I’m not going to lie to you. I think the Everest trek was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my entire life. It wasn’t so much physically the hardest--running the NYC Marathon probably takes that honor--but unlike the marathon, I couldn’t go home after 4 1/2 hours and take a hot shower (or cold ice bath as the case may be.) Of course, it also was a physical challenge as we were sometimes climbing up and downhill for six or seven hours a day, but it was much more than that. It was a huge emotional challenge dealing with freezing cold nights, a lack of showers after sweating all day with nothing to wear but dirty clothes that couldn’t be washed and dried on time. By the final few days of the trek I was ready to get back down to Kathmandu. The last two nights I actually had strange, non-sequitur dreams I was back home that made me really homesick when I woke up and found myself actually lodged in an ice cold snow-capped mountain range. I was quite happy when we made it down a few days early and were able to get a flight back to the city where I figured I would be able to rest and recover.
Once I made it to Kathmandu it wasn’t all sunshine and roses as I had hoped. It was still quite cold at night (though not as cold as the mountains) since the guesthouse where I was staying had no heat. It wasn’t too bad outside in the sun during the day, but the rooms inside didn’t capture any heat at all to keep them warm at night. I was able to take a warmish shower the first day I got back, but as the hot water was controlled by solar power, I didn’t even bother to try for a shower the other three days I stayed there. The city was also dealing with increasingly lengthy power cuts of up to five or six hours every day. Even though the hostel had a generator, it often didn’t last through the outage and there were quite a few candlelit dinners and dark nights in our room. Of course Kathmandu continued to go on at the same frenzied pace out on the street with cars constantly honking and motor bikes whizzing by. It really made me appreciate the basic amenities we take totally for granted back home.
Luckily the woman who ran the guesthouse, Sarita, was very hospitable and welcoming. The first two days that I was back, she took me and some of the other guests sightseeing around the city. The first day we went to the Swayambhu Stupa, which is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in the country. Like the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur, there were tons of monkeys all over the grounds and no lack of people either since it was the day of the monthly full moon festival. Afterward we went to a hill village just outside Kathmandu where there were more Buddhist and Hindu temples. The following day we went to the Boudha Stupa, which is a very important site for Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal. Many monks and villagers from the Himalayas come on pilgrimages to worship at the temple. We then went to a Hindu crematorium, but since it was a bit pricey to get in, we decided we could do without seeing dead bodies being burned. I was still not feeling well, dealing with both my head cold and stomach problems so I went home early while a group of Thai tourists went with Sarita into the city center.
I spent my last two days in Kathmandu running errands such as sending a package home for Christmas, selling my hiking boots and trying to get some tapes dubbed onto DVD so that I can start to edit them. With my new computer I no longer have the correct cable to connect my video camera to the computer so I currently have to find other ways to digitize video. It turned out not to be a success in Kathmandu because when I went to pick up the tapes before leaving for India, the guy at the store told me he didn’t have HD capabilities. I’m currently trying to get it sorted now in Varanasi.
I had originally planned to take a bus and/or train from Kathmandu to Varanasi, India, on Tuesday, but when I learned I would have to either take two 10-12 hour buses or two buses and a train, I opted to spring for the one-hour flight instead. I figured since I wasn’t feeling that great, spending 30 hours on public transit would do little to help that situation. In the end I feel it was the right decision, though I did have a bit of a scare when I arrived at the airport 1 3/4 hours before my flight only to see it listed on the board as leaving at 1:15pm instead of the scheduled 2:25pm. Until (and even after) I got into the airport (there was a line outside to get through security) and got my boarding pass I thought my flight was leaving in half an hour. Fortunately the board was clearly wrong as the flight did not depart until 2:30pm. Given my luck with international flights, an incorrect departure time was the last thing I needed to see upon arriving at the airport.
I've just posted some photos from the first half of my trek if you want to check them out. I will try to post some more soon. I don't get wifi at my hostel in Varanasi so I am currently camping out at a restaurant and fear I may have overstayed my welcome.
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