Oct. 2 - Nov. 3, 2011 -- At home I saw a list my daughter, Jeanette had written down about places she wanted to go to. Her biggest dream was to go to the Himilayas. When I read it I asked her, "Can I come?". It was also my biggest dream. She said, "Sure". So we went. And it did indeed turn out to be the trip of a lifetime. It was truely an eye opener, having never been in a developing country before. I felt like I was stepping back in time. They live such primitive basic lives in the mountains. And yet I found the people to be so happy and friendly. Especially the first week of trekking when we were in a more remote area, outside of the park. The children would run up to us and the people were eager to share what little they had.
Day 1:
Our guide and sherpa, Ngima gave us a tour through the old part of the city of Kathmandu. Here we visited Swayambhunath Stupa (the monkey temple). It is common for devotees to feed cows, which are sacred and worshipped by the Hindus, and monkeys, which are believed to be descendants of the Hindu god Hanuman. Cows line up the path leading to the temple and the banks of the Bagmati River, while monkeys roam freely around the forested hills next to the shrine.
Meat is eaten fresh because few people have refridgerators. The streets are dirty, dusty and lined with garbage. It smelled strongly of incense from the shrines on many street corners that had statues of Buddha inside them.
Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square.
Much of this site was badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake in which 9000 people died.
These beautiful shrines are both Hindu and Buddhist, built between the 12th & 18th centuries. Until the 20th century the Durbar Square was the King's residence.
This is the bus that took us to Shivalaya. This 12-hour bus ride was the worst but most memorable ride we've ever had. A pit stop meant squatting in the bush with 5 other women.
Jeanette struggled with space issues. We had the front seat which got increasingly crowded as the bus continued to make stops. It was festival days and many local people were using the bus. A little boy spent 4 hours sleeping on Jeanette's lap and later a baby for an hour. She was sitting on the aisle side and the moms just plopped them on her lap because there was no other room. Besides 2 other sisters from Switzerland, we were the only foreigners on the bus.
The last few hours were extremely bumpy. By now my tailbone had gone numb. The bus got stuck so we all had to bail out and some men started digging in the road with pick axes. We all cheered as the bus tried yet again and this time succeeded. Only 3 buses go the last stretch to Shivalaya. Most hikers start from Jiri. Only 10 - 15 hikers start daily from Shivilaya while 400 - 500 fly in to Lukla and start at the beginning of the park.
Dal Bhat is the typical meal for the people living in the Himilayas. It consists mostly of rice, bean soup, carrots and a curry sauce. We did not eat meat for the 3 week trek as Buddhists don't kill animals. 75% of Nepal is Hindu but in the Himalayas it's predominantly Buddhist.
Trekking day 1: Syvalaya 1767m to Chyangma 2480m
3 hours up to 2700m & 1.5 hours down / 933m elevation gain / 8:45am -3:30pm. Ngima set a very slow pace, which left us chomping at the bit. Two weeks later, after summiting, Jeanette said she was glad he'd set that pace otherwise she never would've made it. I agreed.
Shivilaya.
Every night we stayed in tea-houses. These are the homes of the local people. The first week the menu was quite limited as they prepared only what they could grow themselves. The bedrooms were just as cold as outside because the only source of heat was from the kitchen's clay wood burning stove.
Making a marigold necklace.
Our porter, Dawa carried our 2 overnight packs and his own. All that weight was held by just a band across the forehead. We tried it and didn't last 5 minutes.
As soon as we were out in the country hiking, our anxieties evaporated. We were finally on our way. The clean air and fertile valleys and mountains were invigorating. Soon we got into a routine of waking at 6:30am, soon after sun rise and being on the trail by 8:00pm. Lunch was a 1.5 - 2 hour ordeal since all food was prepared on a fire. The break was needed because this first week we did longer days of trekking.
Trek day 2: Chyangma 2480m to Sete 2575m
3 hrs down & 3 hrs up / 780m down / 875m up
8:15 am - 4:00pm This was the only day we had rain. It poured as we were having lunch. This cooled temps down which was fine by me. It felt like it was about 30C & I was sweating buckets as I climbed.
The summer monsoons last from June to Sept. All people own plots of land on which they grow potatoes, buckwheat or barley to feed their families. Fields for cultvating food crops are at the 3300m elevation or lower. During winter yaks graze on nearby hillsides but in the summer they are taken up to higher valleys. Yaks & naks provide dairy products, wool & transportation. The male crossbreeds are called dzopjoik. They're sterile and used as pack animals especially at warmer elevations that yaks cannot tolerate.
Most evenings we'd play cards. This first week we spent every night with the sisters from Switzerland and our guides who knew eachother.
Yes ladies, this is the typical toilet in Nepal. No toilet paper. You fill the bucket with water and use that to wipe yourself with your hand and then use what's remaining to pour your goods down that drain. That's why it's impolite to use your left hand to grab food.
