The Khumbu and Everest Base Camp

I’ve decided to do this blog entry a little different. I’m going to do an entry for everyday that I was gone. Well, I may combine a few of the entries together for the times we spent multiple days in one village. This way you can get a little better description of my epic journey to the top of the world, or at least the bottom of the top of the world. Joining me in this journey were my two partners, Nathaniel and Alissa and three journeymen, Robby, Jay, and Becca (one was about to finish his two years and the other two had been in Nepal for two weeks). Also one guy named Aaron who lived in Nepal five years ago and is back for a short time visiting friends.

Day 1 10/30/2010
Today we flew into Lukla airport. If you didn’t already know about Lukla airport I will explain it to you. Lukla airport was voted as the most extreme airport in the world by National Geographic. It’s at the base of the highest mountain range in the world. As you fly in all you can see is a very short runway and then a mountain wall. If you short the runway then you hit a cliff wall and if you shoot long you hit another cliff wall. You must have precise landing technique. After we landed we grab some lunch before heading out on our wonderful adventure. We left Lukla and headed to village of Phakding. We stayed in the lodge of a friend of Robby’s. He had a nice lodge and served some great Chinese food. We watched a couple movies in his lodge including Into Thin Air...not the best movie to watch right before heading in to the mountains.

Day 2-3 10/31/2010-11/1/2010
Happy Halloween. We all decided to dress like trekkers for Halloween this year. It was difficult to find all the necessary equipment to pull the look off, but we were able to do it. Today we had a long hike ahead of us. We headed from Phakding to Namache Bazar. The elevation change was pretty big. It took us almost all day to get there. We finished the last hour or so in the rain and it was getting dark. It was called the Namache hill, although there’s more than one of them, was a brutal hill. It put a strain on some of the guys who hadn’t hiked in a long time and were a little out of shape. Nothing special happened on that trek, but I was able to have some good conversations with the some of the people in our group. We stayed in a nice lodge that night where we enjoyed some hot food and a nice hot fire. We didn’t do much seeing as it was a long day and it was raining at the time. We were going to stay in Namache the following day. After a good night’s sleep, we got up and headed out into the village. Namache is the largest village in all of the Khumbu area. It has a couple large bazaars, including one where people form Tibet can come and sell their goods. We walked around the village and did some praying. Prayer walking has become one of my new favorite things to do. We spent some time talking to some shop owners that Robby and Aaron knew. I found a few things in Namche that I was really glad to have- one of them being gummy bears. I also found a nice pair of soft-shell pants and a book. Later, I went with Aaron to go visit his bakery friend. We sat down and had a cup of coffee and bought some bread to go with the soup I was going to have with dinner. One of the funniest things that happened was that Robby and Nathaniel got locked out of the lodge. They went to go visit some friends late at night and the lodge owners locked the door. Luckily I was up late reading and was able to help them get in. They had to scale the wall to my third story window to be let in. It was pretty funny. That was our time in Namche. We would be returning to this town towards the end of our trip and spend another couple days here.

Day 4-6 11/2/2010-11/4/2010
From Namache we hiked to a village called Thame. We brought with us from Kathmandu three boxes of books for the school in Thame. The hike to Thame was a beautiful one through pine trees, snow-capped peaks on each side, and small streams flowing here and there. We stayed at a lodge of an old friend of Aaron and Robby’s. After we got to Thame we didn’t really do anything. Some people went and visited some places in the village, but I stayed in the lodge and finished my book that I had gotten the day before. I actually ended up giving that book to the school the next day when we dropped off the rest of the books. We also filled our time with many a game of spades. The following day we brought the books to the school. The school was excited to have them seeing as the year before the person who had built their library had burned a lot of the books. That afternoon some of us went around the village doing some prayer walking for the village and for our team. Nathaniel had gotten sick the night before and thrown up a couple times. We all sat around the lodge that night along with about 30 other trekkers in our lodge. It was packed out. That night all the guys stayed in the same room, all five of us, because of all the other trekkers there the lodge owner asked us to move into the room since we knew him well. None of us minded and actually liked it better than just being in pairs. Our last day in Thame we mostly spent resting. We had a “beach day” in the morning. The village had a small reservoir for the power plant nearby so we just went and sat around it relaxing, and some of us even took naps. After lunch we hiked up to the monastery. It’s the oldest monastery in all of Khumbu. It wasn’t that amazing of a monastery, but it was still fun to hike. After about three days in Thame I was ready to move onto the next village.

