9 days later

So here we are…9 (I think?) days of trekking later and we have finally arrived in the large(st) Sherpa village and trekker’s hub: Namche Bazaar, about 12,000 feet above sea level. Back when I was sick, I kept thinking…everything will be better once we get to Namche. Luckily, my health resolved itself long before Namche. Now we’re CLEAN, and we’re washing all our clothes and even ate a pastry.

There’s much to say about the past 9 days, but at the same time, it all blends together…we have a hard time remembering places we stayed and our daily treks, even a day or two later.
Most days are pretty similar, and occur as such:
6:00 am: we awaken.
6:30 am: Breakfast. I usually have porridge or a pancake and a hard boiled egg. Then we pack our stuff up. By
7:30 am: we are on the trail. Around
11:00 am: we stop for 1.5 hours for lunch. By
12:30 pm: we’re on the trail again. By
3:30-4:00 pm: we generally reach our final destination. We settle in, rest, read, write, chat, wash (if possible), and order dinner.
6:00 pm: we eat dinner. My classic meal is garlic soup with chapati (bland tortilla-like bread) and a hard boiled egg. Then comes the struggle of staying awake until at least 7, which we have decided is a much less embarassing bedtime than 6:10. By
8:00 pm: we’re asleep, on most nights.

We trek each day with our Sherpa Guide, Chitra, and our porter, Bul Bahadur. Chitra is 35 and has a wife and two kids (boy and girl, 9 and 7) in Kathmandu. He had very little faith in me and my hiking ability at the beginning (even before I got sick)…dunno if he’s changed his mind or not. Bul Bahadur is our tiny 28-year-old long eyelashed porter. There’s something very charmingly childlike about him. He’s of the Chhetri (2nd highest) caste, and has a 22-year-old wife and two boys, ages 4 and 6, in Okhaldunga (yes his wife had a baby at 16. And that’s normal here). He speaks very little English, but he’s ridiculously helpful. Wherever we go he puts himself to work in the fields, in the kitchen, collecting firewood, doing laundry, etc. He carries all our heavy stuff, tied together, by a strip of tarp strung across his forehead, yet still beats us to our destination almost every day.

Porters in general are amazing. Tiny little guys…probably 5′3″, 110 pounds on average, carrying about double their body weight of kerosene and other items (either that or gear of trekkers like us) for 6 or more days straight, in a bulky basket that they carry like Bul Bahadur, by way of a strap across their foreheads. A lot of them are really young too, the ones we asked were 18 but we’ve seen a lot that look younger. And seemingly impossibly, they probably arrived in Namche (or Lukla) 3-4 days before we did.

Each night we stay in a Lodge aka Hotel aka Guest House. They’re run by families, and all I’ve seen operate as both a lodge and a restaurant. Rooms are simple, two small beds with a thin mattress and hard pillow, and a bare lightbulb (usually in an inconvenient place) that only sometimes turns on. If you’re lucky, the bathroom (a squat toilet) is down the hall, but more often it’s downstairs and outside. In retrospect, I am very lucky that I had food poisoning in Jiri as opposed to somewhere else, as our room there had not only an attached bathroom but a flushing toilet (we hadn’t seen one since, until today).

On the trail from Jiri, it was often the same small group sleeping in the same town each night, so we made a few friends. Our first were Canadian, Jay and his uncle Phil (similar younger/older dynamic) although we haven’t seen them since Sete, 6 days ago. Our closest friend is Stephanie, 30-something French girl who is a sailing instructor by summer and in charge of a ski school by winter. She’s here on her own, for almost as long as we are, with her guide and porter. Our Sherpas must be friends because we’ve spent the past 8 nights in the same lodge as her. There were also two very nice young couples, one British and one Swiss, at our pace, a speedy and odd older French couple (they’ve passed us by now, at times we saw them running up the mountain), and an extremely large and boisterous group of Germans (they cure hangovers by drinking a concoction of milk, honey, and salt). Now that we’re on the main trail, there are lots of Japanese as well. Mostly European tourists, especially French, German, and British, and hardly any Americans (met our first today, actually).

It’s been said that those looking for a wilderness experience should avoid trekking in Nepal. TRUE. Every few minutes on the Jiri trail we passed someone’s house/lodge/farm (or some combination of the three), and along the trail we ran into fellow trekkers, their guides, porters, and regular Nepalis doing their daily chores. Wherever cultivation is possible, it seems to be cultivated. Their view of farmland is much more lenient than ours (they farm on hills so steep, they must carve it into stair-like platforms). And this is just in the hills, which, by the way, tower over any mountain I’ve seen in the Sierras. They’re lush and green and ascend high into the clouds. They’re not just high, they’re WIDE, so broad…I can hardly believe that anything could be so massive and then, protruding out like a shark’s fin, I’ll see the jagged white outline of a Himalayan mountain. Above the clouds. The hills look so soft comparted to those sharp, angular mountains.