Trekking day 3: Sete 2575m to Junbesi 2675m
3.5 hr up & 3.5 hour down
1280m up & 1200m down / 8:15 am - 5:15pm
So far so good. No blisters or sore muscles. I guess it paid to do those hard hikes at home in September.
This third night was our favorite hotel in the first week.
They store corn by hanging it on trees. This is a crop of buckwheat.
Higher than the summit of our Mt. Baker which is 3300m. This was the highest point in the first week.
The homes thinned out above 3000m. We had lunch here at 3100m. It was so cold they let us sit in their kitchen.
My 5'10" height was rather inconvenient at times in this land of short people.
These slopes were tilled with an ox drawn plough. The rest was done by hand.
A flour mill.
Trekking day 4: Junbesi 2675m to Thanksindo Monastery 2934m
4.5 hours up & 1.5 hours down / 550m gain / 8:20am to 4:00pm
I felt sorry for these children who have to work at such a young age already.
This village where we had lunch had the most cultivated land and crops.
Trekking day 5: Thaksindo Monastery 2934m to Kharikola 2070m
4 hours down & 1.5 hours up / 1384m down & 520m up / 8:00am - 4:00pm
We woke this morning to our first view of the Himalayas!!!
We started the day by visiting the monastery.
Trek day 6: Kharidola 2070m to Punyan 2830m
4 hrs up / 2.5 hrs down / 900m gain / 7:30am - 3:00pm
This day I was struggling. Later in the night I had uncontrollable diarrhea. Not so nice when my clothes supply was very limited and the outhouse was outside in the cold. These bolders were carved over 400 years ago when the first sherpas settled in these valleys.
Trek day 10: Punyan 2830m to Phakding 2600m
3.5 hrs down & 1.5 hr up / 530m down & 500m up / 8:00am - 3:00pm
I felt better today which was a great relief. At our lunch spot the trail intercepted with the short one from Lukla and it's airport. Instantly the trail became much more busy with foreigners, yaks and porters. It became less personal and there were "traffic" jams. The menus had more items and lunch was ready much quicker.
Thus ends our first week of trekking. Apparently we climbed more than the height of Everest itself. But there was always the downhill again. From here on it'll be a more steady uphill.
Trekking day 8: Phakding 2600m to Namche Bazaar 3444m
1000m up & 100m down / 5:15 hours / 8:00am to 2:00pm
Today we entered the national park and spent 2 nights at the largest village -- the gateway to the Everest region. I made good use of the laundry service. It was glorious to have clean clothes.
We had no lack of things to do on our first day of acclimatizing in Namche Bazaar. We went shopping in the outdoor stores, ate at a real bakery, Jeanette braided the kids' hair and it was our first access to a computer since the trek began. In the morning Ngima took us to the museum which offered a fabulous 360 degree view.
Trek day 9: Namche Bazaar 3444m to Deboche 3900m
350m down & 750m up / 4:14 hrs / 8:00am - 2:00pm
All the stone was cut by hand.
A dip down and then a climb up to Thyanboche monastery, the largest one yet. They served us Sherpa tea as we watched the ceremony. I'm not a picky eater but I just couldn't drink it all. It's made of yak milk, sugar, butter, salt & tea. Our teahouse was nestled in the forest. Jeanette got sick there with strong nausea. As with me, it didn't last more than a day.
Trek day 10: Deboche 3900m to Pangboche 3920m
An easy day to acclimatize: 1.5 hrs + a 2 hr side hike
The view on the Himalayas opened up today. The teahouse had an amazing view on Everest and its neighbors. No more crops or trees at this altitude.
Ama Dablam at 6836m is harder to climb than Mt. Everest.
Trek day 11: Pangboche 3920m to Dingboche 4360m
2.5 hrs up & 2 hr side hike / 500m gain
My breathing became more laboured. In the evenings we played cards but only till 8:00pm when the electricity in the whole village is shut off.
Trek day 12: Dingboche 4360 to Lobuche 4930m
3.5 hrs up & 1.5 hr side hike / 800m gain / 7:30am - 11:00am
Temperatures continued to drop as we encountered ice lining the creeks that crossed the trail. When we climbed into our sleeping bags at night we stayed fully clothed.
These stones were memorials for the many who died trying to summit Mt. Everest.
Trekking day 13: Lobuche 4930 to Gorak Shep 5140m to Everest Base Camp 5364m
4 hrs up & 1.5 hrs down / 500m gain
It took us 2 hours to get to the highest camp. It was very crowded there with many trekkers sleeping in the dining room and sherpas sleeping on the floor. We got a tent which proved to be warmer than the teahouse bedrooms. We left Dawa with our gear and went on to base camp. This was hard as breathing by now was very labored. But we were proud to have made it as many people didn't due to altitude sickness (30%) or injury or fatigue.
