Friday, October 17, 2014

Everest Base Camp Trek

While I've been home in Seattle for almost a month, I wanted to take time for the Everest Base Camp blog. EBC was a big trip... almost two weeks. And one of those weeks was without showers or reliable running water.  (Thank God for hand sanitizer!)

As posted before, due to bad weather we had to take a helicopter to a helipad an hour South of Lukla to get to the Himalayas. We spent the first night in a small guesthouse in the middle of nowhere, but it was cute. Most of the places we stayed were incredibly spartan, though. The rooms usually had a couple of twin mattresses and a couple of pillows, but not much else. Some included blankets, but we usually used our sleeping bags that we brought with. Bathrooms were typically at the end of the hall... (but more on this later)

The scenery and the hiking were amazing. There were beautiful religious symbols throughout the mountains, put there by Sherpas, and whenever we came across a wall of inscriptions, we would have to keep to the left due to religious reasons.

Every day we would hike between 6 and 9 hours, leaving early in the morning and stopping for lunch. Oftentimes dogs would accompany us on the walk- according to our guide, Durga, the dogs will follow groups of Westerners up the mountains for a couple of hours before heading home. They seemed to have a good time, running along with us. The dogs in the mountains were way cuter than the dogs in Thailand or Laos! Bigger and fuzzier and much friendlier.


Nick and I had hired a porter and a guide through Simrik Real Nepal Tours- I really liked our porter and guide, but it was expensive to hire them through the company, and I don't know how good the value of our tour was (we paid about $1000 each, and it included a tour guide, a porter, flights to and from Luka- but not the helicopter ride- and a couple nights' 1-star accommodation in Kathmandu).

Our porter was Pisaal. (Not sure if that's how you spell his name, but it's pronounced "Pee-sawl".) He is a native to the Himalayas and regularly does treks, including to Everest Base Camp (EBC). Nick and I managed to get all of our stuff- including 2 sleeping bags, 2 down jackets, toiletries, shoes and clothes- into our duffel, and Nick was worried that the 18 kg bag was too much for Pisaal. But then we were walking up the hikes and porters carrying 40 kgs+ were passing us and he didn't feel so bad.

Our guide, Durga, was from a different part of Nepal (I can't remember the name) so he had to take a bus to meet us in Kathmandu. He was incredibly helpful and kind and excited to show us the Himalayas.

Our trip went like this : arrived in helipad area > 1st night in small town close to Pakding> Namche Bazaar (for 2 nights, to acclimatize to the height)> Tengboche > Dingboche> Lobuche> Gorak Shep (Everest Base Camp)> Tengboche> Jorsale> Lukla. 10 nights in all- our trek went pretty quickly because there were only two of us, and we kept a pretty good pace. A lot of other groups were taking a couple extra rest days, which might've helped us, but we had a tight schedule so that Nick could return to work on time.

The hikes included high suspension bridges over rivers and ravines, lots of rocky areas and beautiful forestry. There was even a rhododendron forest! (In fact, the weather and landscape reminded me a lot of the Pacific Northwest.)

This was Namche Bazaar, the biggest town along the trek. It even had a nearby helipad where food and clothing was flown in from Kathmandu! Water in Namche Bazaar was 100 rupee ($1) per bottle, cheaper than anywhere else in the mountains, and it was the last city on the trek where we could eat meat (without getting sick).

Our room at the Hotel Camp de Base- super basic, but easily the nicest place we stayed at during our trek. It had an en suite bathroom! No showers or hot water but it was still awesome!

The menus on the trek were practically identical- a lot of carbs, which was probably good, because some of the meat was questionable, and fresh uncooked vegetables was a HUGE mistake in Nepal (a lesson I learned in Kathmandu before the trek, resulting in massive food poisoning).
Menu at Gorak Shep, our overnight location near Everest Base Camp.

This was "Tibetan bread", which I had practically every breakfast. Delicious doughiness.

The menus also included: pizza (which was sketch and Asian but whatever it's fake pizza), spaghetti/ macaroni, vegetable dal baat (rice, curry and lentils), fried potatoes and basic breakfasts. And the typos were all identical in every lodge we stayed at:

 The "deserts" were all pretty piss-poor. I hoarded up on chocolate when we were in Namche- the Snickers bars for sale were all several months past their expiration date, but damn they were good.

