| From left: Penny, Ange, Mike.
Penny is from New Zealand, she has been working in Frankfurt, Germany for the past 4 years as a English teacher. Her students are corporate employees. She is an experienced hiker and biker.
Ange is an English currently living in Wales. She is a professional outdoor sports woman. She works at a, you guess it, outdoor sport shop. She had been in Nepal once couple years ago doing a 5-day kayaking. This time, she brought ice axes and other apparatus, planning to do some climbing with her friends. The annapurna trek to her is just an easy past time while she waits for her friends' arrival.
Mike is not officially part of the gang, he treks solo, but being a friend of Penny, whom he met 2 weeks ago on a 5-day ride in India, he tags along occasionally during the low altitude walks. After he saves Ange from a severe HMS (high mountain sickness) attack few days later, he is with us most of the time. Since he walks fast, Lok often has him "run" ahead of us to reserve rooms in the next overnight place. Mike is a Canadian, he teaches physical education in Budapest, Hungary. The Annapurna Circuit trek is a piece of cake for him. He doesn't even use a pole.
So this gang consists of a Canadian, New Zealander, British, Hong Kong-ese. When fellow trekkers asked where we come from, we just say: "ex-Commonwealth". |