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Published: November 28th 2010
Well as November comes to a close I thought I would reflect a bit. Firstly has anyone ever heard of an airport being closed for 5 straight days? Well it happened to us! Deepak and I sat at Kathmandu airport for 3 full days waiting for a flight to Lukla. Our day was like this; get up, pack, head to the airport, pay the departure tax, sit there all day, get a refund for departure tax, book the same hotel again, go to the airline booking office to rebook tickets for the next day... and on and on.. it was like Groundhog's day!! Eventually we decided not to rebook for a 4th consecutive day and take a bus to Pokhara in the other direction to go to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC).
ABC was a nice trek. We went up in about 4 days and down in about the same. Our final altitude was just under 4200 meters about half of Mount Everest. It turns out that all of the world's 8000 meter peeks are in Asia.. go figure. The trek wasnt like hiking really.. it was more like up 3000 steps, down 2000 steps, up 4000 steps and so on.
It was really terrible, but then again I am not a super trekking freak.. I just wanted to go to Everest base camp and spend some time above 5000 meters where I have never spent time thus far. There were many long wire bridges that were scary, lots of beautiful vistas and great company. At Jihru there was an awesome hot springs where I rested my aching body with dozens of other hardy trekkers.
Each day we got up at 6am, ate some porriage at 630, then hiked from 7-2 with a short lunch break in there somewhere. Then we tried to dry off our sweaty clothes, shower and relax before the next early morning. At ABC itself it was minus 10 degrees and snowing and windy, but most other days our solo sweaty shirt, socks, and undies never had a chance to dry at all. For dinner we ate Dal Bhaat, which is rice, lentils, and a vege side. It was the cheapest thing so we ate that almost exclusively. The tea houses along the way were 100 rupees each (about 1.25 dollars) and the Dal Bhaat was 200-300 rupees or less than about 4 bucks American. We
played a daily game of chess as well as a daily game of Rummy 500. Deepak and I split the Rummy games but I went 0-4-1 in the chess matches! It was a lot of fun anyhow! OH, see the pictures of an all wood ferris wheel... this was really neat!
In Pokhara we tried to go paragliding and to take a microlight flight but the weather thwarted us again as the Pokhara airport was closed.. go figure. It must be a great job working at a Nepali airport.. you hardly have to do anything. Of course in recent years there have been several high profile crashes making them very careful. We are spending our last week or so in Kathmandu. Taking the bus back was also fun as there were 20 of us in the bus and 20 people ON TOP of the bus! I guess Nepalis like to be on top of the world!
Kathmandu is an interesting place. Yesterday we rented mountain bikes and went into the mountains. It was like 3 hours up, 10 minutes down... good times! Kathmandu is about the only capital I know of that cant provide power for more than
16 hours a day besides maybe Baghdad or Kabul. Power cuts are all the time! I guess its good for the candle sellers and its a bit romantic, but when trying to get work done it is annoying. Today I paid about 60 dollars for an electrocardiogram, a chest x-ray, and various bloodwork for our physical that China is requiring us to complete in order to get our visas. Chairman Mao would turn in his grave, if he were not embalmed in Beijing.
UP NEXT: Delhi, where I will run my 5th continental marathon, for 3 days, then Goa for a week. It is a beach area that was a Portugese colony until 1961 when India invaded and annexed it. Then 14 days in Thailand , then New Years in Delhi, then Oman and Qatar before reaching China January 7th.. its gonna be a fun month! Wishing everyone a great holiday season!
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Amy
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Airports in Nepal
82 in Kathmandu We went to the airport. The customs guy decided my three obviously new thankas were valuable antiques and would not let us board our plane. We had to go back to Kathmandu and take our art to the museum to get a letter that it was ok to take these pieces out of the country. Of course the guy in the museum thought we were crazy. Sound like they are still screwing around with foreigners at the airport. Re: electricity I dont recall any accept in public buildings. We arrived at dusk and our first walk around Kathmandu at night with no electricity was one of the most magical and mysterious experiences of our lives. Women swathed in shawls turning prayer wheels. WhT the hell? We had no frame of reference and our brains could not process what our eyes were seeing in the dark. Re: your trek As you know we walked, not reeked but in 82 rural Nepal looked more like another century (like the 18th) than another country. I await your impressions. I look forward to trading travel stories some day.