Manang is the main town of the upper valley of the same name and the last major settlement before crossing the Thorung La pass on the Annapurna Circuit. Elevation gains along the trail are such that it's usually recommended that trekkers spend at least two nights there to acclimatize before ascending further, ideally with day hikes into the hills around to help with that adjustment to altitude. Manang is situated at 3,540 meters (about 11,800 feet) so already quite high up.

I had planned for two nights and one full day around Manang . After talking with people along the trail I was considering following my stay there with a detour to Tilicho Lake on the way to the pass since I had given myself plenty of time for the trek. Tilicho Lake is said to be the world’s highest lake at over 15,000 feet elevation and involves a three day trip from Manang.

On my first day I wandered around the stone town of Manang, which seemed fairly deserted for a place that’s supposed to have over 1,000 residents, and then walked a short distance on the trail to Tilicho Lake. I backtracked to Manang, crossed the valley, and walked up to Gangapurna Lake at the base of the Gangapurna Glacier which comes down from the peak of the same name. The Annapurna area is said to have some of the largest and lowest glaciers in the central Himalayas, something resulting from an especially wet climate on the peaks and windward (southern) sides of the range. The heavy precipitation results from there being a gap in the Middle Hills of central Nepal around Pokhara and the Annapurnas, enabling the area to get the full force of the monsoon rather than much of the precipitation falling on the first lower range to the south . You wouldn’t guess it, though, in arid Manang in the rain shadow of the Annapurnas.

It was then up about a thousand feet or so of steep switchbacks along the glacial moraine to the Chongsar viewpoint for an even better view of the glacier, peaks, and valley. I got back to town and had lunch while watching a storm blow into the valley. It soon started raining heavily, a rain that changed to a heavy wet snow that continued into the night.

There’s a clinic in Manang staffed by foreign (mostly American) doctors who also give a daily talk for trekkers on Acute Mountain Sickness and acclimatizing for higher elevations. Since it was raining I figured I’d attend and maybe I’d learn something new. By and large I found the talk to be pretty useless and didn’t learn much I didn’t already know. My most significant question was whether they recommended staying at Thorung Phedi or Thorung High Camp on the last night before crossing the pass; some guidebooks say Thorung High Camp is risky for getting altitude sickness, but on the other hand, staying lower at Thorung Phedi makes the climb on the day of the pass much greater . Their answer was that they don’t like to give a recommendation because it makes the guest house owners angry if they suggest one of the other.

The useful bit of info I did acquire was that Diamox, the drug to take to help in acclimatizing to high altitudes, should not be taken with aspirin since they work in similar ways which intensifies the effects of the Diamox. So, I guess it will be Ibuprofen for the next few days instead of aspirin.

I woke up the next morning to clearing skies but a couple inches of snow on the ground and decided to take a second acclimatization day in and around Manang. I took a short trip down the valley to Braka village to the gompa (monastery) there and then to Bodzo Gompa on a hill between the two towns. Manang has two makeshift movie theaters on its main drag. I had a good enough time seeing the location appropriate "Seven Years in Tibet" the night before to see “Into Thin Air” on my second day in Manang.