• Watching the mists swirl in the wind and finally, in the end, reveal Machu Picchu (Peru) early in the morning of our last day of the Inca Trail
• Having the hike to Condoriri (one of the peaks in the Cordillera Real, near La Paz) base camp all to ourselves and watching the spectacular Andean landscape change as the snow laid down overnight melted throughout the day
• Watching red flamingos go about there business at the red coloured (and aptly named) Laguna Colorado (Bolivian Altiplano)
• Catching a glimpse into the crater from the rim of Vulcan Lascar (near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile) at 5480m and looking up to get an incredible view along a chain of other vulcanoes stretching off into the distance
• Having the stunningly varied hike around Refugio Frey and Refugio Lynch (near Bariloche, Argentina) all to ourselves on a beautiful sunny Xmas day
• Watching the sun rise over a cloudless Cerro Fitz Roy (anyone who’s been to Los Glaciaros NP in Patagonia can attest to how hard it is to catch a glimpse of the peak through ever-present clouds, let alone catch it on a cloudless morning)
• Walking into the natural amphitheatre formed by the peaks at the end of the (wind-swept) French Valley, having passed cascades, sliding waterfalls, crystal-clear streams, beautiful forests and dramatic (and regularly calving) hanging glaciers (Torres del Paine NP, Chile)
• Glacier walking at the base of Cerro Torre (Los Glaciaros NP, Argentina) on a beautiful sunny day
• Watching a deep red sunset envelop Manhattan, and in particular the Empire State building, from the top of the Rockefeller centre (New York)
• Waking up to find snow falling on the balcony of our guesthouse in Lower Pisang and walking through a stunning winter wonderland for most of the morning (Annapurna Circuit, Nepal)
• Early morning ascent up to the Thorung-La (pass), the highest point (5416m) of the Annapurna Circuit (Nepal) and and afternoon descent into Muktinath, on a perfect (and very bright!) day. Actually, the whole week from Manang to Marpha was pretty hard to beat. Spoilt for choice of highlights, I had to pick one
• Watching our plans for a walk up Bessho-san disappear under two inches of snow (laid down in about half an hour!). Very scenic though (near Fukuoka, Japan)
• Walking through a snow covered gorge with crystal-clear streams and waterfalls called Sandan-kyo (near Hiroshima, Japan) on a beautiful sunny day
• Staying at a secluded and ancient monastery (with sleeping quarters just out the back of one of the temples!) on Emei Shan in China (although had mixed feelings about being woken up by the chanting monks at 4am )
• Watching the sun rise over the rice paddies and karst limestone peaks in Chaolong (near Yangshuo, China)
• Lazing about on a picture-perfect beach on Koh Samui (Thailand)
• And last but not least: sharing all these highlights (except for one or two of the sunrises perhaps, a bit too early for some ) with Justine, who every day makes me feel like I’m the luckiest man alive

And, of course, just as important, our food highlights:

• Asado (barbeque) lamb in El Calafate, Argentina
• Some salmon dish prepared by our friends in Vancouver, Canada
• Cup Cakes in New York (somewhere close to the Library)
• Cold Stone Creamery (icecream) in Times Square, New York
• Some pork dish prepared by our friends in Groningen, Holland
• Sushi in Kyoto, Japan
• Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima, Japan
• Hida beef in Takayama, Japan (apparently similar to, but less established than Kobe beef)
• Steak in Hong Kong (after 4 weeks of trekking in Nepal )
• Some fish dish in one of the restaurants in the Muslim quarter (Xian, China)
• Most of the food around the Sichuan province… spicy! (Chengdu, China)

And finally, yes, I’m working on posting the photos… house- and job-hunting just might have to come first unfortunately

• Upon moving into our room in Kathmandu we were slightly intrigued to find a complimentary box of matches with not the hotel logo on it but… Microsoft Windows? Perhaps one of the latest initiatives of the Gates Foundation?
• When checking the expiry date on some peanuts at the local supermarket, I found that it was 3 months from the date of production. The date of production was March 30th, so nothing that strange I guess… except that that day was March 28th.
• During our trek around Annapurna, at the end of one day I found that my deodorant had moved around and accidentally been emptied. Not wanting to smell too much (always a major concern when trekking ), of course we set out to look for some deodorant around the village we were staying in. We found some, which I was quite impressed with (at 1600m), but I was somewhat intrigued that the four different types that they sold were all produced by… Playboy. Makes you wonder about some of the trekkers that had dropped by previously throughout the years (and perhaps gave the locals the idea that this was a winning marketing strategy?).
• Many a guesthouse had a dining area for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc. Generally fairly functional areas, a (disturbingly large) number of them had spruced them up with a few posters. Makes sense, except that most of them were pictures of tanned, oiled-up body-builders or swiss chalets. One or two would’ve just been a little odd, but the regularity makes one wonder what the locals think westerners are into. Or what they’re into. Then again, Arnie in his heyday was pretty buffed…
• Cigarettes were regularly included on food menus. I’m guessing Nepal is still a couple of years away of banning smoking in restaurants and other public spaces.
• Quite a few clothes stores could be found selling the latest North Face (or other brandname) gear. At prices generally around 10% of what you’d expect to pay in western countries, the authenticity sometimes was a little questionable. Some stores perhaps made it a little to obvious though, one example I found was of some underwear made by “Calvan Klain”. Whoops.

