come to an end including this trek to Annapurna Base Camp. The return trip goes from Kathmandu to Delhi where I overnight at the JW Marriott at Aerocity. My onward journey is an early flight to Abu Dhabi and, finally, on to LHR.

Sadly, I have to leave Dwarkas. For breakfast I try a rice crepe filled with chicken

A perfect weather day, I found a nice place at the pool to relax after breakfast

Nepal airport has new heights of idiocy. I was told to wait for the flight in a land side lounge where they called the flight when it was time to go through security. By the time they called us to go through security it was last call, so my stress level was heightened already. I went through the security search and was on the last bus to the plane. Upon arriving at the plane, I was amazed to find a secondary search at the top of the stairs to the plane. The security staff were wearing masks and the engines were active so I had no idea what they were asking me in order to search. At this point I had a sense of humor failure.

Finally in my seat I was able to relax, along with buni.

I had the omelet on the first flight

and settled back to watch the amazing views from flight. I've done this route about 6 times in the last five months and this was the best weather yet.

Here's my room in the JW Marriott. This was a quick night as I had to be up at 4:30am to get on the 8:40 flight

This was the start of Ramadan and the airport in Abu Dhabi was empty. Thank goodness the champagne was flowing as I got on board

Buni settled right into the seat where we had some champagne and we read the menu. here's a shot of my food

General thoughts about my Annapurna Trek:

This was one of more difficult trips I've ever had from a health perspective. Although I never tested, I have a feeling I contracted Covid which explains a lot of what I went through. If this was the case, I did really well to have made it up and back. I realized how important hydration is and will never forget that lesson.

My stair training was very useful

Weather can really make or break a trip.

I wouldn't go again. Not only was the weather bad, but there weren't many animals or flowers. This meant there wasn't a lot to look at while I was going through a lot of heavy physical exertion.

Going early in the season meant not many people, which was a good thing. The people I did meet were very nice.

Facilities at the top worse than EBC, but I enjoyed having en-suite bathrooms at the lower accommodations AND I really appreciated having rooms to myself. These two factors were very unusual on these treks.

I enjoyed the feeling of "champagne legs" from the Diamox.

Worst experience - caught in the rain and looking up a steep staircase on day 2 just before we were caught in a hail storm and not knowing how much further we had to hike

Best experience - sitting in the Jhinu tea house balcony with my feet up watching the snow blow off the mountain peak - perfect temperature and light breeze.