Nepal has had a rough year with massive flooding and an upsurge in violence by Maoist insurgents. So as the trekking season, which runs roughly from late September through to early December opens, businesses, which rely heavily on the surge of tourist traffic during this time, face bleak prospects as cautious travelers find safer destinations.
But it's an ill wind that brings no good to anyone, and for those undeterred by reports of the kingdom's seemingly endless political difficulties, it is a time when they can avoid the crowds, even along some of the most popular trekking routes.
"It's an opportunity to have the mountains to yourself," said a lone Australian trekker met on the Annapurna Circuit late last month. The circuit is a trekking route in central Nepal that attracts thousands every year, and is often disparagingly labeled "The Coca-Cola Trail" because of the relative ease of procuring material comforts along the way.
Passing through the police checkpoint outside the town of Chame late on a wet, blustery afternoon, only three other trekkers had passed that day according to the police log, which the bored troopers were more than willing to show us. "Normally at this time [late September], we can expect up to 300 hundred people to stay overnight in Chame," said the proprietor of the Sangetse Hotel, where our group of three trekkers were the only guests.
The Annapurna Circuit runs for about 350km around the Annapurna massif, one of the great mountains of the Himalayas and one with its own share of mountaineer history.
The circuit provides views of many great mountains with such exotic names as Himalchulee, Nilgiri, Dawlagiri and Manaslu and follows two great rivers, the Marsyangdi on the northward leg and the Kali Gandaki, the sacred river of Krishna that runs into the Ganges, heading south. Along the way trekkers pass through the predominantly Hindu lowlands up into the increasingly Buddhist lands on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The mixture of cultural interest with magnificent scenery and considerable physical challenge has made this one of the world's great treks.
The Maoist troubles have done little to affect the area around Annapurna, but taking the bus out from Kathmandu to the trailhead at Besisahar, around a seven-hour bus ride away, the interminable police and army checkpoints were a constant reminder of kingdom's political malaise. Tourists were generally treated with courtesy by the sometimes dangerously undisciplined troops, and even the Maoists, according to Tilak Magar, a trekking firm operator in Kathmandu, generally only request "donations" from trekkers.
"Last time we met with them, each tourist and the guide gave them US$100. They even gave us a receipt in case we met with other Maoist groups," he said. For an upcoming trek around Manaslu, to the east of the Annapurna Circuit, he said he had advised his clients to have some spare US dollars on hand.
Along the well-established route of the Annapurna Circuit, such dangers seem far away, as trekkers hike from one comfortable teahouse to the next. In the 20 years since the circuit has been opened to tourists, the windowless insect-infested mud huts with wooden bunks have become much more amenable to urban tastes. Solar-heated hot water is one of the great luxuries after a long day on the trail, but we soon realized after two days of icy showers, that this only applied when the day had been sunny.
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