Month: November 2016

Days 219 – 220: Chitwan National Park

We asked our trekking agency, Wind Horse Adventures, to book us a one-way bus ticket to Chitwan. All the tourist buses leave at the same time and the same place, so it wasn’t too difficult to find the right one. Unfortunately for us, the Greenline Bus – the nicest tourist bus which costs twice the price of all the others at USD$20pp – was already sold out for today. Our bus – “Rainbow Tours” – was more of a local bus as we were on the only Western tourists on board. Despite being the first ones, the bus manager wouldn’t let us pick our seats – he seemed to have some odd control issue with where people sat, as he carefully navigated each new rider around the bus in an order that only made sense in his head. We double checked our tickets to see if we had assigned seating, which might make sense of his directions. Yes and no – yes, our ticket had specific seats indicated, but the manager told us to sit two rows behind our assigned seats. Weirdo.

 

Waking up the hotel staff for our breakfast before walking over to the “bus depot” – a huge line of tourist buses parked along Kanti Path street (kinda reminds us of 8^th Ave in NYC)

 

We are the first ones on the bus! But our solitude doesn’t last long, nor do we even get to select our seats! As a result, a woman and her *two* kids share the seat behind us. We whipped out the masks as the children were coughing all over the place. Lindsay was able to sleep most of the ride, but poor Igor had to endure the ankle-bitters jumping around and banging his seat for 6 hours – he even lost his temper and told them to sit down…twice!

As we were closing in on the town of Sauraha, which is just outside the park entrance, Igor started reading reviews about how to catch a taxi from the bus stop. Apparently, a lot of really aggressive hotel hawkers will bombard travelers with offers to take them to a hotel that give them kickbacks – even if they specially ask to go to a different location! Igor didn’t want to deal with the hassle, so he convinced Lindsay to hop off the bus *an hour early* and WALK the rest of the way!

“It’s only an hour!” Igor assured her. Oh, except the bridge that Google Maps showed him *wasn’t there anymore*. He tried to convince Lindsay that they could take a short cut by taking off our shoes and wading across the river, but she thought that was a stupid idea, not least because we had all our bags with us. Long story short, we were walking *with all our luggage* for over *two hours* in the HOT SUN before we finally arrived at the Green Park Chitwan. When we finally arrived in the hotel lobby, dripping with sweat, and red-faced, the hotel manager looked at us and said, “You know, we would have picked you up from the bus for free – all you had to do us email us when you were coming!”

 

“Isn’t this a nice walk? I feel like we get to see the *real* Nepal this way.” – Igor trying to convince Lindsay that a 2+ hr walk is a good idea

 

We passed many fields where the locals were drying out and stacking hay – not sure why they need so much as they don’t really have a “winter” in this topical area

 

Local farm animals along the road – an inquisitive goat and some doomed chickens…

 

Finally – the sign for our hotel! We certainly didn’t feel like walking anywhere else for dinner, so we ate at the hotel restaurant, which had a *delicious* Indian food buffet! Our room was beautiful and comfy, although Lindsay did have to chase down a chirping gecko before we were able to fall asleep

Since we were short on time, we decided to just book our activities in the park directly through the hotel. We definitely wanted to do a 4×4 safari drive – we tried to book a shared vehicle for the morning (in our experience in Africa, wild animals tend to be most active first thing in the morning, and sleepy in the afternoon), but no one else had signed up, so we fell back on a canoe ride + jungle walk instead. During our canoe ride, we learned there are two species of crocodiles in the river – *really* glad we didn’t wade across the other day!!! While we were lucky enough to spot a pair of Asian Rhinos from the water, our 2hr jungle walk was almost devoid of wildlife except for one lone Barking Deer (those guys well-named – they are *loud*!) and a ton of leeches.

 

Elephants with riders slowly pass by in the early morning haze. Unfortunately, there are so many complaints about animal abuse with elephant rides in Nepal that we decided to skip the activity altogether

 

About a dozen of us are crammed into a thin, dug-out canoe for a ride down the river

 

Kingfishers!

 

Crocs!

 

Rhinos?!? Wow, we didn’t really expect to see any of the rare, one-horned Asian Rhinos, but we luck out and come across a mama and baby napping by the riverbank

 

Ugh, a leech! We collect about half a dozen on our pants during our walk through the forest

 

Spotting a Bengal Tiger is a long shot (besides, Lindsay doesn’t think it’s terribly safe to find one on foot with only sticks for self-defense!), but our guides give the search a noble effort and find a recent paw print on the sandy trail – looks like we missed Kitty by a few hours!

 

Two options for getting back across the river at the end of our walk: wading with the crocs or sitting back-to-knee with a dozen tourists in a canoe. We learned a healthy respect for crocs in Australia, so we picked the crammed canoe

We had barely an hour to rest at the hotel before our afternoon safari drive left at 12:30PM. We were surprised it left so early, as it was scheduled to return after 5:30PM. Turns out, the tour includes a ridiculously long wait at the park ticket counter (not for nuthin’, but the guide could have bought our tickets before picking us up from the hotel). When we finally crossed the river into the park and borded the open-top safari vehicle, it was already mid-afternoon and (as we originally predicted) all the wildlife was nowhere to be seen. Aside from a handful of Spotted Deer and a 30min visit to the Garial Crocodile Breeding Center, we didn’t see any animals until around 4:30PM when we FINALLY found a lone rhino. Africa does it betta.

 

Chitwan National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Driving through the dense (but empty) jungle, vainly looking for tigers…rhinos…deer…anything at this point

 

Gharial Crocodile Breeding Center – where apparently the crocs aren’t that dangerous, so no one bothers the fix the broken enclosures

 

Ýou taking a picture of me? Denied!

 

Such skinny jaws!

 

Half a dozen safari vehicles all parked around one rhino…having Africa flashbacks…

 

Just hanging out in the pond, eating grass #omnomnom

 

A gorgeous view of the Himalayas in the distance, and returning from the park at sunset

Days 215 – 218: Return from Nepal Trek

Well, it was bound to happen at some point…after almost two weeks on the Everest Base Camp Trail, sleeping in uninsulated rooms and eating dinner in teahouses full of coughing Millennials, Lindsay finally woke up with a sore throat. “I told you to use more hand sani!!!” Igor admonished. Well, if it had to happen, at least we were already on the way back – the trail would be easier and each night we would be sleeping in a warmer elevation.

After leaving Panboche, we had a relatively easy morning hike back to Namche Bazaar, stopping for a quick visit to the Tengboche Monastery along the way. We had a good rest (and another *fabulous* veggie burger) in Namche before the final slog to Lukla. It was a long day, bringing us all the way down to the riverbanks on the valley floor before climbing back up 330m to Lukla. In her weakened state, Lindsay was dreading the final ascent, but the incline was much more gradual than she remembered. All in all, it wasn’t that bad.

 

Our final days on the Everest Base Camp Trail, hiking back towards Namche Bazaar, then Lukla

 

Someone must be doing some post-earthquake construction outside Namche, as we passed many porters carrying back-breakingly large materials up and down the mountainside

 

“You OK?” A local cow outside the Tengboche Monastery seems concerned when Lindsay finally arrives, out of breath. “Just gimme a sec…WHEW!”