The bathrooms.
Let's talk, for a minute, about the bathrooms.
I hate- HATE- the bathrooms. Most of them were manual flush, something we had a lot of in Laos, or squatty potties, which I think is just a small step up from using a hole in the ground. Gross.

How manual flush toilets work, for those unfamiliar with them: (this is in Nepal, not everywhere)
There is a massive bucket full of supposedly clean water next to the toilet. There is a pail in it. To flush the toilet, you have to take the pail, fill it with water from the bucket, and dump it in the toilet. This is way freaking harder than you would think, mostly because "dumping water" at the right amount requires practice. If you dump the water too fast, there is splash back. If you dump the water too slow, it won't be as effective and it will take literally ten times of pail-dumping to flush a toilet.

Nick, having to pull the pail out of the bucket of water by submerging his arm in questionably clean water... it was a gross nightmare for both of us.

Also, this was Dingboche, where I got altitude sickness and went on Diamox. HUGE fan of Diamox, and also porridge.

Along the trek we would pass porters and caravans of yaks. Could get nerve-wracking when the yaks were higher than us, in rocky areas.

When we finally got to EBC, I was kind of disappointed to find there was no sign or monument to mark the spot. There was a big rock with a bunch of prayer flags, but there were a lot of those along the trek. There were, however, some incredibly beautiful glaciers.

When Nick and I arrived at EBC we felt like we needed to do something sweet to mark the occasion.
So we planked. For about 30 seconds, though: the air up there is incredibly thin and it's hard to breathe while walking, never mind planking.

Mountain views while standing on Everest. Most badass moment I think I've ever felt.

The day after we got to EBC and spent the night at Gorak Shep, we got up at 4:30am to do a morning hike up Kalapathar, a tall mountain that overlooks Everest... when the weather is nice. But the weather wasn't nice, and I was tired, and Nick was starting to get altitude sickness, and the sunrise sucked anyway, so we didn't even make it halfway up Kalapathar before turning back.

In fact, the weather sucked for pretty much most of our trek. We didn't even SEE Everest until Day 8, when we were back in Tengboche, even though we had already been to Base Camp. After that, though, the weather was wonderful and the views were great.
Standing in front of Everest.

 Glorious.

I'm not an avid fan of multi-day trekking, though I do love camping, so my opinion may vary from very outdoorsy types. But I will say this: Everest Base Camp trek was hard. Getting food poisoning in Kathmandu and altitude sickness on the trek sucked. The hiking wasn't incredibly difficult but it was 6 to 10 hours a day, and most people on the trail were pretty fit. We saw no trekkers with kids, and there's good reason for that. The accommodation is spartan and the food becomes monotonous. The desire for a hot shower becomes stronger and stronger as one gets sweatier and sweatier. It can be incredibly frustrating to hike in rain and clouds and not be able to see Everest until days after you've stood on Everest.

Overall, though, it was awesome. Probably the hardest trip I will ever do- Nick and I have agreed that any future hiking/ camping trips should be done for two nights maximum, or else have access to a nice shower. But Nick was the best travel partner I could've asked for- he was a total pro at all things Himalaya, and was so incredibly supportive during the trip.
And now we've seen Everest and checked "Nepal" off of our list...

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Mehendi in Nepal

So for my last 24 hours in Nepal (Asia, really) I decided to get mehendi/ henna at a spa near my hotel. 


Then this morning, whilst souvenir shopping, the store clerk looked at my hand/ arm and told me, 'this isn't mehendi season.' 


And I laughed and told him that it was last day in Nepal so I wanted to do something fun. But he was so adamant that 'this isn't mehendi season!' that he called his sisters over to confirm that it is not, apparently, mehendi season anymore.


Sigh.


Friday, September 19, 2014

Everest (yay!)

Once I have access to a computer in Seattle I will post a more in-depth summary of our 12-day Everest trek, but for now I'll just say: Mission Accomplished!

Everest Base Camp, 9/14/2014

Also we tried to do planks at Everest Base Camp but really high altitude= low oxygen= 20 sec planks.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Helicopter ride to Lukla

After day 2 of waiting in the Kathmandu airport for 5 hours only to have our flight to Lukla cancelled due to bad weather, we arranged a helicopter to take us for $300 each. 


