The 19 days spent up in the mountains of Nepal were amazing. From the culture and views, to the food and lodging, every bit of it exceeded my already high expectations. A typical question from someone thats never been might be what was it like? The question is impossible to answer though. It is nearly impossible to comprehend the scale of these mountains without witnessing them yourselves. No where that I've been are you forced to look up 2-3 miles to see the peak of a mountain.
An quick excerpt from my journal that I kept along the way does a decent job of summarizing what I mean.
"I was sitting in the teahouse in Namche Bazaar (end of the trek) and I looked out the window. As usual, the afternoon clouds had begun to rise up the valley as the sun was slowly setting. Further down in the valley the clouds were darker, and as I followed top of the clouds up the valley a small peak popped its head out. Further up was another. These clouds were by no means light and airy but rather large formation, yet even with their close proximity you had to look above them to see the peaks."
The mountain I saw? Literally an insignificant peak that fewer than one in a million people would have ever heard of in their lives, but thats the Himalayas for ya. They transcend scale and make it almost impossible to describe.
A typical day on the trek went as follows. Wake up at about 5-6am and not want to leave your nice warm sleeping bag for the freezing cold air and floor. Eventually crawl out and head to the common room of the teahouse you were staying at for some tea and breakfast. The menu consisted primarily of toast and any form of egg you wanted (fried, scrambled, omelettes, etc. ) but my favorite meal was tibetan bread (trekkers bread) with jam or peanut butter. The most similar thing that I can think of to it from the States is a doughboy, but its not really greasy, its just dense bread. Anyway, by about 8am you'd hop on the trail and slowly meander your way along for 3-4 hours, stopping to take pictures along the way. Probably stop at a teahouse along the trail for rest and more tea. On most days you couldn't walk more than 4 hours due to acclimatization reasons, it's unhealthy to hike up more than 1,000 feet per day so we usually got to our final destination for lunch and an afternoon hike around the area. The lunch and dinner menu was the same thing....everywhere, it got old quickly. For the most part it was a fried potatoes/noodles/rice with veggies and egg. Or there was always Dal Bhat, the traditional Nepalese dish. Dal = lentil soup, Bhat = rice, and it was served with a side of curried veggies or meat. Using the advice of our guide I remained vegetarian for the entire trek. You see, there aren't any slaughter houses on the trail itself, nor is there enough power for refrigeration. So the meat is out in the sun, on the porter's backs being hike up the trail. It is probably a few days old at best and everyone that got sick (trekkers that is) along the way usually complained of some bad yak meat. I stayed away and was just fine. At night the temperature dropped quickly after the sun went down. Most nights got into the 20's so everyone in the teahouse would huddle around the wood stove for warmth. Once above the tree-line the wood was replaced with yak dung. Then it was off to bed around 8-9pm where the teahouse would give you a nice warm fleece blanket in addition to the sleeping bag.
The accommodations along the way were surprisingly good. All of the buildings are made from hand chiseled stone and the wood used for furnishing is all carried up by the porters. At first I was thrilled with the accommodations and the craftsmanship of it all but it quickly got old. The teahouses were essentially identical from the top of the trail to the bottom they all looked the same. All decorated with Tibetan Buddhist pictures and drawings, the only thing that varied was their size, and the higher you went didn't mean that they got smaller either, the largest teahouse we stayed in was at the end of the trail. The worst part about them is that they are Nepali sized....small. Nepalese aren't big people, I'm only 5'10 and I had to search to find some any taller than me, so the beds.....tiny.
The trail itself wasn't too different from any hiking trail I'd been on in the past. It was in the shape of a giant Y, we walked up the left side of the Y first to Gokyo, then over Cho La Pass connecting the two sides before getting up the right side to Everest Base Camp and Kala Pathar. The higher you got the tougher the terrain was and above 4500m (13,000 ft) there was virtually no sign of life, the only reason for anything being up there was the hard working locals, most of whom are Sherpas. The porters up here are insane and carry loads twice their body weight. Anything from food and supplies for the teahouses, building supplies for the local towns, or trekkers packs would be piled on their backs with a strap over their head for added support. I'm not sure they'd ever heard of ergonomics before and many have severe back and knee problems due to the severe conditions they work under, usually for less than $1 per day. Many of them cannot even afford to buy shoes and walk in flip flops. It's a scary sight to think that they live in those conditions as millionaire Europeans flock by with all the latest gadgets. I met one guy who said between flights, guides/porters, and gear he spent $6,000 on the trek. His flight was less than $1,000 as was his guide, which means 4 grand for equipment. The dude was decked out in stuff....but really man? Not necessary.
I decided to hire a guide only, no porter as I carried my own pack and went with First Environmental Trekking (www.go2trek.com). They were amazing, and my guide Arjun was first class and a ton of fun. Our relationship evolved from that of a client to that of a friend over the course of the trek. Once we got the gist of it all down we mostly joked along the way and laughed at the huge tour groups that looked like the yaks being herded through the towns. Most groups actually go up there are race to the end of the trails and have a miserable time at it. They don't acclimatize properly and try to do too much too fast and end up not enjoying the trek. So if you ever come up here, TAKE YOUR TIME and do it right. I was actually the youngest person I saw on the trail, except for a few kids with families, most people doing the trek were older, some even into their 70's which was quite impressive.
All in all the trek was amazing, a once in a lifetime experience. Hopefully I'll be able to post some of the 1500 pictures that I took soon, but they were burned to DVDs and apparently not many internet cafes support that around here.
Off to Thailand to relax for a bit :)
Friday, April 25, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
End of the Trek
Days 17, 18, 19 - Namche to Lukla to Kathmandu
Following our day off in Namche we headed all the way back to Lukla in a single day. It was a long walk but mostly downhill through the same valley that we had come up through. The lack of rain over the past week meant that the air was quite hazy as we decended. The views were beautiful but similar to many that we had already seen. In Lukla we had a rest day where we hiked around for a bit, didn't see anything new, and relaxed and had tea. The following day was or flight back down to Kathmandu that marked the end of the trek.
I already miss the mountains, but the trek was a wonderful experience.
Following our day off in Namche we headed all the way back to Lukla in a single day. It was a long walk but mostly downhill through the same valley that we had come up through. The lack of rain over the past week meant that the air was quite hazy as we decended. The views were beautiful but similar to many that we had already seen. In Lukla we had a rest day where we hiked around for a bit, didn't see anything new, and relaxed and had tea. The following day was or flight back down to Kathmandu that marked the end of the trek.
I already miss the mountains, but the trek was a wonderful experience.
On the way back down
Day 14 - Dingboche to Tengboche
It was a longer day today but again, mostly downhill so the walking was quite easy. We woke up to a surprise, snow had fallen over night and covered the valley. It made the town of Dingboche really look like a mountain village so it was quite welcomed. Today was the first day in over a week that we would drop to an elevation lower than that of the continental United States and we also headed back into the forests of the lower valley. Much of the forest in this area is simply thick groves of rhododendron flowers, well its still too high for the flowers to blossom but the but the plants are there, and when you walk through an entire forest of them it is pretty cool. Walking down out of the valley meant that for the most part you had to turn around to get a views of the mountains, no problem though as the views in all directions continued to be amazing. Ama Dablam was on our left the entire day and we slowly walked the length of its base and got to its more famous side. The town of Tengboche seemed to be a haven for trekkers. Though there were only 5 teahouses in town the views there were some of the best out of any time that we'd stayed at aside from maybe Gokyo. You can see back up the valley to the peaks of Nuptse and the top of Everest, Ama Dablam was there in all its glory, probably the most picturesque spot for the mountain and there is a Buddhist Monastery, actually the largest of the region, in town as well as this fabulous bakery that hit a soft spot in all of us, we were getting a little sick of fried noodles/rice/potatos. We arrived in town early enough for the Monks afternoon prayer which I think every tourist in town flocked to see. The inside of the monastery was ornately decorated with beautiful depictions of Buddha as well as a 10 foot high statue of the man himself. It was quite impressive that such an impressive architectural structure had found its way so high up (we were still at about 13,000 feet). The prayer itself was interestng, but frankly it sounded like a dozen or so Monks randomly mumbling with the head guy randomly banging on a wooden blcok...I think I need to read a bit more about the religion before I can even begin to comprehend what I just saw. It was interesting to watch though. When we left the Monastery we sat back and enjoyed a fresh pot of tea and watched the sunset over the high Himalayas. It was amazing. Usually clouds blot out most of the views but tonight they framed Everest in Nuptse in the sky as the peaks lit up a brilliant shade of orange and red. Seems like a common theme of this trek, but it was the most beautiful sunset I'd ever seen and was an amazng way to end the day.
Day 15 - Tengboche to Namche
Today was probably the most ho-hum day of the entire trek. An easy walk down into the valley and back out to Namche. The views were similar to those that we had seen before as we were coming back through Namche for a second time on the trip. Though on this day we came to the convergence of several of the valleys of the area and we were able to see just what we had accomplished. You could look up the valley to see the glacier atop Cho La Pass, see the trails that we had walked on up the valley walls faintly in the distance, it was remarkable what we had accomplished and I wondered how I had made it up some of the steep trails that dotted the landscape with relative ease. We could see for miles in each direction, days and days of trekking in all directions and were still being surrounded by beautiful views of the mountains. On the hike to Namche we stopped through a town called Khumjung which we didn't go through on the way up. On top of a hill in Khumjung is the Everest View Hotel, aptly named because you can see the summit of Everest from it. This place is the stuff of legends up here. Most teahouses cost between $3-10 a night depending on how high up it is. Not the Everest View though. It was built by a Japanese guy for Japanese clients and costs $130 a night. They have bottled oxygen there for the guests, many of whom will just be helicoptered in (a mere $4,000) just to stay there and see Everest. We actually met a European couple who hiked there and told us they had seen Everest and were going down from there because it doesn't get any better than this view......umm, Kala Pathar maybe? I didn't argue, just kind of looked at them funny as the images of the last few days whizzed through my head. There is actually another Everest View type hotel on the ridge across the from Namche called Hotel Khunde. We actually met the owner, who is ironically Nepalese. The hotel caters to Germans and Japanese and costs $170 a night, I think there is a minimum stay there but at least the owner will fly you up there. The owner is not only Nepalese but is actually from the Everest region and as he told us, when he was a little boy he looked up on that ridge and said one day I'm going to put a hotel up there, and he did. It cost a cool million in transportation costs for the materials alone, didn't say how much it cost to build it. What people will do for their luxuries.
