Mass Update

Not really much time to post here, so I am dumping everything in one post.  Probably some spelling and other errors, but here it is.  I am currently in Namche Bazaar and am heading up the hill towards Gokyo tomorrow.  Here is our trip almost up to this point.  Oh yeah, we are freezing our butts off...

10-21 (SFO-HONG KONG)

Hellia took Jeff and I to the airport and we checked in before setting saying good-bye. At that point, the trip really began for me. Unfortunately, we did not check in together and were assigned seats far apart from each other. So much for assigned seats. The flight itself was not too bad. I have high praise for Cathay Pacific airlines. Lots of good food and nice entertainment system. I probably watched at least four different movies and a couple episodes of television. Not much else to do on a fourteen hour flight. We arrived in Hong Kong and took a double decker bus to town. The ride took about an hour and we were able to see the town all lit up in lights. Very nice. We arrived at the hotel, which was right in the middle of a very busy area. The room was very small and had no windows, but we were able to get some much needed sleep after checking out the local area a bit.

10-22 (Hong Kong - Kathmandu)

I think it must have been around 3:30 or 4am when Jeff asked if I was awake, which of course I was, but we did sleep enough to knock the cobwebs out of our heads. We checked out early and went to a fancy hotel just down the street where we had a couple of beers the night before and decided to have breakfast. They had a large buffet which we both really enjoyed. As we had checked our main bags through to Kathmandu, we only had our backpacks with some clothes in them, so we headed off to take the tram up to the peak. We figured out the train system enough to get to where the tram was and found the terminal. Since it was early, there was almost nobody there and we got right on. The tram ride is pretty cool as it goes up hills that must be at a 45 degree angle. Your sitting there and it seems like your going almost straight up at times. Hopefully there is a good safely system, because you have a long way to go if the cable snaps. We got to the top after about 15 minutes or so and could only see parts of the city due to the cloud cover, but the view was still very impressive. After looking around for a while we decided to take a walk around the top of the hill. I think it was about 3200 meters (about 10,000 feet) for the entire trail, but it was really very nice. It is a tropical environment and everything is green and overgrown, but the trail was paved and well kept. The only issue was that we got very sweaty.

After the tram ride down the hill, we located the train station again and took a train to the airport. What a great ride that was. The US really needs to get back in to rail transportation. The ride was fast and smooth and we were able to view much more of the countryside. After about 40 minutes or so we arrived at the airport. When arriving the night before, I did not notice how large this place is. The international terminal was simply huge with a single ceiling covering everything. We got checked in for our flight to KTM early and had plenty of time to sit back and charge our electronics and simply relax a bit. After a while, we boarded our flight and headed to Kathmandu. There was one stop in India and then we landed on time about 10:30 at night. It took us a few minutes to clear customs and then we came out to a mass of people in the reception area. Thankfully we located Raj quickly and he was able to steer us through most of it. There were people trying to help us with our bags and lead us in different directions, but Raj kept us going in the right direction and we were able to load our things in small car and eventually get out of the airport.

Kathmandu is a very large city, but the ride from the airport to Raj's house took us through rough dirt roads and back alleys. I was not expecting all that much when we arrived at Raj's house, but it was very nice and had several guest rooms and an Internet connection. We had some food and a beer and met our trekking partner Tomaso before retiring for the night.

10-23 (KTM – Jiri) Ending elevation: 7000ft

We woke up and starting getting our gear ready as the van that would take us to Jiri was scheduled to arrive around 9am or so. Lots to do with having to decide what to bring and what to leave. Finally got packed and started off on a seven hour trip. The trip was very long and the road was narrow and had a lot of traffic. It was nice to see a bit of Nepal outside of the busy city, but it was very dirty and smoky. There are motorcycles everywhere and they zoom all over the place. People are walking along the road side and sometimes in the road. Honestly, I don't know how there are not more accidents. It was simply crazy! Once we finally arrived in Jiri we were pretty tired and had dinner before crashing for the night.

10-24 (Jiri – Deurali) Ending elevation: 8000ft

We got ourselves together and finally hit the trail with our packs. I will cut to the chase here and say that the day proved to be extremely challenging. First days usually are challenging, but the trail started climbing almost immediately and we were soon puffing and sweating like crazy. The climate in Jiri is not what I expected at all. It is very green and lush, with lots of water everywhere. Both Jeff and I were very tired by the time we hit Shivalaya for lunch, but were very impressed with the scenery. We stayed in a great little lodge on the top a hill. Good food and hot shower.