 

The Tengboche Monastery has a killer view of the Himalayan Mountains

 

Another “miracle of Buddhism” on display in a monastery – at least this one doesn’t charge $5 like the Yeti Scull

 

No pictures inside and no kissing! Following the rules of the Tengboche Monastery

 

Scenes of monastery life – a local painter defies gravity to give the eaves a fresh coat of paint, and a young monk gets a hair cut outside

 

As we head down the trail, a flock of alpine pheasants cross our path

 

Saying farewell to the Himalayan mountains – Everest shows its face between the trees one last time before we descend to the valley floor

 

Yakky, yak – don’t talk back!

 

All signs point to Namche!

 

Return to Namche Bazaar! First stop: lunch at the Everest Bakery – YUM!

 

A hearty, cheese covered pizza and a LARGE pot of tea are just what Lindsay needs to kick her cold

 

Trekker style! We’re both so fashion-forward!

 

Waiting for the Yak X-ing at the bridge

Our final days hiking the EBC Trail also happened to coincide with Diwali – the Hindu “Festival of Lights”. It’s like a mash-up of Christmas and Halloween – as we walked past the small villages, groups of young girls were dancing – some in formal traditional costumes, and some just wearing regular street clothes jamming to a boom box (one ramdon little girl hiding in the bushes scared the sh*t out of us when she started blasting gangster hip-hop as we passed by her on the trail). Traditionally, small gifts or small money donations are given to the dancers (kinda like door-to-door carol singers).

There were more festivites during the evening, but sadly we missed out on them as Lindsay went to bed early because of her cold. When we arrived in Kathmandu on Nov. 1^st, we had one night to see the decorations before the festival came to an end – every doorway had multi-colored Rangolis (mandela-like patterns made out of colored powders) in front, and buildings were drapped with holiday lights. Though the mountainous area of Nepal is more Buddhist then Hindu, apparently some sects of Buddhists observe Diwali and worship the Hindu goddess Lakshmi as well.

 

Boys in masks and girls dancing in the streets – open your wallets for Diwali donations!

 

Gathering energy for the last uphill section of the trail – we finally made it back to Lukla!

 

Igor has fun shaving off his 2-week stubble at the teahouse (Lindsay threatened divorce if he kept the mustache) before we head down to the diningroom for our LAST serving of dal bhat!

The morning of our departure day from Lukla was calm, beautiful, and cloudless – perfect flying weather! Despite the (seemingly) chaotic mess of lines at the airport, our flight was on time (Imma call 15min late “on time” for Nepal). Since Lindsay was no longer afraid of dying in a fiery crash (well, less afraid than the arrival at least), she actually had a chance to look out the window and enjoy the view!

 

We walk out of the teahouse just before sunrise and check-in to the Lukla Airport

 

Organized chaos at work – our luggage is dumped in a pile after the “security check” (a guy literally looked at it and immediately stuck a “Security Checked” sticker on it) and we file in two separate lines (male and female) for the human “security screening” (which is literally just an agent asking each person, one at a time, which country they are from and, “Are you carrying a lighter?”)

 

Once inside the “terminal,” all the tourists stand plastered against the windows, watching in awe as the propeller planes land and take off, while all the guides congregate at the tea stand, clearly bored by the air traffic

 

*cue the Indiana Jones theme song*

 

Igor is all grins while Lindsay is barely tolerating this flying sardine can

 

Since Lindsay was only deathly afraid of the *landing* at Lukla, she is in pretty good spirits for our take-off and actually semi-enjoys the flight back (hey – at least she wasn’t crying, and consented to look out the window a few times)

 

High in the sky, we see a “river” of clouds snaking through the valley below before we start our descent into Kathmandu

When we arrived in Kathmandu, we had long list of chores to take care of before our bus ride to Chitwan the next day – most of important was which to get our dirty laundry washed! After two weeks on the trail, we were completely out of clean clothes and had to use our bathing suits as underwear as we walked through the streets of Kathmandu carry a huge plastic bag of our laundry. Unfortunately for us, the day after the last day of Diwali is like New Years Day in the US – everything was closed! After schlepping our dirty things around Thamel for about an hour we concluded that we would have to stay in Kathmandu an extra night. As a result, we spent two lazy days in Kathmandu hiding out in the hotel until the evenings when we emerged from our Junior Suite oasis for dinner. The people of Chitwan better appreciate our machine-fresh smell!

 

Enjoying a delicious Indian food dinner and nearly deserted, quiet streets of Thamel on the last day of Dawali

Day 214: Nepal Trek Day 12: Kala Pattar

Today was the beginning of the end. We had a final day-hike to the summit of Kala Pattar scheduled for the morning, but after that we would be making our long, long, long way back to Lukla. Thankfully for us, the trail back would be new territory up until Namche, as we arrived via the loop from the Gokyo Valley.

Perhaps against our better judgement, we asked Purba to start our morning hike at 5:30AM – a half an hour earlier than he originally suggested – as we overheard the huge Exodus group planning a 6AM start as well. In hindsight, we needn’t have worried about sharing the trail with them – the hike up Kala Pattar was very similar to Gokyo Ri in that was it a nearly vertical ascent, which quickly created distance between exhausted hikers.

More importantly, it was FREEZING. When we hiked Gokyo least the sun came up within the first hour, thawing our stone-cold fingers and toes. Kala Pattar, however, was right in the shadow of the biggest friggin’ mountain in the world – Everest refused to give us any warmth during our entire 2.5hr. climb.

 

Another pre-sunrise start for our day-hike up Kala Pattar

 

The sun slowly starts to light up the peaks around us, but Everest (not shown here) and Nuptse stubbornly hide the warming rays from us

View of the Khumbu Glacier and surrounding mountains from the summit of Kala Pattar

When we finally reached the top, we barely had the energy to exhault in our achievement – at 5,644m it was the official “high point” of our trek! We could see the halo of light the sun was casting around the peak of Everest – we knew it would only be a matter of minutes before the sunshine finally came out…but we couldn’t wait that mong. It was so cold, everything just *hurt*. We took as many photos as we could stand before abandoning the summit and heading down the hill as fast as possible. We were about a quarter of the way down the hill when the sun finally crested the mountaintop.

“Do you want to go back up?” Igor asked Lindsay. She looked at him as if he had three heads, “Not even a little bit! Let’s go get breakfast.”

View of Mount Everest and Nuptse from Kala Pattar

 

We get a great view of Everest and the Khumbu Ice Falls from the summit of Kala Pattar

 

The view is spectacular, but it is so COLD! We want to stay until the sun climbs over the Everest peak but ourfingers are toes are so frozen we can’t hold out any longer

 

Returning to the teahouse for breakfast after our grueling morning climb

After a warming breakfast, we finished packing up our room and met up with our porter to start the long journey back. According to our itinerary, we would be spending the night in Pheriche – one of the larger settlements along the EBC trek – but since he knew we really wanted to get back to Namche ASAP, Phurba suggested we continue past Pheriche another hour (which turned out to be at least two extra hours, since Lindsay was going so slow).

Even though the trail itself wasn’t that difficult (it was mostly flat, and some gentle downhill), the Khumbu Valley is known to be *extremely* windy near Pheriche, so the weather was incredibly cold all afternoon. We usually power through our day of hiking and wait until we get to the next teahouse to rest, but it was so cold today that we had to stop for lunch at Thaknak and again outside Pheriche for a warming cup of tea. Just when Lindsay was starting to regret the decision to alter the itinerary, we finally stumbled into our teahouse for the night. We were on our feet from 5:30AM to 5:30PM – definitely our longest trekking day of the trip!

