Well now that a month has past since we arrived back home, I finally decided to sit down and finish out the recounting the trip.
The plane ride home turned out to be a bummer, for me at least. I did fine for the first leg, but during the flight from Hong Kong to SFO I became sick. First off, we were put in the very last row of the airplane and on top of that, we were in the middle aisle. Jeff at least had an aisle seat, while I was stuck in the center of the middle of the very last row. To add to the fun, I became ill on the flight. At first I thought it was just air sickness because the flight was a bit bouncy, but I never get air sick, plus it was a bit different in terms of symptoms. Long story short, I had a case of Guardia that had decided to kick in on our journey homeward. Lucky me! However I was able to survive the ride home and meet my family at the airport on Saturday morning 10am local time. Jeff and I were both tired, but really happy to be back in the Bay Area. It seems that everyone's first reaction when meeting us coming out of customs was a bit shock at the weight we had both lost. Combined with our facial hair that had been growing for the last three weeks, we looked a bit different from when we had last seen them. Speaking of Jeff, I thank my lucky stars that I had him with me, as he is the perfect person to do something like this with. I don't know that we ever had a harsh word between us during the entire trip. Not bad for three week together in close quarters! Now if he would just get more of his pictures posted....
On the subject of weight loss, it appears that both Jeff and I each lost around 20 lbs each. I think the strenuous exercise we got from all our hiking in both the heat and cold, combined with our vegetarian diet really did the trick for us. I got lots of comments about how skinny I was when I returned to work that week. Thanks to the Guardia, I probably continued to lose a little weight even after returning home.
A number of people have asked what I thought the highlights of my trip were. Was it seeing Everest, or something else? I keep going over all the things we experienced and don't know if I can point to any one thing that I really value over the others, but there were some highlights. One was coming outside the building in Gokyo at 4am and seeing the stars lit up as there were at 15,500 feet. There was no moon or clouds or any light pollution to mar the view and the stars were beyond description. They were so bright and you could see the Milky Way like it was through a telescope. I was just blown away by it. Then, just a few short hours later, I am standing atop Gokyo Ri at 18k feet and looking at Mount Everest. That was also an incredible experience and the difficult and demanding climb up to that point only added to the moment. I was hungry, tired and sore and beyond thrilled!
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the first week hiking while on the Jiri trek. There were almost no tourist and we really got to experience a piece of Nepal that many people simply fly over on their way to Everest Base Camp or Gokyo. I have been telling everyone that I thought that once you get above Lukla, pretty much everything is geared towards serving the tourist. That is why everyone is there, because of us. Below Lukla, it is a different story. This is were people live and work. Tourists are part of the overall picture, but it's a much smaller factor in everyday life. If you want to see Nepal and experience it like the people who live there do, then you need to walk among them like you get to with the Jiri trek. Most of them seemed very poor, but they were kind and hospitable even though the iPod I was listening to could probably feed them for a month. I really do value the time we got to spend among the people and have developed a real appreciation for the them. Even though it was probably the most difficult part of the trek physically, I am really happy we decided to start from Jiri and would recommend it to anyone wishing to trek Nepal. Just don't forget to prepare yourself physically before you go!
So after having ample time to digest my trip and reflect on what it meant to me, I still think it was one of the best experiences I have ever had and I so grateful that we were able to pull it off. It was certainly different from what I expected, but I think that was part of what made it such a memorable trip. I worked much harder than I thought I would and the scenery coming from Jiri to Lukla was completely different from I thought we would be seeing, but like I said above, it only added to the experience. Nepal is a beautiful country and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have the privilege to visit it, but I think I have satisfied whatever it was that kept pulling me towards it. On to other destinations for my next adventure!
The plane ride home turned out to be a bummer, for me at least. I did fine for the first leg, but during the flight from Hong Kong to SFO I became sick. First off, we were put in the very last row of the airplane and on top of that, we were in the middle aisle. Jeff at least had an aisle seat, while I was stuck in the center of the middle of the very last row. To add to the fun, I became ill on the flight. At first I thought it was just air sickness because the flight was a bit bouncy, but I never get air sick, plus it was a bit different in terms of symptoms. Long story short, I had a case of Guardia that had decided to kick in on our journey homeward. Lucky me! However I was able to survive the ride home and meet my family at the airport on Saturday morning 10am local time. Jeff and I were both tired, but really happy to be back in the Bay Area. It seems that everyone's first reaction when meeting us coming out of customs was a bit shock at the weight we had both lost. Combined with our facial hair that had been growing for the last three weeks, we looked a bit different from when we had last seen them. Speaking of Jeff, I thank my lucky stars that I had him with me, as he is the perfect person to do something like this with. I don't know that we ever had a harsh word between us during the entire trip. Not bad for three week together in close quarters! Now if he would just get more of his pictures posted....
On the subject of weight loss, it appears that both Jeff and I each lost around 20 lbs each. I think the strenuous exercise we got from all our hiking in both the heat and cold, combined with our vegetarian diet really did the trick for us. I got lots of comments about how skinny I was when I returned to work that week. Thanks to the Guardia, I probably continued to lose a little weight even after returning home.
A number of people have asked what I thought the highlights of my trip were. Was it seeing Everest, or something else? I keep going over all the things we experienced and don't know if I can point to any one thing that I really value over the others, but there were some highlights. One was coming outside the building in Gokyo at 4am and seeing the stars lit up as there were at 15,500 feet. There was no moon or clouds or any light pollution to mar the view and the stars were beyond description. They were so bright and you could see the Milky Way like it was through a telescope. I was just blown away by it. Then, just a few short hours later, I am standing atop Gokyo Ri at 18k feet and looking at Mount Everest. That was also an incredible experience and the difficult and demanding climb up to that point only added to the moment. I was hungry, tired and sore and beyond thrilled!
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the first week hiking while on the Jiri trek. There were almost no tourist and we really got to experience a piece of Nepal that many people simply fly over on their way to Everest Base Camp or Gokyo. I have been telling everyone that I thought that once you get above Lukla, pretty much everything is geared towards serving the tourist. That is why everyone is there, because of us. Below Lukla, it is a different story. This is were people live and work. Tourists are part of the overall picture, but it's a much smaller factor in everyday life. If you want to see Nepal and experience it like the people who live there do, then you need to walk among them like you get to with the Jiri trek. Most of them seemed very poor, but they were kind and hospitable even though the iPod I was listening to could probably feed them for a month. I really do value the time we got to spend among the people and have developed a real appreciation for the them. Even though it was probably the most difficult part of the trek physically, I am really happy we decided to start from Jiri and would recommend it to anyone wishing to trek Nepal. Just don't forget to prepare yourself physically before you go!
So after having ample time to digest my trip and reflect on what it meant to me, I still think it was one of the best experiences I have ever had and I so grateful that we were able to pull it off. It was certainly different from what I expected, but I think that was part of what made it such a memorable trip. I worked much harder than I thought I would and the scenery coming from Jiri to Lukla was completely different from I thought we would be seeing, but like I said above, it only added to the experience. Nepal is a beautiful country and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have the privilege to visit it, but I think I have satisfied whatever it was that kept pulling me towards it. On to other destinations for my next adventure!
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