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Published: November 16th 2009
Namaste all. I'm going to split the tale of our trek to Everest base camp over several blogs because it is too long for a single entry - better than squashing it all into one. I'll try and keep it brief as we did do a lot over the 13 days, but if anyone would like more detail then please post a comment and I'll get back to you.
The journey really let us get a look at the real Nepal as a mountain country and let us see the more simple side of life that the rural Nepalese lead. We experienced a great deal, including:
-altitude in excess of 5500m
-temperature lower than -20 Celsius - a new definition of cold
-a range of traditional Nepalese and Tibetan foods including Dal Bhat, Mo-Mos and even Yak steaks
-Mild altitude sickness
-Watching grown men carrying more than their own weight in goods uphill
-Some of the most fantastic scenery that we've ever seen
EBC - The Journey Begins....
Our taxi and guide arrived promptly at 7:30am to pick us up from our hotel, and we greeted them with excitement and nervousness combined. Thankfully we had met our guide, Ratna, the previous evening at the office of our tour company so we could at least chat a little in the ride to the airport. We had established that the equipment we had bought already would be fine for the trek - warm enough etc. - and it sat packed neatly in one of our big back packs and an almost empty 'North Face' holdall (I say North Face - Thamel is saturated with fake hiking brands so I doubt the authenticity - did the job though). The ride to the airport was uneventful except out guide stopping the taxi to retrieve a working watch from the road with which he gleefully replaced his plastic one.
Once at the airport we soon were thankful we had opted for a guide instead of doing the trek alone. It was chaos! Several 'check in' desks stood just inside the doorway but none were open. People were making rough queues by dumping baggage in front of their flight company and then wandering off. Our guide got us to within a shot distance of the front of our line, then disappeared to pay the airport tax (I still do not know where this particular desk is). When someone did eventually open the desk for check-in it was a free for all. Regardless of where you were in the queue, people pushed to get their luggage onto the antiquated scales and this had some bearing as to when you got your boarding card (another joke - it only had the number of the plane on - 2). Our guide was a marvel and grabbed our bag as well as his own small pack and almost got sorted - until they closed the desk! Apparently when it gets too hectic the company often will close the desk and open another a little distance away to avoid confrontation - madness! Swiftness is Ratna's middle name though and was first served here and we promptly stepped over the scales to enter security: a brief pat down and a cursory glance in the top of the bag. Secure....
The wait for the plane was a little longer than anticipated, but soon we were being taken to the plane in a minibus across the tarmac. The plane itself was a small affair and would not look out of place in a film from the 1950's. It seated only around 15 people and was propeller driven, with our luggage being evenly distributed between the nose and the undercarriage. Once aboard we were given sweets for the take off/landing and cotton wool - something that baffled us initially until the engines started up: earplugs. The plane began to taxi on the runway and I felt a little apprehensive as the plane felt like a tin can in comparison to others I had been on. Nevertheless, it got up to speed and was soon leaving the noise of the city behind it as it climbed into the sky.
The first views of the Himalayas were breathtaking. The white peaks had been hidden from the city due to the smog from the heavy traffic, but 10mins into the journey we had left this barrier behind us and the range was spread out before us. They sat behind a protective set of lower mountains whose green and lush appearance helped make the souring peaks seem even more imposing. We were also impressed by the local terracing of the valley hills for farming purposes - you can see this a little in the photos - as it seemed to be everywhere and certainly gave the valley a distinctive look.
Around 15mins into the 30mi trip our guide pointed out of the window, drawing my attention to a slightly darker mountain less dusted in snow than its fellows. Everest. From the distance we were at it did not seem the tallest mountain, but as we were to learn over the next 2 weeks, perception is relative to position! Awestruck does not come close to what I felt for the remainder of the trip - it was all so marvellous to look at.
I was alerted to our impending arrival at Lukla airport by a sudden banking of the plane and a drop in altitude: scary in a small plane. As the runway came into sight, my heart almost stopped. I had heard that the airport was small and that the runway ran uphill, but I did not realise it was so short or that the end dropped off into the valley! I was most grateful to the skill of the pilot for landing safely, with only few feet to spare before the sharp turn to the terminal. Better than a 5 day trek up and down a few thousand metres from Jiri though.
We quickly disembarked and retrieved our luggage, then followed Ratna to a nearby lodge/tearoom (the first of many on our trek) for a late breakfast. It was quite homely, made out of wood with a wood-burning stove in the centre of the restaurant - most needed in the evenings. Once we had ordered we met our porter for the trip: a young Nepalese guy called Kamal. He seemed quiet but nice enough and we watched, impressed as he strapped his own small pack to the top of ours and hoisted in onto his back, supported by a head strap that encircled the lower part of the bag and rested on his forehead.