 

Heading back towards Lukla on the EBC Trail, catching our last glimpse of the Khumbu Galcier as we continue into the valley

 

Even Igor bundles up today – it is windy and cold!

 

Hundreds of memorial stones and cairns decorate the hillside just outside Lobuche

 

A safe distance away from EBC, friends and loved ones have erected a memorial site for all those who have perished on Mount Everest. Sadly, there are A LOT of plaques dedicated to those who reached the summit, but died on the way their way down because they wanted their “no oxygen” ascent to “count”

 

Stopping for lunch at Thaknak, about halfway between Gorak Shep and Panboche

 

Passing by browsing yaks and bright blue mountain streams as we make our way down the valley

 

The last few hours of the trek were tough – the clouds rolled in and the wind was brutal! Lindsay was so relieved when we finally arrived at the teahouse in Panboche and collapsed into our bed

Day 213: Nepal Trek Day 11: EBC – Nepal

We woke up super excited – today was THE DAY! In just a few hours we would achieve our goal of reaching the Nepali Everest Base Camp – altitude sickness and catching a cold could no longer get in our way! We had a short 2hr. hike to Gorak Shep – the last permanent settlement on the trail – where we checked-in to our teahouse and dropped off our luggage, before heading out on the final 3hr. segment of the trek.

 

Leaving Lobuche and heading onward toward Gorak Shep

The trail to Gorak Shep runs along the moraine-covered Khumbu Glacier – with its source starting on Mt. Everest, it is the highest-elevation glacier in the world

 

Traffic jam! Rejoining the main EBC trail once again puts us in the path of HUGE trekking groups and yak caravans

 

We arrive in Gorak Shep around 9AM, plenty of time to grab a room and give the local puppy a belly-rub before our day-hike to EBC!

 

Snow-capped mountains and glaciers surround us at every turn – we are in the heart of the Himalayas!

 

Lindsay clambers over the rocky final approach to EBC

Like on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, there is no way for a tourist to camp overnight at the Nepali EBC. “Everest Base Camp” is simply a temporary campsite location for the climbers who are attempting to summit the mountain during the season. In fact, since the Khumbu Glacier is constantly moving, the exact location of EBC actually changes every year depending on the safest route across the ice. Unlike the Chinese EBC (which had a permanent stone marker setup on a hilltop, demarcating the end of the road for tourists), the Nepali EBC felt very transient – the only “sign” indicating that we had arrived was a rock with “Everest Base Camp 2016” scrawled on it with a permanent marker. Since we were visiting outside the April/May season, EBC was empty of tents.

 

We made it! The Khumbu Ice Falls – the birthplace of the Khumbu Glacier – lie before us – the first obstacle mountaineers must conquer in their ascent of Mount Everest

 

Our final few steps take us across the icy glacier

 

“E” for Everest! Funny thing is you can’t really see the peak of Everest from Base Camp (except a tiny sliver) – we see the full peak peek out between the mountains on our way back, but the real viewpoint is at the summit of Kala Pattar, which we will climb tomorrow

The experience of visiting the Nepali EBC was very different from the Chinese side. Although I hate to admit that anything is “better” in China, the view of Everest from Tibet is inarguably more stunning, especially from a nature-lover’s perspective – not only is the entire mountain visible, but it is perfectly framed by the surrounding valley, so that the mighty mountain is the central focus of even the worst photographer’s picture.

On the Nepali side, you can’t even *see* the Everest peak from the Base Camp! (Maybe you can see a sliver of the mountain, depending on your angle.) So, for us, the Nepali EBC wasn’t really about being one with the grandeur of Nature – it wasn’t awe-inspiring the way visiting the Grand Canyon or Victoria Falls was. The powerful reaction we got from EBC was not about Nature, is was about *people*. There’s no doubt that Everest is a cultural phenomenon as much as an environmental one – people always talk about their greatest difficulties or successes as their personal “Everest.” So, unsurprisingly, Everest Base Camp is littered with mementos and messages that other travelers have left behind, documenting their visit. Normally we would scoff at some dumbass’s, “Brett was here,” graffiti, but somehow the statement seemed legitimately brag-worthy here.

What was a bit surprising, however, is that the majority of memorial tributes we read at EBC were *not* regarding those who had perished on Everest. Sure, there were some, but (as we would discover the next day) the main Everest memorial site is actually earlier on the trail, before you reach Lobuche. Perhaps this makes sense – it’s probably not a good idea to have a constant reminder of all the fallen climbers right next to the current season’s hopefuls. Instead, EBC has become a place where trekkers and pilgrims come to ponder life, face their own mortality, and remember friends and family who for many reasons are not there to share the moment in person.

 

Everest Base Camp carries a lot of emotion – everyone has their own reason for wanting to visit the biggest mountain in the world. The area is covered in memorials, graffiti, political statements, and cairns – we walk around for half an hour reading all the tributes other have left behind – the “Flag of Honor” depicting the names of all those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks was particularly moving for us

Of course, the momentary peace and harmony we found at EBC was soon shattered by the other tourists with whom we had to share the location. As we were perusing the signs hanging within a tangle of prayer flags, we were delighted to find a “FREE TIBET” sign! The Chinese Government can’t control *both* sides of the mountain, we thought gleefully as we propped it up to better prominence…or can they? As were turned around for a second look, we noticed two very angry-looking Asian trekkers who had just been posing for a picture with a giant Chinese flag they had brought with them. They actually walked up to the prayer flags AND TOOK DOWN THE FREE TIBET SIGN!

Assholes.

Later that night when we were eating dinner in Gorak Shep, Phurba filled us in on some Sherpa gossip. As we were leaving EBC, a huge group of 20-somethings from Exodus Trekking were just arriving. When they got there, one of the girls stripped down *completely naked* in front of Base Camp trying to get a nudie picture! Igor was so *bummed* he missed that (pun intended). Apparently this whole nudie-pics-in-famous-locations is a thing nowadays (Cambodia has been having a lot of problems with naked tourists in Ankor Wat in recent years). The guide, however, caught the girl in the act before she was able to snap her illicit selfie – he demanded her passport and told her that he would be taking her to the police station when they returned to Lukla! Of course, she started crying and apologizing immediately, and the guide relented since she hadn’t finished taking her photo. The three of us laughed over the story as we finished our dinner.

Youths!

DAL BHAT.

Days 210 – 212: Nepal Trek Days 8 – 10: The Cho-La Pass

We had a very short 2hr hike ahead of us today (since we already climbed Gokyo Ri the day before), so Phurba told us to sleep in and meet him for breakfast around 9:30AM. Since we were getting such a late start, we had the dining room to ourselves until the day-hikers started returning around 10AM.

We gathered our stuff and said farewell to the Fitzroy – seriously the best teahouse on the trail! When Igor left a modest tip for the staff after settling the bill, the manager was so flattered he gave each of us a chocolate bar for our climb up the Cho-La Pass! As an FYI, we had stocked up on Snickers bars back in Namche, and Lindsay was hording them very carefully – saving them for our upcoming 8hr hiking days. Her excitement over those two extra candy bars was so intense, you’d think Christmas had come early!

