AMS

Until I began this trek I firmly believed that LOL was the most irritating acronym out there. However, having spent 2 days in Manang and with a further 3 days still until the Pass, AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) became my latest bete noire. To say that, upon arrival in Manang, people become obsessed with AMS, would be understating things slightly. Manang is the Goa or Mecca for AMS obsessives on the Annapurna circuit. You see, once a day there’s a talk on AMS which is ostensibly there to assuage the fears of trekkers - and there are many fears out there - who may be under the impression that they’re experiencing the first stages of AMS and more than a few who can't understand why they haven't been affected yet.
People flock to this daily talk like recovering heroin addicts to a methadone clinic. Though the aim is to allay fears, remarkably these meetings seem to have the opposite effect - dinner and breakfast after the talk are punctuated by various folk at almost every single table propagating their AMS myths. Everyone in Manang seems to be suffering from a headache and in Manang headaches are looked upon with the same suspicion as a lesion in a leper colony. The worst it gets for me is chronic insomnia while I remain at altitude and some pretty vivid and gruesome dreams - both apparently normal at this altitude - not worrying, just a pain in the arse.
AMS in Manang suddenly becomes Acute Moaning Sickness - you’re not sick but you’re boring the arse of everyone else, you hypochondriacs. One of the many nuggets which emerge from the talk is that the over 50’s are at less risk of developing AMS because shrinkage of the brain at that age lessens the chances of becoming ill - an unfair advantage for all Manchester United fans crossing the Pass then.