Nepal

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Kathmandu

It was a long journey from Beijing to Kathmandu. We boarded our flight on time and then had to sit on the plane for eight hours due to the snowy weather conditions. By the time we arrived to Hong Kong which was our lay-over, we had missed our connecting flight. The airlines only flies one flight a day to Kathmandu so they gave us a free night at the airport hotel in Hong Kong plus dinner, breakfast, and lunch. When we saw our room at the airport hotel we were ecstatic....it was the nicer than any room we had stayed in the entire trip!

We arrived in Kathmandu very late at night so as we drove to our hotel the streets were empty and quiet. The next morning was quite a change as the streets were bustling with activity. This was one of the loudest and busiest cities we had ever been to. We spent the first few days in Kathmandu and prepared for our first trek to Everest Base Camp. We decided to hire a porter to carry one big bag for us and then we each would carry our own smaller backpacks. We had heard that the altitude can make trekking very difficult and we wanted to help ensure that we reached our destination. We also had to purchase a lot of cold weather clothing since we hadn't been able to fit it in our original packs and this was our only cold weather destination. Kathmandu is full of trekking clothing stores and we found everything we needed at obscenely cheap prices. The food in Kathmandu was delicious - they have all types of international foods, from wood-fired pizzas to falafal to hamburgers.

Everest Base Camp Trek

Our porter, Dal, met us at our hotel. The agency that we hired him from told us that he did not speak much English. The three of us walked to the bus station and boarded the bus to our starting point, a town called Shivalaya. Dal said two words to us during this ten hour bus ride: 1) toilet, 2) lunch. The bus ride was quite an experience as people crammed on to sit on strangers laps and climbed up to ride on the roof of the bus. Our lunch stop provided our first taste of Nepali traditional food called Dal Baht. Dal means lentil (yes that is our porter's name translated!) and baht means rice. So we had a lentil soup which we poured over rice and it is served with a cracker and some potatoes. The meal is always served in unlimited portions so as you eat a server continually spoons more and more onto your plate. We were provided with spoons even though the locals all ate with their right hand (the left hand is used in the bathroom). The last two hours of the bus ride were terrifying as we were on a narrow bumpy one-lane road which was a cliff side. There were many moments where we held our breath as we hit a bump and the whole bus seemed to lean over the cliff side. Despite Rachel's diligent search, she could not find any buses at the bottom of the cliff but we actually found out later that it does happen every once in a while. Instead of flying in to a village called Lukla which is how most people trek to Everest we decided to walk in from Shivalaya. There were a few reasons for this decision: 1) it is a beautiful trek; 2) it helps your body acclimate better to the high altitude 3) it is less crowded than the towns after the airport. During the trek we stayed at tea houses which are small guesthouses that serve meals.

The next morning we began our trek towards Everest. The weather was really hot and we were ascending 3300 feet a day and descending 2700 feet a day. The days were long but the scenery was magnificent. We walked past streams and through rhododendron forests. One of the most amazing sights is watching the porters carry supplies to the towns at the higher elevations. The porters carry loads that are 180-220 pounds for days and they sadly do not receive much compensation. Along the way we stopped at charming tea houses for our meals and to sleep. We enjoyed meeting the families who ran the guesthouses. Many times we would sit in the kitchen and talk to them as they cooked. We also found out that our porter, Dal, knew much more English than we thought as he started conversing with us a lot. We learned that he had two wives (he used to have four, but he divorced two) and seven children. Throughout the trek, we enjoyed his company and we taught him how to play card games that we knew and he taught us how to play Nepali card games. We then realized that he could actually count cards as he kept beating us and we think we need to take him to Las Vegas. He also taught us Nepali words and phrases. Throughout our time in Nepal we were grateful that we could speak some of the language as we saw how much the local people appreciated our effort.

As we approached the town with the airport, we learned that due to the fog the planes were not able to fly for the past three days. We later found out how lucky we were because all of the tour groups and trekkers who flew in were not on the same schedule as us so the trails and guesthouses were quieter and less crowded. The weather became colder as we gained altitude and by the seventh night we were staying at (3400 meters) 11200 feet. This was where the first signs of altitude sickness started to hit Rachel but by the morning they were gone and we continued up the trail. On the Everest Trek the trail was not always easy to find. Despite our best efforts we did get lost several times whenever we didn't stick close to Dal, but we were able to find our way back. We finally developed what we called the “Trail Trifecta” which is our method to figuring out where the trail is. There are three components: 1) Rocks...the trail is not a clear cut path and for some reason there were always large rocks that you had to scramble over or around. This meant we had to constantly look down to where we were placing our feet. 2) Trash...sadly there are candy bar wrappers and other pieces of trash along the way, although we think this is more from local porters than trekkers. 3) Animal droppings...yes, there are animal droppings everywhere. Since the road does not go past Shivalaya there are trains of donkeys and yaks that carry in supplies to the towns all along the trail. There is nothing smellier than being caught trekking behind one of these animal trains. So, if we found these three things than we knew we were on the correct trail to Everest.