The trails up these monsters are not bad, although they are littered with trash everywhere. We’ve also become familiar with the concept of “Nepali flat”…Chitra will tell us the trail is flat when really it’s up and down, up and down (as opposed to hours of steep UP or worse, steep DOWN, that we’ve become accustomed to).
For quite a few days I was still nauseous and vomiting, but we somehow still made it to our next stop faster than most. I’ve felt fine for the past 4 or 5 days, so it looks like that ordeal has finally passed.

I’ve begun to judge our elevation by our proximity to the planes flying overhead (to and from Lukla/Kathmandu). Sometimes when we’re crossing a high pass, they seem so close. For the record, we’ve cumulatively (according to Poppi’s altimeter watch, which, by the way, is about 300 feet low each day) climbed at least 28,160 feet and descended at least 23,140 feet.

Now that we’re past Lukla, the trekking has changed completely. Before, it was just a few of us hiking (separately) through remote Nepali villages; now we’re in with crowds of people on a dirt highway. We’re both so happy that we chose to come from Jiri–it was such a different experience.
It’s been a wild few days. I’ve been headbutted by a water buffalo, I’ve seen a spider the size of my palm, I’ve had to wait for countless trains of donkeys and (now) cow/yak crossbreeds to go past (carrying heavy loads), been outdone by a 7 year old up a steep hill, and learned that you can make a ping pong table out of almost anything flat.

Our next move is a well-deserved rest/more importantly, acclimitization day here in Namche, before we head up, up, up, eventually to Gokyo at 15, 715 feet, and the peak Gokyo Ri at 17, 575. Excellent views of Everest and the surrounding peaks, we’ve heard. From there (weather and time permitting) we head across the Cho La pass to Kala Patthar (another great viewpoint) and perhaps Everest Base Camp at 17,598 feet (although we’ve heard it’s rather unremarkable). We’re not sure how long this will take or where we’ll have internet access, but we’re due to hike down and fly out of Lukla on November 15. I’m sure we’ll have some sort of contact before then…!

Love to you all…

it was bound to happen…

Two days ago was our ride to Jiri, which we took in a huge van with our driver, our Sherpa guide, Chitra, our porter, Bul Bahadur, and, for a few hours, three Nepali women. The road winds back and forth and was, at certain, rare-ish unpaved times, outrageously bumpy. Carsickness threatened for the first hour or two but passed, and I found myself again entranced by the small villages we passed, in the huge valleys with farmlands like stairsteps. It was still the holiday, so everyone was dressed up and sitting by the road, and many dogs and cows had marigolds around their necks and were dotted with red paint.

There were so many animals roaming in and around the road: goats, chickens, dogs, pigs, and water buffalo (which look just like cows except for their glossy black nearly hairless skin, which must be kept wet, “like a hippopotamus”, says Poppi. Also, they aren’t sacred  and are, therefore, edible).

I must say that the driving which I considered so dangerous at first now rarely concerns me, and even makes sense. Horns are used for two reasons only: 1) to alert everyone that you are coming (and suggest that they move out of the way) or 2) to let someone know you intend on passing them. On narrow (just about wide enough for one car) roads, this is a very efficient system.

On the way up, I used the two worst bathrooms of my life. Any concrete detail describing them would be TMI, so I’ll leave it at: I now more than ever understand the Nepali’s foot aversion (after all, some don’t have shoes…).

Upon our arrival in Jiri we were greeted by adorable children who wanted nothing more from us than our names and where we’re from. After this exchange, they then scampered off with a charming “BYE!!”.

Now all of this so far is good, but that night (our first in Jiri) I became the most sick I’ve ever been, which is why we’ve been stuck in Jiri the past two days. I’ll try not to get too detailed, but the first night was hell. My body completely emptied itself, and I could not keep anything down. It was likely food poisoning from my chicken curry dinner, although other suspects include tainted bottled mineral water and those unsanitary bathrooms I avoided describing earlier. Whatever it is, I’m off chicken now, that’s for sure.

I slept most of the day yesterday, sometimes looking out my window at the family working on their little farm. Sleep has never been easier for me…I went to bed at 4pm last night!

Fortunately, I’m feeling much better today. I’m on antibiotics now, and I’ve been pounding the water and electrolytes. I can now eat and move around–a huge improvement.

