Blogs from Jiri, Nepal, Asia
Treking to Mt Everest the hard way - Jiri to Namche bazaar
Published: November 2nd 2011Asia » Nepal » Jiri
November 2nd 2011
Waking at the crack of dawn we checked out of our Kathmandu hotel and set out on the adventure of a life time - Trekking deep into the heart of the Himalayas to the base of the highest mountain on earth - Mt Everest. We headed to Ratna park bus station for the early 7 hour bus journey to take us to the starting point of our trek - Jiri. So after purchasing the bus tickets we were unsurprised to find that our seats had been double booked meaning we would have to catch the next bus, but with our spirits high this didn't bother us. Once on board the cramped bus surrounded by people, bags and livestock we were on our way. The scenery was amazing the whole way as the bumpy ride passed through ... read more
March 9th 2010
Where to begin.... We've seen so much stuff, so having to split this up into sections. And even so to describe this all properly you could easily write a book! Will complete the next part within a couple of days! So arrived in Kathmandu on the 10th February, absolutely amazing views form the plane... huge white Himalayan mountains stretching on forever. Spent a day negotiating all of the cycles, rickshaws, honking bikes/cars etc and picked up a few last essentials for the trip - Puffer jacket, map(!), compass, 'Oakley' sunnies, and a few other spares. Loads of bargaining and may have pulled off a few good deals - although probably not! Kathmandu is a pretty crazy place, really dusty, dirty and lots of fumes, incense everywhere. Hardly any tourists as it was only the beginning of ... read more
November 12th 2009
4/11/09 Said goodbye to the yak troop and encountered with the donkey on the trail again after the junction to Lukla. There was far less tourist here, no more dress in best sunday sport and favourite doll on top of the backpack. in fact...almost all of them were porter carrying material into the mountain, I even saw many young looking faces carried those heavy load too, looked no more than 16 years old. Perhaps because of the Mani Rimdu festival were on schedule in the Himalaya, and they need more goods up there. Even the Tibetan market was fully open yesterday in Namche. So I think the trail should call the porters trail, as today I saw no more than 15 trekkers comimg in, walking out??? I guess I was the only one so far! I ... read more
October 28th 2009
28/10/09 The shorter day so far, only took us less than 5 hrs to Tengpoche(@3800m). As we had done the the Khumjung route yesterday, so we took the easy trail today along the contour of the mountain, we marched forward together with 100 of others walkers, porters and yaks! Of cause facing with another 1000 of return hikers from the Everest, kind of like the Sunday hiking scene in Hongkong, busy! The walk was simple, one down and up, but the climbing was quite steep. The 1st sight up there was the stupa and the monastery, which was surrounded by couple of GH. Checked around and surprised by the occupancy, almost all of them were full!? just 2pm!!?? So we checked in the 1st one got free room. Tengpoche was a small settlement, underneath the Ama ... read more
October 20th 2009
20/10/09 After a brief goodbye as I always want it quick. Although walked on the same trail again, but the scene still captured our attention, and without the burdened of the companies, we could stop whenever we wanted for photo. But this time we was walking with our bag, luckily with the rest in Rossi, we managed well today and covered the journey to Kinja(@1600m) in 2 hrs. After 4 days studied, Fadli find a way to squeezed 2 bags into 1, and it really made his walk easier, 1 last thing he might need was a walking stick, see if he could buy it somewhere along the trail. Fadli is a nice 25 years old young man. A freelance journalist in Indonesia for magazine, that was why he was crazy enough to carried that many ... read more
October 14th 2009
14/10/09 5:30 and 6:30 seem a bit too early, so I went for the 8:30 bus this morning, but it was actually departed at 9am, rather on time indeed. Bus was far more better that I had expected, sofa seat...kind of...at least you wouldn't feel the metalwork under you butt. Spacious would-be the word I used compared with buses in China, your knee wouldn't touch the back panel of the seat in front, in fact...I could even fitted my backpack there as well, very humanity design! The bus journey was far more longer than I thought, seem like never end, once left Kathmandu town the journey was curving around hillside on a narrow road, it was actually the road I had came down from Tibet, only until Lamosangu(stop hor lunch there) then we turned right cross ... read more
Beauty and Blisters - 32 days in the Himalayas - Part One
Published: October 21st 2008Asia » Nepal » Jiri
October 21st 2008
Where to begin? Kathmandu, I suppose, is as good a place as any. Ridiculously crowded (I reckon in my first hour I saw far more tourists than in 3 months of Pakistan), and "travelling light"- i.e. everyone speaks English, the food ranges from Indian to Mexican to French (very little Nepali on offer unless you go actively hunting), and the hotels hardly ever have good-old squat toilets in them (actually, I must admit to still hating squat toilets after all these months, but when in Rome....) I said in my last blog that I wanted some easy travelling after the rigours of Pakistan. This certainly fits the bill, although it feels more like being a tourist than a traveller. So, four days after arriving I left. Not leave Nepal of course, but its capital. This being ... read more
June 23rd 2008
Greetings from Nepal, land of the monsoon! It started on June 10th, and well, there's been a lot of rain. It's not so bad in Kathmandu and in the Valley, but everywhere else, it rains SO much. My clothes are probably permanently mud-splattered, and it's almost pointless to carry an umbrella because you'll get drenched anyway. In the midst of this lovely weather, we decided to take off for another remote village. Well, we didn't think it was that remote. We were told a four hour bus ride from Kathmandu and then a thirty minute walk. Wrong-o, my friends! Apparently it's possible to get to this village (and I don't even know the name of it!) this way, but only outside of the monsoon season. Instead, we had a four and a half hour bus ride, ... read more
April 13th 2007
Montreal and Kathmandu are a world apart. Excluding stop-overs: 6 hours to Los Angeles, 17 hours to Bangkok then 4 hours to Kathmandu adds up to 27 hours worth of leg cramp, and not much sleep. It would actually have been slightly shorter (but more expensive) to fly the other way around the world. But before I can start trekking, there's a 10-hour public bus ride to survive, switch-backing for hours as we climb to a high pass then dig-zagging down to a river crossing, only to repeat the cycle over and over again. Other than a ruptured break line and my first meal of dal bhat (more on this delicacy later), the bus trip from Kathmandu to Jiri was not too scary. Why on earth would I want to go through all that to ... read more
April 11th 2007
Dear Loyal Readers, I apologize most abjectly for my failure to post anything on this blog about the last three months of my trip last year. It's not that it hasn't been in my thoughts. I think my reticence stems at least in part from the profound difficulty of summoning memories of places so different from New York that they seem little more than a fantasy. However, of all the places I marveled at, the one that returns to my thoughts above all the others was my trek to Mt Everest base camp, in the remote reaches of the mountains of Nepal. The story is long, and the world so alien, that it will take several entries to recount it fairly, so I apologize in advance if I bore you (as I surely have done with ... read more