Back in Namche not much had changed, but the views were clear so we could finally see the mountains that were blocked by the clouds on the way up.
Day 16 - Day off Namche
Lazy day here. We were thinking about hiking for a bit but were kind of tired so we opted out of a 10 hour trek to Thame and back, we did hike for 2 hours up and down a ridge for some more views and one last look at the big fella. Every Saturday in Namche (and yes it was Saturday) a market comes to town as its the center of the region. Sounds exciting right? Total let-down. The market was just a line of people with their merchandise spread out everywhere, typical to any market really. That wasn't my problem though. It was that everything that they sold was the exact same crap they sold in every single store up here. So instead of having to walk inside a store (and once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all, there isn't much diversity up here in commercial goods, the porters only bring up a limited number of items) you could just see a store laid out on the ground. Not very exciting, oh well. It killed some time and we relaxed and had lots of tea for the remainder of the day.
It was a longer day today but again, mostly downhill so the walking was quite easy. We woke up to a surprise, snow had fallen over night and covered the valley. It made the town of Dingboche really look like a mountain village so it was quite welcomed. Today was the first day in over a week that we would drop to an elevation lower than that of the continental United States and we also headed back into the forests of the lower valley. Much of the forest in this area is simply thick groves of rhododendron flowers, well its still too high for the flowers to blossom but the but the plants are there, and when you walk through an entire forest of them it is pretty cool. Walking down out of the valley meant that for the most part you had to turn around to get a views of the mountains, no problem though as the views in all directions continued to be amazing. Ama Dablam was on our left the entire day and we slowly walked the length of its base and got to its more famous side. The town of Tengboche seemed to be a haven for trekkers. Though there were only 5 teahouses in town the views there were some of the best out of any time that we'd stayed at aside from maybe Gokyo. You can see back up the valley to the peaks of Nuptse and the top of Everest, Ama Dablam was there in all its glory, probably the most picturesque spot for the mountain and there is a Buddhist Monastery, actually the largest of the region, in town as well as this fabulous bakery that hit a soft spot in all of us, we were getting a little sick of fried noodles/rice/potatos. We arrived in town early enough for the Monks afternoon prayer which I think every tourist in town flocked to see. The inside of the monastery was ornately decorated with beautiful depictions of Buddha as well as a 10 foot high statue of the man himself. It was quite impressive that such an impressive architectural structure had found its way so high up (we were still at about 13,000 feet). The prayer itself was interestng, but frankly it sounded like a dozen or so Monks randomly mumbling with the head guy randomly banging on a wooden blcok...I think I need to read a bit more about the religion before I can even begin to comprehend what I just saw. It was interesting to watch though. When we left the Monastery we sat back and enjoyed a fresh pot of tea and watched the sunset over the high Himalayas. It was amazing. Usually clouds blot out most of the views but tonight they framed Everest in Nuptse in the sky as the peaks lit up a brilliant shade of orange and red. Seems like a common theme of this trek, but it was the most beautiful sunset I'd ever seen and was an amazng way to end the day.
Day 15 - Tengboche to Namche
Today was probably the most ho-hum day of the entire trek. An easy walk down into the valley and back out to Namche. The views were similar to those that we had seen before as we were coming back through Namche for a second time on the trip. Though on this day we came to the convergence of several of the valleys of the area and we were able to see just what we had accomplished. You could look up the valley to see the glacier atop Cho La Pass, see the trails that we had walked on up the valley walls faintly in the distance, it was remarkable what we had accomplished and I wondered how I had made it up some of the steep trails that dotted the landscape with relative ease. We could see for miles in each direction, days and days of trekking in all directions and were still being surrounded by beautiful views of the mountains. On the hike to Namche we stopped through a town called Khumjung which we didn't go through on the way up. On top of a hill in Khumjung is the Everest View Hotel, aptly named because you can see the summit of Everest from it. This place is the stuff of legends up here. Most teahouses cost between $3-10 a night depending on how high up it is. Not the Everest View though. It was built by a Japanese guy for Japanese clients and costs $130 a night. They have bottled oxygen there for the guests, many of whom will just be helicoptered in (a mere $4,000) just to stay there and see Everest. We actually met a European couple who hiked there and told us they had seen Everest and were going down from there because it doesn't get any better than this view......umm, Kala Pathar maybe? I didn't argue, just kind of looked at them funny as the images of the last few days whizzed through my head. There is actually another Everest View type hotel on the ridge across the from Namche called Hotel Khunde. We actually met the owner, who is ironically Nepalese. The hotel caters to Germans and Japanese and costs $170 a night, I think there is a minimum stay there but at least the owner will fly you up there. The owner is not only Nepalese but is actually from the Everest region and as he told us, when he was a little boy he looked up on that ridge and said one day I'm going to put a hotel up there, and he did. It cost a cool million in transportation costs for the materials alone, didn't say how much it cost to build it. What people will do for their luxuries.
Back in Namche not much had changed, but the views were clear so we could finally see the mountains that were blocked by the clouds on the way up.
Day 16 - Day off Namche
Lazy day here. We were thinking about hiking for a bit but were kind of tired so we opted out of a 10 hour trek to Thame and back, we did hike for 2 hours up and down a ridge for some more views and one last look at the big fella. Every Saturday in Namche (and yes it was Saturday) a market comes to town as its the center of the region. Sounds exciting right? Total let-down. The market was just a line of people with their merchandise spread out everywhere, typical to any market really. That wasn't my problem though. It was that everything that they sold was the exact same crap they sold in every single store up here. So instead of having to walk inside a store (and once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all, there isn't much diversity up here in commercial goods, the porters only bring up a limited number of items) you could just see a store laid out on the ground. Not very exciting, oh well. It killed some time and we relaxed and had lots of tea for the remainder of the day.
To the botom of the top of the world
Day 12 - Day off Gorak Shep (Kala Pathar)
We were miraculously blessed with the best weather of the trek so far for the hike up Kala Pathar, said to be the highlight of the entire trek, and believe me it didn't disappoint, in fact it shattered every expectation I ever had.
Like Gokyo Ri I raced up this thing. I didn't care much for the lower terrain or the tough walking, but shot straight for the time at a near jog. I got up there painting, sweating and feeling ready to collapse, not because of the effort I had just put forth but because when you turn around to look over the Khumbu Glacier below, there it stood. From the first step to the summit, you could see Everest in an unrestricted view. With the pyramid of Nuptse to the right, Everest to the left and Lhotse in between, you had a view of 2 of the 4 highest mountains in the world right in front of you. Everest ran up from base camp, now visible as a tiny colorful city below, to its famous ice fall, all the way up to the South Col, the South Summit, the Hilary Step and finally the top of the world lighted covered in spindrift (snow blowing off the summit). The view was like nothing I'd ever seen. Similar in ways to Gokyo Ri but bigger, closer, and all the more impressive from this vantage point. Down the range were my favorite smaller hills of Ama Dablam and Cholatse and further up the ridge that is Kala Pathar stood Pumori, which from our perspective looked to be the highest mountain there (it is 5000 feet shorter than Everest, actually Nuptse looks higher than Everest, just barely though, despite being 3000 feet shorter, these mountains really do transcend scale....I mean, I was standing at 18,200 feet, just shorter than the highest point in North America and Everest was still 10,000 feet above me). The views were unthinkably gorgeous, for those 3 hours I felt like I was in heaven. I tried my best to soak it all in and from what I can tell the views have been forever etched in my mind (thanks to my parents for giving me a good memory by the way). Kala Pathar had surpassed Gokyo Ri as the most beautiful place that I had ever stood.
On top of all of these famous outlooks and over all the bridges are hundreds of prayer flags placed there by the sherpas of the area. My trekking agency gave me a scarf to place somewhere that I deemed appropriate so I decided to put the scarf up on top of Kala Pathar in honor of the Dewey family. Along with a picture of my beautiful puppy Simba should she ever get the chance to climb up there and sniff it.
Day 13 - Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp to Dingboche
There are mixed reviews about going to base camp aka "Tent City". Some love it some hate it. I loved it. Seeing the culture of it all was fascinating. 37 expeditions currently wait there in limbo as to whether or not they can climb since the Chinese have vetoed it until after May 10th so that they can bring the Olympic torch to the top. The Chinese have jammed all forms of communication at base camp so that the teams can't even get weather reports so that they won't dare attempting a summit bid and have even posted a military (or police, there are exaggerations all over the place with this) unit at camp 3 (there are 4 camps to climbing Everest) to prevent teams from going up. Each of the 37 teams are color coded it seemed as there were sections of blue, red, green, orange tents spread over the 2 square miles (estimate) of land that Base Camp covers, it was much larger than I expected. The terrain there is also a glacier, meaning it is ridiculously rocky so they are pitching the 1000+ tents that are there on some of the most inhospitable terrain imaginable at an elevation of 18,000 feet. The climbers have to stay there for 6 weeks acclimatizing to the elevation in bitter cold weather. They put themselves through hell and fork out ~$70k just for a chance at the top, insane if you ask me. The Base Camp sits at the foot of the Everest ice fall which is a very very active glacier with hundred foot crevices everywhere. It is actually the most deadly part of the climb. A team of ice "monkeys" or "doctors" charge each team a fee and they fix a route through the ice fall consisting of a series of ladders (sometimes 2 or 3 tied together) going over the crevices and up the seracs (ice towers) that make the ice fall famous....and gorgeous. The atmosphere there was interesting though, like all other parts of the trail Base Camp was run by locals. Nepalese people who certainly wouldn't be climbing were the western climbers servants, making them breakfast, washing their clothes, bringing them tea in the morning. It was the most shocking part of the trip to base camp. If you go on this trek I highly recommend you take the time to go up there.
