Week 1 and a bit
September 28 – Oct 3
Greetings from Kathmandu, as of this writing, I have been in Nepal for 9 days. Liz and I left Atlanta on September 28th at 7pm to start a daunting 31-hour journey half way around the world. We stopped off in LA for dinner and to check in with Thai airlines.
From LA we headed to Bangkok, Thailand, this was a 17hr flight, luckily I was able to sleep for a few hours to make the time pass. We arrived in Bangkok at 6am Sunday September 30th, since we had flown over the international date line, we skip Saturday altogether.
In the airport we met up with a woman who was also traveling to Nepal to see the baby she had been trying to adopt for more than a year. She had not been able to complete the adoption process due to the ever-shifting political situation in the Nepali government. She had shown us pictures of her daughter in a Nepalese orphanage over some Thai Iced Tea, Liz and I both felt for her. She seemed happy travel to Kathmadu once ever few months for a weeklong visit.
Walking through the Airport in Bangkok felt like a trip to the Lexus mall on steroids. Stores like Coach, Armani, Chanel, and every other designer you could think of was accounted for there. I felt like I have had a more authentic Thai experience at the Little Bangkok restaurant on Cheshire
At last we get to the Kathmandu Airport. After paying the $30 arrival fee and getting our visa, we head down to pick up our luggage. Then we wait, and wait, everyone else is gone, and we continue to wait. Eventually I figure that no matter how long I wait, our luggage isn’t going to appear. We fill out the forms and continue through customs with only our carry-ons (which for me was mostly computer gear and asthma meds) and the clothes on our backs.
Outside the airport we meet up with Brandon and his wife Christina. I tell Brandon about the lack of luggage issue, which prompts him to speak to the luggage complaint office (one guy with a notebook) on my behalf. After a bit of back and forth in Nepalese, Brandon turns to me and tells me that the complaint office guy feels 85% chance of hope that our luggage will come tomorrow on the next flight from Bangkok. We then head to Brandon and Christina’s apartment in Patan, across the river from Kathmandu. This is where I will be living for the next couple months.
After living in Mongolia and a frat house in Pittsburgh, I was prepared for the worst, but their apartment is very spacious, has electricity and solar warm running water. It has three bedrooms; the room that I am staying in has a private bathroom. There are a few things that are suspiciously missing, like a refrigerator, an oven, and a TV. But on the positive side, Brandon’s grant provides him with a woman who comes around to wash clothes, clean the apartment and cook a number of meals per week.
Kathmandu takes some getting used for foreigners; for instance, in the US there seems to be traffic rules and regulations, not so in Kathmandu. There are no designated lanes, no street signs, no cross walks, no infrastructure, just chaos. Cars, motorcycles, and bikes are constantly beeping their horns. The horn beeping isn’t used for emergency situations like in the US; it is more of a beacon or sonar to let other drivers or pedestrians know where you are and how fast you are moving.
People are constantly trying to sell you something, they’ll walk up to you as you walk down the street and make there pitch for you to buy some useless souvenir. There constant without being overly push or grabby, which is better that other places I’ve been to like South America. Eventually I learn to say the words for “I don’t need” in Nepalese, “Malai Chahina”. That works some of the time, but not really, you just have to keep walking and ignore your new persistent friend until they get tired of trying.
The next day we traveled to Bhaktapur with Brandon for a day trip. Bhakatapor is very different from Kathmandu. The main difference is that there is no traffic on the streets. The lack of traffic makes walking through the town a pleasure, however you still get the pushy sales treatment, which over the course of a day or so, you barely notice. Bhaktapur has cobblestone streets, peppered with Hindu temples and interesting agricultural offerings, and pottery set to dry in the sun. We enjoyed our time there and came back to Kathmandu to meet up with the rest of our trekking crew for dinner.
That day I heard that Scott, the camera guy was delayed from arriving in Kathmandu by 6hrs; his plane had been re-routed to Bangledesh until the fog lifted. When he did arrive he too was without luggage. The good news was that our bags finally did show up and so did our other Trekking buddy, Dr. Tim Holtz from the CDC in Atlanta. Absent however was a mutual friend of Brandon’s and mine that told me that he was going on the trek but cancelled at the last minute. However, not absent were the two friends of his that he invited to join us. They were just as surprised as I was to find out that our friend had ditched us, but it turned out that Lisa and Mark were fun to talk to and be around, so it all worked out.
I think that is enough for now, I have to meet with some people about the documentary at the Cheese and Rice place that Brandon recommended. Tune in next time to find out how things worked out on the trek.
Best,
Bob
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Whilst for many a visit to the top of Mount Everest is a personal goal for some crazy people, for me it was more than enough to visit the Everest or Khumbu region and experience the culture, the people, and the spectacular scenery. On October 2nd we headed out from Kathmandu to the village of Lukla. Scott, the camera guy, had to stay behind since he had still not received his luggage from Qatar Airline. Brandon tried to reassure Scott by telling him about how his mother also lost her luggage on Qatar Air. Apparently they were never able to locate her luggage; maybe someone in Doha is walking around in a new pair of hiking boots and cotton undies. Either way I don’t know if that story helped us feel at ease, mostly because almost $20,000 of our equipment was supposed to be on the plane with Scott.