Firstly, it took us 18 days (which included one rest day), which is simply just a lot of walking, even by our standards . Some probably do it in much less, some trekkers never make it though. The issue is not so much the 234km of walking (according to one guidebook I’ve seen, but who knows really, and that’s with sidetrips not included), but the crossing of the 5416m high Thorong La pass. Our trip included plenty of days to work our way up to this altitude (making the whole crossing perfectly safe) and we had the luxury of superfit porters carrying the bulk of our gear. Nonetheless we were overtaken by plenty of people along the way who a few days later were walking in the other direction (ie down the mountain) because they had pushed themselves too far. They were the lucky (and smart) ones, others less lucky were on mules, too weak to walk, probably on their way to an airport to be flown home. Anyway, most people of course do make it, but overall it’s definitely the most physically demanding (and rewarding) trek we’ve done.

Secondly, I’m not sure where we go from here . The trek itself is just awesome. The scenery is stunning and incredibly varied (going from an altitude of around 1000m to 5400m and back down). The guesthouses were basic to say the least, but most had some sort of shower and all had a bed to sleep on at the end of the day. The guesthouse owners were very friendly and whipped up great meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The weather was overall, just perfect, and as varied as the scenery. Temperatures ranged from humid and 25+ degrees, to crystal clear, dry and -5 degrees, if not less. Admittedly we had rain a few times (although always confined to the afternoons when we had done most if not all of our walking), but the mornings were almost without exception crystal clear and the days sunny. Most importantly, this included the days around and over the pass. One exception though: I will never forget opening the door to our bedroom one morning, expecting another crystal clear morning, only to be greeted by… snowflakes coming down gently right in front of me onto a pack of about 2 inches put down overnight. Of course it made the scenery even more stunning than it already was and it was the only day we had it. I guess that’s mountain weather for you. Melbourne’s supposed to sometimes have 4 seasons in one day, but on this trek I feel like we really had spring, summer, autumn and winter in the space of a few weeks.

Anyway, overall one of the absolute highlights of what has been a spectacular trip so far and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough to anyone interested. For now though, I might head back to the hotel and watch TV for a bit, just because I can . I’m sure it won’t be too long before I wish I was back amongst the Nepalese mountains again though…

Seems like a lifetime since we left Japan. Not only because we have been here a few weeks now, but mainly because the contrast in everything is just incredible. I think it’s quite safe to say Japan is one of the wealthiest, efficient, clean and full places I’ve ever been too. Kathmandu on the other hand is well… just full really, and as far as I can tell, probably the poorest I’ve been too. (Then again, I’ve jokingly been told that if Kathmandu feels a little hectic, I should try an Indian city one of these days.) It’s probably just standard South East Asian fare (don’t really know, never having been much further than Singapore and Malaysia), but it takes a little bit to get used to all the touts, daily power cuts, dodgy fake clothes shops and crappy bathrooms. I guess everything is all relative, but unfortunately compared to Japan, it’s all very relative

Get out of Kathmandu though and you soon forget about all these things. The locals are incredibly friendly (although I’m always sceptic of local peoples’ friendliness towards tourists they rely on for an income, it seems quite genuine in the Nepalese countryside),  at every guesthouse they’re able to whip up a feast on something only slightly more advanced than what I’d generally make do with on a camping trip and the scenery is just stunning and incredibly varied. I imagine it’s only a question of time before we find ourselves back here.

On the logistical front, we’ve had to change our plans between here and China a little bit to include a few days stopover in Hong Kong to (hopefully easily) organise a visa for China. I know, I know (”visa, what visa?” were my words just before we set out on the Annapurna Circuit trek…). I basically stuffed up and forgot to organise our China visa’s before we left. Just slipped through with organising moving back to Oz, the wedding and the rest of our 6 month honeymoon. No drama hopefully, but it will be the first test of our usual travel style (being able to travel to a set schedule to maximise what you see along the way, but with little room for error), so see how we go…

Other than that, just a bit of souvenir shopping, catching up on sleep, catching up on news (The Economist interestingly is easier to find here than in central London, every second shop seems to sell it…) and enjoying a few last tasty and cheap meals is all that is left for us to do over the next few days… Hard work, I know