April 15th, 2013
Kathmandu, Nepal
Back in Kathmandu. The trek went well and I had a great time. It’s good to be back.
The morning flight to Lukla was uneventful and we were hiking by mid-morning. The valleys and villages below Namche Bazaar are beautiful and lush. Rhododendron blooming everywhere. The trail is littered with small villages, each having several small “markets,” tea houses, and lodges.
Everything that builds these villages is carried on the backs of porters. Plywood, windows, tools, etc. All food consumed, all bottled or canned goods, also come up on the backs of porters. We left our main duffle outside our room each morning and it would magically appear at the next lodge by the time we got there. All we carried was a daypack.
Lots of suspension bridges, lots of up and down. Hiking until noon each day, lunch at a “tea house” then hiking until mid-afternoon to our next lodge.
My favorite place along the way was Namche Bazaar, about as exotic a place as I’ve been. Lots of stuff for sale there. Numerous pubs, bakeries, pizza places. We spent a couple of ours on the way back at a pub there having a beer, listening to Led Zeppelin, and watching cricket via satellite TV.
I didn’t make it to Everest Base Camp as I had some issues with altitude at Lobuche (16,200′). Another member of the trek stayed there with me while the others went on one more day to EBC, but only about 6 of the remaining 16 made it. I was told it was something of a disappointment.
The food got pretty old along on the trek. Lots of fried rice and fried noodles. It was great to get back to Kathmandu and a wider variety of food, We waited several hours in Lukla for a flight back to Kathmandu and it turned out that we got one one of the few that made it out that day. None of us wanted another night in Lukla. Hot showers and beds with linens awaited us.
