Day 5: Dharapani to Chame

I hiked the Annapurna Circuit with Michelle from Full Time Explorer. She did a great write-up of our trek which she kindly let me borrow, so what you see below is Michelle's text and my photos. You can find her original article at Annapurna Circuit Itinerary.

The day starts out back on the main road with a nice gradual incline. There’s a fork in the road, and we took the one going to the right which goes over a bridge to the other side of the river. From there, there’s a steep switchback followed by a small path on the left with a sign for Chame. This section of the trek goes through beautiful corn fields and farm land. You can also see tons of marijuana plants growing like weeds along the pathway. The path descends back to the river and crosses over a bridge connecting with the main road.

From there you walk through the villages of Qunche and Danakyu. After you leave the rather large and brightly colored Danakyu, you can follow the main road until you see a path on the left. The path takes you up a steep incline and brings you out right in front of Tamang. We had lunch at the Tibet Lhasa Guest House which had great vegetable egg fried rice and fast WiFi. Tamang is located in a large open valley which has views from all sides. It took us about 3 hours to reach here.

After lunch, you get back on the main road which has a gentle incline, and follow it towards Chame. There’s a side path on the right with some small hills, but nothing really difficult. The path passes over a bridge and through several small towns and finally comes out in the large village of Thanchowk. You’ll end up back on the main road to Koto. Both towns are nice places to stop for tea. A bit further down the road and along the path to the right you’ll find Chame. It’s a large town with lots of places to buy last minute trekking supplies. We walked all the way to the end of town where there’s a suspension bridge. Just across the bridge and to the right is the New Tibet Hotel which has large rooms, very nice and very hot showers, and decent WiFi.