 

After a wonderful 2 nights at the Fitzroy Inn, we say farewell to Gokyo

To reach the Cho-La Pass, we had to hike across the top of the Ngozumpa Glacier. While the glacier is covered in rocks and doesn’t *look* impressive, it’s the largest glacier in Nepal and is constantly moving, making it very dangerous to cross if you don’t know what you are doing. Phurba told us that the guides have to forge a new path every season, due to the melting ice. Going off-trail is dangerous as you don’t know if there may be a weakened crevasse hiding under the gravel. As if the instability of the ground weren’t bad enough, Phurba also warned Igor to stop dawdling to take so many pictures along the valley ridge – the rocks along the sides of the hills were prone to avalanches! Never has such a short hike been so deadly…

 

A lazy yak suns himself by the lake as we pass a flock of Tibetan Snowcocks (heh, heh – snowcock…)

 

The Ngozumpa Glacier is thinning due to rising temperatures in the Himalayas – the ice & snow melt creates lots of different colored lakes and ponds on the surface. Throughout the day, we would turn our heads quickly as we heard the CRACK of chunks of ice crashing into the waters

 

We carefully follow a narrow path through the gravel top layer of the Ngozumpa Glacier

The peaks of Cholatse & Taboche create a beautiful backdrop for the walk across the Ngozumpa Glacier

After a short 1.5hr hike across the glacier, we arrive at the Cho-La Resort in Thangnak in the late morning. We don’t have enough time to cross the Cho-La Pass today (we learned our lesson in Gokyo not to try and do too much in one day!), so our group had a lot of down time. While Igor’s Nepali SIM card had had decent reception in bigger villages like Namche and Gokyo, we finally had to spring for paid Wifi and an hour-long charge for the laptop in order to ease our afternoon boredom.

 

Chillin’ out at the Cho-La “resort” – our porter sat in the sun with some of his colleagues, while Igor & Lindsay hung out in the teahouse dining room

 

We lost our 4G/Edge when we left Gokyo, so we bought a Wifi access code so we could catch up on Facebook…although after reading all the nasty election updates, we wanted to disconnect again…

 

Clouds came in *early* today – the mountains were completely covered by 1PM! Maybe it’s a good thing we climbed Gokyo Ri yesterday after all!

 

In order to keep the weight down, Igor and Lindsay only brought one laptop on the trail, so we had to share. We finally called it quits at dinnertime (more dal bhat!)

We woke up EARLY for our crossing of the Cho-La Pass. Not only did our itinerary estimate the trek would take a good 8hr (BTW – it only took us 6), but we were once again faced avalanche danger: the mountain face leading up to the saddle between the peaks is a ridiculously steep wall of loose rocks. Phurba told us the night before that it is much safer to cross early in the morning when all the rocks are still frozen to the ground. As we tramped along the rocky trail in the shadow of the mountain, *desperately* trying to get some circulation into our frozen toes and fingers, at least we were pretty confident that a stray bolder wouldn’t come crashing down on our heads.

 

We are out the door before sunrise to start the grueling hike up the 5,330m Cho-La Mountain Pass

The Cho-La Pass is cruel – after about 45min of hiking up a tough incline, we reach the summit…of a hill…which we then need to climb *down* only to go STRAIGHT UP AGAIN. Stop teasing me! I only want to go up ONCE!

 

After a final view of the Gokyo Valley behind us, we start crawling up the rocky face of the Cho-La Pass – the trekkers ahead of us are microscopic, we can’t even distinguish their brightly-colored jackets against the boulders

 

Of course Igor ran up the friggin’ mountain pass like a billy goat on steroids – Phurba dutifully waited as Lindsay huffed and puffed her way up…slowly, slowly…

 

While the western face of the Cho-La Pass was a shaded, frigid, barren rocky landscape, once we crossed the summit we were suddenly bathed in sunlight, looking down at a snow-covered glacier which had a slick little footpath snaking along the ice

 

Taking a moment to savor the summit of the Cho-La Pass

The descent from the Cho-La Pass was much more enjoyable, though still challenging as we had to cross yet another glacier! Luckily, this one was much shallower and far less dangerous than the Ngozumba (although Phurba still warned us to stay on the trail to be safe) – our biggest worry was slipping on the icy surface (which was getting slicker and slicker from the warming sun and foot traffic from other trekkers) and bruising our bums.

The glacier-capped summit of the Cho-La Pass

 

Heading down the other side of the mountain pass…very carefully!

 

Our trail is covered in icicles and snow!

 

Hiking across this glacier is not as easy as the first one – the thin layer of snow barely covers a very slippery surface of ice

 

We are not the only ones making our way along the ice-path – the trail is packed with fellow trekkers and porters

 

A couple of boots crossing the snowy Cho-La Pass

We finally reach the end of the snow and get our first glimpse of the valley beyond

 

Cholatse towers to our right, and Ama Dablam rises in front of us as we arrive at the small settlement of Dzongla

When we reached Dzongla, we discovered that we had slim pickings for our accommodations for the night. (Supposedly) The only teahouse that had ensuite bathrooms, didn’t seem to understand exactly how Westerners *use* the toilet – not sure if it was worth paying the extra USD $20/night at this point as we would have rather shared a *real* toilet with others than use a literally half-assed john. We just had to shrug our shoulders and enjoy the local charm of the EBC trail.

 

OK, *technically* this is an ensuite room, but come on! – how are we supposed to use the toilet without the seat?! Surprisingly the one Christmas tree light bulb stuck on the ceiling was actually pretty bright

 

The teahouse at Dzongla was absolutely FREEZING – the clouds rolled in about an hour after we arrived, so no more solar water boilers to keep us warm. The dal bhat was good, but we had to eat and run as the dining room was full of sickies! We felt bad running out on Phurba so early (we had just taught him how to play rummy, and were looking forward to a few games), but we took our pot of ginger tea into our room in order to avoid contracting the plague

Our final day before the EBC was a pretty easy, level stretch of trail which brought our loop back to the Khumbu Valley. We braced ourselves for the crowded onslaught of Everest trekkers as we officially rejoined the trail at the village of Lobuche. Earlier on in the trek we had chatted with a pair of Canadians hiking solo, who told us that Lobuche had been so crowded that their reservation was given away and they were forced to sleep in the dining room! We were so relieved when Phurba handed us a key that we didn’t even mind when he told us there would be no more private bathrooms until we started heading back to Lulka.

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The next morning was bright and sunny, so Lindsay ran out of the room to try and warm herself like a meerkat, before we headed back out on the trail, passing random yaks along the way

We finally enter the Khumbu Valley, on the opposite side of the river as the official EBC Trail

Ginormous massifs toward over the village of Lobuche – our next stop for the evening

 

We arrive at the Altitude Oxygen Hotel pretty early, so we spend the afternoon in the dining room playing cards and chatting with some fellow New Yorkers. The place is really popular (no complaints – one of the better teahouses) so it turns into an absolute zoo at dinnertime – we manage a few rounds of cards before our daily serving of dal bhat then we retire to our room. Each night it gets colder as we rise in elevation, but tonight is the first time we get *double* the amount of blankets! We got super excited when we saw an electric heating pad on our bed, but plummeted into disappointment when the owner told us our room wasn’t set-up for electric plug-in yet. Boo.