Day 7-8 11/5/2010-11/6/2010
Before we left from Thame we were given a little show from the kids of the school. Seeing as it was the largest Buddhist festival at that time they did a little song and dance for us. It was actually pretty cool. After that we headed out for a village called Khunde. Again, we stayed in the lodge of one of Aaron’s friends. It was a nice little lodge. That night Jay taught us a new card game called Scum. It was a fun game that allowed for all 7 of us to play at the same time, something spades couldn’t do. The following day we stayed in Khunde. We all got showers for the first time in over a week. We all needed it bad, and our clothes needed it worse. We sat around all morning reading and just waiting for our turn to get a shower. After lunch we headed to a village about 15 minutes from Khunde called Khumjung. The crazy thing about Khumjung is there is rumored to be the skull of a Yeti there. Now, I was able to see this skull and even take pictures and it’s not a Yeti skull. We looked it up on the internet and some German scientist did research on it and found out that it’s some bear. That night looked almost exactly like the night before. We played cards and talked about what was ahead of us. Aaron was thinking about staying behind and not continuing on the rest of the journey. He wanted to stay behind and spend more time with his friends in the lower villages instead of going to base camp with us.

Day 9-10 11/7/2010-11/8/10
Aaron did decide to stay behind. It was sad that he was staying behind, but we all knew that he came here to visit friends and talk to them instead of trekking to all the tourist places. Now our team was down to six people. Today we were going to head towards Gokyo. Our hope was that we could make it in two days, but our porters were thinking more like three days. The hike wasn’t an easy one. The first part of the hike was a straight downhill hike, which killed my knees. I tried to keep a slow pace, but if everyone else was moving pretty fast so I had to keep up. I really hate going downhill. After going down for an hour we headed up for a couple more. Because of the late start we got that day, we weren’t able to make it as far as we had hoped. Although the uphill part was brutal, it was beautiful. Through thick pine wood forest, snow piled up here and there, frozen streams running here and there, and even some wildlife. We all just chilled in the lodge playing cards once again. We sat in there all night laughing until they began to start closing the dining room and we had to go to bed. We got up early the next day and struck out for Gokyo, but once again we only made it half as far as we hoped. Jay had been struggling too much and needed to stop for the day. Everyone took the afternoon off to rest. The altitude was beginning to affect the team. Sleeping was becoming difficult and the walking was not easy either. I sat around drinking tea and reading. That night Jay decided to head back down and meet up with Aaron. The high altitude hiking was getting to him, plus he would rather spend time talking with people than climbing peaks.

Day 11-12 11/9/2010-11/10/2010
Today we made it to Gokyo. It wasn’t a horrible hike, but it had its difficult parts. There are a few really cool things about Gokyo. First, there are the lakes that surround the village - massive glacier lakes that are easily a mile across in some spots. They’re all a greenish blue color. The largest of them was set into the mountains. The snow capped peaks casting their shadows over the lake were beautiful. I once again bought another book. This one was about how East German, Soviet, and Chinese spies planed on taking over Nepal during the cold war. In the lodge I was able to meet a trekker from Australia. He was a pretty cool guy working for Kodak taking pictures of Nepal. It was cool to meet trekkers and have the opportunity to share with them. We were talking so late that some of the porters began to come in and start going to sleep. That was when we decided to go to bed. We were going to be getting up at 5 am to climb a 5360 meter peak (17,585 feet). We all got up the next morning and headed out for the peak. It was still very dark when we started out. It wasn’t a hard hike. I didn’t feel the effects of the altitude like I thought I would. We got to the top and sat around taking pictures and relaxing. We were up there for about an hour before we headed down. It was awesome to be up that high seeing the peaks at almost eye level. We were also able to catch the sunrise as it hit the peaks all around us. We got a great view of the different lakes as well as the glacier we would be walking over the following day to do the Cho La pass. That afternoon we once again sat around resting from the morning. We talked to a few more trekkers as well as some of the guys that ran the lodge. We got some phone numbers and hoped to hook up with them when they’d come down to Kathmandu. The plan for the following day was to get up and head to the base of the Cho La Pass, stay the night, and then head out early the next morning.

Day 13 11/11/10
So, today is my mom’s birthday… well, at least in America. I was able to call her and talk to her for about 10 minutes or so. I won’t lie, it brought tears to my eyes when I was able to talk to her. There are just times that I really become home sick. I have been gone from home for almost 4 months at this time and I’m beginning to miss home a little. After talking to her we all headed across the glacier towards the Cho La pass. It was cool walking through the glaciers - hearing the rock falls and the ice cracking in different places. We were actually walking on the ice, just the rocks that were over the top of the ice. We got to the lodge and chilled. We were going to be getting up at 3 am the following morning to do the pass. Apparently, if you don’t get to the top in time the ice and snow begin to melt causing problems.

