Hello from Katmandu. I have just returned from a very enjoyable five week walk through eastern Nepal and will now bore you with the details.
Day 0 - Gary and I went to the bus station for our five o'clock bus. We had to buy three seats, one for each of us and one for our bags. The seat barely fit the two of us so our bags ended up in the aisle. We were near the front of the bus so people tripped over our bags all day, but no one seemed to mind. After a while a chicken found the floor beneath me comfortable and rested there for most of the day. Later, a woman with no seat got tired of holding her baby and plopped him down on Gary's lap.
In the late afternoon we arrived in Jiri, the end of the road, and found a place to stay. We got a nice double room for about five cents each.
Day 1 - Jiri is at about 6,000 feet above sea level. We spent the morning climbing to nearly 8,000 feet and then went down to a little under 6,000 feet before climbing back up to nearly 10,000 feet to spend the night. The last bit of the climb was very tiring and I had to take many rest breaks. I quickly discovered that walking in Nepal involves a lot of up and down. It seems that the river valleys all run north south, while the trail we were on ran east west. The Nepalese don't grow much facial hair and my beard proved to be quite popular. I pulled a couple of hairs out and chased the children around the schoolyard for a few minutes before continuing.
Day 2 - After spending the night on the cold mountain pass, we headed down the valley to about 5,000 feet. At this point we were below our starting point. After lunch we started climbing again. At a little over 8,000 feet we spent the night in Sete.
Day 3 - We spent the morning climbing to about 11,500 feet. There was a nice little place to eat at the top of the Lamjura pass. I had my first, and best, bowl of Sherpa Stew. It had potatoes, vegetables, and dumplings in it. Sherpa Stew is made of whatever ingredients were available at the time and is always different. After lunch, we walked through a foggy forest and came to the prayer flags at the high point of the pass. Then we started down the other side. Along the way a little girl fell on the path and hurt her leg. I tried to help her lift her basket, but it was too heavy for me to lift. She did not want us to help her get to the nearby lodge, so we ended up having to leave her there. Eventually, I got to Junbesi, at about 8,500 feet, and spent the night.
Day 4 - From Junbesi, we crossed the river and started up the next hill. After a while, we came around the hill and had our first few of Mt. Everest and a few of her neighbors. Then, after a descent to the river, we climbed up the next ridge. From there it was a several hour descent to Nuntala. I ended up in the middle of a small group of porters for about half-an-hour. I decided that their language sounded like Italian with a little bit of Chinese thrown in.
I arrived in Nuntala well before four and still had a lot of energy left. I ended up playing with the kids. First we climbed a wall and the little ones told me that their names were Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. He was one of the first two people to climb Mt. Everest. Then I lined all the kids up on the wall and gave them a lecture. I was doing well, even if they did not understand me, until a man on a horse came by. He was still training the horse. When the horse came by the kids all ran after it until it left town. I joined them. When the horse returned it threw the rider and he seemed a bit upset. After a while, he got the horse under control again and hopped back on. The horse immediately threw him again and his shoe went flying away. This time he saw the humor and the whole town laughed with him. Later, I declined his offer to ride the horse.
The kids and I went to play in the schoolyard for a while and then, when they got out of control, I ran into the lodge to escape. They would not follow me in there and I had a nice peaceful dinner while they ran up and down the street making noise.
Day 5 - From Nuntala we went down the hill until we were at 5,000 feet again. After a break by the river, we started up the next hill. We arrived at Bupsa early and decided to push on. We were skirting up and around a ridge and a fog rolled in. It proved to be a long walk to the next town and we both got very hungry. We each ended up buying a Snicker bar for well over a dollar. I arrived at the Beehive Lodge in Puiyan well after five. The owner had two daughters and I kept them riled up and noisy until nine. This did not go over too well since most trekkers are in bed by seven. It was Halloween, but no trick-or-treaters ever came to lodge. I don't know why.
Day 6 - Three Americans who had been on the same pace as us for the last few days told me that I was a nice guy, as long as there were no kids around. From Puiyan we were now headed north, towards the mountains and away from the foothills that we had been in so far. After lunch we joined the trail from the airport and the trek changed dramatically. Up to this point we had seen a few people going the other direction each day and about 15 or so going in our direction. After the airport, we saw hundreds of people.
The lodges got much fancier and we ended up paying nearly a dollar for our room that night in Phakding. Also, the people got much older. Many retired Japanese, Americans and Germans fly into Lukla and do only a four or five day walk into the mountains.