The daughter of the hotel owners (who we originally deemed as surly) came to check on me today–turns out she’s very friendly and a nurse in Kathmandu (likely visiting home for the holiday)!  She gave us advice and support, very sweet.

I’m feeling so much better, and I’m very enthusiastic about trekking tomorrow (it’ll be a short, easy day too). Never thought we’d get internet here (although getting this posted is a total gamble, it disconnects at random intervals, and is the loathed dial up)–it was supposed to be a 9 day (or so) trek before Lukla or Namche Bazaar, the only places we know to have internet.

No need to worry–I’m so much better. Just wanted to explain our two day delay.

Miss you all!

Nepal is 12 hours 45 minutes ahead (I think?)

Just a quick note–we leave in about an hour for Jiri, which will be a brutal 7-8 hour car ride on crazy Nepali roads. We tend to go to sleep around 7 or 8pm (nerds) so this morning we woke up at 5:30 and started getting ready cause we couldn’t sleep. Therefore, I had some time to kill. Here in Thamel in Kathmandu internet’s only about 80 rupees an hour, roughly $1USD, so I thought I’d take advantage of it. I was hoping to get pictures up but this computer sucks. It doesn’t even have Firefox. FAIL.

Also I’m really getting obsessed with learning Nepali. My best sentence so far means, “I don’t speak Nepali, but in 8 weeks I will speak it, perhaps!”.

tired of Thamel

Tomorrow morning we leave on our trek from Jiri to Namche Bazaar (the main Sherpa town), and from there to Gokyo and Everest Base Camp. I’m really excited about the Jiri to Namche part because we are likely to be the only tourists around–most fly into Lukla and trek to Namche Bazaar and Base Camp from there. By starting in Jiri, we will also have more time to acclimate to the altitude.

We’re dying to leave Thamel, it is not really our style…ridden with hoardes of tourists…and yes, we are tourists too, we just don’t prefer to be around masses of them. It’s also incredibly loud, especially since our room last night was feet away from a ragin’ techno disco.

We were up early this morning and were some of the few tourists out and about. The Nepalis were up and seemed to be washing the city…scrubbing the storefronts and sweeping the streets. Dogs were everywhere helping with cleanup, and a cow also was picking through the trash.

One thing I’ve noticed that is very different from the U.S. is that man friends walk around holding hands/arm in arm/arms around each other or sit together in ways that are percieved by us Westerners as “cuddling”. It’s really very sweet and natural, though it would have such a different meaning in the U.S.

Today we walked up many steep stairs to get to Swayambhunath, a Buddhist temple over 2000 years old. On the way up, it seemed there were families everywhere, of people, dogs, and rhesus macacques. Even more so at the top. All the animals are completely ignored, and vice versa…there are puppies and baby monkeys everywhere but no one cares at all. It’s pretty excting for me to see my first wild primates, and rhesus macacques are so adorable and agile! At the top, trees were swaddled in prayer flags, and I really liked that there were many seemingly local people just there to check it out as well. Today’s a holiday actually, “Tihar”, festival of lights; there are strings of marigolds everywhere (I am actually not sure if they are holiday-related, it could be the norm), sand paintings on the ground, expanses of candles, etc.

I can’t figure out how to get my photos online, though I haven’t tried very hard. I’ll give it another shot next time we use the internet…which may not be until we get to Namche Bazaar in about 9 days or so.

Thanks for all the comments, miss you all!

finally in Nepal.

So we have officially, safely arrived in Kathmandu after a couple intense travel days…

Our flight to Seoul was an experience for me for two main reasons: 1) it was my first international flight, and 2) it was my first 12+ hour flight. Or 7+ hour flight for that matter.

Korea Airlines is so different from what I’m used to. The army of identically styled flight attendants were such troopers..practically robotic service. They all wore the same shirts, shoes, same immaculate hair bun with gravity-defying hair ribbon, same starchy neck scarf protruding from their collars at a 45 degree angle. They periodically brought us various amenities including a pouch with toothbrush and a single serving tube of toothpaste, socks, eyemask, drinks, hot meat buns, 2 meals, wine, bananas, hot towels, etc.

The time change threw me off a bit–we had a solid 20+ hours of daylight that day. When we landed in Seoul (5 movies and 1 Friends episode later…) my watch (still set  to CA time) read 1:45 am, but it was 5:45 pm, and still light out, there.

We didn’t see much of Korea as we were there for only 15 hours and the Hyatt we stayed in (free of charge, meals included) was less than 5 minutes away from the airport (which, by the way, isn’t really in Seoul but on an island nearby). The only thing I really noted about Korea were the cool airport architecture, hazy air, and the fact that I got my first-ever passport stamp.

