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Published: November 22nd 2007
Namaste my friends. I sit and write this entry from the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. My quest was to reach the Mount Everest Base Camp and climb over 18,000 feet to the view point peak of Kala Pathar. I guess from my pictures you can already figure out that I made it, but how I got there and what my body went through is the best part. As usual, it was no walk in the park; actually, it was a walk up a freakin’ mountain into the oxygen deprived death zone of the bloody cold Himalayas. But, before I get into all of that, let me start with my arrival into this amazing country of Nepal.
Changing countries is always an exciting feeling, but when you step off into an entirely different culture, one that you’ve never experienced before, it makes you feel like your travels have just begun.
A Festive Kathmandu Excitement pulsed through my veins when I caught my first glimpse of the Himalayas through my plane window. Within seconds, I had fogged up the entire port hole and could no longer see anything. That was OK though, because we soon descended into Kathmandu and
I was on my way into the heart of the city.
My first impression of Kathmandu was that it was one of the wildest cities I’d ever seen, but then I soon realized why. To my luck, and this isn’t the first time this has happened, I arrived during one the country’s largest festivals (actually its second largest). The Tihar festival lasts for five days and I had arrived on day two.
The narrow streets that lead to my hostel were so consumed by festive locals, that I had to ditch my motionless taxi and go the rest of the way on foot. The area I was staying in (Thamel) was a total mad house of Hindus with dots on their heads, throwing fireworks (more like dynamite) and dancing in the streets. This made it a little challenging to maneuver through while carrying all of my belongings, but I finally arrived at my hostel in one piece - minus my watch which I forgot and left hooked on my bag (duhhh).
My first task upon arrival was to make contact with my guide (Shangbu) whom I’d been corresponding with for the past two months. After successfully
making contact and arranging to meet the following morning, I walked out into the night to enjoy the festival. It was definitely exciting and also a little difficult to sleep through.
The Man known as Shangbu The next morning, I met with Shangbu (pronounced Song-Boo) and got all of our plans squared away for the Everest Base Camp trek. Now, I know your asking yourself, where did I find this guy and how did I know I could trust him? Well, I got introduced to him through a pair of Chad and Cayce’s friends in Raleigh - Sarah and Greg. The two of them had done several long treks through Nepal and had used Shangbu (30 yrs. old) as their guide and absolutely loved him. Plus, he was a Christian and that is a rarity in this Hindu/Buddhist culture. So, I took their word and dropped him an e-mail and that is where we are now.
After making arrangements, the next task was to get me some warm gear for my fourteen day trek into the highlands of the Himalayas. Shangbu took me to a local mountaineering shop, where he had a friend, and got me some
really great deals. So, I now had the clothing and I was borrowing a sleeping bag from Shangbu. Having a pair of hiking boots would have been nice, but in my traveling situation, trail runners where just going to have to do.
Our departure flight to Lukla was early the next morning, so Shangbu invited me to come stay at his house and have lunch and dinner with his family. This was a surprising treat and was the best way to learn about the Nepali culture. But, before heading to his house, we took a little tour of Kathmandu’s Buddhist area where a giant stuppa is erected in the center. My highlights of the day where chatting with some wandering Hindu priests and charming cobras with a flute - yeah, that’s right, I got to put a trance on the mighty cobra. After offering some money to a couple of snake handlers, I found myself playing a flute (the guy actually helped with the notes b/c I’m musically challenged) with two cobras coming up out of different baskets and some other kind of snake wrapped around my neck. The handlers assured me that the snake’s fangs were removed and
even prodded one to strike at him just to prove it. It was too quick for me to see if it had fangs or not, so I just went with my normal gut instinct - let’s do this!