At around seven that night a few of us decided to stay up until at least eight. We got a deck of cards, but nobody could think of a game. We ended up inventing the game as we went along. The British people were good at making up silly rules, but the German woman was slow to catch on. Near eight, she asked if this was an English game and said it was very confusing.
I was kept up much of the night by the rat that sounded like it was eating the bottom of the leg of my bed.
Day 7 - For the first hour we had to push through large crowds of porters, yaks and large, slow groups of tourists. Eventually we left them behind and entered the Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park. Up until this point we had been walking through villages and fields. Now we were in a park and the villages thinned out. After a nice walk along the river, we came to a flimsy bridge. The bridge, one of many of this type along the trek, was a suspension bridge with a wooden floor. Wherever the wood had rotted away, large rocks were placed to prevent the yaks (and people?) from poking through.
After a very difficult climb, we came to Namche Bazaar. At well over 11,000 feet it is the gateway to the mountains for all of the trekkers. As a major tourist center, it contained gear shops, bakeries, many lodges, a high altitude sauna, a visitor center, an airport, a hotel with pressurized rooms, a pool hall, a disco, and many trinket shops.
We found a lodge and settled in. Our neighbors turned out to be a Buddhist Lama and a few disciples. They burned incense and played their trumpets and drums very loudly. Luckily, after several straight hours, they stopped for the night.
Day 8 - Namche had been our goal for the first week. Here we took our first acclimatization day. When going into high altitude places it is important to go slowly and allow your body time to adjust. We climbed up the ridge behind town and went to a viewpoint. We sat on the ground and looked at the mountains for a while. Then we went back down to Namche and ate lunch. Then, I made the biggest mistake of the whole trip. I took a shower.
They boiled up the water, put it in the bucket and carried it out to the shed. The water came out of a real shower nozzle and was warm enough, but other than that it was rough. The shed let in the cold breeze and the concrete floor drained my body heat through my feet. Despite the trickle of hot water, I was soon shivering. I went back to my room, put on all my clothes and got in my sleeping bag to recover. I lost my voice for a little while and got a fever and a small cold. I vowed not to shower again until the outside air temperature was more hospitable.
Day 9 - I left about ten pounds of worthless junk that I had been carrying in Namche and had a much easier time walking. We went up to the monastery in Tengpoche and saw the monks practicing for the upcoming festival. We continued on to Devuche to spend the night.
Day 10 - We continued our climb up to Dingboche. We got there early and I was pleased to discover that they had a large selection of books and were willing to trade them. We took an afternoon stroll up the ridge and then settled around the yak-dung fire in the evening.
Day 11 - Here we took our second acclimatization day. We were now near 14,000 feet and our bodies needed another chance to adjust. We took a day hike up a very steep hill to well over 16,000 feet. We sat there and acclimated while looking at the view for a while and then went back down to Dingboche for the night.
Day 12 - Gary had come up here to climb the 21,000+ foot Island Peak. He headed off to his climb and I went up to Lobuje. I spent the coldest night of the whole trek here, at around 16,000 feet. My water bottle froze next to me and I spent much of the night shivering. I realized that my aging synthetic sleeping bag might not be up to the task of really, really cold nights. For the next week, which I would spend at an altitude well above Colorado, I slept in all of my clothes every night.
Day 13 - I took a nice two-hour stroll up the moraine and over the glacier to Gorak Shep. I had a long lunch and around noon I started up Kala Pattar. Kala Pattar is a hill that tops out at a little over 18,000 feet above sea level. It is a good viewpoint to look at Everest, Everest Base Camp, Pumori, Lhotse, many other mountains, and over into Tibet. I spent an hour and a half sitting up there and looking at the views. Then I went back down to Lobuje for the night.
There was a British military climbing expedition in the lodge. They had been trying to climb Pumori, but after a few avalanches took out their base camp they decided to come off the mountain. They were a great group of guys and had many good stories to tell.
A Spanish woman lost feeling in the left half of her face and her arm. Dr. Hugh, from the British group, went out and got her a Gamow Bag. They put her in it and inflated it to the air pressure of around 11,000 feet. After an hour, she was feeling better and at nine p.m. she headed down the mountain to the doctors at Pheriche. Dr. Hugh then went on to tell us about the 13 deaths in three weeks he had come into contact with up there. Almost all of them were from altitude sickness. Mostly it is twenty-something year olds who go too high too fast and don't properly acclimatize. They ignore the warning signs, push on, and die.