Days 206 – 209: Nepal Trek Days 4 – 7: Gokyo Valley

Over the next four days, we veered off the main Everest Base Camp Trek for a detour through the Gokyo Valley, after which we will climb the Cho-la Mountain Pass and rejoin the main trail 2 days before reaching EBC. Even though the Gokyo Valley has stunning scenery and allows you to turn you 2-week hike into a more interesting loop (rather than returning the same way you come in), the trail is surprisingly not that popular, which is great for us as it means we get a break from the crowds!

Our first day on the trail we hiked from Namche to Dole (skipping an optional night in Phortse Tenga) – a lot of up and down (mostly up) hiking from 8AM to 1PM, with an hour-long break for an early lunch at 11AM. We were finding that we were typically 1-2hrs faster than our itinerary – probably due to the fact that we walk a lot faster without the burden of all our gear – loving having a porter!

 

Heading off towards the Gokyo Valley – a 6-day detour from the main Everest Trail, and thankfully less crowded

 

Lots of ups and downs on the trail – mostly ups

 

A memorial stupa dedicated to Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who – along with Sir Edmund Hillary – was the first person to summit Everest in 1953

 

While the Gokyo Valley Trek is less crowded, that doesn’t mean it is deserted. On our first day out from Namche we were surrounded by fellow trekkers

 

One of our last days below the tree line – Igor snaps a pic of a wizened old thing covered in Old Man’s Beard, and another pine filled with dark blue birds

 

We lost a lot of the crowd on the turn off to Phortse – a large village across the river – as we were skipping straight ahead to Dole

 

Passing by the cliffside village of Phortse on our way to Dole

 

A small hole in the clouds slowly grows bigger, giving us a view of the peaks of Thamserku

 

Thumbs up for a great day of hiking!

 

While we were initially disappointed in our teahouse in Dole (as it did not have any rooms with ensuite bathroom), we soon forgot about the bare bones surroundings when we discovered the owners had a PUPPY! This tiny ball of fur was adorably affectionate and nestled against Igor for several hours until we had to wake it up for our dinner. After her long nap, Puppy soon turned into a little terror, harassing an Italian couple sitting by the stove, alternatingly stealing their slippers or biting their fingers. As she watched the Italians cower atop their chairs, Lindsay turned to Igor and said, “We should totally get another puppy when we get home…”

 

We had hiked for 5hr and ascended 670m, so we decided that today was the day we started eating dal bhat – the Nepalese staple dish of rice and lentil soup, with a hearty potato-veggie side dish (oh! And the papadum – can’t forget the crunchy tortilla!). It was *delicious* – we have decided to eat nothing else for dinner for the rest of the trek, especially since this is the ONLY dish that comes with FREE REFILLS. You will not go hungry, as long as you order dal bhat. After a few hours of playing rummy and watching Puppy chew on the Italians’ shoes, we finally retired our FREEZING room (two twin beds with nothing but plywood for the floors and walls) and buried ourselves inside our down sleeping bags and comforter. Surprisingly kept us pretty warm!

On day two, we had a short 2hr trek from Dole to Machermo. We were almost disappointed to reach the end of our walk so early in the day, but we needed to acclimatize before moving on to Gokyo. We had plenty of time to relax and take care of some washing. Igor was game for an afternoon day-hike to a viewpoint, but unfortunately the clouds rolled in just after lunch ruining his plans, so we visited the Machermo Hospital for their free daily talk instead.

 

Breakfast at the Norland Lodge in Dole – a hearty serving of porridge and scrambled eggs!

As the sun came up we discovered we had our first (of many) cloudless mornings! Our eyes feasted on the gorgeous, unmarred landscape surrounding us. Turns out the weather of the Gokyo Valley would be very predictable over the next few days – cloudless and sunny in the mornings, with clouds rolling in just after lunch

 

Leaving the settlement of Dole and a waning half-moon in the distance as we carry on up the trail

A clear view of Thamserku as we continue up the trail

 

There is nothing but wilderness in between settlements, so when we start passing stone cottages, we know we have reached Machermo. As we walk up to the small town, Igor holds his arms up in triumph

 

We made great time on our morning walk and reach Machermo within 3hrs before lunch. Since we have plenty time and the sun is still shining, we take the opportunity to wash our clothes and our bodies (oh, la la Igor!)

 

Chillin’ out in Machermo, enjoying the sunshine and the (Nepalese-publication) “Food & Wine Magazine”

 

The teahouse in Machermo

 

DELICIOUS food! A cheese sandwich *with chips* (that’s always a nice surprise!) and our second dinner of dal bhat

Since the clouds had rolled in and destroyed any view we would have gotten during our afternoon hike, we decided to head over to the Machermo Hospital for their free daily presentation on Acute Mountain Sickness and porter welfare. The hospital is staffed with volunteer doctors (Western & Nepali) who typically stay for the season. It was mainly founded in order to improve the emergency care access for porters, many of who are impoverished, don’t have insurance and – contrary to popular belief – are NOT “Sherpas” (people indigenous to the Himalayan highlands, who have a genetic adaptation to high altitudes); most porters are Tamils from the lower Kathmandu Valley who only come up to the mountains for seasonal work. As such, they are just as susceptible to altitude sickness as Western tourists, but they often push themselves to their limits in order to make a decent wage (USD $15/day plus tips for carrying 130KG is considered standard, but sadly many work for less and carry much more). Not only is treatment for porters provided free of charge, the hospital also has a shelter and kitchen where the porters can stay – apparently there are many instances where porters will cook and sleep in “caves” or under rocks, completely exposed to the elements!

Our porter eats at the same teahouses we do, and either sleeps at our teahouse, or at a cheaper one when we are in bigger settlements with more selection – like Namche Bazaar. However, Igor had noticed that our porter seemed to be catching a cold over the last two days, so he asked Phurba to translate his request that the porter got to the hospital to get a check-up and some cold medicine. We had an acclimatization day coming up the day after next, so hopefully he would have plenty of time to rest and recover.

 

Walking over to the Machermo clinic for their free afternoon presentation

 

Lindsay’s Indonesian boots have been giving her horrible blisters on both her heels. Even though we stocked up on blister pads in Kathmandu, they must be cheap knock-offs of the Dr. Scholls versions as they slip right off by the middle of the hike. The Machermo Hospital charges foreigners USD $10 for treatment (it’s the only revenue they have to keep the place open), so we picked up two hospital-grade blister pads…which also slipped off the next day. Lindsay must have abnormally sweaty feet…

On our third day, we left Machermo around 8AM and reached Gokyo just before lunchtime, around 11:30AM. Again, we had beautiful hiking weather, giving us lovely views of the surrounding mountains and the three alpine lakes on the way up the valley. When we reached Gokyo, we checked in to our *favorite* teahouse so far – the Fitzroy Inn Gokyo – the most hospitable (*Free* welcome drink! *Hot towels* before dinner!) and comfortable hotel (*in room* electrical charging and *hot showers*!).