In the Lhomi Household When I arrived at Shangbu’s house, I was introduced to his wife Chhing Chippa and their 7 year-old daughter Prasamsa. We all sat around on the floor and had lunch together. During this time, I asked many questions and learned so much about Nepal and its culture. In the following, I’m going to briefly sum up some of the interesting facts I’ve learned:
The Citizens of Nepal: Nepal is made up of Nepalis, Indians and Tibetans. The main religions are Hinduism and Buddhism with Christianity beginning to grow. The Tibetan refugees fled Tibet because the Chinese took over their country (1959). Most of the people living in the Himalayan region are ethnic Tibetan.
Tihar Festival: This Hindu festival lasts for 5 days and each day they worship something different: Day 1 - the Crow, Day 2 - the Dog, Day 3 - the Cow, Day 4 - Brother, Day 5 - Laxemi
(Goddess of Wealth). They all place a red wax dot (known as a Tika) on each others forehead in order to focus their hopes on a long life of health and wealth.
The Forehead Dots: The dot (Tika) worn in the festival is different from the normal dot the Hindus wear during prayer. The prayer dot is worn to focus the energy of prayer to the mind. This is also different from the red mark that many women have on the upper part of their forehead which means that they are married. As for the dots or jewelry fixed between many women’s eyebrows, well, that’s just fashion. Now, while some Hindus only wear a dot on their forehead during prayer, there is also a certain caste of Hindus that wear a dot at all times. That brings us to the caste system.
The Caste System: Nepal’s citizens live under a caste system. Kind of like a hierarchy by birth. A person is born into a particular caste and will always be at that social stature. This is very similar to how the Curl family name in the Southeast is considered a royal bloodline. In the village
Sunset at Phorche
The moon glows in the night skywhere Shangbu and his wife were born, there were only two castes: Lhomi and Biswa Kamma (B.K.). Shangbu and his wife are from the Lhomi caste, which is higher than the B.K. caste. This means that the B.K. caste can not enter their home, eat together, and if a B.K. touches a piece of food or drink then the Lhomi can’t not eat it (it’s considered dirty). The B.K. caste holds lower jobs and makes much less money. This is just an example of two castes. There are many more, for example, the Sherpa caste. This is not just a name given to the guys that carry your stuff up and down the mountain, but is actually the caste that they are born into. They are actually wealthy compared to many castes and have summitted Mount Everest more than any other group of people alive. The highest castes (Braham and Chhetri) in Nepal hold most of the government positions.
Eating Habits One thing that is hard to come by around here is meat. First you’ve got the Hindus who don’t eat cow meat and then you’ve got the Tibetan Buddhists that won’t kill an animal or even an insect
for that matter. They will eat the meat of an animal that has died naturally, but that doesn’t provide a very large supply. A lot of the restaurants I’ve been to serve tofu to replace the meat, which also replaces taste - but I guess it’s better than nothing. In the Himalayan region, after you pass Lukla, there is no killing of animals, which means that my meals for the two week trek will definitely be suffering.
Another cultural difference that I found interesting is the Indian and Nepali’s use of eating utensils - there are none. When eating rice and curry, for example, they use their right hand to scoop and shovel the food into their mouth (using the thumb). I found it very odd at first, being that their entire hand was covered in sauce and rice, but later became used to it. I even did the same when eating in Shangbu’s home with his family and among the Nepali guides on my trek. I told Shangbu that I was going to eat this way on my next date and see how she reacts. It may not go over too well, but it sure will be funny
to see the look on her face.
The surprise about Shangbu: My biggest surprise to discover was that Shangbu was not really a guide, but rather a Christian evangelist. He guides people on treks for side money, but his focus is spreading the Gospel to the mountain villages of Nepal. I knew that he was a Christian, but had no clue about this. He works with a girl from the U.S. who actually went to the University of Tennessee the same time that I did (I hope she never met me). This was great news and made for some excellent discussions during our trek.