Day 14 11/12/2010
Today we did the Cho La pass. It was a mix of thoughts and emotions as we were doing it. I loved and hated it all at the same time. We got up at 3 and packed. I let the porters carry my bag for this. I wasn’t about to kill myself carrying my 45 lbs pack up over the pass. I carried my small day pack with water, camera, food, and some other stuff. The first part of the hike wasn’t too bad. It was a nice gradual climb. Once we got to the top of the first ridge we could finally see the pass. It looked horrible. We had to hike down a little and then across a flat spot to the actually bottom of the pass. We couldn’t even see a path going up to the top. We had to climb over tons of boulders that had formed from many a rock slide before. We never once felt the sun until we got to the top of the pass. It took us about 5 hours to make it to the top. I couldn’t feel most of the parts of my body. It was easily in the 20s climbing to the top of the pass. Once we made it to the top we soaked in as much sun as we could. We munched a little on some of the snacks and food we had brought. Then we began our journey down. For the first 30 minutes we walked across snow and ice. It was pretty cool. If you got off the path there was a good chance you would just fall through into a crevasse, so we stayed on the path. After the snow we walked through another boulder strewn path. It took us about 2 to get to the bottom of the pass. At that point I was hurting. My knees didn’t like the hike down and my back was killing me from my pack pulling on my shoulders. It was well worth the pain. Then for about 30 minutes we walked across a flat plain to our lodge in Zugla. Zugla. It was the worst hole in the wall place we had stayed in yet. All the rooms were filled so we had to sleep in the porter room. It was a giant bunk bed that slept about 15 people. All 5 of us slept on the bottom bunk. Some slept and others sat and read. I met an American guy who had sold everything he had to travel the world. We were able to teach each other some new forms of solitaire.

Day 15 11/13/10
Now we began our journey to Everest Base Camp. We headed from Zugla to Lobuche. After about 15 minutes of hiking I had to shed some layers. I had to get rid of both my thermal bottoms and top. I hiked the rest of the day in just my t-shirt and my soft-shell pants. It was a simple hike around a small mountain to Lobuche. I started and finished a book today. I have read a lot on this trip and I’ve enjoyed it. Nothing special happened on this short hike or at this village. Tomorrow we would be heading to base camp though.

Day 16-17 11/14/2010-11/15/2010
Today was a long day. We hiked from Lobuche to Gorak Shep, which wasn’t easy. It was all up and down through the Khumbu glacier. It was a cool walk as we started getting closer the tallest points in the world. We could barely see the top of Everest from anywhere on the trail. After we made it to Gorak Shep we had lunch and headed to base camp. It was a simple little hike. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. We were at 5364 meters (17,598 feet). It was awesome to be at such an amazing place, but to be honest Everest Base Camp sucked. I half expected to see a place where they could set up mass camps for people attempting the summit. It was just a bunch of rocks. The best part was being able to call my family and my girlfriend from base camp. My crappy Nepali phone was able to catch signal and I called my family and Jess at 2 am their time. They all didn’t mind being woken up to talk to me at Everest Base Camp. It was an experience that I will never forget. Plus it just gives me a trump card on anyone. We hiked back and just chilled in the lodge as usual. Alissa was not taking the high altitude very well and was getting sick. Nathaniel, Robby, and Becca were also not taking it as well, but better than Alissa. I have been the only one who hasn’t had any problems sleeping with the altitude or felt symptoms of altitude sickness. Not sure why that is, but I’m thankful. Also, I have yet to wear my down jacket on this trip. I’ve used my down sleeping bag in a traditional manner. I unzip it completely and use it like a blanket instead of getting inside it. If I sleep in it like a normal sleeping bag, I get to hot. The following morning me, Nathaniel, and Robby got up at 4 am to hike a peak called Kala Patthar. It is a 5550 meter (18,208 feet) peak that is right next to Everest. It gives you a great view of the surrounding area. We hoped to get to the top right as sunrise was happening, but we were too fast and had to sit up on the top to wait for it. We were really cold. We discovered that screaming at the top of our lungs helped keep us warm. We got some good pictures and then headed back down. We got back at the bottom by 7 am. We were surprised by how fast we were able to do the peak. When we got to the bottom we convinced the girls that we had thrown up and blacked out and never made it to the top and that Nathaniel needed to be helicopter out of there. They didn’t like us when we told them we were joking. After that we had a long day planned a head of us. We hoped to get down about a 1000 meters to help those that weren’t dealing with the altitude well. We ended up at a place called Pheriche by mid afternoon. We stayed in the nicest lodge in all of Nepal, well, at least in my opinion. They had great food and even better beds. I picked up a fourth book at the lodge.