10-25 (Deurali – Sete) Ending elevation: 8600ft

The day started out going down. Down and down and down. We descended a steep and rocky trail that just killed our knees and feet. We came out on a flat area with lots of farms and stopped to rest a bit. We bought some Nepali candy in Jiri and we each carry a pocketful to hand out to the children. Everywhere we go children come out and say Namaste, which means greetings, so that we will give them candy or a pencil. They are very cute and I gave two 4 or 5 year old boys each a piece and they did a handstand for me in return. Some kids are bashful, but others are very social and will work you pretty hard for an extra piece. Our guide Hiri is protective of us and trys to not let anyone take advantage of us, so he will shoo them off if they get too pushy. Part of the attraction for trekking through Jiri is the up close interaction you get with the Napali people. The trail basically goes right next to their homes and farms. Everyone you look people are in the hills tending their goats, cows and chickens, or they are tending their fields. They look like they have a difficult life, but they seem to be happy. Their homes are essentially shacks and they usually have their cooking fires burning in them with little ventilation. The eves are darked black from the smoke billowing out from them. It is difficult to breath, but it does not seem to bother them.

We had our lunch in Kinja and then start climbing again. It seems that we are always climbing or descending, never getting to relax on the flats. This was probably one of our more grueling climbs and it was probably Jeff's toughest day. About two-thirds of the way up the storm clouds gathered and it started raining. Small drops here and there at first, but then we started getting hail. As it started raining harder, we found a small restaurant to shelter in. Pretty soon it really opened up and we got lightning and thunder along with heavy rain. It lasted about an hour and then lightened up and we continued up the hill in our rain gear. Finally made it to the lodge dead tired. Dawa who is one of our porters was sent ahead to get our rooms, but he did not go to the place our guide told him to, so it was probably not as nice as it could have been, but we were so tired it did not matter.

10-26 (Sete – Junbesi) Ending elevation: 8771ft

Started the day climbing again, but at an easier grade than previous. One of the things we have been seeing everyday are the planes and helicopters flying overhead on their way to and from Lukla. When the weather is good enough to permit landing and taking off from Lukla, the planes are overhead every ten minutes or so. There are around 50-60 flights per day when the weather cooperates. We will be departing the Everest area on a plane from Lukla. The weather here is usually clear in the morning and then cloudy by early afternoon. Somedays the clouds come early and other times a bit later, but they always show up. It is no wonder that this countryside is so green. On our climb up the hill today we went through a huge rhododendron forest. It was covered in moss and absolutely stunning. If I was not struggling for breath I would have appreciated it more, but we had to keep moving. Once on top of the pass, you could see where much of the forest had been cleared for firewood. Lamjura pass was 11,393 feet and it is where all the aircraft pass through on their way to Lukla. They take this pass because they are unpressurized and need to keep their passengers from becoming hypoxic. It was really cool to be at almost eye level with the dozens of air craft zipping through. The pass is where we had our lunch and then started downhill. We arrived in Junbesi around 5pm and stayed in a great little lodge. It even had satellite television and we were able to catch up on a little news courtesy of the BBC. Another hot shower, which made everyone feel great. I have been told the hot showers will be ending soon, but I did not expect them in the first place, so no worries.

10-28 (Junbesi – Nunthala) Ending elevation: 7237ft

Today was billed as an easy day, but I ended up with a bum knee that slowed me down to a crawl. On top of that, I did not feel well at all. Together it made this one of my more difficult days, at least for the first half. Coming out of Junbesi, my knee started hurting. First it was just going downhill, but after a bit, uphills were killing me as well. Coming up the hill for lunch I was sick and almost crawling from knee pain. The porters took my pack so I could make some progress. I was also getting bummed because I am thinking this could end my trip, so my mood was going south as well. We finally made it to our lunch spot and I laid down while the porters worked on my knee with medicinal oil and a massage. I don't know what was in it, but I started feeling better. I forced myself to eat some sherpa stew and relaxed for a while. During this time, a group of happy (and some a bit drunk) boys came in singing songs to celebrate the flower festival that has been running for a couple of days now. They sing songs and try to collect money. It is a very festive holiday and we have been seeing signs of it for a while. One day was for dogs, so all the dogs were blessed and given flower collars. The next day it was for the cows (which are scared here), so we would see cows with flowers and painted red dots on them. Anyhow, the boys were finally given some money and shoved out the door by the lady cooking our meal. I was told that she was telling them I was sick and needed to be left alone. Glad it good for something. At this point we all decided that tomorrow would be an unplanned rest day. We were all tired and we had one extra day to burn.