The Flight to and from Lukla In order to cut a week off of our trail time, we caught a flight (25 minutes) to the closest airport to Everest (in the town of Lukla). This was the smallest airport I’ve ever seen and also had the shortest, steepest and scariest runway I’ve ever been on. Tucked away in the towering Himalayan mountains, the airport makes for a challenging take off and landing. Planes (propeller only) have to fly between mountains and close to peaks in order to make a landing, and for
take off, they have to launch off of a cliff, drop and then immediately shoot for the sky in order to clear the mountain peaks. It was quite the experience. The flight there was beautiful and smooth. The sun rose over the Himalayas as we made our way to Lukla and we never felt a bump. The views from the plane were the most amazing I’d ever seen on a flight with the exception of flying over the North Pole at the beginning of my trip. Now, on the flight back it was a different story. It was absolutely the bumpiest flight I’d ever been on. At one point, the plane either hit an air pocket or some major turbulence and flipped up sideways and scared every one of us half to death. The elderly local women were bending over in prayer (to Buddha or someone) and people started holding hands. The smell of puke was in the plane because someone on the previous flight had hurled on the floor, so that really didn’t help matters. When I finally exited the plane, I decided that I would gladly add seven days of hiking to the itinerary if I ever returned.
The Himalayan Trek to Everest Since I’ve rambled on so much already, I will sum up each day as briefly as possible (for me that isn’t that short - sorry) and let my pictures show what I saw. We had set aside 14 days to make sure we had enough time in case altitude or weather was a problem. Everything went great, so we only needed 10 days. It was just Shangbu and myself for the duration. I didn’t hire a porter to carry my backpack, because I’ve done this before and I need the exercise. My pack was a little heavy, but not as bad as I usually have it. I didn’t have to carry a tent, stove or much food. We stayed in lodges and tea houses the entire trek, so that made a big difference with what we carried. The following are my days in the Himalayas:
Day 1 (Kathmandu - Lukla - Monjo): As I already mentioned, the flight there was great. We got there around 8am and hiked until around 2pm. It was by far the easiest day for hiking. The trail consisted of small ups and downs, but nothing major. Lukla
sits at an altitude of 9318 ft. (2840m) and that didn’t change much the entire day. We crossed paths with the notorious Maoists, but had no problems. I even got some of the young Maoist girls lagging behind to pose for a picture, which is hard to get (Maoists don’t like pictures). Note: The Maoists are a group of revolutionaries pushing Communism in Nepal. They are similar to what the Khmer Rouge was in Cambodia or the Viet Cong was in Vietnam. There has been much conflict between them and the Nepali government over the past years, but the fighting is at a truce for the time being, although, they still collected money from everyone that passed. If you refused to pay, then you would get trouble. They looked like a bunch of adolescent punks wearing red headbands with a white star and waving the Hammer and Sickle flag around, while blaring Communist propaganda from a music box.
Day 2 (Monjo - Namche Bazar): We had now crossed into the Sagarmatha National Park - the home to the mighty Mount Everest. The previous day, I’d filled up my water bottle at a local tea house and thought that it
had been boiled to kill the germs; well, it wasn’t boiled long enough and I had some serious stomach problems soon after. I spent the day frequently visiting the toilet, which was just a hole in the floor - oh the joy. Besides my stomach problems, the hike to Namche was no problem. It was up hill the entire day, but I felt good and the altitude was no problem. That night, my stomach problem turned into a fever. I took some Cipro and broke the fever late in the night. I didn’t get much sleep, but survived to hike another day. Note: I got my first view of Mount Everest in the distance.
Day 3 (Acclimation Day: Namche - Khumjung - Namche): Day three was a rest day to let our bodies acclimate to the elevation (11,286 ft.). We did hike on up and visit the Everest museum and the village of Khumjung, but later returned to Namche to sleep at the lower elevation. My stomach was getting better, but of course, I had gotten a cold from the drastic change in weather (from Thailand to Nepal that is).
Day 4 (Namche - Phortse): This day was
an easy one. We took our time and climbed to 12,500 ft. (3810m). My cold was worse, but didn’t affect my hiking or strength; just my sleeves from excessive nasal drainage. I met a Sherpa that had summited Everest six times. Speaking of, each day we moved closer and closer to Mount Everest and the view was getting better and better.