On the way back we heard a thunderous bang, looked up and an avalanche was barreling down Pumori straight at us....don't worry it was still 10 miles from us probably, but the cascading snow made for a waterfall like feel as it slid down the slopes. Upon arriving back at Gorak Shep we had a quick lunch and were headed back down the trail for our descent. We went at a very rapid pace as the clouds closed in and made it to Dingboche in just under 4 hours. It was a long day walking and the town of Dingboche was adorably cute and much more developed than anything we were used to.
We were miraculously blessed with the best weather of the trek so far for the hike up Kala Pathar, said to be the highlight of the entire trek, and believe me it didn't disappoint, in fact it shattered every expectation I ever had.
Like Gokyo Ri I raced up this thing. I didn't care much for the lower terrain or the tough walking, but shot straight for the time at a near jog. I got up there painting, sweating and feeling ready to collapse, not because of the effort I had just put forth but because when you turn around to look over the Khumbu Glacier below, there it stood. From the first step to the summit, you could see Everest in an unrestricted view. With the pyramid of Nuptse to the right, Everest to the left and Lhotse in between, you had a view of 2 of the 4 highest mountains in the world right in front of you. Everest ran up from base camp, now visible as a tiny colorful city below, to its famous ice fall, all the way up to the South Col, the South Summit, the Hilary Step and finally the top of the world lighted covered in spindrift (snow blowing off the summit). The view was like nothing I'd ever seen. Similar in ways to Gokyo Ri but bigger, closer, and all the more impressive from this vantage point. Down the range were my favorite smaller hills of Ama Dablam and Cholatse and further up the ridge that is Kala Pathar stood Pumori, which from our perspective looked to be the highest mountain there (it is 5000 feet shorter than Everest, actually Nuptse looks higher than Everest, just barely though, despite being 3000 feet shorter, these mountains really do transcend scale....I mean, I was standing at 18,200 feet, just shorter than the highest point in North America and Everest was still 10,000 feet above me). The views were unthinkably gorgeous, for those 3 hours I felt like I was in heaven. I tried my best to soak it all in and from what I can tell the views have been forever etched in my mind (thanks to my parents for giving me a good memory by the way). Kala Pathar had surpassed Gokyo Ri as the most beautiful place that I had ever stood.
On top of all of these famous outlooks and over all the bridges are hundreds of prayer flags placed there by the sherpas of the area. My trekking agency gave me a scarf to place somewhere that I deemed appropriate so I decided to put the scarf up on top of Kala Pathar in honor of the Dewey family. Along with a picture of my beautiful puppy Simba should she ever get the chance to climb up there and sniff it.
Day 13 - Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp to Dingboche
There are mixed reviews about going to base camp aka "Tent City". Some love it some hate it. I loved it. Seeing the culture of it all was fascinating. 37 expeditions currently wait there in limbo as to whether or not they can climb since the Chinese have vetoed it until after May 10th so that they can bring the Olympic torch to the top. The Chinese have jammed all forms of communication at base camp so that the teams can't even get weather reports so that they won't dare attempting a summit bid and have even posted a military (or police, there are exaggerations all over the place with this) unit at camp 3 (there are 4 camps to climbing Everest) to prevent teams from going up. Each of the 37 teams are color coded it seemed as there were sections of blue, red, green, orange tents spread over the 2 square miles (estimate) of land that Base Camp covers, it was much larger than I expected. The terrain there is also a glacier, meaning it is ridiculously rocky so they are pitching the 1000+ tents that are there on some of the most inhospitable terrain imaginable at an elevation of 18,000 feet. The climbers have to stay there for 6 weeks acclimatizing to the elevation in bitter cold weather. They put themselves through hell and fork out ~$70k just for a chance at the top, insane if you ask me. The Base Camp sits at the foot of the Everest ice fall which is a very very active glacier with hundred foot crevices everywhere. It is actually the most deadly part of the climb. A team of ice "monkeys" or "doctors" charge each team a fee and they fix a route through the ice fall consisting of a series of ladders (sometimes 2 or 3 tied together) going over the crevices and up the seracs (ice towers) that make the ice fall famous....and gorgeous. The atmosphere there was interesting though, like all other parts of the trail Base Camp was run by locals. Nepalese people who certainly wouldn't be climbing were the western climbers servants, making them breakfast, washing their clothes, bringing them tea in the morning. It was the most shocking part of the trip to base camp. If you go on this trek I highly recommend you take the time to go up there.
On the way back we heard a thunderous bang, looked up and an avalanche was barreling down Pumori straight at us....don't worry it was still 10 miles from us probably, but the cascading snow made for a waterfall like feel as it slid down the slopes. Upon arriving back at Gorak Shep we had a quick lunch and were headed back down the trail for our descent. We went at a very rapid pace as the clouds closed in and made it to Dingboche in just under 4 hours. It was a long day walking and the town of Dingboche was adorably cute and much more developed than anything we were used to.
Altitude really strikes
Day 9 - Gokyo to Dzonglha (Cho La Pass)
After hiking down Gokyo Ri yesterday we actually made our way to a small town called Tangnak. The trail system in the park can be thought of as a giant Y. You fly into the base of it, hike up, then the trail splits...left goes to Gokyo, right to Everest Base Camp. We went left first. You can connect the two sides of the Y by going over Cho La Pass (5330m). We had heard that the pass was impassable if there was much snow on it and by our luck, our walk from Gokyo to Tangnak featured snow for the first time since Namche. Fortunately not enough to make us turn back. Getting off the Gokyo trail was quite interesting because for the first time we started heading over glaciers. Retreated glaciers actually, meaning no more ice, just lots and lots and lots of rocks. The environment had slowly been shifting from dense forest in the low valley to barren land of dark brown and green where only the toughest shrubs could survive above 14,000ft. There was clearly a struggle for life above the treeline (which is around 12,000 feet in Nepal). But the browns and greens gave way to a landscape of gray as we crossed the retreated glacier. The walking was much more difficult as the trail ended and pile after pile of rock took its place. It was more of a scramble/choose your own adventure type style of walking. I was in paradise! It was a ton of fun hoping from rock to rock, hoping that your footing would hold and that the rock you were jumping to wouldn't move. I got through safely with a huge smile on my face. At one point the rock did give way to some of the finest sand, pure gray, that I'd ever walked across. Looking around it really felt as though I was trekking on the moon. The tough glacier walking continued all the way up to Cho La Pass, which wasn't covered in too much snow after all. The gray glacier gave way to a grayish/black glacier that looked to be formed from molten rock. The mountains that the pass passes between were also molten black and looked to be covered in an oil that gleamed in the sun. The pass itself was extremely steep and somewhat daunting from afar. It looked so steep that it would require fixed ropes to scale, I can now see why if there is any bit of snow on it you need serious mountain gear to get across. The climb up was steep, required both your hands and feet, and had several difficult/loose foot holds....it was amazing. A french women told me it was a bitch as she went down, I somehow couldn't stop smiling though as I hoped from rock to rock. On top we enjoyed packed lunches that overlooked a real ice glacier that we got to walk across on the way down. It was certainly an experience I'll never forget. This huge ice field covered in a few inches of snow that was about 1/2 mile wide and 1 mile long. White everywhere you looked except for up, where the peaks of Lobuche East and West loomed above. It was amazing. So of course I had to make a bad decision. Arjun had no clue what a snow angel was so I had to teach him. Not the best of ideas at 17,500 feet when your body quickly melts the snow you acquire on your body. No worries though, I was too happy from the amazing walking to care. It was hands down my favorite trail that I'd ever walked on to date.
Upon finishing altitude sickness rocked me though. Don't worry, it wasn't your typical kind with the headaches, dizziness, nausea, etc. Stewart offered me a piece of Swiss chocolate in celebration and I not only welcomed it, but I enjoyed it. If you are reading this and don't know this about me, I detest chocolate with a passion. I never eat it, especially voluntarily. The smell of it usually sickens me.
Update: Back in Kathmandu I forced myself to try chocolate and had to spit it out, I'm back to normal and vital signs are ok.
Day 10 - Dzonglha to Lobuche
Easiest day of the trek so far. The walk was only 2 hours and had amazing views of the side of Ama Dablam. Seriously google it for pictures if you don't know what it looks like, but the best way for me to describe it is if you took a knife and cute a triangle out of it then you would have the mountain. On one side you would see the large triangular base that you just cut, from the other perspective you would see the razor sharp summit of the mountain that makes it famous. Both views are very impressive and the trail today gave views of its wider base. Above the town of Dzonglha the clouds framed Arakam Tse for some truly awe inspiring scenery. I've said this many times now since being down, I went up there to see Everest but fell in love with all of the smaller peaks of the Himalayas, like Arakam Tse, Ama Dablam and Cholatse (google them for some seriously amazing views of mountains that most have never, and probably will never hear of) made me fall in love with the place. The most interesting thing to note about this day was that we had completed the trip across the two sections of the Y as described earlier and were back on the main route to Everest Base Camp (EBC). This meant trekkers, yaks, trekkers, yaks, and more. The EBC side of the trail is much more popular than the Gokyo side (why, I couldn't tell you they are both gorgeous) but there were hoards and hoards of people on this side. So much for peace and quiet. After arriving earlier I climbed a ridge that overlooked the Khumbu Glacier (the one that comes down off of Everest) and walked along for quite some way. Interestingly the Italians put a research center up here called the Pyramid, aptly named because it is a glass pyramid for their researchers up here. There is some debate about its attractiveness to the area since it doesn't really fit in, imagine the pyramid of the Le Louvre in the Himalayas. Some love it, others hate it, I personally think it is out of place but who am I?
Day 11 - Lobuche to Gorak Shep
Finally Gorak Shep. Gorak Shep marks the end of the other side of the route. From here you can hike to Base Camp and Kala Pathar (which is the real reason you come up here). Like Gokyo Ri, Kala Pathar is the hill over the town of Gorak Shep that offers the best view of Everest in region. Ironically due to its location, you can only see Everest from a selected view vantage points along the way. Nuptse, which is a full 3000ft shorter than Everest, does a remarkable job at blocking it from your view 90% of the time. Frankly thats fine by me because Nuptse is beautiful in its own right. There isn't much to Gokyo aside from some amazing views of the mountains. Another of the smaller lesser known peaks, Pumori has filled the skyline along with Nuptse. Pumori and its ridge coming down lower is amazingly beautiful. There isn't necessarily anything unique about its shape, its a like a steep cone, and it doesn't have a jagged peak like Ama Dablam or Glacier Dome, but there was a beauty about it that transfixed me. By the end of the trek it had become one of my 2 favorite mountains in the region (the other being Ama Dablam).
