theBruiser500
09-26-2005, 12:08 AM
A few weeks ago I went to nepal and think it was absolutely brutal in some respects, and in other ways it was very worthwhile (I'd have a hard time classifying the trip as "fun"). The travel was killer, was in Santa Barbara and then my friend Jay who I stayed with for the summer had to go to his home in San Francisco for some bullshit reason we drive 6 hours up there. Then we stay there for a couple days boring. Then we get onto an airplane and fly to Hong Kong, then Tapei, then Bangkok with a significant number of layover hours in there.
My friend did the plane ticket so we spend a night in Bankgog I don't know why. The heat there was tough, everyone said pollution there was bad I didn't feel it much. we went to a caberet show which was very bad, it was all men dressed as women, no one did their own signing it was all a recording. It was gross, they were wearing dresses but you could see their arm hair. Bankgog was a bad place, most people seem to agree on that, why are you there Kane Kung fu? One cool thing about it though was a boat ride we took through a canal through the city, the buildings were old and it was amazing how many plats there were. There is some sort of government program for people to have plants for the pollution problem.
Next day we fly into Katmandu, this place is crazy. Right out of the airport we're assaulted by half a dozen cab drivers offering us prices of 300 rupees, 250 rupees, then down to 150 rupees which is $2. My friend haggled over the prices (he's Indian) which strikes me as petty, this was something we disagreed on the whole trip. Katmandu is really something else, it is so hectic there, the cars are funny, they are all mini cars that apparently don't go fast they get 70 miles to the gallon my friend said, they can't afford our cars. To say that they use the horn libreally would be quite an understatement, the way driving is done there is like it was in China and can't be explained you just have to experience it for yourself. It's a real hoot.
Tired from all the traveling we just get some dinner and walk around at night, then get lost because they don't name streets in the tourist district there. Next day we get our [censored] together and visit the "monkey temple", there are monkeys and cows and dogs all over the place. Next day we take the aptly described "bus ride from hell" from Katmandu to Jiri because my friend is too cheap to spring for a cab which would have been $70 maybe, we pay $10 instead for the busride which he describes as "good value".
The bus started out half full, then there was a mudslide on the so called "road" we spent about 3 hours hanging around there with rumors of staying the night there. A half dozen men are using sledghammers to hit a couple large rocks blocking the road while another 3 dozen people watch. This is the only road between Jiri and Katmandu, there are about 3/2 dozen full buses stranded there. Our bus driver cuts a deal with another bus driver on the other side to exchange passangers and we countine. The bus becomes packed, like really really full. The road is terrifingly narrow on steep mountains. The bus is so full, road so bad, with rain (monsoon season) that we're going about 10-15 mph an hour. The complete bus ride is about 13 hours, about 5 of it was with vomit on the ground next to me.
Next day the hike starts! The start was kind of interesting. The US govt. recommends against travelling to Nepal, there are Maoists there (I believe 6,000 people have died in the last 3 or 6 years), and also the monarch is too powerful and the student congress is constantly having rallies against him. Most trekkers fly from katmandu to lukla, the trail between jiri and lukla is maoist area. In the town of Jiri a couple of teenagers in bad english ask me and my friend what we're doing, where we're going and stuff. Then as we start to hike these same guys keep following us, they keep trying to lead us off paths up hills off the main trail where no one is. Me and Jay pause a few times to let them go ahead of us but everytime we do they walk off ahead of us where we can't see them and then wait for us to get there. I was scared, I was sure they were Maoists trying to rob us or something. It took a few hours of this before we parted ways. We then ended up following a couple of cute kids who acted as guides and took us on a 2 hour detour. In retrospect the older kids were probably trying to be guides for money too.
We spent 6 days hiking from Jiri to Namche Bazaar, I was the only white person the whole way, no other tourists. The area was just farmers and porters. No electricity anywhere, very simple accomodations just a small room and bad bed. It was monsoon season so the hiking was kind of miserable, it rained starting from 11 AM, to 3 PM, and then for the rest of the day everyday, sometimes quite hard. The hiking was hard too, they are the Himalayans. About as steep as the White Mountains, about 7 or 8 hours of hiking a day, tough long days. It was particularly hard for Jay who was in questionable shape, his boots didn't fit, and he hurt his ankle for the last couple of days.