Trek day 14: Gorak Shep 5140m to Kala Pather 5543m to Pheriche 4240m
2 hrs up & 4.5 hrs down / 405m up & 1305m down
We were up by 5:00am and on the way by 5:30am. It had snowed all night and continued throughout the day. These 2 hours to our highest point were the most intense. And although we had almost no view because of the weather, we were so thrilled to have made it to our destination.
It was a long tiring day as we did a 1305m descent on increasingly slippery trails. It was especially blizzardy between Gorak Shep camp & Loboche. Its a good thing we had Ngima to follow as we had to hike with our faces facing the ground otherwise they would've been pelted with ice balls. 85 trekkers had to turn back from Cho La Pass because of the weather.
Trek day 15: Periche 4240m to Phortse 3820m
560m down & 600m up / 1:45 hrs down & 2.5 hrs up / 9:00am - 2:30pm
After a harder day the day before, I thought it'd be easier this day, going downhill. I should've known better. We took the high trail looking down on Tengboche Monastery.
Trek day 16: Phortse 3810m to Kumjung 3780m
2 hrs up & 1 hr down / 250m up & 200m down
This was a shorter day. By now we were getting fed up with climbing. Jeanette said she was on strike. We were glad to be stuck behind a yak caravan as it slowed down the pace. Jeanette learned how to yell to keep the yaks on track. We visited the oldest monastery in Nepal (600 years) which had a Yeti shull on display.
Drying yak dung in the sun to be used as feul in the stoves.
Stupas are at most high points in villages or on mountain peaks. The lower part holds social utilization aparatuses and indicates four noble truths. Mid part is stuffed with holy articles plus filled with food grains. The top defines 13 classes to attain total enlightened ship. pic 2) Most villages had prayer wheels, used to accumulate good Karma and get rid of bad Karma. When you turn it, the prayers written on papers inside of it are believed to go up to heaven.
Trek day 17: Kumjung 3780m to Namche Bazaar 3444m
This was a plesant relaxing day. We encountered the most beautiful views of the Everest Range from the Everest hotel, the highest hotel in the world at 3480m. Most tourists are flown in by helicopter. They have oxygen pumped into the rooms.
Trek day 19: Pakding 2610 to Lukla 2840m
8:30am - 12:00 noon
Garlands of marigold blossoms decorated doorways and cows. It was a holy cow festival this day. It was also the end of our journey. Just before Lukla we stopped in to visit Ngima's mother. In the evening we watched local young people dance in the main street and children going door to door singing and then geating treats. Candles lined the cobbled street.
Thankfully our plane left on time. Often is does not in the world's most dangerous airport. With only a 200m runway the 18 seater airplane had to fly off of the cliff, drop down and then gain momentum. The close-to-the-mountains flight lasted 25 minutes.
Appartently we did our trek at just the right time; just missing the monsoon by a few days upon arrival and then later just missing winter weather which backed up Lukla airport for one week and left 2500 trekkers stranded.
Day 25:
Back in Kathmandu. This mural is made up of beans and flower petals for the festival.
Our white-water rafting venture was cut short because of the festival but our guide invited us to join his family in the mountain for a feast.
We got marigold necklaces and the traditional design painted on our foreheads. Most importantly, we got an in depth look at how these people really live. They have so little and yet they made us feel like queens.
Day 26:
Our rafting guide should've stuck around the next day to make sure we got onto the correct bus which would take us to this resort in Chitwan National Park on the Indian border. But he didn't and we had no voucher or address. Through sign language some people ended us bringing us to the wrong resort. It was with great relief that we met an english speaking man who helped us. We broke a record that day for using 8 different forms of transportation: the back of a pickup truck, van, 3 wheeler cart/car, rickshaw, taxi, large van, safari truck & then elephant!
Day 27: We got a 2.5 hour elephant ride and were very excited when we saw an elusive and almost extinct one-horned rhino. We chased him (if that's possible with a 4-ton elephant) for about 10 minutes. In the afternoon we went to the river and sat on her head as she squirted water on us with her trunk. Then we got in canoes and drifted down river to be picked up by a jeep. We also saw tiger footprints, Makkau monkeys, a humungous bee hive, deer and heard the barking deer which sounds exactly like a dog.
At elephant school we learned that elephants have 3 to 4 babies, are pregnant 22 months and nurse 4.5 years. They have weak eyes, good smell and memory, sweat between their toes, can pull their own weight and tame females mate with wild males.
Day 29:
Ptan Durbar Square is the oldest city in Kathmandu valley. Most of the monuments of this palace complex were built by King Siddhi (1618 - 1661AD), the first independent dynasty king of Patan.
The Great Stupa of Boudhanath is the most important place of pilgrimage for the Buddhist. It's also the principal centre of Himalayan Buddhist worship and studies in the Kathmandu valley. It's the largest and most significant Buddist monument in the world.
Pasupathi nath is where they cremate bodies 3 days after death. Then it's believed that the spirit roams the earth for 49 days before they are reborn. In this time prayers are said by the lama.
What a wonderful adventure that would have been. ❤️