Trek Day 6 - Acclimation Day in Pheriche - 11/6/10

This was a much needed, and last day of rest.  Our last was at Namche, which is full of steps and not very restful.  Pheriche is in the bottom of a valley and totally flat.  Of course, there's not nearly as much to do, but I can handle that.  I slept 12 hours last night (thank you travel doc for the ambien) and feel so much better today.  While Bogdan and Irene went on a hike up a ridge, the rest of us have been reading, laying cards and meandering.  Oh, and Dana surprised us all and gave our hostess a manicure.  Seriously.  She brought nail polish and top coat with her. 

I also visited the internet cafe a couple of times, but it was slow and expensive.  In the courtyard between the cafe and the hospital, there's a beautiful monument to fallen Everest climbers.  It's 2 steel cones with flat surfaces facing each other.  On the flat surfaces is the name of every dead climber.  It's truly amazing to see the number of names.  The altitude sickness talk at the hospital was pretty informative.  Afterwards, we got to check out the facilities and the doctor showed us how to use a Gamow Bag, since many of the lodges higher up have them.  Also, I was told that the dry cough I've been having is known as the Khumbu Cough and is very common -- 60% of trekkers in the region get it.  I bought some cough drops and a buff nearby to shield my face from the cold.

Time for dinner and a good night's sleep.  Fingers crossed for the next few days.

Trek Day 5 - Tengboche to Pheriche - 11/5/10

Today was a bitch.  I know I've said it before, but this time I really mean it.  I didn't sleep at all last night.  Not. One. Minute.  I was all congested and breathing the cold air through my mouth made my lungs hurt.  I really wanted to stay another day and told Krista.  I felt that I could stay a day and then meet them in Pheriche, since we'd have 2 nights there for acclimation.  She talked me out of it.  So after breakfast I hit the trail with the gang.

Walking toward Pheriche

We dropped down to the river just below Tengboche, crossed it and gently climbed.  No big ups and downs today.  If I hadn't have been sick, this probably wouldn't have been so bad.  We eventually got out of the trees and walked on a ridge. There were a couple of villages along the way, but for the most part, it was wide open with mountains all around.  Needless to say, I was the lantern rouge by a long shot today. Eventually, we wondered down into a large valley where the village of Pheriche (altitude 14,340 ft.) is.  Bogdan mentioned that this area looks a lot like Tibet. It's certainly populated with a lot of Tibetans and we're only a few miles from the border, so it doesn't surprise me.

Our Lodge

Our lodge is fantastic.  Unlike yesterday's flimsy plywood building, the "Pheriche Village Resort" is made of stone, has a hot shower, a beautiful dining/lounge room with plenty of sun, double pane windows, and is very clean.  The food here is fantastic and the couple that own the place are so incredibly nice.

We're all passing binoculars and my SLR with the big lens checking out some climbers on Makalu.  It looks like they're at camp 3 and possibly planning their summit attempt tonight.  I hope we see their headlights later.

There's a Himalayan Rescue Association hospital here (the other is in Pokhara near the Annapurnas).  They give a daily program on acute mountain sickness which we'll probably check out tomorrow.  In the meantime, I'm going to shower, rest my knee, and try to sleep.  Not necessarily in that order.

Pheriche valley

Trek Day 4 - Namche to Tengboche - 11/4/10

Today was a bitch.  I know I said it a couple of days ago, but today really was one.  The knee felt pretty good when I woke up -- whatever Dana did to it really did the trick.  So this morning, we packed up our gear, ate breakfast and headed back up above Namche where we had been the day before.  This time we followed the ridge on the trail that you can see in my video.  It was stunning.  There were beautiful mountain views, passed a couple of stupas, many prayer flags, and countless yaks.  After an hour or so, we dropped back down the ridge to the river.  After a lunch stop, we crossed the river and headed up the ridge -- another 2 hours up.  This time it wasn't straight up.  That would be too easy.  This time it was so steep that there were switchbacks all the way to the top.  At one point, Irene was about 1 minute ahead of me (yes, I timed it), yet she was a switchback up and thus about 30 feet above me.  And, of course, the knee swelled up again.  It just sucked.  When you get to the top, there's a row of prayer wheels (and I spun everyone of them in thanks) and a beautiful arch welcoming you to Tengboche (12,690 ft.).

