The Big Jump

After all those days of hiking it was time for some play-time.

First we went bungee-jumping. It was just some random idea we came up with during an afternoon of walking around Kathmandu. I still can't believe I did it. It looks so innocent until they strap that huge rubber hose around your ankles and tell you to jump. I nearly said forget about it and walked away. Eventually I closed my eyes and leaped off the suspension bridge, happily surviving to tell the tale.  

Best parts: Asking the "Bungee Master" how many times he'd bungee jumped before. His answer? Never. A close second was signing the consent form that said that I understood how "bungee jumping is nothing more than jumping off a cliff with a rubber chord strapped to your feet."

If that's enough, try watching this. The first shot shows the bungee.

Molly Mountaineer

Let me start off by saying I've been very blessed to have such a great travelling partner. Evan and I have two completely different travel styles that somehow manage to work together almost flawlessly. Firstly, I LOVE to plan and Evan doesn't. So basically I plan it all and he is the navigator which means I normally get to decide where we're going and what we'll see and Evan does the arguing and bartering with rickshaw drivers and hotel staff. Sweet deal, right?

Anyways.......Months before we left Korea, I was busily researching and making itineraries for this India and Nepal trip. To my horror, Evan popped his head over my shoulder and asked that question that I'd been dreading "Hey, Everest is in Nepal right? I wan't to go there! Lets do that!" Fudge Fudge Fudge! I'm usually down for anything but I'm certainly no Molly Mountaineer! How do I turn him down on this one? 

A couple months later and I'm on a bus for 9 hours heading to the trailhead at a place called Jiri. Not only had I been brainwashed into the idea of going to Everest region, I had also somehow decided that we needed to add on an extra 10 day walk to all this fun in order really do Everest like the pioneers. At our first pee-break I found myself standing on the side of the road peeing next to all my female Nepali counterparts, again asking the question of "what the fudge have I gotten myself into here!" 

Trekking in Nepal was an absolutely life-changing experience. I'm not going to be all cliche and say that I found myself in the mountains or got closer to God or anything like that but it was definately the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. The first 10 days were a grueling, awful, delightful walk from the trailhead at a village called Jiri to a place called Lukla (where the majority of people start out on the adventure to Everest). We then continued on for another 12 days or something to get up close and personal with the Himalaya. Our original plan was to see Gokyo (glacier lakes at one side of Everest) as well as Base Camp (and Kala Pattar, both on the other side of Everest). After the long walk-in from Jiri we were just so tired of walking, being cold, and being surrounded by other tourists that we decided to scratch Base Camp and Kala Pattar off the list content with all we'd seen in Gokyo and head back to Kathmandu for warm food, clean clothes and hot showers. 

A few pictures 
(some reflections and helpful tips can be found at the end)



Shepherd lady in the forest during our walk from Jiri



Gokyo Lakes



Getting close to Gokyo!



A porter getting his gear ready to leave Namche Bazzar

Our favorite teahouse in Goyom.


Highlights


Visiting a monastery in the hills around Junbesi
Finding rosti and apple pie
Lemon tea
Coconut crunchees


Favorite Parts 

- The walk from Jiri. We had the trail and lodges to ourselves and got to know alot of really friendly Nepali families

- Staying in Goyom (part of the walk from Jiri) and feeling like we were so far away from it all 

- Taking an extra day (or 2) in Namche Bazaar to drink cappucinos, eat pastries, score Western treats like Diet Coke and Haribo candies and wander around the Friday night Bazaar

- Scoring a room with our own private bathroom in Namche for 300 rupees during high-season

Least Favorite Parts
- The blisters I received on my heels that resembled stigmata and made me cry like a little girl on several occasions
- The freezing, frigid, blistering cold
- The massive groups of fellow tourists travelling en masse all around us
- Crazy prices as you got higher into the mountains (12 dollars for a pot of tea---are you serious????) 

- Altitude sickness, and just generally feeling like a bag of crap for days on end

Costs

Our bus ticket cost less than 5 dollars to get to Jiri and then our plane ticket (bought directly from the airline) was about 130 dollars for the ride from Lukla back to Kathmandu. We had a hard time spending 15 dollars a day between the two of us on the walk from Jiri-Lukla. Rooms were never more than 100 rupees (less than 2 dollars) and most meals never cost more than 2 or 3 dollars. When you got into the pop or apple pie that brought costs up a bit but it wasn't bad. Showers were also pretty cheap at about 50-100 rupees (or sometimes free) until we hit Lukla. Once we got to Lukla the costs soared and we were probably spending about 20-25 dollars per day each. We brought enough for 30$/day per person and had quite a bit of money left over at the end. We heard of a girl that got as far as Kalla Pattar and had to turn around because she had ran out of money. More is better in this case! 