The British expedition was, in part, sponsored by Mars Candy and they passed out Mars bars before heading out to their tents for the night.
Day 14 - I slept late and then read a book while I waited for Mei, a Chinese woman I was going to walk with for a few days. She spent the previous night up at Gorak Shep so I had to wait for her to come down. Then, after lunch, we walked down the valley a little ways and then headed over the ridge. We walked for a few hours and spent the night in Dzongla.
Day 15 - We continued up the mountain to the Cho La pass at around 18,000 feet. We had some great views and then had to walk across a glacier for a little ways. After a rest near the prayer flags, we headed down into the next valley. There were no villages up this high, but there was a guy with a blanket spread out and candy and tea for sale. He had a little radio and sat in the middle of nowhere waiting for some business. By late afternoon we had followed the valley down to the town of Tauna.
Day 16 - We had a bit of a slow start because we only had a two hour walk ahead of us to Gokyo, down at 15,500 feet. We had to cross a very large glacier after about twenty minutes. Half way across we sat down and stayed for over two hours. It was too amazing to continue. The glacier was pretty flat and covered with rocks and boulders and lakes. We sat next to a frozen lake with steep sides. As the sun heated up the lake, the covering of ice broke up. Also the rocks embedded in the walls broke loose and fell onto the ice or into the lake. The sounds were incredible. It was the best concert I have ever heard. The little and big rock falls and the creaking of the ice had us mesmerized for hours.
Eventually, we continued on to Gokyo and had lunch. In the middle of the afternoon we headed up Gokyo Ri, a small hill with more excellent mountain views. We climbed up to around 17,500 feet and watched the sunset on Everest. Then we went back down to our lodge, the Gokyo Resort. They even had a glass enclosed lounge room and pizza. It was very expensive. A double room cost nearly three dollars. It is a very popular place and was quite crowded.
Day 17 - Mei had to head back down the valley and I took a walk up the valley. Gokyo is on the third lake in a series and I took two hours to walk up to the fifth glacial lake. I went to Scoundrel's View. It is called this because it is one of the best views of Everest, and all you have to do is climb the moraine (pile of rocks next to a glacier). It is easy to get to and one of the best viewpoints. Then I skirted around the fifth lake and climbed the hill behind it. I sat up on the mountain for a few hours and then went back down to Gokyo.
This area above Gokyo was the most impressive of the whole trip and I wish I had had a tent. I would love to have spent a week up there climbing up every hill and valley.
That night I met Tom. Tom is a retired Army Ranger mountaineering specialist medic. About six months after he retired he got itchy feet and started walking. Now, almost seven years later, he has walked most of the way around the world, including 18 months across Russia, four months through China, and across Laos, Cambodia, and the Nulibor Plain in Australia. He had planned to walk around the world in six years, but is having too much fun to hurry.
Day 18 - Tom had just crossed the Renjo Pass the day before and when he saw the number of people in Gokyo he was appalled. He decided to head back across the pass. I had been questioning him about the pass the night before and he invited me along for the day. Another American, Erik, joined us and we headed over the pass. It was a tiring climb up to the nearly 18,000 foot pass, but the view from the top was great. We looked down the valley, across the blue lake, over the glacier, over a mountain and right at Everest. At the top of the pass we met one of the only other trekkers we would see the whole day.
Going down into the next valley was difficult because the path was steep and rocky. At the bottom we skirted a lake and headed down a long sloping valley. We passed a bunch of yaks and continued on to a small stone house. Shepards live in the house in the summer, but now it is empty. We moved in and slept on the floor.
This day was a bit like an adventure because we saw almost nobody and did not sleep in a lodge.
Day 19 - After breakfast we continued down the valley and came to the main trading route between Tibet and this part of Nepal. At times the trail was wide enough for a car, if one could have been flown up here. It was a hard decision to turn down the valley and deeper into Nepal. We were only a day away from the Tibetan border. There were a few Tibetans on the trail leading there yaks back to Tibet.
We got to the town of Thami for a late lunch. Many Nepali Sherpas who lead expeditions up mountains use the money they earn to open lodges in Thami. It was one of the nicest towns on the whole trek and the first town in a long time that was not there solely for the trekkers.
I was supposed to meet Gary back in Namche that night so, in the late afternoon I headed down the valley some more. Tom and Erik went up to the monastery to spend the night. I had a nice walk through many villages. I was now down below 12,000 feet and the thicker atmosphere and easy downhill grade made me feel very strong. For the first time the whole trip I was able to walk up the small hills briskly, without losing my breath.