Gorak Shep is also the highest town along the route at 17,000 feet. I was doing great with the altitude and Stewart was quickly up to par so we were both anxious to climb Kala Pathar in the morning to finally get some unrestricted views of the Everest, or the big fella as we liked to call it.
After hiking down Gokyo Ri yesterday we actually made our way to a small town called Tangnak. The trail system in the park can be thought of as a giant Y. You fly into the base of it, hike up, then the trail splits...left goes to Gokyo, right to Everest Base Camp. We went left first. You can connect the two sides of the Y by going over Cho La Pass (5330m). We had heard that the pass was impassable if there was much snow on it and by our luck, our walk from Gokyo to Tangnak featured snow for the first time since Namche. Fortunately not enough to make us turn back. Getting off the Gokyo trail was quite interesting because for the first time we started heading over glaciers. Retreated glaciers actually, meaning no more ice, just lots and lots and lots of rocks. The environment had slowly been shifting from dense forest in the low valley to barren land of dark brown and green where only the toughest shrubs could survive above 14,000ft. There was clearly a struggle for life above the treeline (which is around 12,000 feet in Nepal). But the browns and greens gave way to a landscape of gray as we crossed the retreated glacier. The walking was much more difficult as the trail ended and pile after pile of rock took its place. It was more of a scramble/choose your own adventure type style of walking. I was in paradise! It was a ton of fun hoping from rock to rock, hoping that your footing would hold and that the rock you were jumping to wouldn't move. I got through safely with a huge smile on my face. At one point the rock did give way to some of the finest sand, pure gray, that I'd ever walked across. Looking around it really felt as though I was trekking on the moon. The tough glacier walking continued all the way up to Cho La Pass, which wasn't covered in too much snow after all. The gray glacier gave way to a grayish/black glacier that looked to be formed from molten rock. The mountains that the pass passes between were also molten black and looked to be covered in an oil that gleamed in the sun. The pass itself was extremely steep and somewhat daunting from afar. It looked so steep that it would require fixed ropes to scale, I can now see why if there is any bit of snow on it you need serious mountain gear to get across. The climb up was steep, required both your hands and feet, and had several difficult/loose foot holds....it was amazing. A french women told me it was a bitch as she went down, I somehow couldn't stop smiling though as I hoped from rock to rock. On top we enjoyed packed lunches that overlooked a real ice glacier that we got to walk across on the way down. It was certainly an experience I'll never forget. This huge ice field covered in a few inches of snow that was about 1/2 mile wide and 1 mile long. White everywhere you looked except for up, where the peaks of Lobuche East and West loomed above. It was amazing. So of course I had to make a bad decision. Arjun had no clue what a snow angel was so I had to teach him. Not the best of ideas at 17,500 feet when your body quickly melts the snow you acquire on your body. No worries though, I was too happy from the amazing walking to care. It was hands down my favorite trail that I'd ever walked on to date.
Upon finishing altitude sickness rocked me though. Don't worry, it wasn't your typical kind with the headaches, dizziness, nausea, etc. Stewart offered me a piece of Swiss chocolate in celebration and I not only welcomed it, but I enjoyed it. If you are reading this and don't know this about me, I detest chocolate with a passion. I never eat it, especially voluntarily. The smell of it usually sickens me.
Update: Back in Kathmandu I forced myself to try chocolate and had to spit it out, I'm back to normal and vital signs are ok.
Day 10 - Dzonglha to Lobuche
Easiest day of the trek so far. The walk was only 2 hours and had amazing views of the side of Ama Dablam. Seriously google it for pictures if you don't know what it looks like, but the best way for me to describe it is if you took a knife and cute a triangle out of it then you would have the mountain. On one side you would see the large triangular base that you just cut, from the other perspective you would see the razor sharp summit of the mountain that makes it famous. Both views are very impressive and the trail today gave views of its wider base. Above the town of Dzonglha the clouds framed Arakam Tse for some truly awe inspiring scenery. I've said this many times now since being down, I went up there to see Everest but fell in love with all of the smaller peaks of the Himalayas, like Arakam Tse, Ama Dablam and Cholatse (google them for some seriously amazing views of mountains that most have never, and probably will never hear of) made me fall in love with the place. The most interesting thing to note about this day was that we had completed the trip across the two sections of the Y as described earlier and were back on the main route to Everest Base Camp (EBC). This meant trekkers, yaks, trekkers, yaks, and more. The EBC side of the trail is much more popular than the Gokyo side (why, I couldn't tell you they are both gorgeous) but there were hoards and hoards of people on this side. So much for peace and quiet. After arriving earlier I climbed a ridge that overlooked the Khumbu Glacier (the one that comes down off of Everest) and walked along for quite some way. Interestingly the Italians put a research center up here called the Pyramid, aptly named because it is a glass pyramid for their researchers up here. There is some debate about its attractiveness to the area since it doesn't really fit in, imagine the pyramid of the Le Louvre in the Himalayas. Some love it, others hate it, I personally think it is out of place but who am I?
Day 11 - Lobuche to Gorak Shep
Finally Gorak Shep. Gorak Shep marks the end of the other side of the route. From here you can hike to Base Camp and Kala Pathar (which is the real reason you come up here). Like Gokyo Ri, Kala Pathar is the hill over the town of Gorak Shep that offers the best view of Everest in region. Ironically due to its location, you can only see Everest from a selected view vantage points along the way. Nuptse, which is a full 3000ft shorter than Everest, does a remarkable job at blocking it from your view 90% of the time. Frankly thats fine by me because Nuptse is beautiful in its own right. There isn't much to Gokyo aside from some amazing views of the mountains. Another of the smaller lesser known peaks, Pumori has filled the skyline along with Nuptse. Pumori and its ridge coming down lower is amazingly beautiful. There isn't necessarily anything unique about its shape, its a like a steep cone, and it doesn't have a jagged peak like Ama Dablam or Glacier Dome, but there was a beauty about it that transfixed me. By the end of the trek it had become one of my 2 favorite mountains in the region (the other being Ama Dablam).
Gorak Shep is also the highest town along the route at 17,000 feet. I was doing great with the altitude and Stewart was quickly up to par so we were both anxious to climb Kala Pathar in the morning to finally get some unrestricted views of the Everest, or the big fella as we liked to call it.
Altitude strikes!
Day 6 - Day off Machermo
Today was an unexpected day off in Machermo, reason being acute mountain sickness....aka altitudue sickness. During the course of the night, I slept like a baby, but Stewart was up coughing, having difficulty breathing and developed a pretty severe fever. He got no sleep and I awoke to a state of panic. There was no way we were going up today. As I mentioned in yesterdays post, we had climbed 600m to a town called Dole and didn't stop, we then continued up another 250m to Machermo. Well, common practice for getting acclimatized says that you shouldn't go up more than 1,000 feet per day (300m) but we nearly tripled that in one day. Its a miracle that I was fine from the altitude but Stewart was not. Fortunately he got sick in the best place to get sick, Machermo which has one of the two medical facilities on the entire trek there. He headed over the doctors office, office is a bit of stretch, more like cabin where 2 cute english doctors helped him. The diagnosis was good and was told to rest here for the day before continuing up, no complaints from me because we were already at some serious elevation. I rested and climbed a ridge in the afternoon with Arjun to get some beautiful views of Cho Oyu. That evening we met Alan, a older fella from the UK who we would end up becoming quite close with over the next few days. He reminded me of a Santa Clause when I first met him and he was very pleasant to talk with. That night we relaxed around the wood stove to try to keep warm, it would end up being the coldest place we would stay at the entire trek.
Quick note on the porters: The two hosptials in the region (here and in Pheriche) were actually established for the locals, specifically the porters, not the tourists. The porters put themselves through hell, carrying loads that are twice there body weight and seemingly look like 4 times there size up these hills. Since they are paid so little many of them don't bother with traditional lodging and sleep outside to save money, heck most hike in beat up old flip flops because shoes are too expensive. They all have tremendous back and knee problems due to the way they carry the loads and they are the ones in need of medical help more than anyone else, including the tourists. I've read several blogs about the trek describing the porters but words don't do them justice. They certainly keep the region alive and running but their quality of life is abysmal at best.
Day 7 - Machermo to Gokyo
Today was slow going for sure, especially due to Stewart's condition. The trail was still following the same valley and river, only now we are much higher up the valley fall than before. It was amazing to look back and see just how far we'd come since the view down the entire length of the valley was not obstructed. Ama Dablam still flared up in the background with Cho Oyu becoming ever larger in front of us. The town of Gokyo is at the end of one of the 2 major trails in the park and was quite possibly my favorite place that we stayed. Most of the towns along the valley are in side valleys that run perpendicular to the main valley, Gokyo however lies at the top of the valley and runs parallel the main valley. The Gokyo valley was formed by a glacier and is thus filled with thousands upon thousands of rocks of all sizes, many of which were stacked up in nice little towers that were quite picturesque. But the reason Gokyo is so famous is because of its lakes. 5 to be exact, name 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th lake. They are make up of the tropical blue water too boot, amazingly beautiful. The 1st lake is quite small an is at the mouth of the valley, the 2nd lake was larger and mostly frozen over still, though if you stood still you could hear the booming and thundering of the ice as it began its spring thaw. The town itself sits overlooking the 3rd lake and a nameless hill. I have no clue why this hill would be nameless since it was breathe-takingly gorgeous but it was so I named it Mt. Simba in honor of my dog. The guest house overlooking the lake and mountain was amazing. The Gokyo valley wall blocked most of the larger peaks but we could still see Cho Oyu further down the valley.
So I mentioned that Gokyo is at the end of the trail in one direction and there is certainly a reason to go here aside from the lakes and that is Gokyo Ri.
