Top of the World

Again, a kind of diary, a kind of travel report of my little trekking trip to Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) Base camp and through Sagarmatha National Park.So far, I wrote about the first two days, the rest will follow over the next days, as usual.

12.03.: Flight from Kathmandu (1400m) to Lukla (2840m), trekking to Namche Bazaar (3440m)

I decided not to make the Jiri-Trek (well, by now the Bandhar to Lukla Trek) and to fly to Lukla instead. Lukla Airport – officially the Tenzing-Hillary Airport - has the „honorary title“ most dangerous airport in the world and the flight is considered the first adventure of the Everest-Trek. Adventurous I don´t know, but spectacular for sure. Lukla is a STOL ( short take-off and landing ) airport, so it´s only served by small airplanes with STOL abilities. In a small aircraft you can really feel turbulences and they´re not uncommon in the Everest Region. So the flight can be quite bumpy. Personally, I like turbulences during flight.

Talking about the flight – the views are fantastic. Even the most dedicated trekker should do it at least in one direction. You fly past a beautiful, spectacular mountain range, the summits covered in eternal snow and ice. It´s the perfect preview of things to come. It puts you into the perfect mood.

Approaching Lukla, you fly past mountains just a few dozen meters away, and the landing on the airport is definitely special – the airstrip goes uphill, it inclines 12%. It´s a unique feature, no other (commercial) airport in the world has such a staggering incline. And it feels quite strange, somehow wrong. Not meant to be.

Leaving the airplane, the first thing you see is a huge crowd of locals gathered around the airport. Guides and porters looking for customers. Some of them – through connections, I guess – even made it to the luggage claim. Working in tourism is still the way to earn decent money – or a shitload for nepali standards. But contrary to India, it´s no hassle to walk through. A few “No guide, no porter” and that´s it, you´re past them.

And then it´s time to soak in the landscape, to open up, getting a little bit emotional for being on your way to the top of the world. Enjoying the great views of Karelung, Kongde Ri and Nupla as well as  the trekking through lush forest. But the trekkers “best friends” are back too – the stone steps. The steep stone steps. Going up and down. Again and again. The last part of today´s trek is another steep step of 600m up to Namche Bazaar. By then, I started feeling the 25 kg of my backpack – and there´s more [payload] to come. 1 kg of Kerosene and maybe an ice axe. And the only way to reduce it, is eating some of the food I carry.

Arriving in Namche, I realise a few things. First, it´ll be an expensive trek. As I learned later, the prices have at least doubled over the last two years. Then, there´s an ATM, but it isn´t working. But just a few meters away, you can get cash on your credit card for 10% commission. A coincidence? A mean person would ask how often do you have to sabotage an ATM in a remote area before the bank stops repairing it? I mean, 10% commission means a lot of money over the year. Very easy money.

In the lodge I got poisoned with black tea. For those who don´t know – my stomach reacts very ugly to black tea. So I repeated five times “no black tea in my ginger tea.” Thought I made it very clear. As it tasted strange and my stomach got upset I took a closer look, just to discover black tea. So, courtesy of professionalism, I spent two hours with an upset stomach. Promising start.

GPS-data: 25 km walking distance, 1331m ascent and 731m descent.

13.03.: Namche Bazaar to Khumjung (3780m) and back, further to Thame (3800m)

The morning was simply wonderful, with great views of Tartikha and Nupla. As it takes only about 3 hours from Namche Bazaar to Thame, I decided to do a little sidetrip up to Khumjung. I couldn´t go further than Thame to acclimatise (I´ve learned my lesson from Thorong La) and it seemed just not enough for a whole day.

The little sidetrip proved to be a little bit longer and a little bit more strenuous than expected, but the views – as always so far – made more than up for it. I don´t know how I can make other people understand how special and fantastic this landscape is. Especially the Ama Dablam is incredibly beautiful. A mighty pillar, majestically dominating the area. It´s one of the most beautiful mountains I´ve ever seen. And for a lot of people, it´s the most beautiful mountain in the world. And it spoke to me, saying “Climb me”. Very clearly.

In Khumjung, I discovered a prayer flag I just have to have. Not one of the cheapies you can find everywhere in abundance, waving on every spot, sold on every corner. I hope I´ll be able to find one, although I´ll have to ask for it specifically – which means the price will at least triple.

The windows in this area are very special. More window shields than actually windows – at least the traditional ones – and very colourful. Mostly yellow, green and red.

After paying homage to Sir Edmund Hillary at one of the many schools he founded and funded, I walked down through the countryside back to Namche Bazaar. After all, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Later than planed, at 12.30, I left for Thame. A nice trek through forests. Still, what you call nice in the Himalayas would be the highlight of many treks around the world. Too bad that clouds started closing in in the early afternoon. Close to Thame, I passed a small hydroplant from – Austria. So, it was Austria enlightening this part of the world… That was also the time when I started feeling the little sidetrip, after all I had done more than 2000m of altitude until then.

Nevertheless, I´m looking forward to tomorrow, attacking Sunder Peak (5368m). I hope my body will agree with the rapid change in altitude. Technically, it shouldn´t be a challenge as far as I know.

In the lodge, I met a group of germans from  “die Zone” - a group I´d meet again and again over the next two weeks. One son of the family managing the lodge is a monk in Kopan Gompa in Kathmandu. This monastery features in the documentary “Unmistaken Child”, telling the story of Tenzin Zopa and his four year long search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, his teacher and master. So, all together, we watch the DVD, having a movie evening in a remote sidevalley in Nepal. Interesting movie, but it felt somehow strange watching a movie in the Himalayas.

Travelplans

My trip is - sadly - coming to an end. At the moment, I´m back in Beijing for my russian visa (far more complicated than expected) and figuring out the rest of my trip and when I´ll start working again.

I still want to travel back home with the Trans-Sibirian Railway, leaving Beijing the 5th of may, spend a few days in Moscow and St. Petersburg (as many as I can afford), then fly to Munich and reach Bregenz in mid may. Then starting to work again.

How much of my planned itinereary in China I´ll be able to make I just don´t know - guess it´ll be far less than I initially hoped.

Unsorted traveltips #4 - Changing money in China

In theory, you can change money at many banks in China. If you want to change Dollars, Euros or Pounds, there´s no problem. But if you come with exotic currency, like from neighbouring countries - forget it. It´s literally worthless. The employees will look at it like at an exotic animal, maybe even ask their supervisor – but you´ll not get Renmimbis for it.

Unsorted traveltips #3 - Sightseeing in China

It´s not the smartest of all ideas to visit popular (especially with Chinese) sights in China on a week-end, let alone a popular holiday - unless you want to be in the middle of what the chines call “rén shān rén hăi” - a mountain of people and a sea of persons. Bus load after bus load of tour groups. Several guides speaking simultaneously over the cheapest wearable PA system little money can buy within a few meters around you. It is definitely an experience.

Unsorted travel tipps #2 - Busrides in Nepal

Never, ever take a bus ride in Nepal when (several) locals advise against it, saying that the road is bad. They´ll be right. And you will have to suffer through the consequences if you don´t listen to them. Believe me, I went through the purgatory of a bus ride between Bandhar and Jiri.