I got back to Namche and was so pumped up from the last three days that it was half an hour before I could even sit down.
Day 20 - Gary had had an excellent climb, but now had a bit of a cold. We decided to have a rest day. We went to the pizza place and I ate a couple of pizzas and chocolate cake and a bit more food. Then we went down to where the Tibetens were camped and looked at the stuff they were selling. They did not speak any English, but they were very friendly.
Day 21 - The second phase of our walk was now over. We had walked to Namche. Then we had walked above Namche. Now it was time to walk back out. There is a big hill leading down from Namche and in the 45 minutes it took to get down I passed many of my rest stops from two weeks earlier. I was amazed that some of them were only a few minutes apart on the descent, but thirty minutes apart on the climb.
We stopped for some soup at the park entrance and my friend Mike showed up. I had not seen him since I left Kathmandu. Our meeting in Namche never happened and now he was on his way down to the airport in Lukla. Later, I ate some steamed potato dumplings for lunch. I walked with Meghan, another Trek America guide, for about an hour or two. In Phakding we took a break and I asked her if she felt alright. Then I ran into the toilet and lost a lot of liquid out my backside and a little out my head. It was my first case of food poisoning for the trip.
It was a very long couple of hours to our night stop and I thought many times of hiring a porter to carry my pack, which was again way too heavy with the junk I had left in Namche. I got to the lodge, sat down and then ran outside to loose a lot of liquid out my front and a little out my back. I went to sleep early, without dinner.
Day 22 - I did not have much breakfast and felt a bit weak. Also, it was our first day of rain. I put on my rain gear and off we went. By about one we got back to the Beehive Lodge in Puiyan and decided to call it a day. I ate a big lunch and was over my food poisoning. I read a book until the girls got home from school and then riled them up until their parents yelled at them. That night was a big meteor shower that we had been anticipating for the whole trip. All we saw were clouds.
Day 23 - It was still raining. We walked all morning and in Bupsa had lunch. We again decided to stop for the day.
Day 24 - We had walked into the Solo Khumbu region from the west and were planning to walk out to the east. Bupsa was the place where we left the track we had come in on and headed east. We went up the ridge and ran into three trekkers who told us how great the trail ahead was. We noticed one big difference right away. The road from Jiri to Namche is a major highway. Porters are carrying in beer, water, soda, food, toilet paper, mattresses, and nearly every thing else that is used by the locals and tourists. Now we were off the main highway and saw almost no one else. We walked to the town of Sebuche and spent the night as the only tourists in town.
At one point we heard a couple of booms off in the distance. We found out later that it was a plane crash.
Day 25 - We went down the river, at about 6,000 feet, and then continued up to Najidingma, at about 9,000 feet. We met six trekkers going the other way and four going our way. We stayed in a house built of bamboo mats and some sort of ferret like animal ran through the ceiling all night.
Day 26 - We went over a little 10,000 foot pass and went down to Bung. We were now in the Makalu-Barun Conservation Area and saw many improvments. They had very nice cement water faucets outside. The entrance fee was obviously doing the locals some good. I paid the $15 for my park pass and signed the book. I was the 396th trekker to pass through Bung this year.
Day 27 - We trekked down through the millet fields to a river and then up to Gudel. Gary, the two Australians we were with (Shiela and Steve) and I all agreed that this was one of the most beautiful sections of the whole trek. We all wanted to move there. We continued up the valley to Sanam and had the first bit of yogurt in several weeks. At one point we passed a school and the three teachers came out to ask for money. I gave about $1.50 and am now a benefactor of the school. I even got to sign a book. Then I went in and taught class for a few minutes before it was time to walk some more.
Day 28 - Sheila and Gary were a bit sick from the previous nights dinner. We passed a group of trekkers headed the other way and then got up to the 11,000 foot pass. Now, except for the last day, we were done walking up. Even though it would take three days to get to the river, we were headed down into the Arun Valley. We walked down to Jaubari and spent the night in our most primitave lodge yet. Lodges have one big room with a row of benches around the edge. Up until this point we had slept in seperate private rooms or dormatories at high altitudes. Now the benches were our beds. Normally the family sleeps there, but since we were paying about four cents each, we got to sleep up there. There was room left over for the children, but the adults got the floor. After everyone was in bed, one of the girls let off a really loud fart. Gary and I pretended to be asleep, but everyone else laughed alot.
