Nepal - February 2008

This has probably been the most physically demanding and rewarding holiday I have taken.

I arrived in Kathmandu on 8/Feb. It was not really cold, but everyone had on leather jackets, beanies, and scarves like it was freezing or something! :-) Nepal reminded me of India in many ways. It is a very poor country, loads of cars honking their horns, and cows everywhere. I spent the first day just wandering around the city taking everything in. I walked to Durbar Square and the Ason market. I met the Intrepid group the next day. There were 12 of us - from the UK, Australia, NZ, and Ireland. We left bright and early at 5am for our flight to Lukla on the 10th. It was a tiny little propeller plane that only fit 17 people. The flight was amazing - gorgeous views of the Himalayans. The mountains seemed so close that it felt like I could just reach out and touch them! We started our trek straight away after landing - Everyone was so excited to get started.

I'll try to keep the summary of the hike as short as possible...

Starting from Lukla (altitude: 2810m)
Day 1 - Short day. Walked 3 hours to Phakding (2610m). The weather was sunny and warm once we started hiking. Beautiful! Teahouses are all pretty much the same. Alana (also from Sydney) and I shared a room the whole trip. We had beds to sleep in, but it's so cold we have to sleep in our sleeping bags - and in my case also in my clothes and beanie. :-)

Day 2 - 6 hours to Namche Bazaar (3440m). Getting used to my daily diet of porridge and chappati (like a tortilla) for breakfast, and dahl (lentil soup) with rice and vegetable curry for lunch/dinner. First views of Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha in Nepali)! Passed a couple of Japanese tourists that looked absolutely shattered. One was curled up in the fetal position sleeping on the side of the trail...He looked half dead! :-) Got a bad headache today, but wasn't sure if it was from altitude sickness or not.

Day 3 - Acclimatize Day - 5 hour hike (400m uphill) to see the old airport and visit the Everest View Hotel...and yes, excellent views of Everest and Ama Dablam.

Day 4 - 6 hours to Phortse (3810m). Today was mostly uphill and very difficult. Got another headache and started to feel nauseous....First signs of altitude sickness. Saw frozen waterfalls. Above the clouds at this height!

Day 5 - 4 hours to Dingboche (4410m). Was a little cloudy in the afternoon which made it very cold! Dan, a guy in our group from the UK, has been feeling pretty bad from the altitude. I think he had it the worst out of all of us. He started taking Diamox (medication to help with altitude sickness). I felt okay today, but not 100%. We're above the tree line now...Only dust, rocks, and a few shrubs. Teahouses are now using yak dung instead of wood to burn the fires at night....Definitely doesn't give off as much heat.

Day 6 - Acclimatize Day - 3.5 hours (400m) hike up a huge mountain! This was a very difficult day. I had a severe headache and was nauseous for a few hours. It's also hard to breathe, and I can't sleep at night. I have picked up a bad cough too - aka the Khumbu Cough. My nose is constantly running, and I sound like I'm haking up a lung every 30 minutes....Lovely. This also doesn't help with the breathing problem. :-) I get short of breath doing anything...changing clothes, rolling over in my sleeping bad...Just imagine me climbing up a mountain! :-) My resting heartrate up here is 100 (normally it's 57)...That can't be good. The altitude is really started to affect me now, and it's frustrating. It was a windy, cold day too. Views at the top were good of Ama Dablam, the glaciers, and frozen lakes, but I felt so bad that I couldn't really appreciate it.

Day 7 - 4.5 hours to Lobuche (4930m). Walking on ice for part of the trek. Dan had to stop the trek and descend because he wasn't getting any better. I felt really bad for him. We'll meet up with him on our way down in Namche in a few days. By the end of the day, though, most people were feeling pretty bad. I really felt crappy today...severe headache and nausea. Decided to start taking Diamox so I could make it to Base Camp. Half of our group is taking it now. Apparently it's normal for most people to feel this bad at this height...wonderful!

Day 8 - 4.5 hours to Everest Base Camp (5364m), then 2.5 hours back to Gorak Shep (5100m). A long, hard day, but so happy to finally get to Base Camp. Amazing views of the mountains and Khumbu Glacier. EBC is just rocks and ice at the moment. In about a month, the mountaineers attempting to go to the summit will start arriving and setting up their tents. Three people were so sick they threw up during the night at Gorak Shep. Thankfully, I did not. Our group thinks it's pretty funny that we are enjoying our holiday by exhausing ourselves and making ourselves sick. :-) Happy Holidays!!

Day 9 - 3 hours up Kala Pathar (5550m), then 5 hours to Orshy (4100m). Attempted to climb Kala Pather this morning at 6am. Only 4 other people in our group did it. I only made it halfway (5400m), though, because I started to feel dizzy and nauseous again so I decided it wasn't sensible for me to continue. Apparently the views from halfway are the same as the views from the top, but I was still frustrated. It started to snow in the afternoon on our way back down to Orshy that afternoon. My hair was frozen and icey! We have been really lucky with the weather. All blue skies and sunny up until today. It was actually kind of nice to walk in the snow...especially since it was on the way down and not on the way up!

Day 10 - 6 hours back to Namche Bazaar (3440m). Snowed again today. Feeling much better today. The further we decend, the better the whole group is feeling. Visited the Tengboche monastary in the morning. All the mountaineers attempting the summit must visit the monastary first.

Day 11 - 4 hours to Phakding (2610m) , then 1.75 hours to Lukla (2810m). We were only supposed to go to Phakding today, but since the weather has not been too great the past couple of days, we were worried that our flight would be delayed. (It can be delayed for days because of bad weather.) So we decided to go all the way to Lukla today and try to get a flight out tomorrow morning. Had an Everest beer at the teahouse with dinner to celebrate the end of our trek.

Day 12 - Back to civilization! Early morning flight to Kathmandu. It was weird being back in a loud city again. No more fresh mountain air. Got back to the guesthouse, and the first thing I did was jump in the shower. Unfortunately the water was cold (the city has long periods of time without electricity), but I was just thankful to be clean again. I had to wash my hair twice and scrub my body to get all the dirt off of me! Since we got back a couple of days earlier than expected, I changed my flight to leave for Bangkok earlier as well. I wanted to spend more time in Laos anyways so it worked out perfectly. Met the group for dinner at Rum Doodle. I had spaghetti just to have something other than dahl baht for a change! Had a couple of Everest beers to celebrate as well. We had a great night recalling our tough trek, and we all signed a footprint to put on the wall at the restaurant. It was great to sleep in a real bed with sheets again and not in my sleeping bag!

Alana and I had breakfast the next day at a great vegetarian restaurant. I had vegetable tofu, real brown bread toast, and banana porridge. The best meal I've had in weeks! I'm still recovering from the trek - my skin in really dry, especially around my nose because it's been constantly running for the past 2 weeks, and I still have a bad cough, but I'm hoping some warm weather in Cambodia and Laos will clear it up pretty quickly.

Overall, I loved the trek. It was harder than I anticipated because of the altitude sickness. I think in the future, my limit will be 4000m. I don't think my body was very happy with me for going higher than that. It was a great time of year to go...Just before the busy season, and we only saw maybe a dozen other people on the trail the whole time.

Flew to Bangkok on the 22/Feb, and I'm now in Phnom Penh...Yay!! I'll spend a few days here, before going up to Don Det, Laos.

I'll post an update from the second part of my trip soon!