Upper Pisang route

One of the main highlights of the Annapurna Circuit hike for me 10 years ago was taking the Upper Pisang route (in fact, it was one of the main highlights of that entire year-long trip). At the village of Pisang hikers have a choice of taking a low trail along the valley floor by the river, or taking a tougher high trail that climbs steeply up to the village of Gharyu and travels high along the valley wall giving incredible views of the Annapurna mountain range.

Not many people take the high route, which is a real pity. In fact, I've heard that many of the guides hired by tourists actively discourage taking the high route, or never even mention it as an option. This is simply to make their lives easier, since the low route is physically much easier. The sad irony here is that those tourists, who probably paid a relative fortune for their guide, are missing probably the best section of the entire trail, and anyway, hiring a guide in the first place is a ridiculous thing to do on the Annapurna hikes, as the trail is blatantly obvious and you'd have to be severely retarded to get lost.

Anyway, 10 years ago I was feeling great when myself and Hanno arrived at Pisang. Hanno wasn't feeling the best though, and so we decided to split up for the day, with Hanno taking the low road and me taking the high road, the plan being to meet up again in the town of Manang. It was along this high road that I came across what I considered to be simply the most stunning view I've ever seen anywhere in the world. From a high vantage point about 25 minutes walk beyond the village of Gharyu, and only about 10 metres off the trail itself, is a tiny little lookout point with just a small rock to sit on. There are no signs, no information boards, no fence, no nothing really, just the most beautiful panoramic views of the vast valley with snow capped mountains in front of you running down through lush forests to the raging river below.

When I met up with Hanno later I told him I reckoned I'd found the perfect place to propose to my future wife - all I had to do was meet her first! So 10 years on, and here I am again on the Upper Pisang road, and after spending the night at the village of Gharyu we started walking to the 'spot'. Sarah was anxious to get moving early, so I'd had to delay our departure for about an hour to allow the sun rise high enough to illuminate the whole valley properly. And then when we did leave, a couple of Russian trekkers were just ahead of us. I was worried that they would stop at my 'spot' and start taking photos, but luckily they didn't even notice the tiny little lookout point, and so when we got there there wasn't sight nor sound of another soul.

Obviously a photo or a video can never do justice to a place like this (especially the sense of height above the valley floor, which is about 600m I think), but I've uploaded a wee video taken just after I proposed, with Sarah understandably delighted (of course!). It gives a bit of a taste of the place anyway (the first short pause in the video is of the town of Gharyu where we stayed the night before - the sun is rising behind the town, which is why it's in shadow and not very clear).





The actual proposal itself went along the lines of:

Well Sarah, I reckon this has got to be the most beautiful place in all the world,
And I'm here with the most beautiful girl in all the world,
And you'd make me the most beautifully happy guy in all the world,
If you'd agree to be my wife?

Yeah, pretty corny alright, but at least the location was a knock-out. Well, it was supposed to go something along those lines, but I got halfway through the third line of my little speech-let when Sarah cottoned on and kinda broke down in emotional tears, which got me going, and I can't actually remember exactly how the last part came out, but I'm pretty sure I bungled it a wee bit. Still, Sarah can't remember exactly what I said either, so that's alright.

Being 4000 meters up in the Himalaya meant I didn't have much opportunity to shop around for a ring (or phone Sarah's Dad to ask for his daughter's hand!), so I thoughtfully hand-crafted a marvelous engagement ring myself that morning - from a brochure on Gharyu town. All very romantic I'm sure you'll agree - but sure it's the thought that counts of course...