100 Countries Together

Had a wonderful opportunity to tour the historic sites around Kathmandu today. So much was destroyed by the earthquake and the funding for restoration is, at best, only trickling in. What remains are some exquisite architectural sites as well as many of the most fantastic examples of craftsmanship ever assembled. There are a few examples shown here.

Below is craftsmanship, however applied in a very different way. I have been assured that my migraines will be cured by placing this brass bowl on my head, banging the bowl with a stick, and letting the vibrations carry the pain away. It sounds (and looks) crazy, but it is actually oddly soothing.

This is us at the highest point on our trek, Kala Patter, 18500 feet. That’s Everest behind Eric.

Here we are yesterday morning at Base Camp. That’s Everest behind me.

And thinking that six days without a hot shower was enough, and since down would be a repeat of up (and extremely hard on various old joints) we opted for an exhilarating helicopter ride back to Lukla.

More when we have more reliable internet, but the Starbucks (a pretty good knock off) in Lukla seems pretty good!  BTW for some odd reason there are some outstanding bakeries at the various villages along the trail.

We have now trekked as far as the small village of Dingboche (elevation 4300m). We spend another day here tomorrow to acclimatize before our last push to Base Camp. We have had wonderful weather so far ( the somewhat unreliable forecast calls for rain on the day we are supposed to make base camp), the trek hasn’t been too taxing, and our food and lodging, although basic, have been clean and friendly.

Yesterday, we took a short hike to Ana Dablam Base Camp. Ana Dablam is the sacred mountain of Nepal and Tibet. The vistas were breathtaking, and we will have to spend a lot of time sorting out all the various mountain peaks we saw from our picnic spot in an alpine meadow.

Everest

Ana Dablam

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By the way, on our hike yesterday we heard a commotion from the Everest Base Camp trail, and got to see a few of the 59 Nepali Runners participating in the Everest Marathon. They started at Everest Base Camp and ran to Namche! Wow!

Sorry – it looks like the photos of the Hilary Bridge and Everest didn’t come across in the last post…

So much to post, so little bandwidth…

We just finished our third day of trekking, will be spending an extra day here in Namche Bazar to acclimatize – we are now at almost 12000 feet elevation. The weather has been cooperating so far, and once we crossed the Hilary Bridge (it is the top one in the picture), we were afforded our first glimpse of Everest.

At least we could cross on our own, without a lot of other people or livestock to make it bounce more or sway back and forth.

There is a lot of foot traffic along the way – mainly of the four legged variety.

By the way, can anyone tell us if we are going to be able to leave Nepal? There is an informal blockade at the Indian border where Nepal gets most of its supplies. We hear that gasoline is now rationed in Kathmandu, but that there is enough aviation fuel for domestic flights for the month. But no word on international flights. Send us a comment if you see anything in the news.

It may take some imagination – but you are looking at the lunar eclipse taken from the plane on our flight from Philadelphia to Doha.

We have arrived safely in Kathmandu – have tomorrow to explore before we set off on our trek.

Off for our 13 hour flight to Doha – then another 5 to Kathmandu.

This and 4 or 5 movies should get us through the first leg!

Yes, like the title states, we are going to make a second attempt at Everest Base Camp!

Since we put the trip together at the spur of the moment (we knew someday we would return – but there has been an almost daily debate about when), it has been somewhat chaotic getting everything together for the trip and preparations are somewhat disorganized (see below).

The good news is that unlike the trip in April, the temperatures in Gorakshep have only dipped below freezing one evening this month (unlike the 8 to 18 degree range in April).  Now, if the monsoon season cooperates and it stops raining in the next week, we can hope for clear blue skies for our trek.

We hear that will be sporadic Wi-fi access along the trail, so perhaps you will see some updates during our trek.

We should also get to two additional countries, Tibet (China) and Qatar.  That will take our total together to 62!

Follow long with our itinerary…

Wish us luck!

It’s official.

We’re back.

Actually, it has been a little over a week, but now that all the holiday laundry is washed, ironed, and put away; the mail all sorted and only a few magazines left to peruse; and the cat only spends a few hours a day (instead of the entire day) at the front door anxiously awaiting the arrival of our neighbors to play with her.

We are back to dealing with the unfinished home improvement projects, yard maintenance and deer destruction deterrent, getting back into a workout schedule, and yes, determining when we will attempt Everest Base Camp a second time. Will it be October of this year, or April of next? Stay tuned.

As I sort through the 1168 photos that were taken on our journey, watch for a few of them in the “Countries We Have Visited” section.

Thanks again to all for your concern for us while we were in Nepal.

Do you think you can triangulate where we were?