Kathmandu

After paying for our visas and navigating our way through Nepal's only international airport, we were immediately accosted by dozens of taxi drivers and touts trying to get us to go to their guest house. We chose one taxi driver who seemed nice enough (and, more importantly, cheap enough) and headed to Thamel, the tourist centre of Kathmandu.

Everyone in Kathmandu has a brother, cousin or friend who either owns a guest house or a trekking company and our taxi driver was no exception. We agreed to check out his guest house and ended up staying as it was cheap and inoffensive. Everyone in Nepal is extraordinarily friendly. We enjoyed a welcome cup of tea with our taxi driver on the roof and then had a well-needed shower before heading out into the crazy streets of Thamel to find a trekking agency to arrange our Annapurna trek with.

The streets of Thamel are very narrow, winding and are absolutely full of touts for trekking companies. We must have had a sign on us advertising the fact that we were in the market for a trek as we were constantly hassled the entire afternoon. After such a long day already (we didn't get to sleep during the trip from China) our patience and nerves were a little on edge and the confusion of the city felt intense. After speaking with a few companies we funnily enough decided to trek with our taxi driver's company as they offered the best price and seemed the most genuine. We decided to go tackle the Annapurna circuit and booked the trek from the 19th of September to the 8th of October.

The next day we went shopping to stock up on all our trekking gear. Our company was lending us sleeping bags, down jackets and walking poles so we didn't need to buy too much extra stuff. In the evening we indulged in a meal at a fancy steak house and had glorious steak which was the best meal since we left Australia!

That night we packed our things ready for the trek and tried to prepare ourselves mentally for what lay ahead...