Quick aside about the naming of the hills. Arjun told me that there are 4 classifications for for the hills in the Himalayas.
Ri - For hills that rise above towns and are between the elevations of 4500-5500m
Pass - For mountain passes that are between 5000-6000m
Peak - For "hills" between 5500-6500m
Mountain - For the stuff higher than 6500m.
That means that technically Mt McKinnely the highest mountain in North America is only a peak by there standards, have I mentioned Nepali's are crazy?
Anyway, the other reason to go to Gokyo is to climb Gokyo Ri (5400m) for a panoramic view of the entire range. Not a bad deal. We had a day off the next day to do just that.
Day 8 - Day off Gokyo (Gokyo Ri)
As I mentioned before the mornings up here are crystal clear and the clouds roll in in the afternoon. So when we started climbing Gokyo Ri (a 2000 foot hike uphill) a bit late in the morning I was worried about clouds. We were still slow going due to Stewart's ailments and I was anxious to get up as I was feeling great. I then looked down the valley and saw a cloud and I was off. I basically ran up the hill and thought my heart was going to explode upon summiting. Hey, at least I'd done it in just over an hour, faster than anyone else I met. Once there, the views were (insert every positive adjective you have ever read). It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Everest, Lhoste, Nuptse, Cho Oyu, Ama Dablam, Cholatse, Mt Simba, Thamserku, Mera Peak, Peak 38, Pumori.....I could go on. The highest mountain range in the world was mine. Snow capped peaks surrounded me. For the first time everything seemed lower than me and I only had to look out in any direction to see one of the hundreds of peaks visible. I can't begin to describe the feeling in stirred inside me. It was like seeing the rockies of Colorado with an addition 2 miles slapped onto the top, nearly impossible to imagine. The view from the top was hands down the most beautiful that my eyes had ever seen. The experience was moving. I sat on top of this precariously perched rock for 2 hours soaking it all in. Pictures (though I did take over 200 from up here) will never do it justice. The sheer number, size, and variety of peaks to behold was too much.
And this viewpoint isn't even suppose to be the highlight of our trek. The trip could have ended on that day and I would have been satisfied, the views were lik nothing I'd ever seen before.
Today was an unexpected day off in Machermo, reason being acute mountain sickness....aka altitudue sickness. During the course of the night, I slept like a baby, but Stewart was up coughing, having difficulty breathing and developed a pretty severe fever. He got no sleep and I awoke to a state of panic. There was no way we were going up today. As I mentioned in yesterdays post, we had climbed 600m to a town called Dole and didn't stop, we then continued up another 250m to Machermo. Well, common practice for getting acclimatized says that you shouldn't go up more than 1,000 feet per day (300m) but we nearly tripled that in one day. Its a miracle that I was fine from the altitude but Stewart was not. Fortunately he got sick in the best place to get sick, Machermo which has one of the two medical facilities on the entire trek there. He headed over the doctors office, office is a bit of stretch, more like cabin where 2 cute english doctors helped him. The diagnosis was good and was told to rest here for the day before continuing up, no complaints from me because we were already at some serious elevation. I rested and climbed a ridge in the afternoon with Arjun to get some beautiful views of Cho Oyu. That evening we met Alan, a older fella from the UK who we would end up becoming quite close with over the next few days. He reminded me of a Santa Clause when I first met him and he was very pleasant to talk with. That night we relaxed around the wood stove to try to keep warm, it would end up being the coldest place we would stay at the entire trek.
Quick note on the porters: The two hosptials in the region (here and in Pheriche) were actually established for the locals, specifically the porters, not the tourists. The porters put themselves through hell, carrying loads that are twice there body weight and seemingly look like 4 times there size up these hills. Since they are paid so little many of them don't bother with traditional lodging and sleep outside to save money, heck most hike in beat up old flip flops because shoes are too expensive. They all have tremendous back and knee problems due to the way they carry the loads and they are the ones in need of medical help more than anyone else, including the tourists. I've read several blogs about the trek describing the porters but words don't do them justice. They certainly keep the region alive and running but their quality of life is abysmal at best.
Day 7 - Machermo to Gokyo
Today was slow going for sure, especially due to Stewart's condition. The trail was still following the same valley and river, only now we are much higher up the valley fall than before. It was amazing to look back and see just how far we'd come since the view down the entire length of the valley was not obstructed. Ama Dablam still flared up in the background with Cho Oyu becoming ever larger in front of us. The town of Gokyo is at the end of one of the 2 major trails in the park and was quite possibly my favorite place that we stayed. Most of the towns along the valley are in side valleys that run perpendicular to the main valley, Gokyo however lies at the top of the valley and runs parallel the main valley. The Gokyo valley was formed by a glacier and is thus filled with thousands upon thousands of rocks of all sizes, many of which were stacked up in nice little towers that were quite picturesque. But the reason Gokyo is so famous is because of its lakes. 5 to be exact, name 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th lake. They are make up of the tropical blue water too boot, amazingly beautiful. The 1st lake is quite small an is at the mouth of the valley, the 2nd lake was larger and mostly frozen over still, though if you stood still you could hear the booming and thundering of the ice as it began its spring thaw. The town itself sits overlooking the 3rd lake and a nameless hill. I have no clue why this hill would be nameless since it was breathe-takingly gorgeous but it was so I named it Mt. Simba in honor of my dog. The guest house overlooking the lake and mountain was amazing. The Gokyo valley wall blocked most of the larger peaks but we could still see Cho Oyu further down the valley.
So I mentioned that Gokyo is at the end of the trail in one direction and there is certainly a reason to go here aside from the lakes and that is Gokyo Ri.
Quick aside about the naming of the hills. Arjun told me that there are 4 classifications for for the hills in the Himalayas.
Ri - For hills that rise above towns and are between the elevations of 4500-5500m
Pass - For mountain passes that are between 5000-6000m
Peak - For "hills" between 5500-6500m
Mountain - For the stuff higher than 6500m.
That means that technically Mt McKinnely the highest mountain in North America is only a peak by there standards, have I mentioned Nepali's are crazy?
Anyway, the other reason to go to Gokyo is to climb Gokyo Ri (5400m) for a panoramic view of the entire range. Not a bad deal. We had a day off the next day to do just that.
Day 8 - Day off Gokyo (Gokyo Ri)
As I mentioned before the mornings up here are crystal clear and the clouds roll in in the afternoon. So when we started climbing Gokyo Ri (a 2000 foot hike uphill) a bit late in the morning I was worried about clouds. We were still slow going due to Stewart's ailments and I was anxious to get up as I was feeling great. I then looked down the valley and saw a cloud and I was off. I basically ran up the hill and thought my heart was going to explode upon summiting. Hey, at least I'd done it in just over an hour, faster than anyone else I met. Once there, the views were (insert every positive adjective you have ever read). It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Everest, Lhoste, Nuptse, Cho Oyu, Ama Dablam, Cholatse, Mt Simba, Thamserku, Mera Peak, Peak 38, Pumori.....I could go on. The highest mountain range in the world was mine. Snow capped peaks surrounded me. For the first time everything seemed lower than me and I only had to look out in any direction to see one of the hundreds of peaks visible. I can't begin to describe the feeling in stirred inside me. It was like seeing the rockies of Colorado with an addition 2 miles slapped onto the top, nearly impossible to imagine. The view from the top was hands down the most beautiful that my eyes had ever seen. The experience was moving. I sat on top of this precariously perched rock for 2 hours soaking it all in. Pictures (though I did take over 200 from up here) will never do it justice. The sheer number, size, and variety of peaks to behold was too much.
And this viewpoint isn't even suppose to be the highlight of our trek. The trip could have ended on that day and I would have been satisfied, the views were lik nothing I'd ever seen before.
A break in the weather
Day 4 - Namche to Phortse Tenga
I lifted my head out of my cold sleeping bag, peaked out the window....BLUE SKIES. April is the pre-monsoon season meaning we should expect blue skies in the morning with clouds rolling in in the afternoon and that is just what we got today. I ran outside like a kid on Christmas morning and looked up and there they were.....they snow capped peaks that had been hiding themselves. We are still way to low to see any of the bigger peaks but these 6000m peaks were impressive all the same. Thamserku stuck its 7900m peak (thats huge, Everest is 8850m, sorry about not converting this to feet, for a reference, the highest rockies are at about 4000m) proudly out of the sky and I smiled. I couldn't be too upset over the lack of views the previous few days, because frankly, that low in the valley you can't really see anything, the views really pick up upon leaving Namche and heading into one of the two major valleys in the park. We followed the trail up to the museum on top of the hill overlooking Namche and got our first shots of Everest. I won't lie, I mistook Nuptse (a common occurence due to their relative sizes) for Everest at first. No matter, for the first time I had a panoramic view of the highest mountain range in the world at my disposal, and the views would continue for the next 2 weeks! To the right was Ama Dablam (Ama = mother, Dablam = father, the parents of the mountains if you will) which is one of the most recognizable mountains in the world. Despite being a full 2,000m shorter than Everest it has the most distinctive peak of the region and is unspeakable gorgeous. We followed the trail around a ridge and the views continued to thrill. At this point the names of the mountains were beyond me, there were too many to try and remember, but everywhere you looked was a new peak. It began to dawn on me that even the "small hills" were ridiculously beautiful so I didn't mind that we could no longer see Everest. Relatively speaking we were still at somewhat low altitudes so the 6,000m peaks still loomed eerily high overhead. The end of the day was all downhill again, though overall we went up about 1,000 feet on the day. We descended back in the valley to the beautiful river again and most of the views were blocked by the mountains valley walls again. I spent most of the evening sitting and reading next to the raging river and it was quite peaceful and relaxing.
