Back in Kathmandu (and another mass update)

Alright, we are back at our guide Raj's house.  Hari is his brother and was our actual guide, but Raj owns the business.  

We are departing tomorrow night and should have access to an Internet connection for most of our travels, so I will make sure to provide updates as often as possible.  Here are the last few days of our hike as well as the trip up the hill to the top of Gokyo-Ri.  

11-07 (Gokyo – Luza)

Gokyo-Ri! Woke up this morning at around 4am and dressed for the hike up the peak. Walked out of the room and went outside and wow, the stars are so bright it was like they were electric. I have never seen them so bright, but I guess that what being at 15,500 does for you. The temps are freezing and it is tough to get out of bed. Everything is frozen, even my drinking water has frozen.

The walk up the hill was just as tough as I was fearing. It was pitch black when we started and we saw that there were other people already on the hill. We could see the headlamps of the hikers zig zagging up the hill. Our porters were supposed to have tea ready for us to take up the hill, but nobody could find them and we went up with Hari. After two tough hours, we finally saw the top of the hill where there were already a few people. The weather was perfect and visibility was pretty much unlimited. We stepped up to the top and in to the sun. There were prayer flags draped everywhere and a sign that told us the elevation (17,989 feet). The fog was working its way up the glacier far below us, but the Himalayan mountain range was unbelievable. Mount Everest ruled over everything else, but the other mountains were just as impressive. We took a ton of photo's, but the morning sun probably hurt the quality of them. The wind started blowing the fog up the hill as we departed back down towards Gokyo. As we descended, we ran in to dozens of people working their way to the top. The fog was coming up so quickly we were not sure what to tell them when they asked if it was clear on top. All we could say was it was nice when we left. It took us just about an hour to reach the bottom of the hill and we had a quick breakfast before departing for Luza.

The trip to Luza was cold and foggy. It even started snowing on us just a little. Once we arrived at the lodge we were tired and freezing (it seems we are always freezing), but the owner started a fire and we slowly started warming up. I had my socks washed and we put them up to dry next to the fire as we all huddled next to it. I finally gave up trying to stay warm and went to bed early so I could get in my sleeping bag. I went to sleep with my iPod on and drained the battery, so now I need to recharge it.

11-08 (Luza – Namche)

We woke up for the first time in quite a while where the sun was out. It was finally clear skies! Of course it was still freezing cold. We had our breakfast and headed towards Namche. The day was mostly sunning, though there were a few clouds blowing around. We marched in to Namche after about seven hours of walking and were tired and sore. We were able to take a warm shower which helped to ease our pains, and then had a nice meal to finish us off. All of us decided to have a beer and it was probably the best tasting beer I have had in some time. We also were able to connect to WiFi and send out some emails and update the blog. Emails from home are a double edge sword, where I am so happy to hear from them and to read what they are doing, but it also makes me miss them terribly.

Now that we are heading down the hill towards Lukla and our flight out, it has really fired up my desire to go home. My thoughts are almost entirely on my family at this point and I am counting every day until I arrive at the airport. Home sickness has kicked in big time!

11-09 (Namche – Lukla)

Big day today as we make the long march to Lukla. It normally takes at least two days to hike from Lukla to Namche, but going downhill (much of the way anyhow) makes it doable. We woke up and had our breakfast and I was able to make a quick phone call to speak with Kate and the kids. Of course this makes me want to go home even more than I already did. As promised, it was a long day backtracking over the same trails we took coming in. While there were some uphill climbs, we made good time and made it to Lukla around 4pm. Our lodge sits right at the end of the runway. As I write this entry, I am looking right down the centerline of the runway here. Four airplanes arrived and departed before it got too dark to continue and we watched them with many other people who lined up to see the action. We were trying to get an early flight out tomorrow, but the chances of that appear to be fading fast. It looks like we get to hang out an extra day here. While we all want to get back to Kathmandu, I think we are all good with a day of relaxing here watching the aircraft come and go. Arriving at Lukla officially ends the walking portion of our trek and we will be using modern forms of transportation from this point on.

Lukla is much larger than I thought it would be, and like other towns of decent size around here, it is also petty dirty. There are bars and shops all along the street and dirt and garbage are everywhere. Regardless of its condition, I am very happy to have made it here at last. It is one step closer to home. I also am really enjoying watching the aircraft here. It sure fires up the juices to go flying again. Then come in and land right on the numbers and quickly reverse their props and hit the brakes hard until they reach the end of the runway where they turn off. There is only enough room for about four airplanes on the ramp. A fifth airplane just landed and is unloading right on the end of the runway. We watched the unloading and reloading as everyone scrambled to work as quickly as possible. The right side engines remain running while all this happens. After about 15 minutes they are all ready to leave. When the airplanes position themselves at the end of the runway to prepare for departure, you are only 20 – 30 yards behind it watching from the fence. The smell of kerosene is thick and the prop wash blows dust right up at you. They throttle up, release the brakes and go careening down the sloping runway until right at the very end of the asphalt runway before pulling up hard and lifting off. There are four planes that have landed and unloaded their cargo and are all taking back off loaded with passengers. The takeoff procession is so rapid that you can still see the first aircraft climbing out when the fourth one is departing.

