Nepal
March 2010
We arrived to Nepal from India by train, and took a 8h bus to Kathmandu from across the border.
The bus broke and was slow, resulting in 14h trip, in the dark on cliff-edge roads without barriers, arriving to Kathmandu in the middle of the night with electricity off (Kathmandu electricity goes on and off during the day with planned intervals).
After a day, we took a flight to Lukla (elevation 2700m), the closest airstrip to Everest. Lukla is not accessible by road, so you either fly or walk for two weeks from the nearest road.
We hiked the Everest trail with a local Sherpa guide, who offered his services right after our arrival. It is easy to find a way without, but it was fun to have him.
In 4-5 days climbing up and down river valleys we reached Tengboche monastery at 4200m, the last populated place before the Everest base camp. It was amazing to attend the 5am prayers of the Buddhist monks, drinking tea with them, realizing that the only way to get there is by hiking for many days.
On the trail, food and water prices increase exponentially with height, so water purifier is a must. We spent two nights at the monastery climbing nearby peaks, then mountain sickness of one of us forced us back to Lukla only to find that flights were delayed. The Sherpa guide turned out to be alcoholic and was showing us "Sherpa beers" and "Sherpa whiskeys" made of fermented rice in every village.
Back in Kathmandu, we enjoyed cheap food again, excellent clothes, great stupas and temples.
Planes to Lukla from Kathmandu seem to crash from time to time. The one that we took by Agni Air crashed after two weeks. The flight is indeed seems to be difficult, navigating between the World's highest mountains.
