my little adventure in nepal(part 1, )

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January 1st 2008

Published: January 13th 2008

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manirimdu

carvings,patan square

many of such pillars were carved with "karma sutra" .. think probably it is "national education" in days of yore...

Hi dude! this blog chronicles my journey in nepal from early dec to late dec,2007. Now, i know that most other bloggers can boast of travels in excess of 2-3 months n my 3 over weeks is nothing to shout about. Nonetheless, i will try to spice up some vibrancy in my little travel blog. Instead of doing the usual "day1 at here, week2 at there" kind of routine stuff, n since my travels is only a most humble 3 over weeks short, i decided to emphasize more on the quirky, special places, eventful stuff,interesting n little conversations i had with other travellers . My journey starts at KAT, onwards to d EBC trek, back to KAT (from here, my mates will dump me to fly home)n i start my solo journey to POHKARA n LUMBINI. For d uninitiated, d EBC or everest base camp trek will take us thru some of the world's highest mountains. Our ultimate destination is kala patta, a small hill over looking ebc n Mt E , n its surrounding mounts, max height we will reach is about 5545m. My initial intention is to fly bk on 25th,to settle some outstanding work at home office, however,

patan square

back at KAT after my trek, i realise tat work at home office r steadily cleared without my presence! Yipeee! !! More days to chillout.. or so i thought..

PART 1 , KATHMANDU Okay, the usual sights n sound n some say smell of a 3rd world country greeted us, Pollution, of coz , traffic jams, incessant horns of motorists, chaotic traffic n streets, i would say "organised , creative chaos". One thing do strike me though, nepal mayb a 3rd world country where probably half of its people r living below poverty line, however, never once in my entire travel(even solo travel in remote areas) in this country did i felt unsafe. Most other 3rd world cities, i believed, would have been very different.. says alot about the culture n upbringing of its people, my utmost respect.. Aniway, on arrival at Thamel, we went to buy gear 4 our trek, jackets, trek poles, etc.. n yes we bought northface , mamoth, everest .. n all at "imitation prices".. hee.. the rest of the day , we visited this place called Patan. Interesting architecture, indian influence , chinese influence, thai influence, tibetian influence n of coz, newari(nepali) style architecture,

cockpit

observe tat sly smile

says alot about kat as an important trading city in days of old... An interesting detour behind this place is "freak street", u guess it!! "hippie Street" . This is the place during the "Flower Power days" where most people from the west come here to seek" themselves" They lived on this street, smoked pot , n probably engaged the rock n roll motto," sex, drugs n rock n roll". ive been told some of these hippies still lived here since the 70s n pot is still available.. Veri interesting.... keke...

PART 2, THE TREK We came from the tropics n rarely experience winter, so the next day , we woke up to temp below 15C.... Me to my roomate when i woke up first thing in the morning....... ME " Yo, bro, can u pls switch off the aircon , wat temp u adjusted yest nite, so cold, aint funny.." MY ROOMATE " WAT AIRCON, we not bk home, wakeup your idea.." hee... guess the cold short circuit my "Blain".. hee.. To start the trek, we need to take a flight on a "plane" to an airstrip 40 mins away.. Why this" plane "has got"" take a look

terrific views

Mountains aft mounts , took this on tat plane

at the pic n u will know.. propeller driven, plane looks "antiquated" , the "flight attendent" looks worried n look at the other pic , the cockpit has no radar navagational equipment, haha.. which means its all based on visual aid to guide the plane! haha .. n notice the evil look on the pilot's face , wat a most sly n evil n sarcastic smile.. haha.. good luck! needless to say , the flight was bumpy but the views were terrific! encountered turbulence n a lady passenger behind me screamed, not to b outdoned i screamed too.. heee... this is so cool.. Landed at the airstrip, first view of the mountains n the airstrip, told myself, this is d smallest airport ive seen ..however, as u read further i will witness a much smaller airport..

PART 2, ACT 1, THE TREK AGAIN.. PROPER.. okie, start the trek proper after lunch, assigned n intro to our porters, first stop ,phakding, ez , downhill, not tat difficult, we thought, this part of trek , like window shopping, no, i dun mean "shopping" (sori, ladies)but the walk is fairly ez like u r walking along spore orchard rd or along

lukla airstrip

it was after this shot, tat the plane did a nosedive, n tats when someone screamed.. hee..