Thats Everest in the background (the tiny black peaking sticking out over the ridge)
Ama Dablam
Day 5 - Phortse Tenga to Machermo
Uphill was the theme of the day. We continued to follow the same valley up along the river only this time it headed uphill for a good 3 hours of walking. We made it to the town of Dole around 11am (4200m, which was 600m higher than the previous day more on this later) but Stewart insisted we continue on since it was too early in the day to stop. After lunch in Luzla we came around a bend in the valley and straight in front of us stood Cho Oyu (the 6th highest mountain in the world). To my right was the huge valley with nameless snowcapped ridges above it, to the left was the jagged peak of Glacier Dome (not really a dome, I think Arjun may have made a name up for it) which was the sharpest peak I'd seen yet and behind us was the beautiful view of the front face of Ama Dablam. A full 360 degree view of the mountains, pure bliss. We finally ended the day in Machermo at an elevation of 4450m (14,600 feet) and were above the continental United States for the first time. At this altitude acute mountain sickness (AMS) can be a real problem and I did have a small headache, which fortunately went away with some advil so we were certainly on the look-out. Up until this point we had actually met more people who had to turn back due to the altitude than actually finished their trek. But I was very relaxed and had an amazing night sleep in this high mountain village that had views of one of the highest mountains in the world.
I lifted my head out of my cold sleeping bag, peaked out the window....BLUE SKIES. April is the pre-monsoon season meaning we should expect blue skies in the morning with clouds rolling in in the afternoon and that is just what we got today. I ran outside like a kid on Christmas morning and looked up and there they were.....they snow capped peaks that had been hiding themselves. We are still way to low to see any of the bigger peaks but these 6000m peaks were impressive all the same. Thamserku stuck its 7900m peak (thats huge, Everest is 8850m, sorry about not converting this to feet, for a reference, the highest rockies are at about 4000m) proudly out of the sky and I smiled. I couldn't be too upset over the lack of views the previous few days, because frankly, that low in the valley you can't really see anything, the views really pick up upon leaving Namche and heading into one of the two major valleys in the park. We followed the trail up to the museum on top of the hill overlooking Namche and got our first shots of Everest. I won't lie, I mistook Nuptse (a common occurence due to their relative sizes) for Everest at first. No matter, for the first time I had a panoramic view of the highest mountain range in the world at my disposal, and the views would continue for the next 2 weeks! To the right was Ama Dablam (Ama = mother, Dablam = father, the parents of the mountains if you will) which is one of the most recognizable mountains in the world. Despite being a full 2,000m shorter than Everest it has the most distinctive peak of the region and is unspeakable gorgeous. We followed the trail around a ridge and the views continued to thrill. At this point the names of the mountains were beyond me, there were too many to try and remember, but everywhere you looked was a new peak. It began to dawn on me that even the "small hills" were ridiculously beautiful so I didn't mind that we could no longer see Everest. Relatively speaking we were still at somewhat low altitudes so the 6,000m peaks still loomed eerily high overhead. The end of the day was all downhill again, though overall we went up about 1,000 feet on the day. We descended back in the valley to the beautiful river again and most of the views were blocked by the mountains valley walls again. I spent most of the evening sitting and reading next to the raging river and it was quite peaceful and relaxing.
Thats Everest in the background (the tiny black peaking sticking out over the ridge)
Ama Dablam
Uphill was the theme of the day. We continued to follow the same valley up along the river only this time it headed uphill for a good 3 hours of walking. We made it to the town of Dole around 11am (4200m, which was 600m higher than the previous day more on this later) but Stewart insisted we continue on since it was too early in the day to stop. After lunch in Luzla we came around a bend in the valley and straight in front of us stood Cho Oyu (the 6th highest mountain in the world). To my right was the huge valley with nameless snowcapped ridges above it, to the left was the jagged peak of Glacier Dome (not really a dome, I think Arjun may have made a name up for it) which was the sharpest peak I'd seen yet and behind us was the beautiful view of the front face of Ama Dablam. A full 360 degree view of the mountains, pure bliss. We finally ended the day in Machermo at an elevation of 4450m (14,600 feet) and were above the continental United States for the first time. At this altitude acute mountain sickness (AMS) can be a real problem and I did have a small headache, which fortunately went away with some advil so we were certainly on the look-out. Up until this point we had actually met more people who had to turn back due to the altitude than actually finished their trek. But I was very relaxed and had an amazing night sleep in this high mountain village that had views of one of the highest mountains in the world.
Smiling people are lucky people
Day 1 - Kathmandu to Benkar
We started our 19 day Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek with a quick flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, the airport in the Himalayas built by Edmund Hilary (who is a legend up here). It was my first time on a twin propped plane and the trip was pretty intense. It was delayed for about 20 minutes due to clouds, and as Arjun (my guide) said "Nepali clouds have rocks in the them". The airstrip truly is a mountain airstrip. The flight follows along the Himalayan chain into the Khumbu (Everest) region, the plane banks hard right and then plummets, not really a decent, and in front of your view is an airstrip that looks to be 1/4 mile long and uphill. We later found out that there have been 8 planes that missed the front of the runway and slammed into the mountain just before it. But as Arjun says, smiling people are lucky people and we landed safely. The main EBC trail starts right out of the airport in the bustling little town of Lukla. The town itself was much more developed than I anticipated and the furnishings of the lodges where beautiful hand-crafted wood. I was extremely surprised at how nice everything was so far. Until this point I had kept my expectations low about food and accommodations but things were looking up already. After a quick breakfast of toast and eggs we set off at a leisurely pace. The trail out of Lukla actually starts downhill. We cruised along the low lying valley, following field upon field of crops for the area through a rather thick forest. We passed several rhododendrons, which happen to be the national flower of Nepal along the way as well. The trail itself goes along a valley with a beautiful river flowing at its base. The water is by far the bluest and clearest river water that I had ever seen and was simply beautiful. The steepness of the valley ensured that it was constantly flowing at a good rate creating small rapids and waterfalls at every twist and turn. For the most part I was more awe struck by the river than the mountains on this day due to the clouds that loomed overhead. We were very lucky to have flown on this day at all, only 3 planes got off the ground and we happened to be the last ones. There were really no mountains to speak of on this day, but the valley walls were extremely steep and seemed quite high from our low position on the trail. I was loving every second of the hike thus far, probably because it was pretty much all downhill. We ended up at a teahouse in this little town called Benkar owned by an adorable sherpa family. It was actually, as we would later find out, the smallest teahouse that we stayed at along the way. Like the town of Lukla, this teahouse was very nicely furnished and the food was excellent. Had my first serving of dal bhat (the national dish of Nepal) which consists of rice, curry vegetables, and lentil soup. Nepali's eat it with their hands, but the wimpy westerners like myself use a fork and spoon. At the teahouse I met my first American, Amy, who was a buddhist nun that had studied under the Grand Master who studied under the Dalai Llama (I'm probably screwing that up somehow but she was definitely not your typical American). The night was very cold but the family had amazing fleece blankets that they gave to us to stay warm.
Prayer flags and the river from a bridge
Prayer stones
Day 2 - Benkar to Namche Bazaar
The 2nd day started off much the same as the first, more clouds/fog/annoying stuff to get in the way of the mountain views. I had my first, certainly not my last, bit of tibetban bread with peanut butter for breakfast. Tibetan bread is a dense fried dough that is referred to as trekkers bread because its quite high in calories and a good way to start the day before a long trek....and boy would I need it today. The trail continued to follow the valley floor for most of the way, weaving in and out of forest and crossing over the river that we'd been following the previous day. The blue waters continued to leave me awe-struck. Amazingly to cross the river, which you do several times at this elevation there are this long cable bridges that are amazing fun. If you get in the middle and slowly start to bounce you can hit the natural frequency of these things and have some fun, ok, I'm a huge engineering nerd I know. But the bridges are really cool to walk across, especially when you are crossing with a heard of yaks (there are a TON of them up there, no real need to hire a guide on the trail just follow the string of yak poo all the way to base camp). At about the midpoint of the day we finally entered Sagarmatha National Park (Sagarmatha = Everest in Nepali) and the real trekking began. Up, up, and more up. We had continued downhill out of Benkar all morning and that ended quickly as we started up the 3,000 foot hill into the town of Namche Bazaar. It was a long...very long, slow climb. And I really do mean slow. Between the elevation, Namche is at about 11,000 feet, and the steep grades your walking becomes more like a waddle and you have to stop to catch your breath every 50 feet. We finally made it into the town of Namche which is on a hillside overlooking some beautiful hills (though we couldn't see them on this day due to the clouds). The town is the largest of the region as it is the center for the Sherpa community and a winter retreat for those that also own homes higher in the hills. The town was larger than I expected and was in the shape of a horseshoe following the steep walls of the valley that it sits in. It was almost like a mini Thamel with trekking shops all over the place, they even had internet cafes up here ($1 for 6 minutes though). We stayed at a nice guest house that was mostly filled with people heading down who told us all about the cold and the beautiful views up ahead. We still hadn't seen any of them due to the weather but I was loving the valley all the same, looking down out of it actually reminded me a bit of Yosemite's valley. It was again freezing at night and we went to bed early hoping for blue skies in the morning.
Typical porter
Day 3 - Day off Namche Bazaar
When we woke up on our rest/acclimatization day we looked out the windows to see a blizzard blanketing the valley. There would certainly be no beautiful views today. It was a freak storm according to the locals but was very frustrating, when were we ever going to see the mountains? We were currently at 11,000 feet which is not high enough for pure snow (Nepal is at a lower altitude than much of New England) so it was a sloppy mess of wet snow flakes that reminded me of a New England snow storm. Nothing really stuck, just made a mess of everything. It was a long frustrating day though as we were stuck inside for most of it. We were scheduled to climb a hill-top for acclimatization purposes (the general rule is go high, sleep low) and to get our first views of Everest but those were nixed due to the weather. We instead chatted it up with some Germans about life up higher on the trail, they said it was cold but the struggle was worth the views. We kept our fingers crossed. In the afternoon the snow let up and Stewart and I climbed a hill since we were getting a bit stir-crazy sitting in the guest house for so long with nothing to do. It was good to stretch the legs, but more of the same, fog and clouds, no real views.