Day 18 11/16/2010
I slept wonderfully that night in my nice comfy bed. The plan was to make it to Tengboche today, but since Alissa wasn’t feeling well, we thought we may only make it half way. We made it to a place called Pengboche for lunch. It was a nice little village where we thought we might spend the night depending on how Alissa felt. She felt well enough to continue on, and we finished our nice little trek to Tengboche. The walk was beautiful. It felt as if we were walking our way through Lord of the Rings. Then we walked past Rivendale…wait, what? Yes, we actually walked through a village called Rivendale in an area that did look a lot like we were walking through Lord of the Rings. The small town of Tengboche was a nice little village. It had a great little bakery where they had coffee and apple pie. After enjoying our wonderful pie and coffee we ventured on to the movie theater. It was an eco center where they showed a documentary about the area. It was a nice little show. We enjoyed yet another game of scum that night.

Day 19-20 11/17/2010-11/18/2010
Last night was a very interesting night. Nathaniel had an episode in his sleep once again. It was hilarious. Me, Nathaniel, and Robby were staying in the same room that night when me and Robby were awakened by Nathaniel screaming in his sleep. He woke up screaming “Where are we? Where are we? Tell me where I am.” Robby woke up yelling “We’re in Tengboche. We’re in Tengboche.” I would like to describe it better to you, but it’s one of those things that you just need to be there for. I wasn’t really surprised by Nathaniel yelling in his sleep because this was not the first time. A couple hours later it actually happened again. The second time he talked about the door being open and someone touching him. Once again, it was weird, but I went right back to sleep. When I finally woke up the next morning I wasn’t feeling well. I wasn’t even able to eat breakfast, which is just sad. Today we walked from Tengboche to Namche. I was not a huge fan of this walk. After not eating breakfast I didn’t have a whole lot of energy and my pack was a little bit heavier so it was not fun. We made it to Namche around lunch time where I had a nice bowl of pasta at the bakery, followed by a nice long nap and some good old book reading. After my nap I went down to the Tibetan Market. The people from Tibet are allowed into Nepal as far down as Namche to sell their wares. They had a lot of cool stuff there, but nothing worth buying. I had pizza at dinner, but wasn’t able to eat much of it since I still wasn’t feeling well. I was hoping that a little bit of sleep would get rid of whatever was bothering me… it didn’t. I woke up a couple times in the night to what seemed like the scene from Dumb and Dumber. I’ll let you think about that one and not go into any detail. I finally rolled out of bed around 10:30 and went and grabbed a cinnamon role and some coffee from the bakery. I was beginning to feel a lot better after eating. After lunch I felt almost perfect. I was able to sit and read my book for a few hours and actually finish it. That makes 4 books that I had finished on this trip. One of the nicest things was that I had a double room by myself. I spread everything out in the room to try and let it air out. Being back in Namche was nice. I was able to get a new book, some more gummy bears, and a decent price on a coke.

Day 21 11/19/2010
Today we were heading home… well, sort of. We were traveling to Lukla where we would be flying home. We got up and had breakfast at the bakery. I was ready to go by 9, which was the appointed time for us to be leaving. There was always one problem with us leaving every morning. Robby and Nathaniel took way too long to get ready in the mornings. They were 45 minutes late to us leaving. It was like that every day that we tried to leave a place… oh well. We headed back towards Pheriche. It was a much nicer walk to Pheriche from Namche than the other way around. We were greeted by a nice cup of cappuccino. We watched a couple of movies and had the best meal ever. It was like a 5 course meal. The owner of the lodge was a great guy. He is a follower. It was just awesome to see a light in such a dark place. The owner of the lodge gave us t-shirts, which was great. They had a map of Khumbu on the back. Then I slept great. We had comfy beds and being at the lower altitude may have helped a lot. Tomorrow we would be heading to Lukla.