Over lunch, we reviewed the itinerary with Phurba – originally we were supposed to do a one day hike to the 4^th & 5^th Lakes tomorrow, saving the hike up Gokyo Ri (5300m! Same as EBC!) for the day we leave. Igor was concerned with the weather – he didn’t want to risk having the view obscured in case we got a cloudy morning. We convinced Phurba to allow us to attempt both day-hikes in one day. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in our gloriously warm room, where (thanks to the in-room outlets) we were able to use the laptop and Kindle as long as we liked!

 

So many majestic mountain peaks surround us during the trek, it’s hard to keep track of which is which

Looking back in the Gokyo Valley, we see some clouds slowly start to follow us

 

High up in the mountains, we come across the 1^st Lake (more of a pond, really) – it’s still pretty early in the morning and the edges of the lake are still sheets of ice

Stone piles surrounding 1^st Lake, with Cho Oyu in the distance

 

As we continue down the trail, we come across 2^nd Lake (a decent size – no longer a pond)

 

Igor strikes a pose in front of 2^nd Lake

The sparkling blue waters of the 3^rd Lake, with Cholatse, Taboche & Kangtega in the distance

 

As we walk around to the end of the 3^rd Lake we get our first view of Gokyo

 

As we pass through the prayer flags on our way into town, Igor gets distracted by our first animal sighting – looks like a little hamster

 

We checked into the lakeside Fitzroy Inn Gokyo – our favorite teahouse on the trek so far! Talk about hospitality – they gave us a free *welcome drink* when we checked in!

 

We seriously lucked out and got *the* best room in the house – not only does it have a great view, facing 3^rd Lake, it also gets LOTS of sun in the afternoon, warming up the bedroom, and the stove-pipe from the dining room downstairs runs through our ensuite bathroom (which has HOT water, BTW), meaning we have a heat source once the sun goes down as well! We were nice and toasty!

Since we had climbed over 1,000m from Namche Bazaar to Gokyo, we were required to stay an additional night to aid acclimatization. Thanks to our previous 2-weeks in Tibet, we were already acclimatized to at least 3,600m (the altitude of Lhasa), but at 4,800m we were starting to feel very mild pressure on our heads (not *quite* a headache, but not 100% either) and Igor had a horrible night sleep – waking up at 1AM and unable to fall back asleep for the rest of the night.

We got up really early – at 5AM! – as we needed an early start if we wanted to accomplish both day hikes before the clouds rolled in. We were successful, but only because the clouds didn’t roll in until around 3PM. In hindsight, doing both hikes was probably a bad call – after a 4hr hike up and down Gokyo Ri, an hour long break for a “second breakfast”, and a 4½hr hike to the 4^th and 5^th Lakes, we were *exhausted*! We both developed about 3 new blisters each and Lindsay’s mild pressure headache turned into a full-fledged altitude headache with nausea on the side (thankfully, a pot of ginger tea, a plate of plain rice and a half tablet of generic brand Diamox fixed her right up).

 

Getting up at dawn to start our hike up Gokyo Ri

Crossing the ice-covered stone walkway across 3^rd Lake toward Gokyo Ri – a nearly 65⁰  incline!

A view of Gokyo across the lake

 

As Phurba waits for Lindsay to catch up, Igor spots some alpine pheasants just as the sun starts to light up the mountain peaks

Sunrise over 3^rd Lake

 

Lindsay and Igor climbing Gokyo Ri

 

A Buddha shrine at the top of Gokyo Ri – at 5,360m not only does the village of Gokyo look tiny, but so does the helicopter flying below us!

Panorama of the Ngozumpa Glacier and the surrounding mountains as seen from the summit of Gokyo Ri

 

It took us 2.5hrs, but we finally made it to the top!

 

From the top of Gokyo Ri we also get a clear view of Mount Everest

 

Climbing (very carefully) back down the hill to the village for our well-deserved “second breakfast”

 

We finally reach the bottom of the hill and the shores of 3^rd Lake just before 10AM – we’ve already had a productive day, but we (foolishly) decided to fit in a *second* day hike!

 

Hiking to the 4^th and 5^th Lakes, another good 2.5hr from Gokyo Village

As we pass by 4^th Lake, we can see the afternoon clouds starting to creep into the valley

The aquamarine waters of the 5^th Lake

 

Before heading back down the trail, we climb the crest of the hill hiding the rock-covered Ngozumpa Glacier – we have been walking parallel to it all afternoon but it was hidden from view

 

We have sunny weather up until the last 40min of our walk back to Gokyo – once the cloud bank rolled in the temperature dropped a good 10⁰ contributing to Lindsay AMS headache that night. As soon as we got back to the hotel, she crawled into bed and moaned for some aspirin and HOT ginger tea

Days 204 & 205: Nepal Trek Days 2 & 3 – Namche Bazaar

When Lindsay was a kid, her dad used to take her camping every summer. Tony was not one to enjoy air mattresses, so over the years he designed and built a queen-sized platform bed, which he outfitted with a foam mattress and fitted sheets. That bed…was so *comfortable*. Even though he got a lot of flak for the bed (his nickname was “the Trailer Guy” – because people said he may as well be in an RV), I think all our fellow camper were jealous.

My point is, foam mattresses are *delightful* and Igor and Lindsay slept incredibly well our first night on the Everest trail. Feeling recharged, we met Phurba in the dining room for breakfast and headed out on the trail toward Namche Bazaar by 8AM. While yesterday was a lot of downhill, today was a proper uphill hike most of the day. Even so, we fared pretty well – the itinerary estimated a 5-6hr trek, and we arrived at 1:30PM.

 

Crossing the river and slowly starting our ascent, passing lots of waterfalls where we fill up our water bottles along the way

 

It’s the high season, so the trail is always busy with fellow trekkers and porters transporting supplies

 

Many of the stone cottages we see passing through the villages still show damage from the 2015 earthquake

 

Freshly painted mani stones along the trail

 

We stop for a few minutes at the official park entrance to show our permits and tickets – there are constant warnings for how to spot the symptoms of acute altitude sickness, which will become more and more frequent the further we hike

 

Ticket in hand, we are on our way!

 

Criss-crossing the Kosi River via swing bridges

 

Around noon, the sun starts to breaks through the clouds, lighting up the valley

 

The Everest trail is much cleaner than we had expected, due to the efforts of the local Sherpa community to pick up trash and install sturdy trash bins along the way – totally appreciate their efforts as we can actually enjoy nature!