Tengboche Monestary Entrace

Tengboche is an extremely small village with a beautiful monestary and amazing views of the mountains, especially Lhotse and Everest.  As I walked to the right of the arch to our lodge, a train of real yaks and several monk walking by.  After a "shower" (bucket of hot water), I went to the monestary, which was about 40 yards away.  They had blown their conch shells and opened the doors for tourists  and allowed us to watch a prayer session.  Both the monestary and the prayers were stunning.  The way in which they changed their mantras sounded like music.  No flash or video allowed, so I couldn't take pictures of it.

View from Monestary toward our lodge

The internet cafe was locked up, but I found Dana and Krista next door at the bakery.  Who knew that chocolate rum cake could be so good?  Seriously, it was some of the best stuff that I've ever had.  But it gets better, while waiting for our dinner, Bogdan bundled up and walked over to get some bread for the morning.  Krista asked for some sourdough, which she had seen on the menu earlier.  Bogdan was gone for quite a while, but when he came back, he had 2 loaves of hot sourdough fresh out of the oven.  Krista was really cold and the bread was in a plastic bag, so she put a loaf down the front of her coat to warm up.  We all took turns with it, and eventually ate both loaves.  With the yak butter that Kopil grabbed from the kitchen, we all feasted, including our porters.  Sometimes the simplest things are the absolute best.

After dinner, Bogdan mentioned how beautiful the stars were that night.  Even though I was cold inside with a fire, I decided to brave it and go outside for a look.  He was right -- absolutely stunning.  I've seen stars at sea, in the Sierras, and in the dessert, but I have never seen the Milky Way so vividly nor seen so many stars.  And the mountains were outlined so nicely in the starlight.  So wishing I had a tripod so that I could get a good picture.  It was truly cold though.  I didn't last long.

Trek Day 3 - Acclimation Day in Namche Bazaar - 11/3/10

View from the front of our lodge

Today is our first acclimation day and that means we get to spend the whole day and night in Namche Bazaar.  Irene had a rough night, got very little sleep, and has a bad headache.  We're all hoping that it's not signs of altitude sickness, but she, Dana and Bogdan are all on it -- they're all doctors.

Krista wanted some time to herself, Bogdan stayed with Irene (husband's duty), so Dana and I set out with Kapil to go to the Everest View Hotel.  To get there, you have to go up, up, up over a ridge.  On the way, Kopil suggested we stop at the national park museum on a lower ridge above Namche.  So we climbed stairs for about 20 minutes, walked down a flat path (didn't know those existed!)  and arrived at a big open space with a stunning view of Everest.  There was a sign advertising yak rides while wearing traditional Sherpa clothing for 700 rupee (about $10).  We wanted to do this so badly, but there were no yaks up there and the woman in charge didn't know the number to call to get us some.  Total bummer. I really wanted to add a yak to the list of animals I've ridden.  Certainly a shorter fall than a camel or elephant, right?

Anyway, we sent Kopil down to enjoy the day and we hung out for a bit.  I took a panoramic video with my iPhone and then we went in to the museum.  One of the army guards in camo asked if he could take our picture and then followed us around and practically tried to ask Dana out.  It was hilarious.  The museum had a lot of info on the the animals and plants in the area as well as the history of the park.  Who knew that Sir Edmund Hillary was instrumental in getting this area designated as a national park? On our way back down to the village, we stopped at the Sherpa museum for a visit.  The museum was extensive and divided in to 3 parts: a Sherpa house, completely furnished and a stunning prayer room; an adjacent building with a photograhic encyclopedia of sherpa weddings, funerals, farming, trade etc; and a room completely devoted to every Sherpa who has ever summited Everest. 

