Sign In
Anette and Ken Martin
Hi We are a couple in our fifties. We have just completed our long awaited trek to Nepal. See our various blog entries for the highlights of the trip.Anette Martin
Now, like most who have been trekking in Nepal, it's time to plan another trip back.
Travel Blog Posts
April 3rd 2012
Day 8 Up to Thulo Syaphru Today begins the next leg of our trek enroute to the very holy Gosinkund Lakes, again at 4600 metres. Unfortunately we must continue down the river valley through the morning before we meet the trail up the other side of the valley. We drop to 1700 metres which means a combined climb of 2900 metres over tbe 2 and a half days. Treks are measured in elevation up and down rather than distance as there is so much climbing and descending and switchbacks that distance is meaningless. All we know is we walk 6 to 8 hours a day up and down and are alwys exhausted at the end of the day. We stopped at a guesthouse called Rockslide for lunch. One of the groups of trekkers passing heading up ... read more
April 2nd 2012
Day 5 Langtang to Kahajin Gumba Our destination today is Kyanjin Gumba, the highest village on the trek nestled into a basin surrounded by the big peaks and glaciers on three sides. While it is a shorter distance we still need to climb 400 metres today to an elevation of 3900 metres (12,600 ft). The other challenge is the relative lack of oxygen at this height which makes us out of breath quickly,(tough to train for high altitude trekking at sea level) hence much slower walking. The Risk of Altitude Sickness Altitude sickness is a real concern above 3000 metres. It has been reported that a number of trekkers have died on this stretch of the trail. You know you are experiencing altitude sickness when you have a severe headache, lose appetite, get very dizzy and ... read more
March 31st 2012
Day 2 Shyaphuru Bensi to Kangjim We spent a pleasant night in the Trekkers Hotel recovering from the bus ride and were ready to go at sunrise. 1st stop was the National Park checkpoint were our trekking permits were checked. in the group waiting was a young German couple sporting a Hockey Canada hat, an Isrealie couple, and two groups of young female trekkers from various points in Europe. The one thing we noticed throughout the trek was the majority of trekker were either couples, or young women. Guess the young men at staying at home exploring virtual worlds while the women are out exploring the real world. Once through the checkpoint we crossed the river via suspension bridge and stared up the mountain. The first hour was a gental climb through meadows and terraced gardens. ... read more
March 18th 2012
Getting to the start of the Langtang Valley treks is not easy. It's only 121km but it's 8 hours of mainly gravel, single lane that winds up mountainsides with many hairpin turns carved out of the hillside, no guard rail and what looks like a thousand meters straight down. If you have ever watched the TV program Worlds Most Dangerous Roads you get the idea. The only modes of transport is the three time daily local bus or a private jeep rental for $150. Wanting to experience local, and being cheap we took the bus. What a trip! A third world "local" bus is a of junker of a vehicle with bald retread tires that transports everything from chickens, sacks of rice and salt, lumber and at least 10 times the number of people that ... read more
March 17th 2012
We arrived in Kathmandu and went through customs, got our visas, collected our luggage and went out the door. Kalu (our guide) met us as promised. He had a car and driver waiting. Things went remarkably well. The drive through Kathmandu was very much like India except we only saw two cows (read horn blaring, potholes, narrow roads and crazy motorcyclists) We got to our hotel after a long detour because of a festival. The hotel is very simple but probably better than what we will stay in on the trek. Mar 17 Kalu our guide met us at breakfast. He took us to his friend's shop to buy gear. We bought a few things like a day pack, hats etc. We had to go to the ATM to get money (we had given all our ... read more
March 15th 2012
The joys of a 13 hour flight that leaves at 3 AM. 4 hours of not great sleep, 2 full length movies, a full season of Big Bang Theory reruns and we Are still not there. We finally arrived, worked our way through custom, caught the train to Central Hong Kong, then a taxi to Times Sqaure, our old Motorola Office. There we meet up with Ken's Singapore era (1996) co workers, Joseph Yii. Joseph bought us breakfast, then helped us buy a camera (see picture). We walked around for a couple hours then back to the airport for a long wait for our flight to Kathmando. That was a long flight as well, 7hours, as we had to stop in Daka, Bangaladesh. The plane as an old bucket with tinY seats, however it was only ... read more
March 12th 2012
We are almost ready to depart. We fly to Hong Kong on March 15th on a 3AM flight. We have the day in Hong Kong then fly to Kathmandu the evening of the 16th. We now have a guide, Kalu. We will be trekking the Langtang Valley region of Nepal. We chose Langtang over the much more popular Everest Base Camp and Annapurna Curcuit to the much fewer trekkers, and through the recommondations of others who have travelled numerous times to Nepal. (See the photo of the Google Map of Nepal for where Langtang Valley is in relation to Kathmandu.) We leave on a long 8 hour bus trip Sunday morning from Kathmandu to Syabru Besi, a very small town at the base of the Langtang Valley. (See our trek itineray map photo below. Click it ... read more
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 6; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0261s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 3; ; mem: 6.4mb
© 2013 TravelBlog.org & Bloggers