This morning we had a 7ish hour flight from Seoul to Kathmandu. I saw the Himalayas from the plane, which was odd…usually when you see mountains from airplanes, you feel like they’re so far below you, but with these, I felt like I was seeing them eye-to-eye. They’re so high, they rise above the clouds.

Getting off the plane, we went on one of those stair things straight to the ground–not the tubular hallway straight into the airport that I’m used to. We were last in line for visas, so when we got outside the bus to the Kathmandu Guest House was gone. We hired a “taxi” (a normal person driving his car) to take us there.

That drive was something else. It’s hard to even describe…first of all, the driving is absolutely insane. I felt like we were in a videogame, that’s how much disregard there is for any sort of traffic rule. I guess they drive on the left, but you really can’t tell because they drive wherever it’s open. And I use the term “open” loosely because I don’t even know how we fit through some of those spaces. The cars are pure chaos in themselves, but weaving in between are motorcycles and pedestrians, who seem oblivious yet not at all nervous that they are inches away from a speeding vehicle. People honk their horn every few seconds, yet never show any other form of frustration or anger. It’s just a big mess…there’s no right of way whatsoever, people just swerve around any and all obstacles. Somehow, it seems to work. By the way, no seatbelts. And my door was suspiciously rattling the whole time.

But there was so much to look at, I was unconcerned with the driving.  I couldn’t believe I was seeing all this in real life, it looks so much like pictures I’ve seen of places all over the world. I was too mesmerized to pull out my camera. I saw so many things that I kind of expected to see: mangy puppies everywhere, an old woman carrying hundreds of eggs on her back, a monkey knucklewalkin’ it, women in their beautiful dress holding babies, old crumbly buildings, sacred cows just hanging around, and unfortunately an adorable girl came begging at the window of our car.

Suddenly, the number of non-Nepalis changed from none at all to about one in four, and we knew were close to the Guest House. I felt an abrupt change from people simply trying to survive to people trying to make money.

We got to the Guest House and were told that, although we had a reservation, they overbooked and we were escorted to a place called Hotel Buddha and given a room. It’s fine, noisy as expected. The shower has no division from the rest of the bathroom.

That about sums it up. We’ve walked around this (very touristy) section of Kathmandu, and already we want to get out of here and get going with our trek. We bought a map today, and I got a Birds of Nepal field guide to take. I’ve been into the birds…I had skimmed the bird section of one of our guidebooks when we were in the air, and as soon as we exited the plane I saw a black fork-tailed raptor called a Pariah Kite.

So there you go. Perhaps too long and detailed, but I’ll get in the swing of things. Right now I just have to report what I’ve seen, cause it’s all happened so fast I haven’t been able to process much of it.

We leave on our trek hopefully the day after tomorrow (Sunday 18 October). No idea what internet options I’ll have there.

Until next time!

Why Nepal?

People ask me, why (of all the places in the world), why are you going to Nepal? I think they see the reasons people may have for going there, but they want to hear my reasons.

Well. I’ve known about Nepal since I’ve  known anything at all, because Nepal is a place very special to my father. He lived there for three years total: two with the Peace Corps and one a few years later when he returned. He has not been back since then, which was over 40 years ago, although he’s always wanted to return. I’ve always wanted to go to Nepal as well, having heard so much about it over the years. We had tentatively planned to do a Nepal trip fall quarter of my 4th year (aka next year) but when my study abroad plans fell through this fall, I (desperate to get out of the country somehow) urged him to do the trip a year early. Apparently it was my (rudely?) reminding him that he’s uh…not getting any younger…you might as well do the trip when you’re in great shape and able to enjoy it…that convinced him.

So now we’re going. We leave in four days and it’s my first time out of the country since I became self-aware. I’ve always wanted to be a traveler, and I’m excited to get started, and most of all, excited to start with Nepal.

Nepal isn’t a place many people go, so I feel so lucky that in just a few days I will be there. Most people just think of Everest when they hear Nepal, or that one scene in that one movie where the star goes there and becomes badass, maaaaybe they could think of the capital (Kathmandu) if they really thought about it. I’m going to be there for 8 weeks, I’ll (hopefully) come back with a feel for the place and many real things to say about it.

Another cool thing is, the first time Pops went to Nepal, he was twenty-two and just out of college, where I’ll be in a few years. We’ll visit villages he lived in over 40 years ago. Spending weeks trekking in the Himalayas with him, I’m going to get a lot of questions answered about his life (which has always been rather mysterious to me).