With breakfast finished it was time to start out on our first day of trekking. We walked through the town, liking the touristy little shops and cobbled style street and taking in the mountains that surrounded us. The altitude was around 2500m, but everything was towering over us already! At the end of the town the path went through an archway wishing travellers a good trek and then started to snake down the hill. Ratna met another guide who passed him a sturdy stick that he had been using as a walking pole: he was much pleased.
The trail was mainly down hill to our destination of Phakding, with us passing several small communities along the way, most with some buildings clinging to the sides of the hill with the aid of stilts. We saw for the first time several things that were to become familiar sights along our journey: boulders with prayers carved into them; stupas that were to be traversed in a clockwise manner; prayer wheels and herds of jotkes (horned cows) being driven by hardened Nepalese mountain folk. All added to the wonder of the first day. One thing I was fearing slightly (and something my Mum would have understandably hated) were the 'bouncy bridges', 2 of which we crossed that day. These metal constructions spanned the distance between 2 hills, often across a gorge and high up. As the name suggests, although they are perfectly safe with metal plates for walking on and steel cables as hand rails etc., the do have the tendency to move a little as they are walked across - especially when your guide deliberately walks with a spring in his step to prove the point. I was glad my first experience was on a low one, but I soon got used to them - I was very proud of myself!
The first day' walk lasted 2 and a half hours - an easy start really. We entered our first lodge - 'The Prince of Everest' - and were shown to our room: a nice sized twin bedded affair but wit no attached bathroom or heating. This, it seemed, was the norm and we eagerly got our our down sleeping bags ready for later. Downstairs we ordered our lunch at the recommendation of our guide - Dal Bhat. This traditional Nepalese meal varies from place to place, but here it consisted of rice, a rather liquid lentil broth, veg curry and a popodom style piece. It was all nice but rather bland. This could be rectified by having some of the chilli sauce/pickle the locals make, but I declined as I valued my insides. The good thing about this dish is that seconds are often offered as it is a staple amongst the locals and therefore lots made.
Warren and I took a slow walk through the village to view the valley, narrowly avoiding some jotke horns, and Warren returned to one of the bridges to pose for a photo. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing cards. I invited Ratna to join us and he soon proved to be an old hand at Gin Rummy, thrashing both Warren and myself. Dinner was ordered and also proved tasty. As we were only a couple and not a group our selection of food for our 3 meals a day was not restricted - we could have what we wanted from the menu (groups are given 2 choices at best). We also had to order breakfast for the next day so it could be ready for us when we got up - excellent service! The lodge had a tv so we watched films ('Casablanca' and 'Constantine') in the warm, log heated dining room before retiring to bed at an early time of 9:30pm. The night was cold so we quickly got into our sleeping bags and were soon toasty warm, ready for a good night's sleep before our 7am start the next day.
Day 2- Phakding to Namche Bazar
Setting off early, we followed the river gorge along through the green valleys, through small villages like Monjo (where we had to get our TIMS cards stamped - to record our presence) and Jorsale and over the bouncy bridges with the snow capped mountains starting to appear more regularly above the hills. We saw many porters carrying a variety of goods up towards Namche ranging from 100kg of bottled beer, rice, racks of buffalo meat and even ply wood with all the weight resting on their spines via a head strap which really can't do them any good. The nearest road is 6 days away at Jiri so almost everything must be transported under human power with the exception of basic crops likes potatoes and carrots than can be grown in the villages. Meat, kerosene for cooking and even any buildings supplies have to be brought up from Jiri or flown as far as Lukla and then carried the rest of the way, so there is a hefty premium attached to anything sold and very little is wasted.
Following the ups and downs of the trail through small villages, past waterfalls and Buddhist shrines for several hours, we reached a 520m steep climb up into Namche which seemed to go on forever. Exerting the necessary effort needed to haul ourselves up the hill was made particularly difficult by the altitude as our bodies had to work hard to get enough oxygen from the thinner air, but we continued traversing back and forth up the zig-zag hill path, gradually gaining height and watching as the river became much smaller.
About halfway up, there was a viewpoint giving us our first glimpse of Everest in the distance through the trees and was a welcome break. Namche was a glorious sight at the top, high above the valley with noticeably fewer trees and cooler breeze. Namche Bazaar was the biggest town we'd see for a week or so and was the last place to get a hot shower - thanks to its small hydro-electric plant. The town is a horse shoe shape on the side of the mountain and serves as a trade post for all the remote villages, with the goods being carried out by porters for the weekly market. As well as this, the towns folk were enjoying an infrequent Tibetan market where clothes and shoes from China are brought by hundreds of yaks over the high mountain passes and sold in the bazaar.
It was a relief to get to the lodge which stood on a terrace high above the town looking down over the market place. The room was as usual, ultra-basic but the communal area was warm and sunny and we sat drinking expensive tea and eating apple pie with the other trekker in quite a civilized fashion. That evening we were surprised to see cloud completely surrounding the village and making the place seem rather spooky - something we discovered happened to most of the places we were to visit. We would be staying two nights here, giving our bodies time to acclimatise to the new height.