So now there are seven of us headed for the Everest View Trek. Mark who lives and works as a consultant in Cambodia was there with his wife Lisa, who lives and works for the UN in Thailand. They are both in their early to mid thirties, Mark has the look of a surfer “dude” from California, but was a bit quite, Lisa on the other hand was the more extraverted of two. She was half Thai and half Italian and had been described to me by our unnamed mutual friend as a “Thai sex goddess”. Since I only saw her in her trekking pants and hiking boots, I’d have to take his word on the former description. She seemed cute in a Lisa Loob glasses wearing way.
Beside Brandon and Christina, Liz and myself, we also had Tim, a doctor who works for the CDC in Atlanta. Tim is in his early 40’s; the first thing that you notice about him is his bright red hair his matching bright red beard. At first he was a bit standoffish, but after a day or two on the trek he seemed to warm up to the group. He knows Brandon from Atlanta and I had met him on a number of occasions, but up until now, I had failed to make enough of an impression for him to remember my name.
At the Kathmandu Airport for the third time in so many days, we get our tickets to go on Yeti Air. The domestic flights seem a bit more relaxed than the international flights, security at the airport didn’t quite catch the pocket knife that I forgot to take out of my vest that I slid through the X-ray machine. The plane is an Otter 2, which I believe was used by the Japanese during WWII to send Kamikazes to their death. On the very loud flight to Lukla you can the Himalayan Mountains from the plane, also you can get a sense of how high they are as the plane flies over the valley in-between the ranges. Flying to Lukla was great, but the landing had much to be desired. The airstrip at the Lukla airport is about the size of two outdoor basketball courts laid next to each other. Now imagine that image carved out of the side of a 9,000 foot mountain. Landing and stopping come quickly when you have more plane than runway. It is not for the faint of heart, usually I am not a nervous flier, but when the captain turns on the windshield wipers in order to land a plane, I think a little anxiety is called for; but I knew that we were Ok, once we were on the ground and the pilot turn so us, wipes his brow and says “fwhew!”
The Everest View trek is a shorter trek than the Base Camp trek by about 3 weeks with the famous Tengpoche monastery at 3870m (12,694 feet) being the high point. It is designed for those who wish to experience this region without ascending to high altitude. But if you think that 12,694 ft is a cakewalk, they you probably haven’t climb a mountain trail in Nepal. Even the most fit person in our group was huffing and puffing as during the ascending parts of our trek.
Day 1 Lukla, trek to Phakding
After landing in Lukla, we have some breakfast in a local hotel, while we wait for the souls on Lisa’s boots to be repaired. Lukla is a fairly standard tourist town in the 3rd world. It reminded me of Arequipa, Peru. It had some shops run by the locals, which sold cheap souvenirs and cheap trekking gear. Lukla (2800m/9200ft) is set up high in the foothills of the Himalayas, on arrival we are greeted by our sirdar or guide named Puru who organizes our luggage with the porter and sits with us during our tea. Puru is the younger brother or Bharat and nephew to Bhim. Bharat and Bhim own Alpine Explorer a tour company centered in Thamel, Kathmandu. They have been friends with Brandon and Christina for some time and have arrange treks for all of their friend and family that have visited Nepal. Puru is what is known as a “Sojo” in Nepalese, a person who is the salt of the earth, overly sincere and a bit naïve about the larger world.
After Lisa’s boots are repaired we start the trek in earnest, setting off for a gentle walk to Phakding (2800m), a further 3 hours to the north. The trail leads through Lukla, past hotels, shops and airline offices to the edge of the Lukla plateau where the trail drops to meet the intersection of the Jiri trail at Chablung. From here the trail follows the Dudh Kosi north through the village of Ghat and then finally to Phakding where we plan to spend the night. Since the trek was so light, we decide to check out a Buddhist monastery that is on top of a nearby hill. This is our first taste of what Puru refers to as up-up, meaning that the trail is not exactly like the shear face of a mountain, but is as close as you can come to that angle, but yet you are still able to walk/climb up it without special climbing gear . I come to find out later that there are a few types of trails. The categories are down-down, flat down, flat, flat-up, and up-up.
Once we get to the top of the hill, we have all decided to lay down on the floor of the monastery to catch or breath, Puru make a few phone calls. He gets word that Scott’s luggage has arrived and that he will be leaving tomorrow to catch up with us.