Still not sure what tomorrow's plan is, so I guess we will have to wait and see.

11-10 (Lukla – Kathmandu)

Well our guide has worked his magic and was able to book us a flight to Kathmandu a day earlier than planned. This was especially impressive when you count the fact that the airlines were still catching up from being grounded by weather for nine days. It turns out that the manager for the airline we were using, also owned the lodge we were staying at. On top of that, his mother (who really runs the place) acts as a agent herself. Just after breakfast we were watching the planes take-off (as does everyone in Lukla) when Hari come running up telling us to pack our bags, just in case. A little while after than, he yells at us to grab everything and run to the airport. The lodge Mom, is running and yelling at us to go, so we grabbed our stuff and jumped in to the crowds in the departure terminal with lodge mom leading the way. She yells at the people working behind the desk and they grab our bags to weigh them and then gives us boarding passes for the flight after the next. We run through security, still not exactly sure what we are doing or if we are really catching an early flight, but soon enough our airplane arrives and we are ushered outside and we all scramble to the aircraft. We wait while they unload cargo before being shoved on to the plane (all the time the right side engine is running) and grab a seat and buckle in. No more than a minute or two later we are moving on to the runway, and 30 seconds after than we are airborne. No safety briefing needed I guess.

So taking off from Lukla was as exciting as I would have hoped, though probably smoother than I would have guessed. We taxied up to the end of the runway where the pilots performed a very brief run-up, and then they punched it and we careened down the hill towards the end of the runway (and the end of the world as far as we were concerned) where we gently lifted off in to the wild blue yonder. The climb out and cruise to Kathmandu was uneventful, but we essentially followed our trekking path back to town. I saw a number of places from the air where we had just trekked through. We landed at the airport back in Kathmandu and found a taxi to take us back to Raj's house. Once here, we had a beer and had a chance to clean up before dinner. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and catching up on emails and the like.

11-11 (Kathmandu)

When we arrived at Raj's house last night, there was chanting being played over a loud speaker from a temple not far away. Raj told us it had been going on for several days and they were supposed to shut it down after 10pm, but I can tell you now that it played all night long. As I type this update it continues on and on. Thankfully it has become mostly background noise at this point, but it would be nice to have some quiet.

Today was spend touring Kathmandu and the surrounding area. We explored some very cool temples and other historic spots. I took lots of pictures, which I will be posting once we get to a place with a more consistent Internet connection. There are a ton of photos and I will also need some time to go through them. We are now back at Raj's house and are relaxing before we have dinner. Raj is treating us like royalty and we are very grateful for his hospitality. He is leading our tour of Kathmandu as part of the price for the trek. It's all included.

I have to mention the traffic here in Kathmandu. If you have ever been driven around a busy city in a developing country, you probably have some idea of what we are seeing, but I don't know if anyplace can compete with the chaos that we are going through. I have seen some crazy driving in my time, but here everyone jumps in to the fray. Big trucks, buses, cars, tractors, motorcycles animals and people all share space on the roads. Not only are they all out on the road, but they seem intent on killing either themselves or others. There is such a crush of people, animals and different forms of automotive transportation, that you would never expect to reach your destination intact. People walk right in front of speeding traffic without even appearing to look. Our driver deftly swerves and weaves through all this like a maniac while somehow managing to avoid hitting anything. Motorcycles weave in and out like little kamikazes looking for a target. And I should probably mention that motorcycles are super popular here. They probably outnumber all other forms of transportation combined. Everyone is honking their horns like madmen, but it seems like they depend on them to alert other drives and pedestrians to their presence. I don't think they use it in anger like we do in the states. It is just a normal part of driving here, if you can call their driving normal that is.

Tomorrow is the famous Monkey temple, then after that we start preparing for our late night departure to Hong Kong. We are schedule to depart Kathmandu at 11:30 tomorrow and arrive in Hong Kong somewhere around 5am Saturday morning. We have a bit of a layover until 2:30 local before boarding our flight to SFO. Due to our crossing the International Date Line once again, we actually arrive at 10am on the same day we departed Hong Kong. In fact we arrive about four hours before we departed. Nice little trick, though I would imagine that we will be too tired to care much at that point.

Now than we have an Internet connection once again, I will try to update the blog once a day to let everyone know where we are and what were up to.