Prayer room in Sherpa home as seen at Sherpa Museum

So many of their photos showed frostbite on their faces and so many had summited multiple times.  There were several who had summited several times who died on a subsequent attempt.  There was a larger than normal photo of the first female Sherpa to summit.  Her death date was the day after her summit date, so she must have died on her way back down.  Did you know that more climbers die on the way down than on the way up?

Dana and I then decided to head back down to the village.  This is where I got into trouble.  How?  Well remember when I was hit by the truck in '06 and screwed up my knee?  Since we were just acclimating today and not doing any serious trekking, I left my poles back in the room at the lodge.  Heading down from the top was very hard on the knees and without those poles, my bad knee started hurting.  By the time we were down, it had swollen and I was limping.

Once back in Namche, we ran into Bogdan and Irene.  We had our pulsox checked at the clinic and it was a bit of a shocker.  Heart rates rise about 30-50 beats per minute at high altitude -- mine was already at 100.  No wonder it felt like my heart was racing when I tried to sleep at night!  Oh, and my oxygen level was pathetic.  But we were all in the same boat. We celebrated with pizza at the Everest Bakery (real electric pizza ovens and real pizza with no catsup) and went to the Liquid Bar late in the afternoon to catch the daily free movie (today was "Touching the Void").  After we went back to the lodge, rescued laundry, ate dinner and chilled.  Dana massaged some great cream into my knee and wrapped me up in an ace bandage.  Hope it helps, because tomorrow we head to Tengboche.

Trek Day 2 - Monjo to Namche Bazzar - 11/2/10

Today was a bitch.  I woke today feeling fairly normal -- no muscle soreness at all.  The ibuprofin I took must have done the trick.  We got up, packed up, ate breakfast, and had to regroup a little.  One of our porters had twisted his ankle and had to head back to Lukla.  We redistributed the loads (both Kopil and Bogdan took a little extra) and we headed out.  Since we were spending 2 nights in Namche, Kopil called another porter who would catch up with us there.

We had been told that it would take 5 hours to get to Namche and the last 2 would be basically straight up.  Somehow we managed to get there in 3.5, but I'm not sure how.  It started out benign enough.  The entrance to Sagamartha National Park is just outside of Monjo.  There's a beautiful gateway to walk through lined with prayer wheels.  Kopil went inside with our park permits while we hung around outside, but soon we had to start doing some serious walking. The trails here are not flat by any means.  Nor are they up.  You have to go up and down along a ridge, drop down to the river, cross a suspension bridge and head up the ridge on the other side.  Repeatedly.  I kind of groan every time we head down because I know I have to walk up it again at some point.

First view of Everest (with some serious lens zoom)

That last 2 hours was as advertised -- steep and up the entire way.  There was one place about 2/3 of the way up that had a flat area to take a rest.  There were Sherpa women from Namche who had come down and were selling oranges.  We shared a couple of oranges and got our first view of Everest in between the trees.  It was popping out behind a ridge and looked very far away.  As we finally approached Namche, we turned a corner and there was a little snack stand on the right side of the trail and a long bench on the left and the trail was finally flat.  A very nice man said "You did it! Welcome to Namche".  We turned left around a corner and finally saw the village.

First view of Namche Bazaar

Namche Bazaar (elevation 12,467 ft.) is shaped very much like an ampitheater, with buildings along each tier on the way up.  It is absolutely stunning, with mountains looming all around.  At the bottom center there is a stupa with prayer wheels in front.  Also, there's a stream that flows down through the village near the stupa.  We were at the very bottom level and I was worried that our lodge would be up higher in the village.  No worries though -- we were at the bottom just past the stupa.  After getting settled in our rooms and having lunch, Krista and I did our laundry in the stream, much to the amusement of the local women also doing theirs.  Then we took showers, and meandered through town.  I'm so excited that we have all day here tomorrow to explore!