Day 29 - We continued following the river in a side valley down towards the Arun Valley. We were now in Nepal's most fertile area and there was a lot of agriculture. People were selling oranges and tangerines on the side of the trail. It was nice to snack on some fruit as I walked. We also stopped for a swim in the river.
At the end of the day I came around a bend and realized I was in a jungle. The village of Gothe Bazzar consisted of fewer than ten houses, but the houses were all on stilts and made of bamboo. The children all ran around mostly naked and we slept outside on a sort of porch. The place looked like something you would expect to see in Vietnam or Thailand. I ate the first banana of my adult life here. It was very good.
Day 30 - After a few hours walk I realized that I had food poisoning again. I threw up a bunch and then stumbelled through the next few hours. By late afternoon all the bad stuff was out and I felt better. I ran into a police man from Namche and we walked together for a while. Then I met the lodge owners kid from the next village coming home from school. This was not the first time that I helped a kid practice his english and then learned that his family's lodge is the only one in the next town. So, I got to play with Nabin all evening. In Balawa Besi I had a good time talking to Nabin's family. We also met one other trekker going the other way.
Day 31 - We finally got to see the mighty Arun River. The little stream that we had started next two a few days earlier had grown and grown until it flowed into the Arun. We crossed the Arun on a big bridge after paying the two cent toll. Then we followed the river for a while and then went up a small ridge. At the top we came to a plataeu that was four miles long and perfectly flat. For the first time in a month I was able to walk for more than five minutes with out going up or down. The locals were so excited about the plataeu that they have brought in bicycles. We spent the night in Tulmingtar. Tulmingtar has an airport so we saw about ten other trekkers there. Sheila and I went to the airport to watch the plane land. They sounded a siren to scare away the livestock and let people know that a plane was coming. A large trail bisects the runway and it would be easy to get caught out. Some other people were obviously there for the first time and ran away scared when the plane started up its engines.
Then there was an earthquake. Sheila and I were sitting on the edge of a building and we felt it shake. But, it was a pretty mild one and no damage was done.
Day 32 - Sheila and Gary were not feeling too well again so we opted for another rest day. We walked about an hour down to a tributary of the Arun and spent a few hours sitting on the beach and swimming in the water. Then we went back to Tulmingtar.
As we waited for dinner, a woman near us started crying. Then a big group of men came by. They were carrying two bodies wrapped in plastic and hung from poles like game animals. They dumped the bodies on the side of the trail and came into our restaurant for some tea. After a while they picked up the bodies and headed off to the big town up the hill. Apparently, the night before, some robbers broke into an old man's house and took about $30,000. The old man killed one with his knife and then was shot.
Day 33 - We went back down to the Arun and continued down stream for the rest of the day. The temperature was finally perfect for hiking, if you enjoy hot jungles like I do. The others were complaining about the heat, but it felt good to walk in shorts and drip sweat. We were now well under 700 feet above sea level. Very few trekkers use this trail and there were no tourist lodges along the way. We spent this night in a small lodge that caters to porters going up and down the valley. Gary walks faster than me and I was not able to catch up to him this day. Actually he kept walking faster than me and I never saw him again until Kathmandu.
Day 34 - Sheila, Steve, and I continued south along the river to Mangmaya. They had a little place that sold sweets, so we spent the night. I asked for the toilet and they said "River Toilet". I went down there but it was like a mine field. I guess the river has not risen to clean the banks recently. A couple of Dutch trekkers caught up to us and the five of us spent the night in another porter lodge. I spent the afternoon reading a book by the river.
Day 35 - The end of our trek was a little over 5,000 feet above us. All we had to do was walk up one last hill. By about two p.m. we were four miles from the end. They were building a road there and we saw the first car since Jiri. Sheila got the Colonel in charge of building the road to give us a ride the rest of the way. We spent the night in Hile.
The walking was over and all that was left was to get back to Kathmandu.
The next day we sat on the roof of the bus for the three hour journey to the next biggest town. Sheila and Steve don't like to take overnight buses in Asia because the drivers often fall asleep, so we bought bus tickets to take us half way back to Kathmandu. From Dahnkuta we rode the bus until a little before seven p.m. Then we got off a small town. For dinner we ate some small birds, sauteed in garlic. They were very tasty. We slept in a room that looked liked a converted garage and slapped mosquitoes all night while bed bugs bit us. On the 2nd of December we finished our bus ride back to the capital. After all those weeks being able to see views one hundred miles away, it was nice to be able to see the air only a few feet away. Also, for the first time in over a month, I was able to sit on a toilet instead of squat. The angles seemed all wrong, but it worked in the end.