Day 22-24 11/20/2010-11/22/2010
Today we hiked to our final destination, Lukla. It was a short little hike, but still all uphill. I was glad to be done with hiking. No more hiking for the remainder of my time in Nepal. Now the thing with Lukla had been clouded in for 5 days canceling all the flights. There were hundreds of people stuck in Lukla. The government actually flew helicopters up there once the clouds had cleared out to pick people up and fly them back to Kathmandu. We sat for a while at the lodge and watched planes coming in and out. Later we ventured down to the local Starbucks and had a nice cup of coffee. It wasn’t a real Starbucks, but the coffee was great. We even watched a few episodes of Man vs. Wild. It was almost like home. That night we enjoyed yet another game of Scum. Tomorrow we would be spending the day in Lukla. The next day was actually pretty cool. I sat and watch the planes fly over my head for almost 3 hours. It was cool to see the planes fly into the world’s most extreme airport. Nothing else really special happened that day. I sat in Starbucks for a few more hours reading book number 5 and drinking more coffee. After 23 days in the mountains we would finally be going home. We got up around 6:30 and packed our bags and headed to the airport. We waited for about 2 hours at the airport before we flew out. It was a short 30 minute flight home. Once we got back the first thing I did was take a shower. It had been 15 days since I had taken a shower and it was much needed. By noon I was showered, dressed in clean clothes, and ready for lunch.

Headed to Everest

My next adventure will be taking place in the Khumbu region. I will being going to Everest Base camp at some point on the journey. This is the journey in which I will be flying into the world’s most extreme airport. Good old Lukla airport. This is our projected itinerary.

30 - Fly into Lukla and hike to Phakding.
31 - Hike to Namche Bazar
1 - Stay in Namache Bazar
2 - Hike to Thame
3 - Stay in Thame
4 - Stay in Thame
5 - Hike to Khunde
6 - Stay in Khunde
7 - Hike to Luza
8 - Hike to Gokyo
9 - Stay in Gokyo
10 - Hike to Phortse
11 - Stay in Phortse
12 - Hike to Pangboche
13 - Stay in Pangboche
14 - Hike to Pheriche
15 - Stay in Pheriche
16 - Hike to Lobuche
17 - Hike to Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp
18 - Hike Kala Patthar and Dingboche
19 - Hike to Tengboche
20 - Hike to Namche
21 - Hike to Phakding
22 - Hike to Lukla
23 - Fly to Kathmandu

This trip will be mainly focused on just hanging out with the local people and spending time with them. It should be a great trip. This time there will be a larger group going. 7 of us to be exact. The three original from my team, Alissa, Nathaniel, and me. We will be adding to our number Robby and Aaron, two guys that have been in Nepal for a while. Also two new people Jay and Bekah who have been in Nepal less than a couple weeks. This should be a great trip filled with adventure. I can’t guarantee that we will stick to this itinerary, but it is pretty close.

Langtang Trail

Now begins the second part our journey. On to Langtang and then home. After Briddhim we headed out the next day for Sherpagaon, but changed our plans when we discovered that the village only consisted of lodges and no actual homes. So we continued onto Lama Hotel, which is also only lodges and no homes. We stayed in a pretty crappy lodge that didn’t have very good food. Of all the places we stayed at it was my least favorite. It just wasn’t a very nice place. We would not be stopping there on the way back. It was a beautiful place though. We were right next to the roaring, the moon was full, and the scenery of the trees was amazing. As horrible as the service was the view was great. After Lama Hotel we continued on our journey up towards Langtang. The next day would be a very long one. We got up early and were gone by 8 am. We hoped to be getting to Langtang by mid afternoon. Originally we were going to be staying in a place called Ghodatbela. Again we discovered that all it was was lodges and choose to continue on. We did stop for lunch there though. It was a wonderful little place. It was up above the trees and was beginning to get flat. It was all rocks and shrubs. It reminded me a lot of the Grand Tetons. The river was a lot like the Snake river that runs through the Grand Tetons. It honestly felt a lot like being back in the states camping. After lunch we continued our journey on to Langtang. The best part about Langtang was the cheese and bread factory. Although we didn’t actually get to eat anything until we came back through Langtang. One of the craziest things that happened in Langtang was a member of our team getting bit by a horse. Alissa tried to pet a horse and it ended up biting her on the side and threw her to the ground. She ended up with a big bruise on her side. It made it difficult for her to hike the rest of the trip. We had an extra day in Langtang and choose to go to Kyanjin Gumba. Which was about 3900 meters, or over 13,000 feet. It was an absolutely beautiful place. One of the most beautiful places that I have had the opportunity to go to. The peaks were amazing and so were the glaciers. We had nothing but great views for 4 whole days. I hiked around for hours just starring in awe of the beauty that was surrounding me on all sides. I couldn’t get enough time there. The following day we headed back down towards Langtang where we finally got to have some delicious food from the cheese and bread factory. We had freshly baked apple pie. The man literally pulled it out of the oven moments before we arrived. It was some of the best apple pie I’ve had in a while. I felt like I was sitting back at home at our annual pie party. It didn’t last long, but for a moment there I began to miss home. That night we got a little rain and snow. Now it didn’t actually snow on us specifically, but all the peaks around us were now heavily covered in it. The next day we planned on going for a long day. Possible an 8 hour day, and that was going to be down hill. We left early and made our way down to a place called Bamboo Hotel. There was actually no bamboo at bamboo Hotel, but it didn’t matter much. It was a nice place and it had begun to get a lot warmer. It had been cold for days higher up in the mountains. During the day the sun kept you warm, but the moment it disappeared it would drop into the low40s or high 30s. It never got to freezing where we were at, but it got very close. At Bamboo Hotel we began a competition with some of the local lodge owners and other guests there. There was a giant rock there and the competition was to see who could run up it and stay on top. We were out there for almost a hour. The entire community had come out to watch us. It was a blast. The following day we headed back to Shaphru Besi where we would take the bus back to Kathmandu. That day was a very special day. It was Nathaniel’s birthday. We didn’t do anything special for him because that was the way he wanted it. We got back around noon and had our first Coke in a long time. You take for granted the things you can so easily get in the city. We walked around the small town a bit and just sat around and rested. I was able to have an incredible conversation with our translator that had come with us from Kathmandu. It was great to talk about life with him. We got our bus tickets, this time they were for the inside, for the next day. We got up the next morning bright and early and headed for home. It ended up being another 12 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu. We got back and I was very excited to have my own bed again. It is a very comfy bed. Well that sums up our trip to Langtang. The journey was an incredible one. One that I would love to repeat again someday with my family. Again thank you all for those of you that have been keeping me in your prayers and checking up on me from time to time.