Day 5 (Phortse - Pheriche): We continued to climb higher into the Himalayas (14,009 ft.). After reaching Pheriche, I attended a High Altitude sickness (Acute Mountain Sickness - AMS) lecture given at the local clinic. This was the main clinic in the region, because of its location. On past Pheriche is where people start having serious problems because of the large change in elevation. Over the past week, two people had died in the Sagarmatha National Park, one to Cerebral Edema (fluid in the brain cavity) and the other to Pulmonary Edema (fluid in the lungs), which are both a result of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). Pheriche is a designated rest day (2 days), but I opted to continue on. The doctor checked my Pulsox (percentage of oxygen in blood) and found that I was OK and just
warned me that I should turn back if I start to feel symptoms. I believe that living in Vail, CO for awhile helped my body adjust more quickly.
Day 6 (Pheriche - Lobuche): This day was a steep climb to 16,108 ft., but didn’t bother me. I still felt strong and besides the random gasps for a breath, I was fine. Note: It was now Freeeezing! The water in my bottle turned to ice during the hike.
Day 7 (Lobuche - Gorak Shep - Everest Base Camp - Gorak Shep): This day was one of our longest, so we decided to begin hiking at 5am in order to get a jump on the mountain. This was good except for the fact that it was dark and bone chilling cold. The frigid air rushing into my lungs was not what my sick body needed. The early morning elevation climb from 16,108 to 16,863 feet was not so easy. My backpack suddenly felt like someone had slipped in a pile of bricks. I could definitely tell that I was at high altitude now, but I wasn’t feeling any AMS symptoms (serious head ache, vomiting, nausea, or dizziness), which was good.
I dropped my pack half way at the Gorak Shep lodge (closest lodging to base camp) and continued on to Everest Base Camp. Even without my pack, the climb was somewhat difficult. At over 17,000 feet, your body only gets 52% of the oxygen as compared to the 100% at sea level. I felt a little spacey and definitely not as strong as usual. I finally reached my goal - Everest Base Camp (17,598 ft.). It was a good feeling to sit there and look up at the path of ascent that many take on their quest to summit Mt. Everest (29,028 ft.). We sat a top the Khumbu Glacier where Base Camp rests. It is covered in skree (piles of stone), but turns to just ice as you near the base of the mountains. The Khumbu Ice Fall was directly in front of us and looked like a terribly hard way to start an Everest climb. It is the first step in tackling the mighty Everest. There were no tents set up at Base Camp because the temperatures are getting to low for expeditions up Everest. But, it was still cool to see where it all takes place.
Day 8 (Gorak Shep - Kala Pathar - Gorak Shep): Today we had a decision to make. Hike up to the Kala Pathar view point early and then head down and take the Cho La Pass towards the Gokyo Lake district or hang around another day and try and catch a nice sunset from Kala Pathar. The Gokyo Lake region was known to be one of the most beautiful views in the park, but I was pushing it on time to make the full circle. I never thought we would have done the Base Camp climb that fast, so we didn’t plan on being able to see Gokyo Lake. But, instead of having to rush, I decided to spend some ample time around the base of Everest and try for a nice sunset. Plus, my cold was even worse and I had run out of medicine, so a trip to the clinic on the way down would be nice.
Well, my decision to hang around for a sunset paid off and God provided. The sunset from Kala Pathar was amazing (see my first picture and many more). The climb there was definitely tough. It was the highest I’d ever
been (18,192 ft.). Shangbu and I sat on top for 3 and a half hours getting pictures and freezing our tails off. I wanted a mid day shot of Everest and a sunset, so we waited patiently. These were some of my favorite pictures I’ve ever gotten, but also the hardest I’ve worked for. When we climbed down that night, I couldn’t even speak because my throat was so hoarse from the brutally cold wind on the Kala Pathar summit. I am still fighting that awful cold at this moment, so I hope that you enjoy the pictures.