The porters there are amazing, they carry 220 pounds often times, barefoot or in sandals, up these steep mountains. That is their job, they do it everyday, even in the monsoon, a tough life. That is how they have to transport things around there, there are no roads. After 7 days we get to Namche Bazaar, where most treekrs start located at 10,500 feet.
Here is where I was no longer able to get good sleep, it's unnerving waking up in the middle of the night having a hard time breathing. From there the route was to Tengboche, where I felt a little sick and then to Pheriche at 12,500 ft. I got altitude sickness there. Try and imagine being at 12,500 feet, a couple days hike and an airplane ride away from medical treatment at night in the pitch dark with it being very cold - you have trouble breathing and vomit, that was scary. The next day I felt a little better but didn't aclimitize spent the whole day fretting over whether to go down and give up or stay another night and try and go on. I got scared and went down, while my friend abandoned me to go on with some good looking Belgium girls we met (pictures below).
The next night back in Tengobche I got sick again, terrible headache and fever, I was 100% ready to give up and get the hell out of there. Next morning though I felt fine, and found the courage to fight the tedium and possible sickness that lay ahead and went back up to Pheriche. Stayed at Pheriche a night, and then the next day just to be extra safe I spent another day at Pherice and did a day hike to acclimitize, a good prudent decision. I saw my friend again on his way down and we parted ways, he was off to Indian to visit family.
Now I was hiking by myself but I was kind of used to it from travelling before and hiking on the appalachian trail. Met a few tourists along the way and got along well with them which was good. It was lonely going from Jiri to Namche and not meeting anyone. Next day went to Lobuche and stayed the night. Next day got a guide and went to Everest Base Camp and back to Gorak Shep to spend the night. Then next day we went to Kala Patar and I went back to Tengobche for the night, and next day to Lukla, and next day flew back to Katmandu.
Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar were amazing (I had no more altitude sickness btw). The highest point was Kala Pattar at 18,300 feet, that is really high. With about 45% of the oxygen you normally get, breathing is hard. People told me the hike to Base Camp wasn't worth it, there are no views but I found it absoultely fascinitating. It is completely barren there, just rocks it looks like a construction site. And then after that we hiked on morraines and glaciers for an hour. It is unnerving to hike on glaciers, you can hear it cracking and melting beneath you. Every 20 minutes or so we could hear an avalanche in the distance. At Base Camp it started snowing, my guide didn't seem to mind the cold he didn't have a jacket on or gloves, I was getting really cold. At Base Camp at 16k feet the river starts that me and Jay had hiked along for 2 weeks, the Dodi Khosi I think. Fast big vicious river below, here it was small and beautiful, it had a aqua blue color which up against white glaciers was amazing.
Kala Pattar was something special. The pictures don't do it justice, this is the top of the world, surronded 210 degrees by massive white mountains. Hiking up Kala Pattar was a real challenge. Everyone passed me, near the top of Pattar I would take about 5 steps and be sucking air out of breathe for a minute, and repeat the process. I couldn't feel my toes or hands. It's hard to see Everest from there but there was another mountain above us Chotse I think, and since we left at 4:30 AM because the clouds move in fast to ruin the views it had an amazing etherel quality as it appeared out of the mist and darkness, and then was highlighted by the sun, again the pictures don't do it justice.
Hiked down real fast, got to Katmandu, stayed there a couple of days and left. I hadn't slept in about 10 days, all the food there made me sick, I WAS sick again in Katmandu with maybe giardia. The plane ride home was about 40 hours of travelling, from Katmandu to San Franciscio and then to Boston. I was sick the whole trip too, brutal. By the time I got him I lost 15 pounds, had no appetite and was ready to die.
The people in Nepal were all very nice. The views were amazing, the accomplishment and success of the challenge was nice and being in Nepal for 3 weeks left me with a genuine appreciation for the first time of the United States. People there want to come to the US but can't. Life there is just plain hard. Often I'd be in the US and look at ugly roads and loud noisy cars and think "damn that is ugly I wish it was prettier here, and quieter and more remote." Well I don't anymore, and anything like that in the US is fake, it isn't really remote, and it's existence depends upon all of our technology. I have a true appreciation now for houses, plumbing, heat, electricity, college, the United States.
