I woke up with a headache and felt a bit nauseous so I decided to take Diamax 125mcg. I told my guide about this and although he didn't seem too happy about it that was my decision. It was definitely the right thing to do because these are symtoms of AMS and I felt so much better having taken the medication. We made our way to Gorak Shep, which is the last village. This is 5,140m/16,863ft above sea level and the oxygen level is 52%. We arrived in good time, checked in to our guesthouse and had lunch. After that my [View Full Entry]

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Greetings once again from rural Nepal! I had a new partner in crime this week: Sonal, a doctor from Atlanta. We broke out our maps and attempted to hike various trails in our part of the Kathmandu Valley. There aren’t many roads…mostly a bunch of footpaths, so we made do with that. Sonal speaks one of the many languages from India, which is similar to Nepali, so she was able to ask for help when we were lost in random villages. Thank God for that, or I might still be wandering around looking for Bungamati! After finishing up our respective activities [View Full Entry]

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I woke up realising that there is nothing that I can do about the house. I couldn't contact anyone so there was no point worrying about it. Today was a rest day in Dingboche and that is exactly what I did. It was wonderful. I had my first hot shower in a week. I can't believe I was able to hold out that long but I did. I know it sounds disgusting but I did wash when there were adequate facilities - honest! Anyway, the weather was lovely. The sun was shinning and there was a clear blue sky. The shower [View Full Entry]

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Driving the Elephant Royal Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal, is home to an impressive array of wildlife. Birds, deer and boar are joined by tigers, rhinos, bears and crocodiles and seeing it all from the comfort of an elephant is pretty exhilarating. My resort was quite simply the most amazingly comfortable and luxurious place in the World. In reality, it was probably just “very good”, but after several weeks of eating only Dhal Bhaat every day and a cold dribble of water for a shower, I was suitably impressed. With the promise of exciting jungle safaris and wild animals [View Full Entry]

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The night before, I was convinced that my trek would be over and that I would be returning to Lukla to get a plane back to Kathmandu because of how I was feeling. However, this morning, when my guide asked what I wanted to do, I said that I would like to try to continue. It's the determined bit in me, I think. I was feeling better than the previous 2 days but didn't know how far I would get. So, we had brekkie and set off for Tengboche, the next destination. As we left, I started getting pins and needles [View Full Entry]

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A lightweight with a heavyweight’s punch I've hired a guide/porter in Kathmandu, a guy named Bikram Lama. At 1m65 (5'4") and 54kg (120 pounds) he’s half my size. My back isn't in bad shape, but I can’t carry my full pack up and down the mountain without pain, so that's partly why I hire him. The pack volume is 70 litres and weighs about 12 or 15kg. He also carries his own small pack, while I carry a 25-litre one that in Bikram's eyes probably weighs about as much as a bag of air. Bikram is a really good guide and [View Full Entry]

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I didn't sleep well last night and I definitely had a cold. I couldn't face brekkie (which is very unusual for me) so my guide said that we could stop on route to our next destination, which we did. Today's trekking was no fun at all. I felt sick and had a headache. I really struggled with the trek which was mainly uphill on uneven surfaces winding and bending in different directions. I didn't take any notice of the scenery because I felt awful. My legs and buttocks were aching and I was trying to concentrae on not falling over. We [View Full Entry]

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I was woken up at 4.30am in order to get the plane from Kathmandu to Lukla for the start of my trek. On the way to the airport I had to get some money out. The first ATM wasn't working so we (my guide and I)had to walk the the next which was working thankfully. We checked in and then waited for the 6am flight. It was delayed for a while because of the weather in Lukla. After about an hour we boarded the plane with 3 other foreign tourists doing a similar trip. Two were Spanish and one was Japanese. [View Full Entry]

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I loved the atmosphere created by the extremely busy and narrow streets of Kathmandu. They were filled with vendors selling fake north face trekking gear, wool hats, books or bootleg DVDs. From all directions someone is trying to lure you into their store or rickshaw by using their great conversation starter, "hey friend, where you from?" I learned to ignore them because if I didn't I would not make it anywhere. Just about everyone is trying to make money off the tourists in Kathmandu, even the children, which is quite sad. There are a few kids who draw pictures and try [View Full Entry]

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Well, Nepal finally got rid of its monarchy. There’s been a struggle going on for years, and now the Maoists have control of the government. I know what you’re thinking, “Aren’t Maoists like communists? Doesn’t the US government consider them terrorists??” The answer would be yes for both, but it sounds a lot worse than it really is. Democracy didn’t really work out so well for the Nepali people, and the Maoists made a lot of promises. The country elected a Maoist majority to the parliament about a month ago in a free and fair election, and they decided to kick [View Full Entry]

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