After lunch I felt much better and was able to finish the climb up to the ridge line where there was a temple. This is also were we got our first glimpse of Mount Everest. It was shrouded in clouds, but we were able to get a pretty good view of it. It provided and nice little lift in our spirits. We descended down the hill at a very slow pace (thanks to me), but we came upon a large Buddhist temple. We were told that it was home to over 150 lama students. We were allowed in and were able to see inside the temple. It was really very beautiful and we left a donation and were blessed and given a silk scarf. We finally made it to our lodge where I crashed on the bed. I stayed there for a few hours listening to music when Jeff came in and told me I needed to come to the next room over. Hari had his sisters hike in from a village a couple of hours away to have us take part in the festival celebration. We were given flower lei's, had a red dot painted on our foreheads and then handed bread and a bandana. In turn we thanked Hari's sisters and gave them some money. It made me instantly feel much better and I was very grateful to have gotten to take part in the ceremony. This is why I wanted to go through the Jiri route. You feel part of the entire scene here. Great way to end the day.

10-29 (Rest day Nunthala)

Woke up this morning and knew this was going to be a better day. For the first time in several days I actually had an appetite and nothing was sore. We eventually got up and started walking around. It was great knowing that we were taking it easy today. We have been hearing music much of the night as everyone continues to celebrate, but this morning while drinking tea out on front of our hotel, there were people gathered around singing and dancing. All morning we spent outside washing our clothes, drinking tea and watching the celebration. This was an excellent way to spend our rest day. After lunch I was given another treatment for my knee. So far today it is feeling really good, so I am crossing my fingers that it will hold out. I am ready to leave the lowlands and start to head up in to high mountains. Tomorrow we turn towards Lukla and in a couple of days will start to mingle with the folks flying in. The scenery will change as will the entire culture. We will leave old Nepal and move in to the Nepal that is configured almost entirely for tourists.

10-30 (Nunthala - Kari La Pass) 9300ft

We left around 7:30 or so and started heading down the hill. I had my pack on and was doing pretty good with my knee until around lunch. The brutal downhill was just too much for my strained knee and it gave out again. We had lunch and I relinquished my pack to one of our porters and went the rest of the day with just two trekking poles to help me along. The good news is that as the day went on my knee felt better. When it went out earlier, I was thinking that my trip was in jeopardy, but I am feeling better now.

We ended the day in a little lodge on a ridge-line that had one of the best views I have ever seen. I know my parents enjoy their views of the ocean, but the mountains here are beyond description. At over 9000 feet, it feels and looks like the Alps up here. Clouds move in and out, and huge peaks shoot up in to the flight levels. Looking around tonight, you can see much of the terrain we covered today. Hard climbs and punishing descents that brought us up to this insane vantage point. Our bodies are beaten and tired, but we are all happy to be here doing this.

Tonight we ordered our dinner and all huddled around an old stove in the dining room. The fire was meager and the stove would barely put out any heat, but we all sat around it enjoying what heat it did put out. We all took turns working to get the fire going and finally got it warm enough that it made the room somewhat comfortable. Of course we are all in our cold weather mountain gear, so warm is a relative term here. After dinner we all sat around the dining room reading or talking and I was watching all this going on under a single dull light when it really struck me how this scene could have happened a hundred years ago. Except for the small dim light and the fact we had on modern clothes, there was no technology or anything else that would clue you in that it was the twenty-first century. The lodge owner and someone else where playing cards, while others simply sat drinking tea and staring at the burning stove or discussing the events of the day. It was really a wonderful feeling and one that I think I sought out but was not really sure what it was. It was old Nepal.

10-31 (Kari La Pass – Cheplung) 8842ft

Fog! I am waking up this morning in some of the thickest fog I have seen in some time. I can barely see twenty feet. Quite a change from the fantastic views of last night. I called my family this morning and spoke with Mackenzie when she answered the phone. I was so great to hear her voice. While I am having a great time here, I also miss my family terribly. I was able to speak with everyone including Jack and it really brought up a lot of emotions, but it also gave me a lot of strength. It is difficult being so far away, but I am taking full advantage of the time that they have graciously given me. Other than that, I slept pretty well, and feel rested today.

Due to my knee not behaving, I am traveling without a pack to minimize the chances of having to bail out of the trip early. I am planning on getting a day pack up in Namche Bazaar where there is a huge selection and the prices are reasonable. The walk today was not very taxing as we did not gain or lose a lot of altitude. It was mostly an easy path today along a very steep hillside. As the weather was preventing airplanes from getting to Lukla, we noticed quite a few helicopters going back and forth. We were so high that most of them actually passed underneath us on there way in and out. It was fun to watch. About noon the passes clouded up completely and even the helicopters were grounded for a short time. We took lunch just below the Lukla airport just as it started raining lightly. Just as we ordered, a helicopter landed a couple of hundred yards down the valley on a medical evacuation flight. Someone had a problem with the altitude up higher and needed to get down quickly. Right after it took off, we saw the first plane of the day come in under the overcast and make a landing high over us. Lukla was open! We finished out lunch (vegi spring roll with chili sauce) and headed out. It was not a long climb up on Cheplung, which is just below and outside of Lukla, and we found our hotel at around 4pm. The first hotel we found they wanted our guide and porters to sleep in the dining room and were rather rude, so we went right next door to a great little place with two little children playing in the kitchen. We have all decided that the kitchen is much more fun to eat in than the formal dining room normally used by foreigners. We hang out with the Napali's and sit by a warm cooking fire. The couple that owned the place were super nice and their little girl who was two, kept us all laughing while we played with her. She would bring us menu's and then take them away to bring us something else. Everyone including her parents were laughing all night. We will come back this way on our way out and will stay with them again.

