For several decades, I had always wanted to trek in the Himalaya, especially as challenging as Annapurna Base Camp Trek but not being active and fit, I felt somewhat shy to proceed. Doubts cross your mind, what if I can't make it, what is I neglect, can I deal with the elevation, how hard is it. Questions that may be answered by advice from others in concept, but only in training by oneself. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and go for it, if you have a dream or want in life.
The first time that I went to Nepal I had been an inexperienced traveller and also a zero seasoned trekker. I got a fine introduction to the ways of life and the culture and joined a group tour. Around the Pokhara we completed a trek with the team. This gave me the taste for hiking along with my eyes yearned towards the horizon and the snow capped peaks beyond. I enjoyed the organisation our short trek, the pleasure of being in a group and simplicity of getting porters and the security of having a guide. However, as a lot of people do, I felt that something was missing, the trek if anything was a bit too"organised" and it had been hard to grasp a true sense of the culture and people of Nepal.
As my experience grew I, soon learnt that there was more to travel than organised excursions. Better life experiences where to be had away from the tourist trails that are , out from beneath the gaze of the guide along with the jibes and complaints of fellow travelers. In my return to Nepal, my buddy and I decided to venture into the Annapurna Himalaya. We did not need to join a group and we talked long and hard about the pros and cons of hiring a guide or moving. Giving in to doubt and our inexperience we decided to hire a guide and a porter giving us safety and felxiablity in precisely the same moment. It was a decision that proved its worth when we found ourselves in Mukthinath at a three hour trek in front of us back into the Tea House, an imminent storm on the horizon and 3200 meters. We would have been stranded, but acting upon his advice we returned to the lodge before the storm struck and where able to sit out. Our choice was possibly lifesaving as we heard two days later that a bunch of climbers had not advice given to them and had since expired on Dhalugiri.
Though our trek took us out of Jomsom to Muktinath, my heart wanted Annapurna Base Camp, so with the flexibility of using our own direct and porter I split from my pal and headed across the road to base camp. This travel was perhaps one of the defying minutes of my life. My porter was there for me to guide the way and keep the burden of my pack, but he had been leaving me to my ideas and to inhale the glorious of the region. The bigger the harder trekked it got.
On route to the village Deralui was a particularly tiring day for me personally, gentle soaking rain fell and the atmosphere was really chilly. I lagged well behind my porter who had gone to get the packs. One flight of staircase stood and the salvation of the Tea House, as I arrived at the village. I looked up and there was my porter smiling down at me and bidding me to return until the dryness and warmth of refuge. He made me laugh and that he gave me the will he understood the best places to stay, the best food to eat and that he certainly showed me what hiking in this country is all about.

Nestled in one of the Himalayan giants, it's like a fish bowl of hills, soundless, uninhabited and completely out of the world.
I understand one thing, if I went I would not of made it, even if I'd gone with a group I wouldn't of loved it learnt so much about Nepal, the Himalaya that the people who reside here and finally about myself. I invite my porter/guide for knowing that he came from a respectable firm that would back us up if things went wrong and showing me how was a relaxation that I would not forsake.
If an individual that wishes to go alone, its practical to hire a manual or a porter that understands the region, culture and people of the field that you are trekking in. Not only for safety but to enable you to get a much better, more intimate encounter.