Day 3- Acclimatization day at Namche Bazar
We had a great nights sleep here that night. The journey from India had taken it out of us and Kathmandu (Thamel) with bars and late night music wasn't the best place to catch up on sleep but up in the peace of the mountains with the clean air we could finally start to get back to normal.
Our day spent here was intended to help us acclimatise to the change it altitude and allow our bodies to catch up. The old adage with mountaineering is to climb high and sleep low so the plan was to climb up a steep slop for several hundred meters, exerting ourselves out higher altitude and then descend back down to sleep, which should help us adapt better. The alternative is to potentially suffer acute mountain sickness (AMS) which can be common if you ascend to rapidly, and if ignored quickly becomes fatal. More on this later.
From Namche, we climbed 500m up to a ridge with a clear view of Everest and another famous peak, Ama Dablam. This ridge is also the site of the famous 'Everest View Hotel' built in the 80's by the Japanese. There was a very small gravel air strip half way up which is used for small charter planes bringing supplies up to the resort. There wasn't a great deal of room to land and take off and after our flight into Lukla, we started to appreciate the nerves of steel required to do this.
After a few hours hard slog, we reached Everest View Hotel, elevation 3880m. There was a military helicopter there as the Nepalese government had surprised the ice president of Austria with a ride up to the hotel for breakfast, which is apparently a common surprise put on for visiting dignitaries. We went into the hotel and sat on the sunny terrace with a cold drink and a fantastic view of Everest and the tranquil valleys below. It dawned on us how exciting and unique this trip was going to be and how lucky we were to be there.
On the way out, the helicopter was preparing for take off and we sat back at a distance and watched. The force of the resultant draft was amazing and we had to hold our hat tight in place. As the helicopter gradually faded from view, we descended back down the steep hill to Namche, the descent being almost as difficult as the ascent on the slippery gravel track.
That afternoon we wandered around the town and had a look at the Tibetan market, but stood carefully to one side when the yaks passed us on the narrow streets as they have been known to swing their heads quickly and whack people with their sharp horns, occasionally puncturing a lung.
It was garlic soup for lunch which is supposedly a good way to help with the altitude but either way was pretty tasty.
Day 4- Namche to Tengboche
Again pre-ordering breakfast the night before and getting up early, we set off for Tengboche five hours or so down the road. The path was initially upwards but then skirted around the cliffs with a sheer drop on the side. We saw some wild musk deer dining on the thin grass that gre on the mountain slopes. The Trail descended down through a rhododendron forest for quite some distance through a village called Phunki Tenga to a river crossing with the remains of a washed away rope bridge and a water powered prayer wheel. Of course the long descent meant an even longer ascent so we zig-zagged back and forwards gaining height an eventually reaching Tengboche after quite some time at 3860m. There was a gate to enter the village, decorated in a Tibetan fashion with many small prayer wheels around. Tengboche itself holds the highest Tibetan monastery which was relatively new as the original one burnt down and was rebuilt with the help of Sir Edmund Hillary who did a lot of charitable work in the region including buildings many schools for the local Sherpa children.
We managed to get a room which was lucky as accommodation becomes increasing scarce the higher up you go, especially in the buy trekking season. The village had a small museum for renewable energy. There is no electricity distribution network this high and the dim lights are lit by solar power gathered during the day. One of the biggest challenges is heating food and water as its quite hold and there is little fuel. One solution is to use the sun's energy with the help of large mirrored disks to reflect heat onto pots of water, warming them from near freezing and saving the precious firewood.
The Tengoboche Buddhist monastery is open to trekkers who are allowed to watch the monks perform their evening ceremony. Creeping in quietly and sitting at the side, we watched the monks chant and spin their prayer wheels in the shadow of a huge golden Buddha. At one point, a Japanese lady who was standing behind us suddenly went catatonic and started shouting and flailing her limbs wildly. It seemed as though she was possessed but it turned out that she stood to near to the candles which were place around the edge of the room and her water caught fire. It burnt a large hole through her T-shirt and down jacket and there were feathers everywhere. It was really unfortunate and we felt sorry for her as she left, her friends picking up a trail of down feathers along the way but it was quite amusing in a weird way and even the senior monks were chuckling to themselves.
The lodge staff impressed us as they managed to cook ala-carte for 20 or so trekkers on a single wood fire and one kerosene stove. That night was cold and we huddled around the wood stove before getting an early night. Our room was high up and had a fantastic view of Everest and some of the surrounding white peaks that were bathed in the light of the moon.
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Jen & David
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Wondeful adventure
Who said this planet was boring? A lovely descriptive trip with lots of news and events. The scenery looks absolutely majestic as we thought it would be, but not the same as being there eh! Look forward to the rest of the Nepal adventure and Mum had a hearty chuckle at the bouncy bridges. Keep up the good work and lots of love to you both. Mum and Dad xxxxxxxxxxxxx