Tamang Heritage Trail

Trek number 3 was a wonderful trip. It took place in two different places. The first place was an area called the Tamang Heritage Trail and the second was the Langtang area. Both were amazing and I loved every minute of the trip. My first entry will be about my time in the Tamang Heritage Trail.

We left Kathmandu at about 7:30 in the morning. It took us about 45 minutes just to make it about a mile down the road. We happened to be leaving on the biggest holiday in all of Nepal. We didn’t have a ticket prior to leaving so we showed up that morning ready to find a bus. Well all the insides of the buses were filled so we had to sit up top. We hoped on the next bus headed to Shaphru Besi. That was the beginning of a very long day. We had to ride on the back of the top of the bus. My butt was split by the bars I had to sit on. I had no cushion. At one point I had to stand on the back of the bus just to give my butt a rest. We started out with some cool weather before the sun came out. After the sun came out it began to get really hot. We baked in the sun for a few hours. Then came the dirt road. It started out with yellow dirt and changed to white dirt. After about 7 hours of riding the bus it broke down. Luckily I had my hammock and was able to take a nice nap for about 2 hours. The kids on the bus had never seen a hammock before and were intrigued by it. After I had put it up they began to swing it for me. After the bus got fixed we hoped back on top and headed on towards our final destination. Right when we hoped back on the bus it began to drizzle, that drizzle turned into a light sprinkle, that light sprinkle turned into a heavy sprinkle, and that turned into a rain. It was absolutely miserable. For 2 hours we rode on top in the rain and got completely soaked. After that 2 hours we were able to move into the bus for the last 2 hours. Come to find out that a dog was able to get inside before I was able to. We were on the road for almost 15 hours. The next day got a lot better. We headed from Shaphru Besi to a small village called Gatlang. We arrived in the late afternoon and discovered a wonderful surprise. The point of us being in the area was to do research on the Tamang people group. Anything we could find out we wrote down. One of the greatest things we were able to find out was that in the Gatlang area at least 80% of the people are Christians. We were surprised by the amount of Buddhist things in the village. We asked the owner of our lodge and he said that most of it was for show. It was pretty crazy. From Gatlang we headed to a nice little placed called Tatopani. Now if you know anything about the language of Nepal you would know that Tatopani means hot water. This nice little town had hot springs that they had had pumped into some pools. They were natural hot springs. We took a nice little bath after we had walked in the rain for a few hours that day. We were able to hang out in the kitchen and warm up. The best part was being able to dry out our clothes that had been soaked that day. After Tatopani we headed to Thuman. We walked through a lovely little village called Gayang. This village is on the top of a “hill” that has the most wonderful view. To bad the clouds had rolled in and the view was obscured. What should have been a beautiful view turned out to be nothing. The great thing about Thuman was the brand new lodge we got to stay in. We were the first ones to stay in the lodge, which was great until the next morning. There were about 60 people that decided to come to the lodge to bless it at about 6 in the morning. It was a great wake up call. Although we did wake up to a beautiful view. We could see the mountains in full view. After breakfast we made our way to Briddhm. We took a les direct path instead of going the normal way we went the Nepali way. Straight down and straight up. At the bottom we decided to go fro a swim/bath. I had a great little fall. Well it actually wasn’t that small. I rolled about 10 feet or so down some rocks. I cut up my ankle a little, banged up my bag a little, and cut open my pants. After that we took a nice cold bath in straight glacier melt water. It’s some of my favorite water to swim in. The cold water does the body good. We made it to Briddhim late in that afternoon and stayed in a great lodge. When we got there we found a man who had been bitten by a snake and his arm had begun to swell up. He prayed for him and paid for him to be portered to a American doctor that was doing medical clinics in a nearby village. So that is the end of our adventures on the Tamang Heritage Trail. The following day we would be heading up to Langtang. The first half of the journey was incredible, except for the rain and the falling down. This is one place I would like to return to in my life. Maybe next time I will bring my family.