Typical bridge on the trail
Typical village along the way
We started our 19 day Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek with a quick flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, the airport in the Himalayas built by Edmund Hilary (who is a legend up here). It was my first time on a twin propped plane and the trip was pretty intense. It was delayed for about 20 minutes due to clouds, and as Arjun (my guide) said "Nepali clouds have rocks in the them". The airstrip truly is a mountain airstrip. The flight follows along the Himalayan chain into the Khumbu (Everest) region, the plane banks hard right and then plummets, not really a decent, and in front of your view is an airstrip that looks to be 1/4 mile long and uphill. We later found out that there have been 8 planes that missed the front of the runway and slammed into the mountain just before it. But as Arjun says, smiling people are lucky people and we landed safely. The main EBC trail starts right out of the airport in the bustling little town of Lukla. The town itself was much more developed than I anticipated and the furnishings of the lodges where beautiful hand-crafted wood. I was extremely surprised at how nice everything was so far. Until this point I had kept my expectations low about food and accommodations but things were looking up already. After a quick breakfast of toast and eggs we set off at a leisurely pace. The trail out of Lukla actually starts downhill. We cruised along the low lying valley, following field upon field of crops for the area through a rather thick forest. We passed several rhododendrons, which happen to be the national flower of Nepal along the way as well. The trail itself goes along a valley with a beautiful river flowing at its base. The water is by far the bluest and clearest river water that I had ever seen and was simply beautiful. The steepness of the valley ensured that it was constantly flowing at a good rate creating small rapids and waterfalls at every twist and turn. For the most part I was more awe struck by the river than the mountains on this day due to the clouds that loomed overhead. We were very lucky to have flown on this day at all, only 3 planes got off the ground and we happened to be the last ones. There were really no mountains to speak of on this day, but the valley walls were extremely steep and seemed quite high from our low position on the trail. I was loving every second of the hike thus far, probably because it was pretty much all downhill. We ended up at a teahouse in this little town called Benkar owned by an adorable sherpa family. It was actually, as we would later find out, the smallest teahouse that we stayed at along the way. Like the town of Lukla, this teahouse was very nicely furnished and the food was excellent. Had my first serving of dal bhat (the national dish of Nepal) which consists of rice, curry vegetables, and lentil soup. Nepali's eat it with their hands, but the wimpy westerners like myself use a fork and spoon. At the teahouse I met my first American, Amy, who was a buddhist nun that had studied under the Grand Master who studied under the Dalai Llama (I'm probably screwing that up somehow but she was definitely not your typical American). The night was very cold but the family had amazing fleece blankets that they gave to us to stay warm.
Prayer flags and the river from a bridge
Prayer stonesDay 2 - Benkar to Namche Bazaar
The 2nd day started off much the same as the first, more clouds/fog/annoying stuff to get in the way of the mountain views. I had my first, certainly not my last, bit of tibetban bread with peanut butter for breakfast. Tibetan bread is a dense fried dough that is referred to as trekkers bread because its quite high in calories and a good way to start the day before a long trek....and boy would I need it today. The trail continued to follow the valley floor for most of the way, weaving in and out of forest and crossing over the river that we'd been following the previous day. The blue waters continued to leave me awe-struck. Amazingly to cross the river, which you do several times at this elevation there are this long cable bridges that are amazing fun. If you get in the middle and slowly start to bounce you can hit the natural frequency of these things and have some fun, ok, I'm a huge engineering nerd I know. But the bridges are really cool to walk across, especially when you are crossing with a heard of yaks (there are a TON of them up there, no real need to hire a guide on the trail just follow the string of yak poo all the way to base camp). At about the midpoint of the day we finally entered Sagarmatha National Park (Sagarmatha = Everest in Nepali) and the real trekking began. Up, up, and more up. We had continued downhill out of Benkar all morning and that ended quickly as we started up the 3,000 foot hill into the town of Namche Bazaar. It was a long...very long, slow climb. And I really do mean slow. Between the elevation, Namche is at about 11,000 feet, and the steep grades your walking becomes more like a waddle and you have to stop to catch your breath every 50 feet. We finally made it into the town of Namche which is on a hillside overlooking some beautiful hills (though we couldn't see them on this day due to the clouds). The town is the largest of the region as it is the center for the Sherpa community and a winter retreat for those that also own homes higher in the hills. The town was larger than I expected and was in the shape of a horseshoe following the steep walls of the valley that it sits in. It was almost like a mini Thamel with trekking shops all over the place, they even had internet cafes up here ($1 for 6 minutes though). We stayed at a nice guest house that was mostly filled with people heading down who told us all about the cold and the beautiful views up ahead. We still hadn't seen any of them due to the weather but I was loving the valley all the same, looking down out of it actually reminded me a bit of Yosemite's valley. It was again freezing at night and we went to bed early hoping for blue skies in the morning.
Typical porterDay 3 - Day off Namche Bazaar
When we woke up on our rest/acclimatization day we looked out the windows to see a blizzard blanketing the valley. There would certainly be no beautiful views today. It was a freak storm according to the locals but was very frustrating, when were we ever going to see the mountains? We were currently at 11,000 feet which is not high enough for pure snow (Nepal is at a lower altitude than much of New England) so it was a sloppy mess of wet snow flakes that reminded me of a New England snow storm. Nothing really stuck, just made a mess of everything. It was a long frustrating day though as we were stuck inside for most of it. We were scheduled to climb a hill-top for acclimatization purposes (the general rule is go high, sleep low) and to get our first views of Everest but those were nixed due to the weather. We instead chatted it up with some Germans about life up higher on the trail, they said it was cold but the struggle was worth the views. We kept our fingers crossed. In the afternoon the snow let up and Stewart and I climbed a hill since we were getting a bit stir-crazy sitting in the guest house for so long with nothing to do. It was good to stretch the legs, but more of the same, fog and clouds, no real views.
Typical bridge on the trail
Typical village along the way
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Around the Kathmandu
I booked my guide services with First Environmental Trekking today and am heading off to do the 19 day Everest Base Camp hike with an Australian guy tomorrow. Our guide is very friendly, as are most Nepali's, and I cannot wait to hit the trails. Fortunately my bag only weighs 17 pounds so it shouldn't be too much of a burden on my shoulders.....I mean, I could hire a porter for $3 a day but I'm too cheap for that :) I was not however too cheap for an amazing yak hair hat for my hike. Ugliest thing ever, but I couldn't get a western style fleece hat when these were available.
But along with the trek I got a free guided site seeing tour around many of the "tourist" areas of Kathmandu. The city is very densely packed, if you ever thought about driving here you would never complain about the traffic in the states again, which has taken some getting used to. I was somewhat expecting things to open up a bit outside of the tourist district but they really don't, and life changes from friendly shops and stalls to the rather harsh realiy of the third world. Fortunately the city has a lot of culture. On nearly every corner is a hindu prayer site where the religious of the area go every morning to pray. And the sites of the kings (Durbar squares) are amazing complexes. Very old and built to repspect their god (which they believed was the king) so the amount of detail in the architecture is unbelievable. The places I got to see today....
Swoyambuthnath - aka the Monkey Temple. Yup its littered with monkeys which was amazing. The temple, which consists of a very large and beautiful buddhist stupa, is on top of a huge hill on the outskirts of town. Approaching the temple from the east there is a large staircase lined with buddhist symbols and statues depicting things like the birth of Buddha. The stupa itself, and all stupas for that matter, essentially are large domes, white washed yearly, sitting on rectangular basis, sitting on smaller circular supports. On top of the dome is a tower with religious statues on the top. They are kind of hard to describe, but they consist of simple geometric shapes (circles, squares, etc.) resting on top of each other and are very impressive. The Monkey Temple's stupa was about 30 feet in height and 50 feet in diameter. Around the temple are several prayer sites where there were tons and tons of locals giving offerings to Buddha. The complex consisted of a few different hills, on top of the first was the stupa, and on top of the others were trees that were interconnected with thousand and thousands of prayer flags strung together. Very beautiful and colorful at the same time. Oh, and the monkey bit. Well they are everywhere and have always inhabited the area. The watch you go about your business with interest and clean each other all the time. Then of course they have to go pull on the stray dogs tails and cause animal riots around the area, highly amusing. The Monkey Temple was a very impressive first stop despite the fact that I got ridiculously lost (thanks Lonley Planet!) trying to get there.
The Stupa
They call it the monkey temple for a reason
Patan Durbar Square - Before Nepal was a unified nation it was comprised of 24 independent states, each of which had a king. The Kings built Durbar Squares for the coronations of their successors and as a capital of their domain. Patan happens to be one of the major Squares of the area. Its located just a few miles south of Kathmandu and is built around the Hindu religion. The square itself was extremely old and made up of a series of pagoda style temples where daily prayer still occurs. The area was filled with jobless beggars asking for your money. Apparently they just chase down tourists, try to bless them in some manner, then demand money. Nice tactic, thanks to my guide Bishnu for steering them clear. The square is rather hard to describe without seeing it since there are no distinct landmarks there, but similar to the buddhist site, the level of detail in the depictions of their symbols was amazing, particularly those of Ganesh, the elephant looking dude with 8 arms.
Pashupatinath - This was a difficult site to see. Its the largest Hundu temple in the area but is largely restricted to Hindu's so you can't actually go into....well anything. Its located on the Holy River, which is disgustingly polluted and people are required to drink out of that for religious reasons. Granted, only a mouthful of water once a year, but disgusting nonetheless. This is the place for Hindu funerals....and cremations, which take place out in the open. There were 5 bodies being cremated while I was there with a long line of dead bodies ready to be tossed into the fire. The remains are then placed in the Holy River which makes me wonder why people would ever want to drink from it. Since I couldn't go into anything it was difficult to see much, aside from the men who spend their entire lives at the temple. They never leave, for anything. They are all decorated with body paint and are sporting some pretty awesome beards if you ask me. But other than that and a few monkeys here and there, this site was rather disappointing.
Hindu Temple
Boudnath Stupa - Saving the best for last. Another buddhist stupa, similar in nature to the Monkey Temple, at least from a physical standpoint, but much much larger. One of the larges in the world in fact. The stupa is lined with prayer wheels where people walk spinning as they pray. Monks come and walk around the stupa all day in prayer, while most just visit in the evening. For each wheel you spin you are given a blessing, at least according to my guide. So I found the biggest wheel there and ran around it a few times while he snapped pictures. It was probably 10 feet tall, while most are only about a foot high, at least the ones on the stupa themselves. At the entrace to the stupa, buddhists do climb onto it for prayer, is a beautiful gompa where I got to see Monks in training. Inside were several golden buddha statues, about 8-10 feet tall which were amazing to see. I mean, they were very pleasing to the eye at least, my guide had to laugh at my excitement in seeing them.