Our captain was Capt KC Madan, the same pilot who rescued the injured people on the Everest expedition team in 1996 that was the focus of the book 'Into Thin Air'. Since I'm currently reading that book right now it was extra awesome :)

Also I got to sit in front! With the other headset!

Incredible views the whole way

Nick fell asleep for the second half

We landed an hour south of Lukla at another helipad- it was surreal

Saturday, September 6, 2014

The Royal Penguin Boutique Hotel 2

Located in Kathmandu, and way more $$$ that I was intending to spend on our hotel, but when I saw pics / reviews on Agoda I couldn't NOT stay there

Bed (cross between Fast and the Furious and Toy Story)

Bed at night (there's a Nick lying in it)

Weird but wonderful menu

Choose the level of sociability you want with the staff

Menu included 'smashing plates', 'Christmas' (they bring a fresh Christmas tree and everything, any time of year), a 'bowling night' (price includes a bowling partner) and a shopping partner...

View from the room

Artic themed restaurant (which had a breakfast that was out of this world!)


Kathmandu !

Where there is a 12 hr 45 min difference between Seattle and Nepal!


And our hotel, the Royal Penguin 2, has the weirdest room service menu ever



Thursday, September 4, 2014

8 best restaurant foods in Vientiane

I did a blog post a while ago about my favorite restaurants in Vientiane -http://katiesasianadventures.blogspot.com/2013/09/top-five-restaurants-in-vientiane.html?m=1 - but when I arrived back in Vientiane last week I made a new list of the specific foods I absolutely HAD to have.

1. Pimenton: steak, manchego custard and the milk chocolate bread pudding. I love 90% of the things on the Pimenton menu (and sometimes when they change the menu they get rid of my favorites). But the manchego custard appetizer and the bread pudding are two of my favorite foods in the world: 
Manchego custard

Milk chocolate bread pudding with whiskey sauce

2. Xang Khoo: crepes.  My favorites are the Savoyarde and the Presale (which is almost more of a salad than anything). The thing I love about this restaurant is that they are great with big groups- I came here for my birthday last year :)

Crepe Savoyarde (ham, potatoes, melted cheese)

3. Ban Gai: UFO at best Tex Mex in Asia. I unfortunately didn't have enough time to go there this week but I did have my 'leaving Laos' dinner here back in June. The UFO (unidentified fried object), which is like a deep fried burrito stuffed with bacon, beans, cheese and topped with guacamole and queso, is SO good but also SO unhealthy so I usually ask to split it with someone.

4. Masa Spoon: dinner dishes, especially the duck breast. Man, I love duck breast. The restaurant itself is really sweet, too. Unfortunately there was a fire here last Thursday so the restaurant was closed all week.

5. Chok Dee: mussels (on the weekend), Flemish stew, goat salad. We were here on a Monday so no mussels but I love that it is around 100,000 kip ($13) for a kilo of mussels!
Goat cheese salad

Flemish stew (served with fries and gingerbread)

6. Le Banneton: brunch or the lunch sandwiches/tartines. Incredible French menu. (Ran out of time)

7. Soul Kitchen: my favorite pizza in Vientiane. Particularly the quirky pizzas, like the Big Apple (apple slices and Gorgonzola cheese) or the Hannibal Lecter (meat lover pizza to the extreme)
I got this on my first night back in Vientiane but didn't take any pictures...

8. Lao Kitchen: laap, and Lao food in general. It's a bit more touristy (esp due to location) so it's pricier but the people speak English and the food is clean. And I love getting their duck laap with morning glory and sticky rice. The mango with sticky rice for dessert is delicious too :)
Duck laap and morning glory

There are other runner ups, both restaurants in general (I visited the Joma coffee shop at least 3 times) and food from street stalls (the chocolate paratha from the Nazim food vendor/ across from Salana Boutique hotel is sooooo good) but I feel like I did good by Vientiane by visiting my favorites.  I even tried a new burger joint called Sputnik which has a $23 burger with foie gras and bacon peanut butter ! (And killer chocolate shakes)

Between all the food and no gym, I probably gained a couple pounds in the process, too, but Nick and I are both about to do a LOT of walking...