Jim woke feeling much better, thank goodness. The morning trip was fascinating, not least for the other tourists on the tiny peak for the sunrise. It was still quite cloudy, and the Annapurna peaks and others were only teasing us with little views (peeks at the peaks), but the view from the Sagarkhot lookout were fantastic nonetheless. We could see the whole valley, with the town, river, lake, hills, farms…we heard the monks greeting the dawn with their mountain horns (and tried not to compare them to the World Cup's vuvuzela horns). When we arrived, there was an asian couple with a tripod set up, and about a dozen others in small gouts, huddled and waiting for the sun to rise. As we waited more arrived, including a loud foursome of Indian girls from the UK in matching custom-embroidered shirts and then busloads of Korean and Taiwanese tourists. In a matter of 20 minutes, the hilltop, about the size of our living room, was crowded with at least a hundred people, talking and taking pictures. The sunrise was not so dramatic, but the peaks did sneak through and we took lots of photos. The UK girls were mobbed with young asians asking to take their photos with them, which they, and I, found absolutely hilarious. They spent about 15 minutes posing with a series of young Korean ladies.
There were the inevitable souvenir vendors, shops open at 4:30am to catch the sunrise tourists. We got a bag for Charlotte before heading back down. We'd waited for the clouds to clear, hanging around on the hilltop for ages without success, but when we descended into the valley afterwards, the clouds finally parted and we could see the whole range, Annapurna I - V, and the rocky peak in the middle. We snapped some photos from the car, but the best views came once we were back at the hotel for breakfast. It was absolutely breathtaking to see the range up close from our lakeside, and I think I took a few hundred photos. The Korean and Taiwanese contingents from the mountaintop turned out to be staying at the same hotel, so we ate breakfast quickly to dodge the crowds, and took our tea and coffee back to the viewpoint by our room.
We were on a plane back to Kathmandu by 10am, very grateful that our tour company talked us into spending the night or we would never have seen the mountains in the morning!
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