Practicalities

There is absolutely no way you need a guide for this trek as you can easily find your way on your own. Probably even with a blindfold. You may however decide that you want to hire a porter, which we opted not to. Evan was hellbent on carrying his own gear and I was being bull-headed and not wanting to be a wimp so we decided to go it completely on our own. Anyone can easily carry their own bag but I think it might have been a little extra enjoyable if I wasn't so weighed down by my heavy bag. If you decide to do the trek unsupported, know that finding rooms and all of that is not a problem on your own as much as a trekking agency would like to have you believe otherwise. Some will argue that hiring staff for the trek adds to the cultural experience but we didn't feel like we missed out. By not having a guide or porter catering to us the whole time, we had a chance to stay at more intimate tea-houses and get to know the families living there fairly well. We also felt like we had a more flexible schedule, because we could decide to take a rest day if we wanted to without worrying about when our staff had to be finished the trek or having to pay for an extra day. One thing was clear to us, you couldn't have paid us to go on a fully organized group trip (think Gap Adventures or other similar outfits).

Tips

- Chlorine tabs are cheap, easy to use and safe for that pretty environment you've come so far to see. Please don't be the arsehole drinking bottled water all day long.
- Work those boots in like no tomorrow before hitting the trails or you're going to be an unhappy camper
- Don't be an ass to your fellow hikers or lodge-owners. You are in the mountains, this is not the Hilton!  
-  If you're a lady bring the Whiz-Free and you'll never look back

A Kathmandu Birthday

Arriving in Kathmandu had us both feeling incredibly overwhelmed. I don't think anything could have prepared us for that first day, and it's not like this was our first time outside of Canada or in a developing country either. After something like 36 hours of planes and customs lineups, we exited the Kathmandu airport to find that our pre-arranged taxi was not there. We kept our cool as one of the airport workers pushed us into this massive crowd of Nepalis who were all trying to get us into their cabs. We spent 20 minutes crammed into a car with a tout breathing down our necks and chatting our ears off about trekking, national park trips, volunteering at orphanages and great hotels until he ran out of breath and realized we weren't biting.

We basically got into town, had something to eat and crashed. The next morning we woke up and started chipping away at our to-do list of renting gear for the trek, buying bus and flight tickets, and so on. We had a woman chasing us down the street begging for milk for her baby, saw a dog that had died and was thrown into a heap of trash. And then we saw a man sitting in a pile of garbage on the side of the road eating what was leftover after the dogs and cows had had their fill. 2:30 came around before we remembered it was my birthday. After those first 24 hours I think we were both wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into for the next 3 months!"

We arrived back to our hotel and I checked my facebook to find this

My incredible co-teachers at Kids Club had put this together to surprise me on Facebook for my birthday. I was so stunned, I mean how amazing is this?? These are all my past and present kindergarteners. And I thought they'd forgotten about me already haha.

Anyways, we had time to take a deep breath and got ready for the trek and things started looking up. If someone had told me that first day that I could actually fall in love with Kathmandu I probably would have started rolling on the floor in laughter (more maybe tears?). However Kathmandu turned out to be a really great place that we really enjoyed in the end and we had a really hard time leaving.

Kathmandu Guide 

Highlight


Laundry service: Having my bra washed after something like 23 days of hiking. Warm showers.

Sleeping

We liked Hotel Nepalaya for a cheap nicer hotel. We had to leave eventually as the 15/night price was a bit steep for our budget. We checked out some of the places other people were staying and ended up with a sweet deal. The room was fairly itchy (about a 7/10) but allowed for a larger food and drink budget. We didn't even have to haggle for the price as they just asked how much our friend was paying and we paid the same.

Eating

We spent many a meal at OR2K. Grab a friend and have the falafel platter and you will keel over in bliss. We were also fans of the Everest Steak House. The Mexican steak we had was both massive and awesome. Eating was very affordable and we went all out with cocktails and beers, still managing to not break the bank. We frequented all the bakeries every morning for cappucinos and lemon cheesecake croissants.

Money

We brought travellers' cheques and cash as well as an ATM card. We had to cash nearly all our travellers' cheques in one go because we could only get so much out of the bank machine at once and needed enough money for nearly a month. TD Bank had made it sound like nobody would take any travellers' cheques but I would say they were very easy to deal with.

Etc

Shona's was our favorite shop for sorting out gear. They've got some incredible staff who wont rip you off. The outfit running the place are some of the sweetest people I've met. They were very knowledgeble about our route and helpful as we went through the list of things we needed. There were many times that they just told me I straight out didn't need something, rather than getting me to spend more money.

We didn't use a travel agent for anything in Nepal. We bought our own bus tickets to Jiri, as well as our Lukla flight. We took a public bus to Chitwan and organized things when we got there, and then took another bus to Pokhara on our own as well. Unless you're planning on hiring guides and porters you can easily DIY most things in Kathmandu and it saved us a pantload of money rather than handing out commissions to everyone.