The hiking was strenuous and difficult in the beginning but as we climbed higher it was really a battle against the altitude that made it hard. One other thing that changed as we got higher is that there was no wood for the fire. It was so cold that at nighttime everyone in the guesthouse would huddle around a big iron stove in the middle of the dining room. The wood is too heavy and bulky to be brought up to high elevations so they have a different way to fuel the fire. Ian has coined it “brown energy”. They use dried out yak droppings to make a fire. It sounds awful but when you're cold, it does the trick. Our last afternoon before we reached Everest Base Camp, we saw an emergency helicopter rescue several trekkers who were having severe altitude problems. At this point in the trek, we were both getting headaches from the altitude (or maybe it was from inhaling yak droppings!)

When we began the final trekking day to Everest Base Camp we both felt fine but as we got closer the headaches returned. We were getting close and we could actually see Everest Base Camp, but both of our heads hurt worse than we had ever experienced. We pushed on and finally reached our destination. Headaches aside, it was a wonderful feeling to be at Everest Base Camp which is at about 17800 feet. We were able to see the tents set up of the expeditions that would try to climb to the top of Everest and we saw the famous Khumbu Ice Falls. It was an amazing sight and feeling but our headaches were bad that we weren't able to stay there for long. We took our pictures and headed back to the tea house. Our porter told us that we should eat garlic soup and drink ginger tea to feel better. He said if that didn't work we would have to move down to a lower altitude. We both felt like our heads were actually exploding but we had the soup and tea and luckily the headaches subsided. We spoke with other people at our guesthouse and all of them were experiencing some form of altitude sickness. We also later saw some of the people we had met along the way and we found out that they got too sick to even make it to Everest Base Camp. We felt very fortunate that we were able to do it because it was an immense feeling of awe to stand at Everest Base Camp.

The following morning was a climb up a mountain called Kala Pattar which would give a panoramic view of Everest and all of the nearby mountains. The alarm went off at 5:30 AM so that we could climb up the mountain and watch the sunrise. Ian woke up with a headache so Rachel did the climb by herself. It was an exhausting climb but she made it to the top which is 18500 feet. The views were breathtaking and astounding. By the time Rachel returned from climbing Kala Pattar, Ian's headache had subsided so we were able to move on towards the Chola Pass. We woke up the following morning at 4 AM and began the most grueling climb of the trip to the top of the pass at 18000 feet. We had to scramble up boulders and walk through snow but we were treated to beautiful views at the top. The next day we trekked to Gokyo Lake region before trekking back down to the airport. Our last night of the trek we celebrated our successful trek with our porter and some friends we had met along the way. We tried the local homemade beer called Chang. It is a milky millet beer and it can be served hot or cold. We then flew back to Kathmandu.

Annapurna Circuit Trek

We spent three days in Kathmandu enjoying the delicious food as our bodies tried to recover from all of the trekking. Then we headed out to the Annapurna Circuit Trek. Unfortunately, our agent gave us a different porter for this trek. His name was Nimal and he was a 19 year old student, who was lacking the maturity of our previous porter. Doing both treks back-to-back was probably not the best idea. Our bodies were pretty tired from the Everest trek and while on the Annapurna Circuit we constantly compared everything to the Everest trek. On the Annapurna Circuit we found the trekking to be easier and the trekking days were a lot shorter, so we had a lot more free time at the tea houses. There is a road being built along the trail so for the first two days we were subjected to the sounds of jack hammering and dynamite blasting. The beginning of the trek was warm weather again as we slowly climbed to higher altitudes. On this trek we met some really nice people who we enjoyed spending time with in the afternoons. We actually met quite a few Americans which was something that hadn't happened in the other countries we have visited. There were a lot of Israelis on the trek and Rachel sang her Haftorah from her Bat Mitzvah to them. On this trek the tea houses were nicer and the food was better but we were disappointed with the short amount of time we trekked each day. We couldn't go faster because you have to allow your body to properly acclimate to the altitude. The views were beautiful but we think the Everest mountain range was more spectacular. The Circuit Trek walks around the mountain range so we were able to see it at all times and from different angles. The highest point of the Circuit is the Throng La Pass which is 18250 feet in elevation. The porters and guides always eat dal baht for every meal and our porter started telling us about the chicken curry dal baht in a town called Jomsom which is on the trek. He said it is the best dal baht because the people who live in that town are Thakali caste people and they make it best. So when we arrived at Jomsom we ordered the chicken curry dal baht and we decided to eat it Nepali style...with only our right hand and no utensils. It was entertaining to try to shovel curry and rice into our mouths and the Nepali people certainly had a good time watching our spectacle. We then did a 4 day trek up poon hill which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the Annapurna mountain range. In the town on the top of the hill, Gorhepani, we were out having a drink with our porter and one of the people we met on the trail and our porter recognized some famous Nepali movie stars. Normally he was loud and boisterous, and he got really quiet and shy, and we asked them if we could take a picture with them, and our porter asked to see the picture on our camera at least 1 time every hour for the next 2 days. It was quite a riot. The drink in the Annapurna region is called Tongba. You are served a bucket of millet and a pitcher of hot water. You pour in the water and then drink from the bucket out of a long straw.

