Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Treking To Mt. Everest

Hello all and greeting from Nepal. I have finally made it back to Katmandu after my 17 day trek in Sagarmatha National Park and the 7 days that I took after I got back to bask in being back in a town again. With something other to eat than potatoes, rice or noodles.
The trek was simply amazing.....I have never been to challenged, rewarded or scared by a trek as I was by that one. The scenary was breathtaking and it took on so many different views that sometimes you felt like you were on the moon and then others you were looking for the beach because you were standing in a field on fine sand.
I was doing an illegal hikes of sorts because now since Oct. 27th you have to have a guide or porter in order to do this trek which I had neither which was great somedays and stupid on others.....thus the being scared part. Crossing a 5530 meter pass by myself was probably the most unwise of them all. But I made it and I am still here so its all good.
Treking in this region is interesting to say the least. You end up hiking about 400-500 meters a day so to hopefully reduce the chances of getting altitude sickness which believe me is not a good thing to get as I found out one night. some days are long 6-8 hours and some are short 2-3 hours which means that you have alot of free time on your hands to think, play cards (I know now card games from nepal, canada, germany and scottland), read the one book that you brought, write 3 page journal entries because you have nothing but free time on your hands, think some more, eat rice....potatoes......or noodles and huddle up by a fire which burns yak shit because wood is scarce the higher you go. Its a very interesting way to live. You useally end up in a town and by town its useally only 3-8 houses.....by 12-3 pm. If you get there by 3 then its not so bad because you only have to wait until 4:30 until they light the fire.......I have never been so happy to see shit in my life.
By 5 you are ordering you dinner which has to be ordered 1 hr in advance....by 6:30 you are either huddled around the fire or playing cards with someone and then by 8:00 you are getting you water bottle filled with hot water so you can keep warm in you 20-35 degree room. but its all worth it for the peace and beautiful sights that you get to see. that place is truely a magical place and the people both local and fellow travelers are equally as well. I ended up treaking with a hodgepode of people. There was the 2 17 year old porter kids the 2nd day that I befriended that ended up helping me to get to namche, there was the group of germans from dresden, the crazy guy from scottland that hiked to the top of a 5550 meters hill in a kilt to win a bet, the funny group of italians from sud tirol that claimed that they were from austria and who could forget the 2 guys from Czech that shared with me the homemade schnapps that they had brought from home (that by the way was the best night that I slept the whole trip....sleeping about 4000+ meters is not the easiest thing to do) and probably one of the best was the nepali family that sort of adopted me for the 3 days that I stayed at their lodge. I was very luck for each and every person that I met and helped me along the way.
I really don't think that I can truly explain how amazing that trip was......if you ever get a chance to go you should take it...it is really worth it.
Allright all I am going to go I need to get ready for my trip to the lake town of Pokera tomorrow. another fun filled 6 hr bus ride lies ahead of me and from my last blog you can tell how much I really like taking those.


p.s. the mountain in the middle is Everest.