Day 2 Phakding to Namche Bazaar
From Phakding the trail continues north up the Dudh Kosi Valley, staying 100m above the river on it's west bank. The trail leads us to Jorsale (2810m) where we enter the Sagarmatha National Park, and submit our trekking permits for checking. From here we continue on an ever-steepening (up-up) trail to Namche Bazaar (3440m), known simply as Namche. This was the first point that some one had to stop because they couldn’t breath anymore. I seemed to be OK, being an asthmatic my whole life prepares you for the feeling the you aren’t getting a full breath even while breathing heavily. However my pulse rate was getting close to 190 bpm, because my heart is trying to keep up the the lack of oxygen. En route we cross the spectacular suspension bridge high above the confluence of the Bhote Kosi and the Dudh Kosi, and shortly after glimpse our first view of Everest, way off to the north-east. The trail to Namche is steep and long, but eventually we reach the remarkable Sherpa capital perched high on the hillside and dominated to the east by the immense bulk of Kwangde (6187m). That night Scott finally catches up to the group, but because he had to walk double time to catch up he had a bad case of altitude sickness.
Day 3 Namche to Tengpoche
From Namche we trek northeast on a direct line to Everest, starting up the hill to the Visitor Center. At this point Scott decides that he is headed back down to Namche. It was probably for the best, he looked like he was going to fall down with every cautious step that he was attempting.
Continuing on a reasonably flat-up easy trail high above the Dudh Kosi. Ahead of us we can see one of the most beautiful mountains in the Khumbu - Ama Dablam (6856m), as well as Everest still far off in the distance. We pass through the settlement of Sanasa before making our descent to the Dudh and Kosi the village of Phunki Thanga. Of course, as Puru says, 'what goes down must go up', and from here it is a steep long climb up-up the side of the hill to the saddle on which Tengpoche Monastery is located at 3870m/12,694 ft. As we enter the grounds of Monastery we are welcomed by the most magnificent Mountain View in the world, which of course was ruined by some Limey tourist who kept yelling at us to move so he could take pictures of Mt. Everest without other people in them. We told him what he could do with himself and continues to enjoy the sights. The long climb seemed to pay off as we gaze upon a panorama of Himalayan giants, including Everest as it peeks above the Lhotse-Nuptse ridge. Later, we took a walk to the monastery to listen to the Buddhist monks chant. It would have been relaxing, but the young German tourist near us where laughing and carry on. I thought that this was strange because Germans usually don’t have a sense of humor.
That night we stayed in a teahouse call “Paradise”, it was probably short for “Paradise Lost”. I expect that there might not be electricity and places may be a bit dirtier than we are used to, but even for Nepali standards, this place was a dive. It was the place that Euro-trash converges and perpetuates their respective countries stereotypes. Puru was apologetic the arrangements, the Germans had laid their underwear on the banister of the stairs, and while we were eating dinner, one of them tried to hang his sweaty wet boot up near the stove and over our table. The Spaniards were outside in their tents making noise all night and littering. Besides the other guest, the bathroom was like something out of the movie “Train Spotting”. It was so disgusting that I didn’t want to close the door behind me for fear that I would be suffocated by the noxious fumes. I did my best to set a distance record for using a bathroom, since I didn’t even want to get one inch closer to the whole of death in the middle of the wet and stained concrete floor. We also found out that night that Mark came down with Giardia. That might be the worst place on the planet to be when you are going to have to go to the bathroom every couple minutes.
Day 4 Tengpoche to Khumjung
The next morning we leave the Paradise. I make some noise outside to make sure that I wake the Spaniards up who had been partying all night when I was trying to sleep. Mark and Lisa decide to go back to Namche and not attempt any further difficult trekking. From Tengpoche the trail drops steeply to the river at Phunki Thanga, and then rises again to traverse high above the river on the winding trail leading back to Namche Bazaar. Shortly after passing through Sanasa, we branch off to the right and take the trail leading gradually upwards to the extensive Sherpa settlement of Khumjung at 3790m. Khumjung is the the largest village in the Khumbu and contains many items of interest for the visitor. The Gompa possesses the supposed skull of a Yeti but this has been scientifically disproved. Later that day we head to the Everest lookout hotel for some hot coco. There is such a think fog that you can only see about 2 or 3 feet in front of you, so we just enjoy the coco and go back to Namche in order to meet back up with the sick and wounded in our party.
Day 5 Khumjung to Lukla
We leave Namche and from here continue on down the main Everest trail. This is a bit long day, turns out that we trekked about 15 mile from dusk to dawn. This trek is mostly down-down, which although is not as bad as up-up, it can reek havoc on your knees. The trail is easier now as we lose altitude, and we can enjoy a gentle walk on the trail above the Dudh Kosi to Jorsale. The final day of our trek - we retrace our steps along the trail above the Dudh Kosi before turning off the main Jiri route and rising up to Lukla, where we arrive by late afternoon and stay in a deluxe room with our own showers and bathroom. We sleep well and fly back to Kathmandu the next morning after only a four-hour fight delay. I hear that is good, Puru got stuck waiting in Lukla for four day with the next tour group.
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