Day 9 (Gorak Shep - Phunki Thanga): The day of descent had arrived. I decided to try and make it back to Lukla as fast as possible and give myself more time in other areas of Nepal. The normal return time to Lukla from Gorak Shep was four days (eight days up, four days down). We did it in two days. We cruised on down the mountain at a high velocity. Shangbu tried to convince me to take my time and maybe try for three days instead, but you know me; I’m stubborn. We ran into a Japanese fella by the
name of Yutaka ( I called him Utah) that we had met on the way up and he joined us in our quest for the rapid descent record. We made it to Tengboche by 4pm, but every lodge was full so we pressed on. Finally, we found us a river side lodge an hour later and kicked off our shoes for the night. I met an Israeli guy (an Israeli Para-trooper) at the lodge by the name of “Guy.” We sat and discussed the conflicts of the Middle East and I got his take on some of the Palestinian issues. It is always interesting to hear from people who are actually living through what we only hear about on television.
Day 10 (Phunki Thanga - Namche - Lukla): Yeah, we smoked it…and nearly burned up our legs. We arrived in Lukla around 3:30pm and were completely exhausted. Our feet felt like some one had beat them with a meat tenderizer and our knees no longer worked properly. The three of us each ordered a Coca Cola and a giant Kit Kat and collapsed on the nearest cushion. It was a mission accomplished and a journey complete. We stayed the
night at the lodge and caught the first available flight back to Kathmandu.
Over the past few years I’ve had the privilege of hiking all over the globe; in the Rockies, the Appalachians, the Great Smokies, the Alps, the Andes and now the Himalayas. I love them all, but I must say that the Himalayas are King. I have never seen such beautiful mountains. The snow covered peaks are absolutely massive and the gorges seem to be endless. The lower region is full of vegetation and life, and the highlands are rocky and bare. One little thing I found amusing was what the people of this upper region use for firewood. Because there are no trees, the primary fuel for burning was dried cow and yak dung (aka Poo). Every night we would huddle around the furnace and dump cow paddy after cow paddy into the flames to keep ourselves warm. Then it hit me; another brilliant idea to better humanity. Instead of continually killing tree after tree for firewood, we should all be burning Poo. This is an untapped resource that I feel we should pursue. Who knows, we could one day be driving Poo powered vehicles. And
it doesn’t just have to be from cows; just think of all the different Poo out there - it is a beautiful thing. But let us first start small and simply burn Poo in our fireplaces instead of wood. I know that I could get Al Gore, Sheryl Crowe and many others to back me on this. I can just hear Crowe singing it now, “Why Kill A Tree When You Can Burn Some Poo!” OK, wait a second, I think there is definitely something wrong with me. It must be the altitude. The doctors warned me of this - sorry, forget what you’ve read. I’m not right in the head at this moment. I’ll get back to you.
I made it out of the mountains and I’m feeling much better now. I am staying with Shangbu and his family for a couple of days until I figure out where to head to next. I have another two weeks in Nepal and then I take off to India. What an amazing time these last two weeks were. God truly is an artist. I am continually amazed at what new and amazing things I see around the globe. There
Himalayan Pottie
The leaves are there just in case I fall backwards or at least that's what I used them for. is so much beauty here on Earth; I can’t even imagine what Heaven will be like. Sometimes I think we get a little glimpse here and there to encourage and remind us that we have a better place waiting on us when all of this is said and done.
Well, I know I’ve written a lot again, but I’m just not good at short and sweet - sorry Bobby. But, I did give you all a couple of weeks of rest this time and you might even get another couple of weeks to recover from this one. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and think about me every bite you take. I might get to eat some tofu and, hey, maybe another bowl of rice - yippee. Take care and God Bless.
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Zac
non-member comment
Happy Turkey day
It's great to hear from you. I hope your staph is doing better and didn't bother you too much on your hike. Well, you are definetly quite the traveler. All that stuff, bathrooms (holes in the ground), tofu, cold, etc, you can keep. I'll blog about club med or a cruise or something. Anyway, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, you're in all our prayers, stay safe, and keep them comming. Pictures are unbelievable by the way.