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Hiking in the mountains was always one of my preferred leisure activities. So I took many times into consideration to visit the highest mountains in the world, the Himalaya. In December 2003 I decided to go to Nepal, the country with the most highest peaks of the world. The reason, why I've never been in Himalaya before, was the huge popularity of the mountains by the tourists. The hiking trails in the high season are overcrowded. There are only very few places with pristine nature, the most parts of the mountains are heavily influenced by men. Especially at the lowest elevations the forests were replaced by rice fields. These were the reasons why Himalaya long time didn't belong to my preferred travel destinations.
	The 3 weeks hiking around the Annapurna Range proved to be a great time and fortunately didn't confirm my doubts. The trail followed an old trading route and went through the villages and other small settlements. The lack of the pristine nature was compensated by the enormous cultural, ethnical and landscape diversity on the trail. This astonished diversity made the Annapurna Curcuit to the most popular track in Himalaya. A very completion to the hiking in the mountains was the almost one week I spent in Royal Chitwan National Park. Situated at the food of Himalaya directly on the boundary to India this national park comprises of subtropical jungle, grassland and riverine flood plains. The biggest touristic attraction of the park is the big game, like rhinos, wild elephants and tigers.
The further surprise for me was the architectural beauty of the many old towns in the Kathmandu Valley. The Kathmandu Valley was since centuries the political and cultural center of Nepal. A lot of temples, palaces and other splendid buildings are witnesses of the Nepal's past glory. Unfortunately the present days of Nepal are not so glorious. Nepal today is one of the poorest countries in the world. The Nepal's economy is very week: one third of the revenue in the country is the foreign aid. To the economical problems came in the last years a civil war. The Maoists uprising has the goal to introduce communism in Nepal. Luckily the Maoists know about the importance of the tourism industry for the country and don't kill any tourists, so the Nepal is a save country for traveling.