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Published: November 18th 2009
Ok, so we fly from India on Jet Airways. I’m not holding to much hope as I read they were a budget carrier - basically an Easy Jet. Oh how I was wrong, they are awesome. In-flight entertainment starts on the ground before you leave the gate. Food was standard plane food but was good. Our flight took us from Delhi straight into Kathmandu in 1 hour 30 mins. I managed to watch the edited (at least I think it was) version of the Hangover. Before I knew it we were hitting the tarmac in what’s got to be a visited country. Nepal is the Balls.
We got through immigration and that stuff and jumped in a taxi to Hotel Florid. On our way the taxi driver picks up this Geezer who knows where it is as the taxi driver doesn’t. We later find out this fellow who hoped in is from a Company trying to get us to go rafting or trekking. He used to sit in our hotel lobby and get the hotel to call us to ask if we wanted to come along for a chat. No was the answer but we sort of wanted to go
rafting so in the end after 3 days of him stalking us we did. That Sunday was chilled if I remember rightly I watched the moto gp and some movies and Kim did nothing.
Next day we ventured to find the Thai embassy to get our visa as it’s needed for our trip. After running around abit we managed to get all the bits and bobs together to through it in and we got it back 3 days later - all good. After a few days spent at Hotel Florid and 1 at the awful Acme GH, we moved to the Kathmandu Guest House where we began our Everest trip from. Little did we know at the time how well we would get on with everyone and just what a good bunch of guys they were. We also met Prem or Bhim our guide. We went through our pre-departure meeting in the garden and both I and Kim realised giving the porters our 20 kilo backpacks wasn’t the best thing to do. Don’t worry though because Tony, Ram and a few others were the same. After a visit to KEEP an organisation to keeping Everest and the Himalaya’s clean
Day 1
The first day in the mountains, just before we started trekkingeveryone had a shower then we hit Kathmandu for some beers. Good Night.
Yeti Airlines was the name of the airline the ferried us from Kathmandu to Lukla from there we would start our trek to Everest Base Camp and Kala Pathar. The plane was awesome only small but a great flight with great views and a smooth landing on the runway which is on the side of a mountain. Rick can back me up on this one. That morning we met with our Assistant guides and porters and headed off to Phakding. A nice gentle start to the trek. We got to our crib and it wasn’t bad at all. A good nights Kip was had by all and then we were hit by Ram and his video diary. Kim wasn’t much up for it on the 1st morning but you can probably all guess I was after a bit of the action. Day 2 resulted in us all ending up in Namche Bazaar - the climb was vertical all the way but was good. We crossed a bridge that was high above the river where there were some amazing views. We went from 2640m in Phakding to
Portering
Craig attenpting to carry the very heavy loads of our backpacks. 3443m @ Camp de Base in Namche.
The next day was an acclimatisation day in which we trekked up to 3800m at the Everest view hotel, this was our second sighting on Chomalungma as we had spotted her the night before when we tried to get into the Sherpa museum - it was closed. It was also closed the other 5 times we tried to get in. That night me and Kim were shown the glorious game known as 500. I played with Tony against Erin and Kim. Needless to say they won. Card games along with 20 questions became a pass time on a night and a lunch time during the trek.
Next day we trekked up to Phortse it took us 7 hours and we met our 1st Sherpa who had summitted Everest....5 times and he was just 32. We also had the best Sherpa Stew ever; it’s a bit like broth and its mint. The next two days were spent in Dongboche and included an acclimatization day up to Ama Dablam base camp and lake. For you guys that have seen the pictures, it’s the one where I venture out and onto the rock with
Sherpa with me and Kim
This guy had sumitted Everest 5 times!! the parrots. 5100m is the height of it and to be fair it was great. This was the day also when one of our pals - Shail - started to develop altitude sickness and subsequently would have to descend before making it to base camp. On the morning we left Kim started to get slight altitude sickness, with bad headaches and dizziness as we climbed a steep slope up to a memorial of people who had been lost on the mountain. After leaving Dingboche we went to a place called Lobouche - here we spent the worst night as a concoction of Carbon Monoxide poisoning and Roaches helped us to have what can only be described as a shit sleep. It didn’t matter really as the next day was base camp day - we woke at 4am and were out the door and trekking by 5am. We also took on 3 more friends of the hairy variety. The dogs. They were brill, they walked all the way from the teahouse to base camp with us. They obviously slept outside as they were covered in frost but kept us entertained all the way by fighting each other and taking the most
obscure routes to get where we were going.
Back to the trek - this day we basically would trek over the khumbu glacier to get to Base camp. It was well slippery and some had more trouble than others - this day wasn’t one of the best for Kim because she wasn’t too good but she managed to get over it and do herself proud. When we reached base camp it was unbelievable - the views are beyond anything you can imagined and the relief you feel is second to none really - everyone was chuffed to bits with what we had done and on that note we decided to get multiple group photos. There were two expeditions there - Korean and Indian both looking to summit within a matter of weeks - better them than us though. Although we were over the moon when we got back down to Gorak Shep where we were stopping for 6 of us we still had another goal. Kala Pathar - 5545m higher than Everest base camp and one of the best views of the summit. After a good night’s sleep for myself and a bad one for Kim as she still
had bad headaches, 6 of us got up and began our attempt to summit Kala Pathar. It’s a big one and we went up with only two guides Gancha and Pradeep. I didn’t really think it would be as steep as Rick said but it was. After 2 gruelling hours we got up there although only 5 of us made it. Erin was told to turn round and go back. From what I understand she was stopping regularly and Pradeep made the call that she wasn’t going to get there. The top was so rocky that Kim decided to crawl over the boulders as it was still icy and freezing. The views were good as we expected and the Kala Pathar 5 as we named it had a good laugh on the top - one of the dogs had joined us and he had a good sleep. The only let down was that the sun rose from behind Everest and we couldn’t get the best photos but that didn’t matter because it was the achievement of getting to the top that mattered.
From there we would start our long walk back down to Lukla but we didn’t mind as
Lake at Ama Dablam
Craig completing his dare!! we had achieved our goals. Over the next few days we laughed and joked and 1 night hit the local pool hall in Namche Bazaar for some games with what can only be described as sharks - Our Porters - They played with both hands and were like Ronnie O. The night we got back to Kathmandu we hit the tiles - Rum Doodle was our restaurant of choice and we had a great night to cap an even better trip. From the next day on people would leave us and we would leave others. Sad but we had Thailand and our next adventure to look forward too, not mentioning Doc and Mayne visiting us.
To sum it up to anyone who is reading and thinking they might fancy Nepal. Do it, go there and experience it all because it is amazing. Nepal, the people, our trip is something that I don’t think we will ever forget.
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Stavros
non-member comment
Bloody hell
Christ mate, I cant get you to tell me what the weather is like over skype but it all comes out on here! good blog. Glad you's are having a great time!