NY 5th ave or HK nathan rd.. u get d the drift.. Overnite @ phakding n our first intro to a lodge in the mountains. Now, most city folks like us always equate hostel= hotel= lodge= probably ensuite bathroom= probably heater. Here lodge = no ensuite bathroom=common toilet=common heater(as long as theres firewood or yak dung). their heater is the stove, commonly placed in the dining area. Above the treeline, ie above 3800m, where theres no wood, yak dung(yes , mountain cow's shit) is used. talk about saving the trees!! it is over here @ phakding, we were introduced to our "wide variety " of food menu.. interesting the first day or two, after tat, u start dreaming of your delicious, favourite, mouth watering , spicy, cholestrol loading, sinfool,opps i mean sinful food back home, keke........

PART 2, TREK. The next morning, we had our first glimpse of sunrise in the mountains. It was beautiful. i could not imagine how terrific the views must b higherup. Our nextstop , is NamcheBazzar, major administration town, in this part of the region. todays trek , only approximately 7 hrs. today's terrain, like any other terrain in nepal, ups n down. Read

tat "airplane"

in LP , tat this part of the trek is tuft, n boy, it was exhausting!But the views were awesome, it was here tat we had a first glimpse of Mt E. We spent 2 nites here acclimatising b4 heading higherup

LIFESTYLE , CULTURE ,N ROUTINE Life here in the mountains is simple , healthy n routine. Simple coz the sherpas ( the people in this region, khumbu region) or the communities here r quite contented. as they probably lived high up in these mountains, to a large extent,they r probably not being exposed to materialistic trappings yet. i think they r happy as long as they have 3 meals a day, a roof over their head n constant companionship with their families. the communities in this region came from tibet n this region r mainly populated by tibetian buddhists. Life here is quite routine. u see them get up early, every family menber helped out in the chores n because of the lack of nitelife(hope it stays this way) most people retire into their homes by 7pm. It could also b due to the cold tat pple dun wish to stay out. Temp here in dec could b

first view of mountains

on arrival..

btw 5C to -20C higherup. the water in our bottle froze a few times overnite(see pic)

LIFESTYLE, CULTURE , N ROUTINE... for visitors... Life here in the mountains for visitors is simple, healthy n outrageously routine too.. hee.. Simple coz at such high an altitude, there isnt much of a "cityscape nitelife", no pubs, no live band, no cinemas, no broadband access internet(only 256 dail up @ ridiculous prices)n of coz no shopping centres!!keke... The only entertainment is to amuse or entertain among ourselves, real exciting stuff like, play cards, having conversations or TRY TO READ A BOOK.... I also observe tat visitors to this region ,like their hosts r easily contended too. As long as we filled our tummy, had a warm sleeping bag, we would try to retire early. (not much to do outside at freezing temp, other than counting the number of stars)

PART 2, ACT 2, THE TREK again.. okie dokie, The next stop.. urgh.. think is tengboche, weather was bad, foggy n snowing, terrainwise.. more ups n downs, scenerywise, when the fog clears , awesome. had gd views of ama dablam(mountain). its beautiful coz of its unique shape, stands out among d rest of

first view of stupas n mani stones

the mounts. kind of reminds u of d matterhorn.. or d cerro de torres in pantagonia or the trango towers in concordia or d ........

TENGBOCHE MONASTRY.... for those in the know, yes, the place where they had d yearly "mani - rimdu" festival, one of its kind, a kind of their"musical" about how buddhism was introduced to the himalayan region. Veri cultural , historical n one of a kind. Stretches over a week. n of coz, every year where they had this festival, lodges r fully booked. however, my small chat with a kind lama offer me tips as to where n when the best time to come n catch this festival. very cool place to hang out during this fest, will b back for this fest, if not, will try to b here on a full moon...

On the way to our lodge for d nite, we pass by this most beautiful place, Rhododen Iron Forest. This place is out of this world, kinda of like some "enchanted forest"tat just pop outta of some fairy tale book. There's this special, magical aura around here n yes, u have a feeling tat ur in "land of the

$mani stones\wall$ $mani stones\wall$ mani stones\wall

hobbits".LOTR film could do some shots here..

Periche @ 4280m is our next stop. The usual exhausting climb n the usual hours to reach. From the airstrip @ lukla@ 2842m we had scaledtreked abt 1400m in 5days! One special observation is tat at this height, we r above the tree line, ie, no trees could survive at this altitude. Vegatation is sparse n the landscape, amazingly n most captivatingly barren. instead of grasses , we only see rocks n boulders.Not forgetting tat the higher we climbed, temperatures go lower n we could feel tat the air is thinner. At this point onwards, some of us start to experience a loss of appetite.

