mao tax budget

[luu]

i wish to do the annapurna circuit in nov-dec.
i was planning on giving attention to mao taxes with regard to my budget, but can anyone give a rough indication of how much this would mean budgeting for on a trek like this? obviously u want to try and take an amount of money thats not going to be way over or way under for ur needs.

also if ur in a group on an indepedent trek are u likely to be exploited for more money than if u have a nepalise guide with u who can maybe negotiate better?

[luu]

sorry just to clarify, when i ask "how much to budget for" i mean just in regard to mao taxes. obviously the cost of the trek overall will vary due to ur plan.

[Harry]

sorry just to clarify, when i ask "how much to budget for" i mean just in regard to mao taxes. obviously the cost of the trek overall will vary due to ur plan.

last report; you probably have to pay nrs. 1000, mostly collected at Poonhill
but can be on an earlier stage. Can try to negotiate allways. They seemed to be more human these days!
Harry:)

[peteris]

In previous year they was near Poon Hill (Ghorepani). Porters say that you need to say that you come only from Jomsom - then tax'es aren't so high. For us it was ~15$ for person.
For me it seems that Nepali porters fear more about them and just porters persuaded us to pay. But porters know better all rumour and can can tell what you consider for and where.
I think if we didn't stay in Ghorepani we would escape from them. They also stayed near Poon Hill in early morning. If you go for Annapurna base camp (it's really worth) you can omit Poon Hill and from Ghorepani go straight to Chomrong - hill near Ghorepani on this way is similar to Poon hill (and views also) but you will omit crowd and save strenght.