Finding a good place to eat in developing countries can pose a bit of a challenge. Tracking down eateries that serve yummy food is obviously important, but actually poses less of a problem. Simply because if the food at a place is not to your liking, you can just write off the dollar and try your luck again next door. Slightly more crucial is the matter of food safety. No use in slurping down the best-tasting Laksa in town, if it sends you to the loo for the next three days straight (I miss you, KL).

It’s 20°C outside. Had a wee bit of a hail storm just now. Anybody drinking their scotch on the rocks?

It’s safe to say that my current lifestyle isn’t the most stressful. Just to clarify: I do work and it’s usually five days a week. I just don’t work too much. Pokhara lends itself to a more relaxed attitude. Traffic on the main road is never dense and pedestrians’ walking speed by the lake is seldom more than a stroll. They serve some really nice coffee here and usually I go for that in the morning.

When I arrived in Nepal, I had close to no clue of what there was to do in the country - as per usual. I knew there was some cool trekking to be done but the details of that eluded me. First enquiries brought a bit of a shock. A trek of 5-7 days was considered a short trek. The long ones like Annapurna Circuit go for more than 20 days.

The world of air travel in Europe was forever changed by the March tragedy that tore so many innocent and helpless people into a violent death. What the German suicide pilot Andreas Lubitz did on that Germanwings flight one year ago was unprecedented in this part of the world and has forever left people wondering whether the man behind the cockpit door is in fact a madman. Sad as that incident was, when it comes to killing people in Europe, it’s hardly more than a blip.

All good things are coming to an end and that includes this trek. Having done more walking than anticipated in the previous days, the 10-day trek had turned into a 9-day one. No biggie though, I was starting to get a bit exhausted. The day started with a short walk to the old Ghandruk village, which looks like taken straight from a postcard. Upon check-out, I discovered that the guest house owner tried to charge me twice the advertised price for the room.

The next lodge after Khopra, Bayali, can be reached via an upper and a lower route. The lower route descends down to Dhan Kharka at 3000m and then climbs back up to Bayali at about 3450m. The upper route goes more or less straight, which means it is still a constant up and down but more mixed. During harsh weather, the upper route is extremely demanding and has caused more than one casualty.

Mulde Viewpoint sits on the hill rising above Dobato and it blows the popular Poon Hill out of the water. Not wanting to get out of bed too early, I suggested to leave the lodge at 6:30 and still profit from the clear morning air. And boy was that a clear morning. We spent more than half an hour up there before climbing back down for breakfast. Today the trail was going only one way and that was down.

The weather in the Himalayas usually develops from clear and sunny in the morning to cloudy at noon to very cloudy and possibly rainy in the evening. All the more reason to get up early and make the best of the day (and the weather). I had a mediocre night, constantly waking up and falling back asleep after a while. Probably another effect of the altitude. Despite that, I was out the door at six with the camera in hand.

It’s official, this is now the longest trek of my life, pushing Laos 2011 onto position 2. The day doesn’t start ideal, at 4:15 the alarm in the neighbouring room goes off and doesn’t stop any time soon. It doesn’t make much of a difference though, the whole house is getting up early to see the sunrise on Poon Hill. The whole house except for my guide and me that is.