I didn't proof read this, I hope some of you managed to enjoy, and make it through my length trip report. Pictures below.
My friend did the plane ticket so we spend a night in Bankgog I don't know why. The heat there was tough, everyone said pollution there was bad I didn't feel it much. we went to a caberet show which was very bad, it was all men dressed as women, no one did their own signing it was all a recording. It was gross, they were wearing dresses but you could see their arm hair. Bankgog was a bad place, most people seem to agree on that, why are you there Kane Kung fu? One cool thing about it though was a boat ride we took through a canal through the city, the buildings were old and it was amazing how many plats there were. There is some sort of government program for people to have plants for the pollution problem.
Next day we fly into Katmandu, this place is crazy. Right out of the airport we're assaulted by half a dozen cab drivers offering us prices of 300 rupees, 250 rupees, then down to 150 rupees which is $2. My friend haggled over the prices (he's Indian) which strikes me as petty, this was something we disagreed on the whole trip. Katmandu is really something else, it is so hectic there, the cars are funny, they are all mini cars that apparently don't go fast they get 70 miles to the gallon my friend said, they can't afford our cars. To say that they use the horn libreally would be quite an understatement, the way driving is done there is like it was in China and can't be explained you just have to experience it for yourself. It's a real hoot.
Tired from all the traveling we just get some dinner and walk around at night, then get lost because they don't name streets in the tourist district there. Next day we get our [censored] together and visit the "monkey temple", there are monkeys and cows and dogs all over the place. Next day we take the aptly described "bus ride from hell" from Katmandu to Jiri because my friend is too cheap to spring for a cab which would have been $70 maybe, we pay $10 instead for the busride which he describes as "good value".
The bus started out half full, then there was a mudslide on the so called "road" we spent about 3 hours hanging around there with rumors of staying the night there. A half dozen men are using sledghammers to hit a couple large rocks blocking the road while another 3 dozen people watch. This is the only road between Jiri and Katmandu, there are about 3/2 dozen full buses stranded there. Our bus driver cuts a deal with another bus driver on the other side to exchange passangers and we countine. The bus becomes packed, like really really full. The road is terrifingly narrow on steep mountains. The bus is so full, road so bad, with rain (monsoon season) that we're going about 10-15 mph an hour. The complete bus ride is about 13 hours, about 5 of it was with vomit on the ground next to me.
Next day the hike starts! The start was kind of interesting. The US govt. recommends against travelling to Nepal, there are Maoists there (I believe 6,000 people have died in the last 3 or 6 years), and also the monarch is too powerful and the student congress is constantly having rallies against him. Most trekkers fly from katmandu to lukla, the trail between jiri and lukla is maoist area. In the town of Jiri a couple of teenagers in bad english ask me and my friend what we're doing, where we're going and stuff. Then as we start to hike these same guys keep following us, they keep trying to lead us off paths up hills off the main trail where no one is. Me and Jay pause a few times to let them go ahead of us but everytime we do they walk off ahead of us where we can't see them and then wait for us to get there. I was scared, I was sure they were Maoists trying to rob us or something. It took a few hours of this before we parted ways. We then ended up following a couple of cute kids who acted as guides and took us on a 2 hour detour. In retrospect the older kids were probably trying to be guides for money too.
We spent 6 days hiking from Jiri to Namche Bazaar, I was the only white person the whole way, no other tourists. The area was just farmers and porters. No electricity anywhere, very simple accomodations just a small room and bad bed. It was monsoon season so the hiking was kind of miserable, it rained starting from 11 AM, to 3 PM, and then for the rest of the day everyday, sometimes quite hard. The hiking was hard too, they are the Himalayans. About as steep as the White Mountains, about 7 or 8 hours of hiking a day, tough long days. It was particularly hard for Jay who was in questionable shape, his boots didn't fit, and he hurt his ankle for the last couple of days.
The porters there are amazing, they carry 220 pounds often times, barefoot or in sandals, up these steep mountains. That is their job, they do it everyday, even in the monsoon, a tough life. That is how they have to transport things around there, there are no roads. After 7 days we get to Namche Bazaar, where most treekrs start located at 10,500 feet.