ACUTE MOUNTAIN SICKNESS . AMS is a condition whereby one ascends too fast without proper acclimatization n experience headache, vomitting, loss of appetite n severe AMS can lead to death. At higher altitude, air is thinner, n d body needs time to adapt to the limited air. This can b achieved by 'acclimatization'. ie let one's body slowly adjust to d gain in altitude. ive been told tat at > 5000m, the air carries 50% less oxygen compared to at sea level. Thus, one feels easily outta

suspension bridge

breadth at higher altitudes. LP highly suggested travellers to spend 2 nites each at periche n lobuche before attempting to reach kala patta(5550m) . however most of us reach a decision to only spend a nite each at these places n to reach kala patta from lobuche(4940m) in one long day.

From Periche to Lobuche, a special place worth mentioning along the way is the "memorial". Just above a steep pass, this area are laid with memorials of those sherpas n climbers who perished doing their climb in the mountains in this part of the himalayas. Not a place to b fooling around, i thought.

THE REAL ROUTINE. After a week of trek, things gets "surprisingly" routine. We would wake up by about 6 - 7am, eat our breakfast, look at the map, estimate how far n how hard todays trek will b, starts to wonder why i pay $ to go on a "suffering tour"hee.., starts trekking by 8am, snap here , snap there, lunch at abt 12pm, setoff again, pose n snap pics,reach destination in abt a few hours, orders dinner, look at the "exciting" menu(their menu @ every place is all the same) n at

tat missing plank

almost sank into d freezing waters below.. hee....

the same time orders breakfast for next morning n u start to wonder y there aint no "call 4 taxi service" in this part of the world.. hee... it was a bit not ez, BUT it was fun!

LOBUCHE. worth mentioning destination as this is our last overnite stop b4 reaching kala patta. This place is also worth mentioning coz i believe, i spent the coldest nite in all my humble 25years(sori, my maths always fail, dun koe how to count, keke) of existence.

THE COLD. To a dude like me who resides in the tropics, the 4 seasons to me back home was like,'not so hot', hot, hotter n hottest. B4 this trip, my experience of winter was at most -5C, n tat was in cities in toronto n tokyo n i wasnt out there in some lodge in some mountains freezing my butt off in the dorm with no heater.hee.. So, to experince below freezing at temp below -5C was a real "eye opener" . i never tot it could get this cold. So cold, water in my bottle froze, ice starts to foam around my unshaven moustache, ice crystals on my gloves too! to fight cold,

another suspension bridge

after a while, many suspension bridge later, it looks d same

even when trekking, we have to wear many layers, so much so we look like... ........... "TELE TUBBIES!!!!" haha.. my hands swell, my thumbnails almost came off too!! see pics.. and of coz, at tat altitude, i got sun burnt too!!hee..

LOUBUCHE- GORAK SHEP- KALA PATTA, Yep, the grand finale of this trip. In order to reach KP in d afternoon n b bk to loubuche by nite, we set off at an most unearthly time of 4 in the morning. n YES, it was freezing! my feet even felt the cold when i step out. n i was wearing 2 pairs of socks with heavy boots!! With torches, we set off in the dark towards GS where we would break 4 breakfast b4 heading to KP. It was hard but manageble n the views were awesome! The hike up KP was not ez. Not only was it steep, the air was veru thin. every 5 or so steps left us panting n coughing. and at the top , the views were awesome, we can see MT E at its nearest, the khumbu glacier, n of base camp. didnt stay for long as its super windy n chilly. by the

way to phakding

time we climbed down to reach GS, we were spent! but definitely sataisfied n happy. Reached loubuche by nite n from now on, we knew its gg to b ez. From here we retraced our steps back to lukla to catch a flight bk to katmandu. EZ now, coz we were much fitter, n of coz lighter! haha

On the way down to lukla, to motivate ourselves,we promised ourselves a sumptous feast to "compensate" our "interesting food" experience during our trek. We would start to engage in mind stimulating conversations like.." day 1, lunch, Sze chuan Hot piping steam boat Buffet! Tea break , cheese cake n tiramisu washed down with everest beer!(Yahooo!!!)dinner, thai food, hot n spicy! supper would be washed down with unlimited servings of the most fattening, oily, hot, spicy, cholestrol loading n watever u want type of snacks. In short.......... we would PIG OUT!!!! Nothing eventful happened on d way down.. except we did noticed we were visibly lighter...haha Part 2 would detailed more on my solo travels to other parts of nepal ... do stay tuned...

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