Kathmandu, Garden of Dreams, Pilgrims

First of all if my brother is reading this blog, I must say happy birthday to him.

"Happy Birthday Buk" catching up to me.........

mmm what did we do on our first day back in Kathmandu.............well we visited the "Garden of Dreams" which is a walled garden near the royal palace right in the heart of Kathmandu. Once stepping inside this oasis in the middle of chaos, you could be anywhere in the world. Immaculate manicured gardens and people just relaxing and enjoying the surrounds of this serenity. An elaborate Indian Wedding was being set up in the gardens so we watched the goings on of this for a while before we left.

We left and went for a drink at a famous place in Kathmandu, called "Fire and Ice", which was very nice. Will probably have to go back for an ice cream today as apparently the ice cream is good and SAFE to have there. After that we went back to our room and tizzied ourselves up to go out to a place called "Pilgrims Feed and Read" which was a groovy restaurant tucked in a garden at the back of a bookstore. Plenty to read and a great menu. We were lucky enough to have had live music in the form of a Sitar Player and a Tabla drummer to entertain us whilst eating our meal. I would have to say that this is one of the most authentic southern indian meals we have ever had. It was delicious. No power of course so it was a very romantic evening by candlelight.

Our Trek - Day 16

20th April, 2008 - Back to Kathmandu from Lukla on our twin otter plane loaded to the hilt. Got on the plane, jumped in my seat and guess what - NO SEATBELT to be found. I think I went into shock. There was absolutely nothing I could do as the only spare seat on the plane had been broken by some big guy just a moment ago. He was moved to a double seat at the front! Brad just kept me calm and we eventually landed in Kathmandu with no probs. In actual fact it was a pretty good flight with amazing views.......I just kept focusing on those views.

Once back in Kathmandu we were met by our Sherpa Guide, Dawa, who helped us back to our hotel through the crowds, beeping horns and polluted streets. Aaaah Kathmandu - It felt like coming home. Shower was first thing on the agenda....then absolutely nothing.

Our Trek - Day 15

19th April, 2008 - A day in Lukla...........well we thought that staying in Lukla would be a good idea as there seemed that there would be a few things to explore - WRONG! Our Sherpa Guide, Dawa managed to get himself onto a flight back to Kathmandu that morning but we were to hang around until tomorrow. The Porter, Kaljar stayed with us in order to help us get ourselves to the airport in the morning. Soooooooo our day was spent sun-tanning in the court yard of the hotel reading our books and watching the planes come in and out of Lukla. We did see a few sights though - the amount of children around the 35kg weight, carrying goods from the airport into town (weights of approximately 50kg) on their backs. Training to be Porters maybe!!!!!! Very hard work. We also met up with a few people whom we had met somewhere along the trail and had a few drinks with them. The next day we were to fly out to Kathmandu at 8.00am - I think we were both now ready for that....a hot shower, a warm double bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Our Trek - Days 3 & 4

8th April 2008 - Rest day in Namche spent shopping, eating and drinking coffee, sleeping and then off to Park Headquarters (the highest point in Namche) to take in the spectacular views of Mt Everest and the surrounding mountains.

9th April 2008 - Off we go again - We made our way to Thamu, where we had been earlier invited for tea.. by the Head Lama and a lady from America who was staying with the nuns at the local nunnery. It was a real treat as we were ushered into the Prayer Hall where we were served tea and snacks. Once finished our tea, our friend showed us around the hall and gave us a run down on the different aspects, fixtures and ways of the Buddist faith. When we went to leave the nun who was present for the duration we were there, poured holy water into our hands and gave us a blessing. We were to taste the water and put the remainder through our hair.

From the prayer hall we were shown through the new Monastry being built which had been designed by the head lama. It was magnificent to see and we hope to return one day to see the finished product.

On leaving Thamu we continued on our journey to Thame, where we were to stay for the evening. The walk to Thame was really pleasant, through pine forests and we managed to catch sight of a musk deer grazing in the forest which was a buzz. We arrived at Thame with headaches at about lunch time. We put the headaches to rest with some panadol then wandered through this tiny medieval looking village. I'm not sure if anyone realizes but there has been a bit of political tension around the place and this has been due to the impending elections which were to take place tomorrow in Kathmandu. Voting in Thame was to take place at the local school....which we quickly learn't, as Brad was ushered off the grounds by military. We decided after lunch and a bit of a sleep to take a stroll up to 3900m and check out the Gompa Monastry on the top of the hill which was certainly worth the walk. Early night was had in preparation for tomorrow.

The Trek Begins - Day 1

6th April 2008 - Our day started very early with a 4.30 wake up call ready for transfer to the Kathmandu airport where we were to fly out to Lukla - the starting point of our 16 day trek in the Everest region of the Himalayas.