Cheplung is where the trail from Lukla comes down and meets the trail we have been on. It was like going from a small town to the big city. All of a sudden, there were people everywhere. We saw more people in an hour than we have seen the entire trip from Jiri. But these people are all tourist and their guides and porters, and not the local people we have been living among the last week. It is a bit of a shock to the system coming in to Lukla. Even though there were some airplanes coming in, it was nothing like the crowds we would have gotten if the weather was good. Lukla can get upwards of sixty flights per day, so having only a dozen or so make it in that day cut the crowds down considerably. The food was tasty, the beds were good and I slept well.

11-01 (Cheplung – Monjo) 9314ft

Got up this morning and discovered that the weather had not improved at all. It was about the same as yesterday. No flights coming in this morning at least. Bad news for everyone trying to get in or out, but good news for us as it means the trails will be much less crowed, as will the lodges. We got a late start after having breakfast and headed off for Monjo which was about four hours away. Right off the bat, we noticed the crowds of people. While there were few people going up the hill due to the lack of flights the last few days, there were still lots of people coming down the hill to catch their fights back to Kathmandu. While we have been used to seeing people in groups of two or three, now it was an almost constant parade of people coming down the hill at us. There were Yaks, Donkeys, and an never ending precession of trekkers coming at us. Along with that, there were buildings everywhere along the trail. Restaurants, lodges, shops and bars all line the route up to Everest. Honestly, it is a welcome change from the relative solitude we have had the last week or so. We came across a bakery and were able to buy brownies. These are not the same sort of brownies that we all know and love, but they tasted great all the same. The fact is that there is very little familiar to me here in terms of food. You understand that coming here, but it still worth pointing out. Curry is very popular and is used extensively in the dishes. We have been living on a dish called Dhal Bhat, which is a dish of rice with potatoes and other vegetables that comes with this curry soup you pour over it. It is spicy and tastes quite good. They serve it with pickled peppers which are really hot. I have been trying not to eat too much of it because it is one the few dishes you get as you go higher and I don't want to be sick of it before we are finished. It seems like forever since I have eaten meat as we live on rice and vegetables spiced with various forms of currie. I am already having food withdrawals, with my dreams filled with pizza's, hamburgers and just about anything but rice and curry.

One little surprise I stumbled on today was a can of BBQ Pringles potato chips. I was like a crazed little animal when I opened them up and started woofing them down. Oh sweet joy! I did regain my senses after a half a can and offered to share with my companions, but they looked at me a little strangely for a time.

We got to our hotel and discovered that it was much larger than we are accustomed to, but it was very nice. This is the first place we have stayed with an indoor bathroom since Kathmandu. We took was supposed to be a hot shower, but warm would be an over exaggeration. Needless to say it was a quick shower, but it did feel great to be clean. I did not expect to see a shower during this trip, be we have been able to remain somewhat clean. Much of what passes for a bathroom and shower would make an old gas station bathroom look good, but it works. The showers are sometimes just a tub of hot water, while other times it is a dribble of hot water from an ancient faucet. They have all been outside or attached to the outside of the main lodge and they have all very airy, so you tend to get out of the shower much cooler than you went in to it. There are (very) few toilets you can sit on, mostly just porcelain holes in the floor in an very well ventilated outhouse. No need to get in to the gory specifics, but we can safely say I am looking forward to a proper bathroom and shower. While the room tonight is a bit nicer than what we have been staying in, it is pretty much the standard accommodations here. You get a small room with a couple of wooden beds and a thin mattress on them. They offer a pillow and blanket, but the beds are so hard we normally sleep on the blankets verses under them. There are no sheets as everyone uses sleeping bags. The rooms are unheated and have no insulation whatsoever, and there are cracks and small openings where you can see the ground below or in to the next room. Some of the rooms are as cold inside as it is outside. When we started in Jiri, it was pretty warm, but it has gotten progressively colder as we marched on. When we get up a bit higher, we will need to start sleeping with our water bottles to keep them from freezing at night. A neat trick is to fill your bottle with boiling water at night and put it in a sock which then goes in your sleeping bag. Your water is safely boiled (which kills all the nasty's) and it cool by morning when your ready to drink it.