Annapurna Circuit Trek

After breakfast, start the first real walking day at a deliberately slow pace. Leave Dharapani past the stone houses and flat roofs of Bagarchhap, the first sign of Tibetan-influenced country, then climb through pine and fir forest above the Marsyangdi. Where the forest opens around Timang, Manaslu and Lamjung Himal appear to the east.

Continue through Koto to Chame, at 2,670 metres, the district headquarters of Manang, with a police post, a few shops and the second ACAP checkpoint. By afternoon the air has a real chill, and a fleece comes out of the daypack for the first time. Legs that spent yesterday folded in a jeep feel properly used again. Dinner and the night are in a local teahouse.

Summary: Walk 5 to 6 hours (15 km) via Bagarchhap, Timang and Koto, mostly in pine forest with views of Manaslu and Lamjung Himal, to Chame (2,670 m). Overnight in a teahouse.

After breakfast, walk up the narrowing valley past the apple orchards at Bhratang. The trail then runs beneath Paungda Danda, a single curved slab of rock rising more than a thousand metres from the river. Beyond it, the forest thins and the valley floor widens into the upper Marsyangdi, and the country starts to look higher and drier.

Climb to Upper Pisang, at 3,300 metres, a village of stacked stone houses and prayer flags facing Annapurna II across the valley. A small gompa at the top of the village is worth the short climb before dinner. You are above 3,000 metres for the first time, so from now on your guide will ask each morning how you slept and how your head feels.

Summary: Walk 5 to 6 hours (14 km) past Bhratang's orchards and the Paungda Danda rock face to Upper Pisang (3,300 m), facing Annapurna II. Overnight in a teahouse.

After breakfast, leave the lower valley trail to Humde to most other traffic and take the upper trail instead. The first hour is the hard part: steep switchbacks climb about 400 metres to Ghyaru, the toughest single climb so far, and it is the reason fewer people choose this way. The reward is the rest of the day.

From Ghyaru, the trail follows the high side of the valley to Ngawal, at 3,660 metres, with Annapurna II, III and IV lined up across the valley the whole way and the chortens and mani walls of the villages in front of them. Climbing high and sleeping in Ngawal also helps your body adjust to the altitude before Manang. Overnight in a teahouse.

Summary: Walk 4 to 5 hours (11 km): a steep 400 m climb to Ghyaru, then a high trail facing Annapurna II, III and IV to Ngawal (3,660 m). Overnight in a teahouse.

After breakfast, walk gently down from Ngawal through Julu and Mungji to the valley floor, where the land is now dry and brown, closer to a high desert than the forests of three days ago. At Braga, the village climbs the hillside beneath its old gompa. If it is open, your guide takes you inside to see rows of clay figures lit by the doorway.

Continue to Manang, at 3,540 metres, the largest village on the circuit and the base for the days ahead, with bakeries, gear shops and the Himalayan Rescue Association aid post. Glaciers hang off Gangapurna directly above the village. Settle into your teahouse for the first of two nights, knowing tomorrow has no new destination.

Summary: Walk 4 to 5 hours (9 km) via Braga and its hillside gompa to Manang (3,540 m), the main village of the upper valley. First of two nights in a Manang teahouse.

After breakfast, spend a planned rest day following the rule of climb high, sleep low. Hike up past Gangapurna Lake, the milky glacial pool below the Gangapurna icefall, and on up the moraine ridge for a view back over Manang, going only as far as feels right for you, then return to the village for lunch.

In spring and autumn, the Himalayan Rescue Association aid post, staffed by volunteer doctors, gives a free talk on altitude sickness at 3 pm, and it is worth the hour. The rest of the afternoon is free: a cinnamon roll from a bakery, laundry drying on a flat roof, and your guide's pulse oximeter check in the evening. Drink more water than feels necessary.

Summary: An acclimatisation hike of 3 to 4 hours (5 km) above Gangapurna Lake, then a free afternoon and the optional HRA altitude talk. Second night in Manang (3,540 m).

After breakfast, walk a deliberately short day, because above 4,000 metres a short day is the point. Climb out of Manang past Tengi and Gunsang, leaving the last big villages behind, and turn north up the Jarsang Khola valley. The trees are gone for good now, and blue sheep sometimes graze the slopes above the trail.

Arrive by lunchtime at Yak Kharka, at about 4,050 metres, a cluster of lodges on grazing land where yaks spend the summer. Rest in the afternoon, take a short walk above the lodges if you feel up to it, and have an early dinner. Lighter sleep is normal at this height, and something to tell your guide rather than keep to yourself.

Summary: Walk 3 to 4 hours (10 km) past Gunsang into the Jarsang Khola valley to Yak Kharka (about 4,050 m). A restful afternoon at altitude. Overnight in a teahouse.