 

Hard-core porters along the trail – we see *a lot* of young kids (girls & boys, some who look as young as 7) carrying huge loads up and down the trail, as well as many porters wearing flip-flops and sandals. It’s still sunny and snow-free at this attitude, so hopefully they just prefer lighter footwear – but we’ve read horror stories of porters who don’t have cold-weather shoes and jackets

 

The final two-hour stretch before we reach Namche is a steep uphill climb – at the halfway point there is a rest area with a small view of Everest (when there are no clouds) – the first chance to see the mighty mountain on the trail! Sadly, the weather is not on our side today so we only get a peek of the peak

 

This is Namche! A “backpacker’s Disneyland” perched at 3,420m – just about everything you need, from toiletries & gear to an ATM & money exchange, can be found here and at a much better price than later on the trail

After skipping our early lunch, Igor was starving by the time we reached Namche! As we walked around town, we detected the aroma of freshly baked pastries! We followed our noses into a well-stocked, sweet-smelling bakery – we shopped with our stomachs and immediately ordered a brownie and a chocolate Danish for lunch, thumbing our noses at “real food”…at least until the table next to us was served their order of cheeseburgers! Huge, wobbling monoliths of meat and toppings, with a freshly baked bun! AND THE FRIES. Those burgers would haunt our dreams…

 

Acting like true adults, we order chocolate desserts for lunch at the Everest Bakery in Namche

So even though we purposely organized a tour that did *not* have food included (supposedly giving us more control over the quality of our meals), Igor discovered from Phurba that it is customary to eat ALL YOUR MEALS at the teahouse in which you are staying – apparently it’s part of the room rate. So even though Namche was bursting with dining options, we decided to have our dinner at the Zambala. Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t that the food was *bad* – it’s just that this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and we resented the restrictions that were being put on us. Especially since that burger looked sooooo gooooood…

 

The teahouse cat zeroed in on Igor’s lap as the ideal nap spot while we were waiting for our dinner – Igor tried to be aloof, but kitty wasn’t fooled

It’s *highly recommended* that trekkers spend an extra day at Namche in order to acclimatize safely, so we decided to do a day-hike on our second day in town. Phurba told us the most popular activity was to climb up to the Everest viewpoint, about 400m above Namche, and then heading back down for an easy afternoon. That’s great for everyone else, but as I said before, we already had a head-start on our acclimatization from our Tibet trip, and were up for a far more strenuous hike. We consulted the Lonely Planet and convinced Phurba to lead us on a 6hr loop from the viewpoint though two of the mountain villages before calling it quits for the day.

Side note: while the majority of fellow travelers are Westerners, we discovered that a little bit of China followed us across the border. As we were ascending the hill above Namche, a Chinese tourist started doing what the Chinese tourist does best: yelling at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason. Of course, this being Nepal, not China, no one returned his first call (which, incidentally, startled many of the other trekkers – Igor and Lindsay of course were accustomed to this foolery). However, when he yelled a second time, Igor couldn’t contain himself and asked very loudly, “Are you OK? Do you need a helicopter rescue?” which made the entire trail of trekker burst out laughing. Not sure if the Chinese guy understood Igor’s question or why everyone was laughing, but he finally stopped yelling. J

 

Leaving Namche far below as we start our 6hr day hike

See that tiny patch of blue sky? That’s where the Lukla Airport is!

 

The rest of the trail is only accessible by helicopter – we see at least three emergency choppers speed through the valley, as well as a cargo drop in the Syangboche Airport, servicing Namche. The huge deposit of Coca-Cola products, Mars candy, propane tanks and other supplies shows us how prices are kept relatively low in Namche – everywhere else on the trail, these goods will have to be brought in on foot

 

As we continue to climb into the mountains, we spot a huge eagle circling above us

 

We walk past an emergency helipad just in time to see the chopper take off – it looks like it’s doing a nose-dive into the valley!

 

Though it was slow-going, Lindsay finally makes it to the Hotel Everest View!

 

Passing through the lobby of this ritzy lodge to the outside viewing patio

 

As one can deduce from its name, the hotel is known for its stunning views of Everest – though the mountain is covered when we arrive, a promising break in the clouds looked like it would reward patience, so we join about a hundred other tourists in buying an obligatory pot of tea and camp out for about an hour

 

Igor grins as the peaks start to appear

Three peaks! Taboche, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. Unfortunately, Everest is still hidden behind the cloud in the middle 🙁

 

After we leave the hotel and continue our loop, we come across another fabulous viewpoint

 

Artsy photos of Lhotse and Ama Dablam

 

While many of the day-trippers return to Namche after the Everest viewpoint, we took the long way back, passing through the village of Khumjung – where apparently the homeowners association declared that everyone must have a green roof…

 

Such a pretty town! A maze of stone walls creates manicured lanes and pastures for livestock, and homes are decorated by flower gardens

 

As we walk through town, we see a family digging up potatoes with an ox-drawn plow, with Mount Ama Dablam in the distance

 

Since we’re here, we decide to buy tickets to the Khumjung Monastery

 

We had seen various flyers advertising the “Yeti Scull” on display at the Khumjung Monastery – we were suckered in and paid USD $2.50pp for a view of…a hair-covered helmet in a box? Feeling a bit daft, we left wondering which was truly the Yeti skull – the thing on display or the thing on Igor’s shoulders?

 

The Khumjung Monastery was badly damaged during the 2015 earthquake, and is currently undergoing a massive renovation – all funded with the Yeti money. So, at least we were swindled for a good cause.

 

We bypass another return route to Namche and keeping walking until we reach the neighboring village of Khunde

 

Nestled into the mountain face above the village is the Khunde Monastery

FINALLY! A Buddhist Monastery with a picture of the Dalai Lama!

 

Though small, the Assembly Hall in the Khude Monastery has a colorful collection of instruments used during their daily chants (the drum hangs front and center) as well as vibrant paintings of protectors, Buddhas and mandelas covering the walls

 

A thick fog starts to roll in as we pass by a badly damaged stupa on our way back down to Namche

During our walk down to town, Igor and Lindsay started to fantasize about dinner that night. The burgers & fries we had seen the neighboring table order at the Everest Bakery kept dancing though our heads, so we asked Phurba if there was a polite way to skip dinner at the teahouse and go to the bakery instead? Perhaps, promise to buy two hot showers or leave a USD $10 tip? That’s how much we would have spent on dinner anyways, so the teahouse would be making the same income. Phurba thought it over, and told us honestly that the owners of the teahouse would be offended, no matter what reason we gave for wanting to eat somewhere else.

“I think it would be better if you order something small – like soup – and tell them you have a headache and don’t want to eat more,” he advised.

Hey – we appreciate the honesty! We tried not to appear too chipper as we walked back into the teahouse, and dutifully ordered two bowls of vegetable soup and a pot of ginger tea for “dinner.” After gulping down everything as quickly as possible, we snuck out of the dining room and headed straight for the Everest Bakery. Since we already had an “appetizer,” we split one of their ginormous veggie burgers and ordered another chocolate brownie, ala mode. Now THAT’S a good dinner!

 

Lindsay pretending to have a headache while she eats her “faux” dinner of vegetable soup

 

Sneaking out of the teahouse to the Everest Bakery

 

VEGGIE BURGER! #OMNOMNOM

 

Our second brownie, upgraded to ala mode – Igor was carefully to cut it *exactly* in half

 

So delicious…down to the last morsel!

Day 203: Nepal Trek Day 1 – Lukla to Phakding

Today was a rough day for Lindsay. We were scheduled to fly into Lukla Airport – the world’s “Most Dangerous Airport” in order to start our trek. Even though she refused to watch the YouTube video of the 2008 Yeti Airlines crash which killed all 18 passengers when Igor tried to show it to her back in March, just knowing that it *existed* and that Lukla hasn’t exactly had a spotless record since made Lindsay extremely agitated. She tried to ask Igor if there was any alternative to the death-defying flight, but sadly there wasn’t – the road from Tibet still hadn’t reopened since the 2015 earthquake and the trek from Jiri (a 10hr bus ride from Kathmandu) would take 6-8 days. As a result, Lindsay’s only option was to grin and bear it…or cry uncontrollably for about 2 hours.