Trek Day 1 - Kathandu to Lukla to Monjo - 11/1/10

View from the plane

So we got up early, packed our stuff for the trek, put the rest in Sarita's storage room and headed to the airport.  The trekking agency had changed guides on us after buying the plane tickets, so our guide had a ticket that wasn't in his name.  Oops.  Our flight was delayed a bit due to low visibility in Lukla, so Kopil (the guide) got a new ticket issued in his name in plenty of time to make our flight.  The flight itself was stunning -- great view of Boudhanath when we took off, amazing views of the foothills and little villages, and some mountain peaks as we dropped down into a valley to land at Tenzig-Hillary Airport in Lukla (elevation 9,196 ft.) -- supposedly the scariest airport in the world.  It wasn't so scary to me.  The plane that crashed into the wall at the end of the runway two weeks ago (break troubles) was still sitting there with a bit of a smashed nose.  It didn't look so bad.

We left the plane, walked toward the luggage, and then the chaos started -- we we swarmed by guys wanting to be our porters.  It was Kopil's job to hire the porters, but we had to veto a couple of his choices.  He was picking very young people, practically children and we thought our stuff was too heavy for them.  The funny thing was, once on trail we could see that our loads were very small in comparison to others.  You always here how incredibly strong the Sherpas are, but I'm beginning to realize that they're far stronger than I ever imagined.

Mani stones with Tibetan prayers

So we had lunch (I had my first yak steak -- yummy!) and hit the trail.  It was all so absolutely stunning everywhere you looked -- white water rapids, waterfalls, snow capped peaks.  We all got excited when we saw our first yak (which was actually a yak/cow hybrid called a dzo) and took a bunch of photos.  Funny thing is, I've seen more of them now than I can count.  And it's the same with prayer wheels, prayer flags, stupas, mani stones, suspension bridges, etc.  All of these items that you hope to see once are all in abudnace.  Just like cows in the streets of India.

Most trekkers to go Phakding on their first day, but the group decided to go 2 hours further to Monjo so that we'll have a shorter day tomorrow.  To be honest, I was struggling a bit with my heartbeat and breathing and really didn't want the extra distance, but I made it.  We got to Monjo (a very, very tiny village, elevation 9,235 ft.) not too long before dark, got cleaned up and had dinner.  Tonight we learned a few very important things:  1)  order dinner early -- they make each order fresh and they can take quite some time to make it to the table; 2)  do not order western food in the tiny villages -- my pizza with everything ended up being topped with shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, tuna and a swirl of ketsup; and 3)  it gets really cold at night.  Can't quite figure out why Bogdan and Irene decided to sleep outside in a tent since it was plenty cold inside.

Anyway, my legs are stiff and burning and I ache everywhere.  I don't think I chose the best day pack and I'm hoping to buy a better one in Namche Bazaar when we arrive tomorrow.  Off to bed.

Kathmandu 10/30-10/31

After nearly 40 hours of travel (and an hour on the ground in Dhaka) we arrived in Kathmandu utterly exhausted.  I was so tired that I didn't even bat an eye when they charged me $25 instead of $40 for my visa.  We made it through immigration and customs to find Sarita waving with a big smile on her face.  The big hug and kiss she gave me made the weariness go away for a bit.  She told me that Prem and his family had moved to Pokhara, so I wouldn't be seeing him this trip.  Bummer.  But we made it across the city to Happy Home Guest House and crashed big time.

The next morning I was looking at my passport and realized that I was only issued a 14 day visa.  Shit.  But Sarita told me to go ahead and show Krista around and eat some breakfast while she made some calls and figured out what I need to do to get my visa extended.  The last thing I wanted was to have my visa expire while I was out on the trek and then be unable to fly back to Kathmandu.

Darbur Square, Kathmandu

Since we weren't meeting Bogdan and Irene until 10, so Krista and I  walked over to Darbur Square.  It was really early and thus fairly empty.  Except for the birds and cows, there were just a few people milling around and absolutely no westerners except for ourselves.  Don't know why, but a calf decided to try to eat my hair.  I guess that dry straw look I've got is a hit with the bovines.

On the way back to Themal, I missed a turn on one of the alleys and got us a tiny bit lost.  So I hired us a bicycle rickshaw to take us back.   But, as I explained to Krista, you can't do Kathmandu without at least one rickshaw ride.  Almost as soon as we got back, we saw Bogdan and Irene walking down the street towards us.  Yay!  So good to finally see them and get the full breakfast special at the Yak.