When we finished the trek we needed to take a bus to a town called Pokhara but we found out that the Maoists were having a strike which would shut down all transportation for that day. So we waited to see what would happen all day. It was interesting to watch the negotiations take place which would determine whether we could go. In the end, the Maoists allowed a tourist convoy to depart for Pokhara after it turned dark. We arrived in Pokhara late and we were able to find an amazing room with a balcony overlooking the lake. We spent a few days in this town relaxing, rowing a boat on the lake, and spending time with new friends we made on the trek.

Ian's 30th Birthday

So, Rachel had been planning something big for Ian's 30th birthday almost from the moment they landed in Nepal. She had been running around and making contact with a number of people and places in secret, which was quite a feat considering we were together nearly 24/7. In the end, it turned out that she booked an exciting, adrenaline pumping 2 day white water rafting trip, followed by a 2 day canyoning trip abseiling down huge waterfalls. The location for this was a place called Borderlands Resort which was 16 km from the Tibet border, up in the mountains, right along the Bhote Kose river.

The trip began early in the morning the day before Ian's birthday and involved a 3 hour bus ride through some beautiful scenery to the put-in point on the river. Previously when we had done river rafting the size of the rapids on the river due to time of year and lack of rain was a little bit disappointing, but that was not the case on this river, called the Bhote Kose which boasted Class III rapids nearly the whole day, with very little down time between the rapids. At the end of the day we took the bus to the resort which was a very nice riverside place with safari style tents, some luxuries we haven't been used to, and some great food.

The next day the rafting was on even bigger rapids, continuous Class III & IV rapids, and it was quite adventurous with constant waves in the river up to 3 feet. The rafting was pretty hardcore and our guide even had to yell at some of the other people in our boat for not paddling hard enough to get us through the rapids. It was quite an exciting experience and several of the other people in our raft fell out of the boat. At the end, our guide had us paddle our raft back up river so that we were underneath a small waterfall and we had to try for 10 minutes to get our boat our of the waterfall while it was rapidly flooding with water. However, in the end, we were not able to get our raft out of the waterfall and we all had to jump out of the boat and swim to shore through the calm after the rapid. It was a truly exhilarating day which was capped off by a wonderful dinner back at the resort, and a brownie cake made especially for Ian and shared with all of the workers of the resort.

The following day began our canyoning which basically entailed us hiking up a large hill beside the small road near our resort and repelling down 6 consecutive levels of a waterfall. The first few were relatively easy descents, but the last few were much larger, as big as 80 feet and there was a decent amount of water splashing us in the face. The next day we set off for a larger scale descent down another 6 waterfalls. These were all more challenging with lots of water splashing us in the face, and included one that we had to slide down on our backsides. The last one was a 2 level 150 foot waterfall where we had to change ropes in the middle of the waterfall. It was really heart pounding excitement and a phenomenal 30th birthday celebration.

Kathmandu Part 3

We arrived back in Kathmandu on May 1st and on May 2nd the Maoists decided to hold a nationwide strike. The political situation in the country is that Nepal is trying to get a new Constitution passed by May 28th. The Maoists party seem to have the majority of people in the country but the Prime Minister is from a different party. So, they thought that they were not getting fair representation of their views in the new Constitution that is being written. They decided to make several demands on the current government, the foremost was for the current Prime Minister to step down. In order to show their power in the country and attempt to get their demands met, they staged a nationwide strike, which shut down all transportation, stores, food & water deliveries, restaurants, etc in the country. The Prime Minister said that he would not bow to Maoist demands because he believed in the democratic process and that their means of getting their demands met were counter-productive to democracy. The strike started on May 2nd and we were essentially stuck in our hotel room all day from dawn until 6pm because no stores, restaurants, taxis, buses, sites, etc were open. The Maoists allowed some stores to open from 6-8pm to feed tourists and allow some people to buy necessities from their local markets. The first night of the strike was quite an interesting experience, as the Maoists bused thousands of rural people into Kathmandu to take part in the protests. During the 6-8pm window we were outside looking for a place to have dinner, and we witnessed a protest march with hundreds of yelling & screaming Nepali's carrying bamboo torches and running through the streets. The next few days were a bit more tame with the protests and marches going through the tourist areas. Luckily, with the help of Ian's father, we were able to change our ticket to leave the country on May 5th, after 4 days of living through the strike. We later learned that on May 7th, 35,000 people marched on the capital to protest the strike, saying that they were losing tons of money due to their businesses being closed, and local markets were raising the price of food and water up to 4 times their normal prices so the strike finally ended.

Overall, Nepal was a wonderful country with some of the most amazing and kind people to add to the absolutely stunning scenery found all over the country. It was unfortunate that our trip coincided with the nearing of the deadline of the writing of their Constitution, however, despite the last few days, our experience was a fantastic one.

Please go through the extra pages of pictures on this post as we

have 80 photos.

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Comments

[Traci]

wow
What an incredible bog post - thanks for sharing! Loved looking at all the pictures