Up here in the mountains, I usually wake up as early as 4am, waking up in peace, quiet and alone. There were no other sound but silence… there were no other light but darkness. Its so refreshing and I have all the time for myself at this moment… using it to further refresh both my mind and body. Starting with my mind, I try to think on all the good things I had that I can remember… that crossed my mind. It takes quite a while since there were many and I took my time to gather all of it… the more I muster all the memories of good things that happen in my life, the more contented I feel. At one point, with all these good thought congregate inside my mind, I burst it out in words…”all praise belong to you my Creator”… fully aware that that the Source that created me and the universe Im living in… is listening closely to me. The process took me a few minutes while Im still lying on my bed… even to say such simple phrase. The stronger the intensity we have in our mind, the more meaningful we give to the word or phrase that we speak… which makes it really powerful. When the word or phrase we express is a powerful one, it gives a huge effect to us when we say it. It effects our subconscious mind. Mind power… a secret that has been taught in many ways since ages through different languages, philosophies and religions…

Then I proceed with my physical body, where I took time to stretch my body to increase the blood flow to all parts of my body including the brain… which is the most crucial especially in the early morning hours. I then do the things that I usually do when Im alone until… until I started to hear human voices communicating in distant… knowing that Im no more alone by myself. After a good breakfast, I started walking back on the trail together with Dinesh, my guide here in the Annapurna basecamp trek. It gets colder now since the winter is stepping nearer towards the northern hemisphere every single day. I started walking in early morning by wearing my thick down jacket. After a few minutes of walking, my body started to produce heat so I took off my down jacket and a few minutes later, I took off my sweater, wearing only tshirt… since the sun was getting higher spreading its warmth to the earth.

During my walk here in the Annapurna mountains, I feel like something is missing. I feel like I dont enjoy the hike here as much as I do when I was walking the Everest trail. The last two days before I reached the basecamp of Annapurna, I started to feel like its a burden for me walking in this trail. I then told my guide to speed up towards the basecamp, since Im already acclimatized, I can rush towards the basecamp which sits around 4000m altitude without worrying of altitude sickness. I think I finally started to get bored of mountains because Ive been hiking in the Himalayas since April from Bhutan. Ive been hiking too much this year and now finally in the middle of November, I think I have enough of it. The hike here is of course filled with beautiful views… such a powerful place… walking the trail here is something special. But since I started to get bored of all these, I failed to appreciate both the beauty and the special moment being here in the high mountains… which is a complete waste to me. Im not the type who go to places to tick off the bucket list but rather to appreciate the place, the moment and to experience. But sadly now, I have lost it.

I still do enjoy being here in the mountains especially when I started walking early in the morning when the earth is still lit by the golden morning light and when Im sipping my tea while watching the incredible view but the feeling isnt as strong compared to when I was walking the Everest trek a month earlier. But at least it feels good when I met my countrymen here which rarely happen when Im on the road. One I met while I took a short break in Machhapuchhre basecamp and another one was a couple I met in Annapurna Basecamp. It feels great to be able to speak my own mother tongue while Im on the road and exchange a lot of stories. And at least… I enjoyed my time while staying a night in Annapurna Basecamp… watching all the beautiful major peaks here including Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre especially on my favourite time, both sunrise and sunset and I was watching in full admiration the supermoon shining the light it bounces from the sun behind the mountains from the basecamp which stands above 4000m. After staying a night there, I walked fast back to Nayapul which took me two days and then back to Pokhara on the same day. My original plan was to walk all of Annapurna, where I plan to continue my walk in Annapurna Circuit which is the bigger route and finally into Upper Mustang in the north close to the border of Tibet. But now I think its not a good idea because I know I wont be able to enjoy it as much. Maybe I will do it some other time. I started to imagine different landscapes now… volcanoes, icebergs, deserts or even the beach. So this is probably the last mountain for me in Nepal…

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stunning supermoon at 4000m altitude

when the supermoon is shining