My god, you should have seen my face when I saw the plane we were going on!! It was a twin otter, approx 12 seats, run by Yeti Airlines. We were fortunate enough to have had the first flight out of Kathmandu which was ok, as they only fly until the weather turns sour. The weather turned sour at about 11.00am that day, so visibility was nil. No more flights to Lukla for that day! The flight itself wasn't as bad as what I thought it would be. It cracked me up that they had a airline hostess on board even though there was practically no room for her to move between the seats to offer lollies and cotton wool. The landing was very eventful - it was the smallest runway I have ever seen and plonked on a nice slope.

Once inside the baggage claim area we were greated by our Sherpa Guide Ang Dawa and Porter Kaljar, then taken to the Sherpa Coffee Shop for a briefing on our trek and some breakfast. By the time we were ready to take off on our trek it was pouring with rain AND it didn't stop all day, so we donned the ponchos over the trekking gear and off we went. Our Porter carrying our duffel bags of approx 22 kilo's and a gamow bag 7 kilo's (gamow bag is a little pressure chamber which simulates lower altitude). I had asked for one of these to be taken on our trek, as before leaving home, my blood pressure had been unusually high which caused me a little bit of concern.

So off we went........up and down, through villages for approx 7 hours until we reached our first destination...a little village called Monjo where we were to stay at a little tea-house. It was pretty cold in there for us....after walking all day in the rain, what with sweating at some stages and then freezing at others! It took 2 cups of tea and 2 changes of clothing and when someone eventually lit the fire, before I actually felt a bit of warmth. Once feeling warm and pretty happy that we managed a 7 hour trek, I decided to ask for a COLD BEER. The guide took a beer straight out of the cabinet and gave it to me. I said to Brad....oooh I don't know if I'll be able to drink that - it hasn't been in the fridge....just have to have cold beer. The tea-house people though it was very funny as they never refrigerate beer in the Himalayas due to the altitude. Oh how stupid of me - I opened the beer and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was VERY cold!

Kathmandu

Aaahh Kathmandu - the atmosphere of this place is unreal. After getting used to the idea of limited power as they load shed daily here, unreliable mobile phone connection, tiger balm sellers, hash sellers and the like we are totally in love with this place. Our first day in Kathmandu we were transferred from the Airport to Tibet Guest House which is located just off one of the busiest streets in the Thamel area. Just away enough so we could get a decent nights sleep, but just close enough to all the most popular restaurants and shopping areas of Kathmandu. Most of our afternoon was spent getting our bearings and trying to work out the Rupee against the Aussie dollar and then a quite night.

The next day we met our Sherpa guide, Nima, who is a lovely man. He met us at our guest house for coffee, then took us back to his office to organise all the formalities of our up and coming trek to EBC. Once the formalities were out of the way, he invited us to meet his family and join them for a meal - wow traditional nepalize food. I love my indian curries, but this may have even surpassed the ol indian curry!! Nima and his family are lovely people and I would gladly recommend his company to anyone wanting good, reliable service for trekking and mountaineering. After lunch Nima's daughter (Chookie) took us for a stroll over to one of the most holy Stupa's in Kathmandu. This was a great experience for us, as her great grandfather on her mother's side was one of the gurus way back and there was a picture and statue of him in the temple. She was able to share a wealth of knowledge with us and even got us in through the back door...whereby as a foreigner we would usually be charge an entrance fee of course. After that we made our way back to the Thamel area and went up to the roof top garden at the top of our hotel which offers magnificant views of the Kathmandu valley. We met a party of 7 Aussies up there who were off to trek Annapurna region. They had an interesting story to tell - they all met whilst trekking the Kokoda Trail 2 years prior and had reunited to do this trek. After speaking with them, Brad and I took off for dinner. Just had to have some western food, so indulged in Pizza and red wine at the "Roadhouse Cafe" which is a very popular cafe in Thamel - again I can highly recommend the food at this place.

Next day Nima came to visit us and took us for breakfast at a Hotel where he does a lot of business. Our breakfast was provided by the hotel free of charge because of Nima. He then booked us in there for our return from our Everest Trek. We then went and got the rest of our hiking gear. Nima suggested walking poles which we got and a windbreaker jacket.

After shopping (one of my favourite passtimes), we took a Rickshaw up to the Monkey Temple which was about 20 minutes away from the city. After climbing the million steps up to the top of the temple we were suitably impressed. It certainly set the mood. We decided to walk back to Thamel after visiting the temple to give us a little warm up for the trek. The walk was only about 45 minutes, so not too bad. Lunch was next at a local Nepalise cafe called Himalaya Cafe which served up good honest cheap nepalise food. After our lunch we popped into the bustling internet cafe as it had POWER on...............(huge thing in Kathmandu...and Skype, so we could contact our boys and my mum. Its always a buzz to see them, gotta luv Skype. Now its time to stroll out and peruse the shops..mmmmm more shops...