Langtang

I am leaving early tomorrow morning for my 3rd trek to area called Langtang. We will be going on a 12 day trek to the area. We will be doing research on a people group called the Tamang people. This time though we do know for a fact that these people exsits and that the area we are going to is where they live. Here is my itinerary for that trip.

Oct 14: drive from Kathmandu to Syabru Besi
Oct 15: Syabru Besi trek to Gatlang
Oct 16: Gatlang trek to Tatopani
Oct 17: Tatopani trek to Thuman
Oct 18: Thuman trek to Briddhim
Oct 19: Briddhim trek to Sherpagaon
Oct 20: Sherpagaon trek to Ghoratabela
Oct 21: Ghoratabela trek to Langtang
Oct 22: Rest Day
Oct 23: Langtang trek to Lama Hotel
Oct 24: Lama Hotel trek to Thulosyabru
Oct 25: Thulosyabru trek to Dhunche
Oct 26: Dhunche drive to Kathmandu

The area is about an 8-9 bus ride north of Kathmandu. This trip should be a lot more enjoyable thatn the last one. This trip is pretty set in stone so I will be back on the 26th of October.

Trek 2 in Manaslu

So time to talk about trek number 2. Lets just say that this was not my favorite time in the mountains. We hit a few rough patches here and there on this trip. I will say it had it’s ups, but mostly it’s downs. The point of this trek was for research purposes. The goal was to do research on a group of people know as the Northern Ghale. Due to the fact that Alissa had been sick during the Solu trip she was not going to be going with us on your second trip. So it was me and Nathaniel that would be doing this trip together, well also with our guide. To start off this trip we had to find a guide first. Before we could find a guide we had to find where these people are located. All we were given was a name and nothing else. So step one was to find a location for the Northern Ghale people. Through some preliminary research we had discovered the area where the Northern Ghale people lived. Next was to find a guide that would lead us to that area. The area was Manaslu. It is a very beautiful area that is still very untouched by western hands. We found a an agency that would take us to the area. The plan was to spend about 10 days on this trip. Including 2 days of travel and 8 days of trekking. The traveling was an adventure to say the least. Traveling by bus is a trip in a foreign country. If you have ever been on a bus in a foreign country then you know exactly what I am talking about. It’s not easy to describe what it is like, but I will try. Due to the fact that we are in the mountains the roads snake very closely to the mountain and the cliffs. There were at least a dozen different life or death situations. It was awesome, at least I thought so. Nathaniel was not so excited about almost dying a lot. Like I said at the beginning of this post, I did not enjoy this trip that much. It began with the lovely bus ride. As much as I enjoyed the tide, my stomach did not. I puked about 6 or 7 times out the window of he bus. I then again puked in the back yard of the guest house we stayed at that night. Being sick was not fun. Then began the trekking the next day. The area we were in was very low compared to Kathmandu. The monsoon season was over making the clouds to go away and the sun to come out. It was ridiculously hot the entire time we were there. The wind wasn’t to excited to show it’s face. The combination of all those factors made it for a miserable time hiking. I have yet to sweat that much in my life. The other part that made it extremely miserable was the fact that my body was covered in approximately 300 flea, bed bug, and mosquito bites. Lets just say that did not provide for a very fun time at all. Remember all that research I told you that I was supposed to be doing, well lets just say that was not all that fun. After 5 days of research and talking to tons of people in many different villages we discovered that the Northern Ghale people did not exists. We were not to happy to discover that our research wasn’t turning out to be what we wanted it to be. After much deliberation and gathering of information we decided to head back about 4 days early. Overall the trip could be classified as a success, but it still was not enjoyable. The area was beautiful, but the trip itself was not enjoyable.