Here is where I was no longer able to get good sleep, it's unnerving waking up in the middle of the night having a hard time breathing. From there the route was to Tengboche, where I felt a little sick and then to Pheriche at 12,500 ft. I got altitude sickness there. Try and imagine being at 12,500 feet, a couple days hike and an airplane ride away from medical treatment at night in the pitch dark with it being very cold - you have trouble breathing and vomit, that was scary. The next day I felt a little better but didn't aclimitize spent the whole day fretting over whether to go down and give up or stay another night and try and go on. I got scared and went down, while my friend abandoned me to go on with some good looking Belgium girls we met (pictures below).
The next night back in Tengobche I got sick again, terrible headache and fever, I was 100% ready to give up and get the hell out of there. Next morning though I felt fine, and found the courage to fight the tedium and possible sickness that lay ahead and went back up to Pheriche. Stayed at Pheriche a night, and then the next day just to be extra safe I spent another day at Pherice and did a day hike to acclimitize, a good prudent decision. I saw my friend again on his way down and we parted ways, he was off to Indian to visit family.
Now I was hiking by myself but I was kind of used to it from travelling before and hiking on the appalachian trail. Met a few tourists along the way and got along well with them which was good. It was lonely going from Jiri to Namche and not meeting anyone. Next day went to Lobuche and stayed the night. Next day got a guide and went to Everest Base Camp and back to Gorak Shep to spend the night. Then next day we went to Kala Patar and I went back to Tengobche for the night, and next day to Lukla, and next day flew back to Katmandu.
Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar were amazing (I had no more altitude sickness btw). The highest point was Kala Pattar at 18,300 feet, that is really high. With about 45% of the oxygen you normally get, breathing is hard. People told me the hike to Base Camp wasn't worth it, there are no views but I found it absoultely fascinitating. It is completely barren there, just rocks it looks like a construction site. And then after that we hiked on morraines and glaciers for an hour. It is unnerving to hike on glaciers, you can hear it cracking and melting beneath you. Every 20 minutes or so we could hear an avalanche in the distance. At Base Camp it started snowing, my guide didn't seem to mind the cold he didn't have a jacket on or gloves, I was getting really cold. At Base Camp at 16k feet the river starts that me and Jay had hiked along for 2 weeks, the Dodi Khosi I think. Fast big vicious river below, here it was small and beautiful, it had a aqua blue color which up against white glaciers was amazing.
Kala Pattar was something special. The pictures don't do it justice, this is the top of the world, surronded 210 degrees by massive white mountains. Hiking up Kala Pattar was a real challenge. Everyone passed me, near the top of Pattar I would take about 5 steps and be sucking air out of breathe for a minute, and repeat the process. I couldn't feel my toes or hands. It's hard to see Everest from there but there was another mountain above us Chotse I think, and since we left at 4:30 AM because the clouds move in fast to ruin the views it had an amazing etherel quality as it appeared out of the mist and darkness, and then was highlighted by the sun, again the pictures don't do it justice.
Hiked down real fast, got to Katmandu, stayed there a couple of days and left. I hadn't slept in about 10 days, all the food there made me sick, I WAS sick again in Katmandu with maybe giardia. The plane ride home was about 40 hours of travelling, from Katmandu to San Franciscio and then to Boston. I was sick the whole trip too, brutal. By the time I got him I lost 15 pounds, had no appetite and was ready to die.
The people in Nepal were all very nice. The views were amazing, the accomplishment and success of the challenge was nice and being in Nepal for 3 weeks left me with a genuine appreciation for the first time of the United States. People there want to come to the US but can't. Life there is just plain hard. Often I'd be in the US and look at ugly roads and loud noisy cars and think "damn that is ugly I wish it was prettier here, and quieter and more remote." Well I don't anymore, and anything like that in the US is fake, it isn't really remote, and it's existence depends upon all of our technology. I have a true appreciation now for houses, plumbing, heat, electricity, college, the United States.
I didn't proof read this, I hope some of you managed to enjoy, and make it through my length trip report. Pictures below.