By the time we got back to Happy Home, Sarita had found out that I could go to a visa office in the city instead of all the way back to the airport.  So I got on the back of a motorcycle and one of her employees took me past the royal palace, through some neighborhood, up some steep cobbled road and to the office.  The line was long, but Deepak talked to a guy in back who sat me at a table, basically filled out the form for me, took my additional $15, and got me all taken care of in about 20 minutes.  We then took off down the cobbled hill and back across town.

I started noticing some not to subtle changes in Kathmandu -- surprising since it had only been 2 years since I was last there.  We passed some car dealerships, including one for Land Rover.  I saw a few of those air conditioned tour buses on the streets.  The scariest change of all for me was that we passed newly opened KFC right next to a newly opened Pizza Hut -- and they weren't those 3rd world fake ones.  This was the real thing.  The lack of chain restaurants in this city was one of the things I loved most about it in '08!  But since these two restaurants were not very near the tourist district, I'm hopeful that they won't make it.  We'll see.

Anyway, I arrived back in one piece, took a nap and then met the entire group for the trek (all 5 of us plus our guide) at the trekking office, went over all of our logistics, and had dinner.  It was off to bed because we have an 8:30 flight to Lukla tomorrow to start out trek.

Hong Kong Layover - 10/30/2010

Hong Kong has never been on my list of places I'd like to visit, but since Krista and I had a 12 hour layover starting at 6am, we figured "why not?". So after getting some local money, we took the subway to the heart of downtown, walked a few blocks, and found the bus up to "the peak". It was my first ride atop a double decker bus and we went up some very steep, curvy roads to an area that was mostly closed. We managed to get some noodle soup for breakfast and walked a trail that took us all around the mountain.

At one point, we found some stairs heading off the trail which took us to this amazing viewpoint. There were two roadies up there who do that ride fairly often. They do it early in the morning to avoid the horrendous local traffic. The view was pretty nice, if you could look through all the haze, which I assume is smog. The harbor is huge and the skyscrapers are equally big. There's scaffolding just about everywhere you look -- it seems like being a builder in the city is very lucrative!

When we finished the loop trail, we arrived back to where we started to an entirely different scene than when we had left. All of the restaurants were open and the place was packed with people. The tram had also opened, so we took that back down into the city.

A short cab ride took us back almost to where we had caught the bus. A friend of Krista's knows a woman in Hong Kong who offered to meet us and show us around. After a few minutes of waiting at our rendezvous spot watching the hectic city go buy, two women in their fifties came trotting over waving their arms yelling "yoo hoo!" They were a total riot and after some brief introductions, they ushered us in to an elevator and up a building to THE dim sum restaurant. It's 2 stories in a very big building. Our floor had at least 100 round tables in it. Carts were everywhere delivering goodies to the tables and every table was full. We, of course, were the only Caucasians in the room. At one point, they got impatient with the carts, and one of them took me with her up to the counter around the cooks so that I could help her carry all of the plates that came around. Honestly, they were so talkative and such characters, that I felt like I was stuck in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous. The meal, by the way, was amazing -- best dim sum ever!

After, they gave us a little walking tour of the north side of the harbor and then put us on the ferry across to the south side. There we sat and watched the world go by as well as a dance performance outside in a plaza. Soon it was time to walk to the metro (past all the fancy stores like Rolex and Louis Vuitton) and get back to the airport. Kathmandu awaits and honestly, I can't wait to get there.

A New Journey

As most of my friends know, I recently went to Nepal to trek through the Khumbu region to base camp on Mt. Everest. I was unable to blog while on this journey, but did keep a hand written journal and took many pictures. At the request of many, I am putting my journal entries up here in the blog and hope this will curtail the questions and constant requests to "tell me about your trip". I never know how to respond to that, since there was so much, that I could talk for days. So as I have time, I'll put up my journal entries (I know -- two months too late). Don't expect them all at once, but I'll do this as fast as I can.