After breakfast, make the final approach to the pass. Continue through Ledar and cross the Jarsang Khola on a suspension bridge, then traverse a stretch of loose, landslide-prone slope where your guide keeps the group moving steadily and without stopping. The valley closes in around you, all grey scree and sky.

Arrive at Thorong Phedi, at about 4,540 metres, a handful of lodges at the foot of the pass. In the dining room, every group is quietly checking layers, headlamps and water bottles for the morning. Your guide gives a final pass briefing and checks everyone's oxygen reading before an early night. Nerves are normal tonight, and so is not sleeping much.

Summary: Walk 3 to 4 hours (7 km) via Ledar and across the Jarsang Khola to Thorong Phedi (about 4,540 m). Early dinner and pass briefing. Overnight in a teahouse.

Wake around 4 am and start by headlamp in the cold: a steep first hour up to High Camp, then a long, slow zigzag over snow or frozen scree, one step per breath, past cairns marking the false summits. Then the prayer flags appear across the saddle beside a sign reading 5,416 metres. This is Thorong La, the highest point of the circuit.

Stay for a photo and a sip of tea from the flask, then begin the part few people warn you about: about 1,600 metres down on steep, loose ground into the Mustang side, knees working hard as the land turns ochre. By mid afternoon, reach Muktinath, at about 3,760 metres, a temple sacred to Hindus and Buddhists, with 108 stone water spouts and a natural gas flame beside a spring.

Summary: Walk 7 to 9 hours (16 km): a pre-dawn climb over Thorong La (5,416 m), then a steep 1,600 m descent to Muktinath (about 3,760 m). Overnight in a teahouse.

After breakfast, everything is downhill and easier. Walk from Muktinath through Jharkot, mud-brick houses around an old fort and gompa, then down the dry, wind-carved valley to Kagbeni on the Kali Gandaki. Its narrow lanes and red monastery mark the last village before Upper Mustang, a restricted area that needs its own permit.

From Kagbeni, a jeep covers the short road, about 10 km and 30 to 40 minutes, down the Kali Gandaki to Jomsom, at 2,720 metres, the district headquarters of Mustang. The afternoon wind up this valley is strong enough to lean on, which is why Jomsom's flights leave early. After ten days in the high country, a hot shower and a proper bed feel well earned.

Summary: Walk 3 to 4 hours (11 km) via Jharkot to Kagbeni, then a 30 to 40 minute jeep ride to Jomsom (2,720 m). Overnight in a lodge in Jomsom.

Take an early morning flight, timed to leave before the valley winds pick up. The small plane follows the Kali Gandaki gorge south between Dhaulagiri and the Annapurna massif you have just walked around, landing in Pokhara about 20 minutes later. Flights here depend on the weather; if there is a delay, your guide arranges the road journey instead.

A 15 to 20 minute drive takes you to Temple Bell at 17 Lakeside, ten minutes on foot from Phewa Lake. At 822 metres, Pokhara feels almost tropical after two weeks of teahouses, the air closer to home than anything since Kathmandu. The afternoon is yours: a walk or a boat on Phewa Lake, a long lunch in Lakeside, or simply sleeping in a room that stays warm.

Summary: A 20 minute morning flight from Jomsom to Pokhara (822 m), a short drive to the hotel and a free afternoon by Phewa Lake. Overnight at Temple Bell.

After breakfast, fly 25 to 30 minutes back to Kathmandu, with the Himalaya off the right-hand side of the plane on a clear morning. Your driver meets you at the domestic terminal for the 30 minute transfer back to the Mercure Kathmandu Sukedhara Heights, where the rest of the day is yours.

The afternoon is left open on purpose. It absorbs a delayed Jomsom flight if one happened, and otherwise gives you time for the shops of Thamel, a walk around Boudhanath Stupa, or a massage that makes far more sense now than it did two weeks ago. Tonight is a quiet one in Kathmandu, with a proper bed and hot water on tap.

Summary: A 25 to 30 minute flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu (1,400 m) and a transfer to your hotel. A free afternoon, kept open as a buffer for any travel delays.

Your last morning runs on your flight's schedule rather than the trail's. Enjoy a slow breakfast at the hotel and, if your flight time allows, some last shopping in Kathmandu for gifts to take home. Nepal runs 2 hours 15 minutes behind Singapore, so remember to set your watch forward on the way.

Then take a private transfer, about 30 minutes, to Tribhuvan International Airport for the flight home to Changi Airport. Back in Singapore, the humidity meets you at the aerobridge, and somewhere in the first week, climbing the office stairs without a second thought, you will remember what 5,416 metres felt like.

Summary: Breakfast and free time depending on your flight, then a private 30 minute transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport for your flight home.