 

At the Kathmandu Domestic Terminal – Igor is giddy with excitement, but Lindsay is nervous, and makes sure her protective scarf from Samye Monastery is tied securely

 

Organized chaos at work again in Nepal – about 500 trekkers trying to check-in for their flights, unattended baggage lying everywhere, and handwritten boarding passes without our names on them. FILLED with confidence, here.

 

Our teeny, 19-passenger propeller plane, takes off from Kathmandu

 

Lindsay can’t keep it together during the flight – she bursts into tears each time she looks out the window. She dons her sunglasses, closes her eyes and tried to imagine she’s not on a death plane – she’s on a boat. A nice, safe boat which is already at sea-level, so it can’t fall of the sky and crash into a fiery inferno. Was that turbulence?!? No, that was just a gentle wave, rocking Lindsay’s imaginary boat…calm, be calm…

 

Amazing aerial shots during our flight to Lukla – while Lindsay had her eyes closed, Igor was loving every second, taking pictures and video the entire 30min flight

 

As the plane prepares to land, it doesn’t really need to “descend” – the Lukla Airport is perched on a cliff at 2,845m (9,334ft)

 

OMG – we made it! WE’RE ALIVE! Check out that ridiculously short runway!!! (at 527m it is the shortest in the world, in fact) Oh, and if you overshoot it or the brakes don’t work? There’s a sheer cliff at the end of the road, so you’d CRASH. See why Lindsay was scared?!?

Whether by the grace of God, the goodwill of Buddha, or the benevolent caprice of karma, we landed safe and sound in Lukla! We gathered our bag (given the mayhem in the Kathmandu Airport, we were shocked it managed to get on the same plane we did!) and headed into town to grab a bite to eat and a twinkly-eyed porter before heading off on our trek. Even though our itinerary would take 15 days, we were only allowed to ascend 1,000ft per day in order to acclimatize safely. As such, many days only have 3-4hrs of hiking before we had to stop for the night. Granted, we just flew in from the Tibetan EBC, so we had a head start on everyone else, but it’s still smart to follow the guidelines. We left Lukla around noon and reached Phakding around 3:30PM. We had quite a bit of downtime in our room before dinner – at least we had Edge Data to kill the time!

 

Once we collect our bag (thankfully, it made it on the same plane as we did), we walk into the small town of Lukla and grab a very early lunch while Phurba hires a porter for our trek

 

Our new team heads down the main street in Lukla, standing aside for passing khainags (a yak/cow hybrid popular in Nepal)

 

We stop at the police check-point to show our travel permits before officially stepping onto the trail

 

Unlike Tibet (which is in a rain-shadow and therefore almost always sunny), the Nepalese side of the Himalayas is often covered in thick clouds – however, October is supposed to have the best weather so we cross our fingers that the clouds part every now and then and we don’t get any rain

 

Hiking the Everest Base Camp Trek and enjoying the high mountain scenery

 

Although Nepal is technically a “Hindu Kingdom,” the people who live in the Himalayan region are predominantly Buddhist, so the path to Everest is full of stupas, prayer wheels and mani stones

 

We pass through many cute mountain villages during our trek – one section of the trail is decorated with repurposed paint can/flowerpots, and a khainag (AKA “dzo”) peeks over a stone wall

 

We wait for a herd of dzo to cross the cable bridge before walking across to our tea house accommodation for the night

 

Since it’s the high season, Phurba’s first choice tea house is already booked, so we end up in the “overflow” rooms. While it’s very bare bones, we have an ensuite bathroom (no hot water) and no neighbors, so it’s nice and quiet

 

The tea house has a brownout during dinner and brings out a half dozen battery-powered lanterns – at least they don’t need electricity to cook up some fried rice!

Day 202: Kathmandu – Day 2

Even though the Royal Penguin offers 24-hour free breakfast, we got up and ate at a normal time in the morning. Reginald, from Wind Horse Tours, had an appointment to meet us at 9AM to finalize our payments, so we met him soon after polishing off our Belgian waffles & crepes. Turns out, our guide – Phurba – had just flown in from Tibet as well, finishing a long trek with another group, and wouldn’t be able to meet up with us until the afternoon. We were a little bummed to miss out on our guided tour of Kathmandu, but we took to the streets and tried to explore on our own.

 

Real coffee and a bottle of hand sanitizer on the table?! It’s like we’re back in Indonesia!

 

Playing the typical tourist and shopping in Thamel – Lindsay finds an excellent selection of hand-painted Christmas ornaments (her favorite type of souvenir) as well as a new baseball cap

 

Window-shopping in Thamel – whether you are looking for golden goblets, marionettes puppets or stuffed animal toys, there is a vendor for you! The *variety* of items available is so refreshing.

 

Wandering around Thamel, we soak in some of the local color: the organized chaos of the traffic buzzing through the narrow streets, “holy” cows poking their heads into shops, and the Coca Cola truck making deliveries

 

More sights on the streets of Kathmandu – colorful rickshaws, an old woman making flower necklaces out of marigolds, and a group of young monks walking through the square

 

Colorful powder dyes and spices for sale in the marketplace

 

We pass many tailors in the neighborhood – all of them using old-fashioned, foot-pedal sewing machines

 

Buildings in Kathmandu – a hot tangled mess of electrical wiring and weeds growing on the roof

 

This one’s for Barbara – a Nepali dentist shop showing off their teeth! Do you think these are replacements for sale…or bragging how many he pulled?

We couldn’t find any of the temples the LonelyPlanet recommended in their self-guided walking tour, as none of the streets have signs. However, we did stumble across a temple with a sign out front that read, “Followers of any religion welcome.” Well! – hard to offend anyone with an invitation like that! We walked around the Janbahal Temple…which we now think was a temple dedicated to pigeons. As true New Yorkers, we have a heathly distain for disease-carrying, flying rats, so we ducked out of there pretty fast.

 

The Janbahal Temple in Thamel

 

OK, this sign is either confirming that this is a shrine to pigeons, or it is telling people to stop feeding the pigeons as they are a nuisance…I vote the latter…

 

Exploring the Janbahal Temple

 

I’m not positive (since there are no signs) but I *think* we stumbled upon the Kathesimba Stupa and the Drubgon Jangchup Choeling Monastery, which are supposed to be on our walking tour.

 

We accidentally wander into someone’s courtyard garden, thinking it was a flower shop – love the bathtub lily pads!

 

Can I just say again, how great Nepal is? Unlike *some other countries,* the pedestrian street is NOT open to motorcycles or cars, and – God bless them – they actually prohibit smoking in public! Former Major Bloomberg would be so pleased

At 4PM, we met up with Reginald and Phurba and reviewed our trekking itinerary together, making sure we had a chance to ask any last minute questions. Once we confirmed our pick-up time for the airport tomorrow morning, Lindsay and Igor followed Phurba down the street to pick up our loaner sleeping bags and our complimentary waterproof duffle bags. (They say “North Face” on them…but we don’t really think they’re legit. Whatever, as long as they keep our stuff dry, the copyright infringement is someone else’s problem.) With our gear in hand, we bade Phurba goodnight and headed out for another fantastic dinner in Kathmandu before returning to the hotel to pack and staying up *way too late* watching TV and sipping some sparkling wine.

Picking up our -20⁰C sleeping bags for the trek to EBC

 

A refreshing mint lemonade and a goat cheese crostini TO DIE FOR are great starters for our second night out in Kathmandu