The Stupa
Gompa at Boudnath
Chili pepper
All in all it was a long day of walking, about 10km (I'm switching to metric for the trip) but I got to see some really interesting stuff. But frankly, this isn't why I came to Nepal, just an added bonus, I'll get that tomorrow when I head into the mountains.
But along with the trek I got a free guided site seeing tour around many of the "tourist" areas of Kathmandu. The city is very densely packed, if you ever thought about driving here you would never complain about the traffic in the states again, which has taken some getting used to. I was somewhat expecting things to open up a bit outside of the tourist district but they really don't, and life changes from friendly shops and stalls to the rather harsh realiy of the third world. Fortunately the city has a lot of culture. On nearly every corner is a hindu prayer site where the religious of the area go every morning to pray. And the sites of the kings (Durbar squares) are amazing complexes. Very old and built to repspect their god (which they believed was the king) so the amount of detail in the architecture is unbelievable. The places I got to see today....
Swoyambuthnath - aka the Monkey Temple. Yup its littered with monkeys which was amazing. The temple, which consists of a very large and beautiful buddhist stupa, is on top of a huge hill on the outskirts of town. Approaching the temple from the east there is a large staircase lined with buddhist symbols and statues depicting things like the birth of Buddha. The stupa itself, and all stupas for that matter, essentially are large domes, white washed yearly, sitting on rectangular basis, sitting on smaller circular supports. On top of the dome is a tower with religious statues on the top. They are kind of hard to describe, but they consist of simple geometric shapes (circles, squares, etc.) resting on top of each other and are very impressive. The Monkey Temple's stupa was about 30 feet in height and 50 feet in diameter. Around the temple are several prayer sites where there were tons and tons of locals giving offerings to Buddha. The complex consisted of a few different hills, on top of the first was the stupa, and on top of the others were trees that were interconnected with thousand and thousands of prayer flags strung together. Very beautiful and colorful at the same time. Oh, and the monkey bit. Well they are everywhere and have always inhabited the area. The watch you go about your business with interest and clean each other all the time. Then of course they have to go pull on the stray dogs tails and cause animal riots around the area, highly amusing. The Monkey Temple was a very impressive first stop despite the fact that I got ridiculously lost (thanks Lonley Planet!) trying to get there.
The Stupa
They call it the monkey temple for a reasonPatan Durbar Square - Before Nepal was a unified nation it was comprised of 24 independent states, each of which had a king. The Kings built Durbar Squares for the coronations of their successors and as a capital of their domain. Patan happens to be one of the major Squares of the area. Its located just a few miles south of Kathmandu and is built around the Hindu religion. The square itself was extremely old and made up of a series of pagoda style temples where daily prayer still occurs. The area was filled with jobless beggars asking for your money. Apparently they just chase down tourists, try to bless them in some manner, then demand money. Nice tactic, thanks to my guide Bishnu for steering them clear. The square is rather hard to describe without seeing it since there are no distinct landmarks there, but similar to the buddhist site, the level of detail in the depictions of their symbols was amazing, particularly those of Ganesh, the elephant looking dude with 8 arms.
Pashupatinath - This was a difficult site to see. Its the largest Hundu temple in the area but is largely restricted to Hindu's so you can't actually go into....well anything. Its located on the Holy River, which is disgustingly polluted and people are required to drink out of that for religious reasons. Granted, only a mouthful of water once a year, but disgusting nonetheless. This is the place for Hindu funerals....and cremations, which take place out in the open. There were 5 bodies being cremated while I was there with a long line of dead bodies ready to be tossed into the fire. The remains are then placed in the Holy River which makes me wonder why people would ever want to drink from it. Since I couldn't go into anything it was difficult to see much, aside from the men who spend their entire lives at the temple. They never leave, for anything. They are all decorated with body paint and are sporting some pretty awesome beards if you ask me. But other than that and a few monkeys here and there, this site was rather disappointing.
Hindu Temple
Boudnath Stupa - Saving the best for last. Another buddhist stupa, similar in nature to the Monkey Temple, at least from a physical standpoint, but much much larger. One of the larges in the world in fact. The stupa is lined with prayer wheels where people walk spinning as they pray. Monks come and walk around the stupa all day in prayer, while most just visit in the evening. For each wheel you spin you are given a blessing, at least according to my guide. So I found the biggest wheel there and ran around it a few times while he snapped pictures. It was probably 10 feet tall, while most are only about a foot high, at least the ones on the stupa themselves. At the entrace to the stupa, buddhists do climb onto it for prayer, is a beautiful gompa where I got to see Monks in training. Inside were several golden buddha statues, about 8-10 feet tall which were amazing to see. I mean, they were very pleasing to the eye at least, my guide had to laugh at my excitement in seeing them.
The Stupa
Gompa at Boudnath
Chili pepperAll in all it was a long day of walking, about 10km (I'm switching to metric for the trip) but I got to see some really interesting stuff. But frankly, this isn't why I came to Nepal, just an added bonus, I'll get that tomorrow when I head into the mountains.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Thamel, Kathmandu
What a journey its been so far. Flying here from the states was a lot easier than I thought, and I realized on my trip over that I had lay-overs in all the places (minus Bangladesh) that I'll be visiting, which made me just a little enthusiastic about whats to come. But for now I'm loving it here in Nepal.
The flight into Kathmandu provided decent views of the mountains but there was a good bit of haze/pollution so it was difficult to appreciate much besides the company of your fellow trekkers. About half the flight looked like me with backpacks, hiking boots, and eager grins on their face, the other half were Nepali nationals I'm assuming and all made me look like the jolly green giant. Upon landing we were then mobbed by taxi drivers trying to take you to "their" guesthouse, and of course each is accompanied with a representative from the trekking agency associated with the guest house. There are 600+ trekking agencies here in Thamel (tourist district of Kathmandu) and they are all fighting for your business so I got the whole 9 yards from Encounter Trekking. Of course they assured me that the agencies I had been speaking with support terrorism and are members of the Maoist communist group. With 600 other companies I guess you gotta think of something to bring in customers, right?
Kathmandu itself is nuts. Streets about about 7 feet wide and filled wall-to-wall with cars but mostly motorbikes and rickshaws. The guest house I'm staying in is ridiculously nice, much better than I was expecting. All of the guesthouses remind me of townhouses from Baltimore. Very skinny with only a few rooms per floor but they go up rather high. I've seen a few yaks and tons of stray dogs rooming the streets, even got to see a few political rallies for the upcoming elections. All the locals are very excited and all of them seemed extremely relieved to be restoring democracy to the country, a welcoming thought.
The streets are lined with prayer flags, religious monuments and all sorts of colorful things to look at. There are shops and equipment stalls all over which are amazingly cheap, down sleeping bags for $40, jackets for $5-40. You could probably arrive here naked and be ready to climb Everest the next day. The most notable thing in Thamel thus far, aside from the ridiculously narrow streets and insane drivers (is it really necessary to honk ever 2 seconds?), has been the pollution. I was actually expecting it to be worse, but the air is a bit heavier than I'm used to, c'est la vie, I've got an awesome bandana to breathe through. But I'll be out of the city on Friday as I have an early morning flight to Lukla to start my 19 day Everest Base Camp trek. I've found a trekking companion...I think...a single South African male who seems like a good guy. We'll split the cost of a guide and go from there.
Until then I'll be hoping around the Katmandu valley to check out all of the local "tourist" hotspots tomorrow in between gearing up for my upcoming trek. All is going amazingly well so far and I can't wait to get into the mountains.
Streets of Thamel
Rickshaw in Kathmandu
The flight into Kathmandu provided decent views of the mountains but there was a good bit of haze/pollution so it was difficult to appreciate much besides the company of your fellow trekkers. About half the flight looked like me with backpacks, hiking boots, and eager grins on their face, the other half were Nepali nationals I'm assuming and all made me look like the jolly green giant. Upon landing we were then mobbed by taxi drivers trying to take you to "their" guesthouse, and of course each is accompanied with a representative from the trekking agency associated with the guest house. There are 600+ trekking agencies here in Thamel (tourist district of Kathmandu) and they are all fighting for your business so I got the whole 9 yards from Encounter Trekking. Of course they assured me that the agencies I had been speaking with support terrorism and are members of the Maoist communist group. With 600 other companies I guess you gotta think of something to bring in customers, right?
Kathmandu itself is nuts. Streets about about 7 feet wide and filled wall-to-wall with cars but mostly motorbikes and rickshaws. The guest house I'm staying in is ridiculously nice, much better than I was expecting. All of the guesthouses remind me of townhouses from Baltimore. Very skinny with only a few rooms per floor but they go up rather high. I've seen a few yaks and tons of stray dogs rooming the streets, even got to see a few political rallies for the upcoming elections. All the locals are very excited and all of them seemed extremely relieved to be restoring democracy to the country, a welcoming thought.
The streets are lined with prayer flags, religious monuments and all sorts of colorful things to look at. There are shops and equipment stalls all over which are amazingly cheap, down sleeping bags for $40, jackets for $5-40. You could probably arrive here naked and be ready to climb Everest the next day. The most notable thing in Thamel thus far, aside from the ridiculously narrow streets and insane drivers (is it really necessary to honk ever 2 seconds?), has been the pollution. I was actually expecting it to be worse, but the air is a bit heavier than I'm used to, c'est la vie, I've got an awesome bandana to breathe through. But I'll be out of the city on Friday as I have an early morning flight to Lukla to start my 19 day Everest Base Camp trek. I've found a trekking companion...I think...a single South African male who seems like a good guy. We'll split the cost of a guide and go from there.
Until then I'll be hoping around the Katmandu valley to check out all of the local "tourist" hotspots tomorrow in between gearing up for my upcoming trek. All is going amazingly well so far and I can't wait to get into the mountains.
Streets of Thamel
Rickshaw in Kathmandu
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