Trek 1 in the Solukhumbu

First of all I apologize for the lateness of this entry. I have been a little busy and a little lazy. Maybe a little more on the lazy side. After my first trip, and my second, I took some time off to rest and enjoy myself in this beautiful country. So first I will give you a summary of my first trip to wonderful area of Solukhumbu. I may have to break this down to a few different posts. I was in the mountains for 21 days and a lot happened in those days.

The flights to Phaplu had been delayed for almost 5 days due to the monsoon season. Which meant there was a good chance we would not be going to the mountains that day. Good thing we have connections in high places. There were only 2 flights that went out that day and we were able to get on the second one. We were able to jump ahead of all the people that had been waiting for 5 days to get a flight out. The plan we were on was about a 20 passenger plane. It was a very fun 30 minute flight over the mountains. We could see lots of waterfalls falling out of the foothills and flowing into the rivers below. We landed uphill on a dirt/grass/rock landing strip. From there we met our guide/translator who would spend the next 3 weeks with us. Except for the times that he would randomly disappear and the just show up again out of no where. We walked a few hours to what would be our home for the next week. There would be 5 of us staying there. Me, my partners Nathaniel and Alissa, my supervisor Jessica, and our second translator Sanga. We were staying a local house that was being used as a guest house. They had a couple extra rooms which made for a great guest house. They feed us for almost every meal and gave us tea anytime we wanted it. We would go back and forth between a view villages meeting lots of different people. We got to spend an afternoon at the local school playing with the kids. Me and Nathaniel got to teach some of the kids a some games. The views we got to see that week we’re amazing. We weren’t actually able to see the mountains until the last day we were in the area. The rolling hills covered in rice patties, corn fields, and groves of pine trees were the most gorgeous sights I had yet to see in all of Nepal. After that first week in the small town called Bitikarie we headed back to the main town of Salerie. This was a very nice town. It was the headquarters for the area of Solu. This town all sorts of wonderful things. Hot showers, internet, satellite phone, good food, and coke. We stayed a few days there before we headed out to our next destination. We went a village called Nelle. Now Nelle is a bazaar town and every Tuesday the village floods with people selling all sorts of goods and buying many others. The village is empty every other day of the week. We stayed for 4 days doing training with the local people. At one point we became the honored guests of the town. We were there during the Nepal version of Father’s Day. It’s mostly a Hindu holiday so not everyone celebrates it. Well this town was celebrating this holiday. We were roped into a meal as the honored guests. It was actually pretty cool. It was actually right after we had finished a great game of soccer. The field was one nasty place. The field was covered in rocks, giant puddles of water and mud, and random water lines. At one point I almost killed myself. I tried to pull the most epic save of the ball from going out of bounds. Remember how I told you how the field was covered in water and rocks, well that was an issue. I slide farther than expected and almost killed myself flying of a small cliff and into a building. It was epic though. After that we headed back to good old Salerie. While on the way there we discovered that our teammate, Alissa, had become very ill. We later discovered that she had a parasite. It was a not a good thing. She was to be heading back to Kathmandu with Jessica and Sanga. Me, Nathaniel, and our guide Pauldin would be heading out in a few days for a week of trekking. In the mean time we were resting and watching movies on Pauldin’s computer. That next week of trekking was going to be crazy. Everyday was a new village. Some days were short and easy, others were long and difficult. I would say the best part about that trip was the food. In one house we had great apples picked straight form the tree and bear meat. Yes bear meat. It had attached a woman the day before and they had shot it. It is the best meat I have had yet in Nepal. Going back to what I said earlier, on the last day I was in the area I got to see the full Himalaya range. Including Mount Everest. We had to get up pretty early to see it, but it was amazing. The snow capped peaks were absolutely gorgeous. I could see Everest’s peak far off in the distance. It was a wonderful way to start off the day. Half way through that same day we got to do some great swimming in a nice cold stream pouring down from the top of the mountain. We finished the day in a nice quiet hotel room watching an American made movie. It was one of the best days we had had yet while being there. The next day we were able to fly out a day early. Again it is nice to have friends in high places that are able to push you in front of the rest of the people that had been waiting days to get a flight home. This time we flew on a much smaller plane. It was an 8 passenger plane this time. We could actually stick our hand out the gap in the door. It was fun flight back to Kathmandu. Well that is the short version of our 21 day trip through the mountains. It was an amazing trip that was filled with many adventures. The trip was a great experience for me. The Lord did a lot of things in my personal life that will affect me for the rest of my life. I can truly see Him working in my life