I do not remember a lot about this day. I remember waking up and hearing everyone exclaiming over the view, since we had arrived in a cloud last night no one had been able to see the view that the tea house boasted of. It was breathtaking, like nothing I had seen before. We finally had a view of Annapurna and it was like nothing I have ever seen before. Pictures you see cannot explain the absolutely awe-inspiring view. I don’t think I have ever felt so small before.
Everyone got ready and ate breakfast, plain porridge for me. I still wasn’t feeling very well but it was easier to hide my nausea just sitting waiting to leave. I was hoping that the medicine the nurse had given me a day earlier would kick in soon, as I could not wait to reach the Annapurna base camp now that I had gotten a full view of the gorgeous mountain. We got our warm up finished and then headed out. I didn’t make it far before I began retching again. I tried to hold it back at first but as we continued to climb it got harder to keep from heaving. By an hour in Shona, Naomi, Nima and I had dropped behind the main group as I was moving so slowly, stopping every few minutes to retch. I felt dizzy and while I continued to try and sip water it made me feel horrible, but I felt so horrible letting everyone down and dropping behind so I tried to keep going on. We bumped into a another group of doctors which had a set of doctors who were German. As they watched me they stopped and attempted to talk to us through our guides to figure out what was wrong. They gave me some pills for nausea that they were carrying and told Nima and Shona to just make sure I keep drinking water. I know about another hour passed but I do not remember much of it. I do remember getting to a small village and passing out as we arrived. I kept trying to stand but I just couldn’t do it. The world was spinning around and I felt like my stomach was trying to come out my mouth but just couldn’t. I got to lay down in the village where two other groups were eating lunch. Both groups contained doctors who stood nearby watching me. I remember then my retching got even worse and I couldn’t think about anything else. I couldn’t stand up and when I tried I lost consciousness again. I do remember one of the doctors saying to Nima, “You have to get her off the mountain. Now.” As Nima got out his radio. I don’t remember a lot else. I remember laying down in a room in the house nearby and being given a large garlic clove by the woman that ran the tea house to smell, as the Nepalese believe that garlic cures altitude sickness. I don’t remember a lot but I remember figuring out that I was leaving only when Nima took Shona’s coat to try and signal to the helicopter. I was carried outside and remember sitting in the mud while the helicopter attempted to land on a patch of grass not larger than a room. I don’t remember much else only that the retching didn’t stop and I came in and out of consciousness as we flew towards Kathmandu. When we landed I tried to walk from the helicopter to the ambulance but couldn’t make it, I collapsed right as I got out of the helicopter. I remember laying in the ambulance and panicking because I didn’t know where I was and retching while lying down gave me the horrible sensation of choking. I remember Nima (tour company owner) telling me that we would be at the hospital soon. I was told after it took us a long time to get to the hospital since it was the largest holiday in Nepal on that day and all of the roads were closed for the celebrations. When we arrived at the hospital I remember laying on an examination table and having an IV put in my arm. When the doctor first arrived I thought I was imagining him. He was Scottish and walked in to the room and I remember he had to address me multiple times as I genuinely thought I was imaging him. They gave me an anti nausea drug and some fluids which he said would hopefully help. I was put up in a room and called my mum to tell her what had happened, she shockingly took it fairly well as I was already in hospital and being treated. I felt horrible. I was still retching and the medicine didn’t seem to be helping much, I still felt extraordinarily weak and the thought of eating food or seeing it immediately made me gag. I was introduced to the night nurse, who was lovely and told to try and get some sleep. I didn’t. My IV bag had to be changed every 4 hours and when it wasn’t my IV had to be replaced, something which was excruciating, I was told because I had hard veins to find due to dehydration. Every time the nurse came into the room quietly to check on me she found me sitting up awake, as lying down while retching still meant I had trouble breathing. I sat up all night watching the fluid from the bag drip into my IV hoping that I would soon feel better and be able to go home.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Day 9: Early Days
Didn't feel very well when I woke up this morning but didn't have an awesome night's sleep so probably just a little tired. Woke up at 6 am promtly from a knock on the door from Nima. Got ready quickly and headed across the path to breakfast. We ate our porridge as the donkeys next to us ate from their feed bags. We started with a warmup dance much to the amusement of the owners of the tea house and the porters. It involves standing in a big circle and yelling very loudly a song to which there are hand movements, and then we were off. The hike before lunch was very steeply uphill making for a sweaty morning going through 3 Litres of water. Got to lunch and felt really ill, thought that I just hadn't drunk enough water during the hike as we are still going through a jungle-like part of the mountains and it's still very hot during the day. Went to go fill up my Camelback and Nalgene from the tap, which was boiling hot (good for bacteria, not good for gulping). While I was doing this I had left my little glass bottles of water purification tablets out on the side and had taken the cotton balls out of the iodine tablets. A curious horse (who I hadn't seen) came over ate the cotton, knocked over the bottle and began eating the tablets. He did not seem pleased when i interrupted him. I have been assured iodine does not injure horses. Whew. At least it wasn't a cow. Here is Nepal killing a cow carries a life jail sentence. Sadly the one and only thing we were warned about when we got here.
Sat down to wait for lunch and began to shiver. I felt freezing although everyone else in the group was overheating. Rachel leant me her down jacket which I put on and I tried to take a nap before lunch. Woke up 2 hours later feeling even worse. Really really nauseous. Didn't even manage to eat anything at lunch. We've gained over 1000 meters today so far so it could be attributed to the altitude which apparently affects some of us earlier than others. Shona tried to get me to eat something but the last thing I wanted to do was eat. Toby gave me some rehydration salts which tasted surprisingly good. Not what you want to say. Apparently rehydration salts taste awful if you don't need them and I thought it tasted wonderful. Still didn't feel well but figured the best thing to do would be to try to power through it. I tried to take my mind off being sick by chatting and playing games with the others. Games make the hills go faster but as everyone started to become short of breath the games died out and it became harder to ignore how bad I was really feeling. I started to feel more and more like I was going to be sick. I finally stopped and retched but nothing came up. My throat and eyes just burned. The nausea continued and Shona, Naomi and I dropped behind the group and I started to feel sicker and sicker and the retching became more and more frequent. I still wasn't managing to throw anything up. Gross but true, after about an hour of this I couldn't take it anymore and stopped to make myself sick. Bad Idea. I only threw up liquid and bile but the retching continued but worse. The bile just got worse and the retching became every few steps. Nima started to get really concerned as he had never seen anyone ill like this and became even more concerned when it became apparent I had quite a fever. We got nearer and nearer where we were spending the night and right before we arrived there we came across a medical outpost and Nima insisted we stop and I get checked out.
When we got the outpost there was no one there so Nima went in search of the doctor who ran the post. Sadly there was no doctor, but a nurse who only spoke Nepali. As she watched me dry heaving as Nima tried to explain how I'd been doing she attempted to convince him that I wasn't in fact ill but pregnant. Probably my first clue there I should have taken her advice with a pinch of salt. After Nima persuaded her that was not the case and she agreed to examine me. She felt and listened to my stomach which is quite swollen and told Nima that I had too much acid in my stomach. She told me to only eat boiled rice and gave me anti nausea medicine and chalk to eat. When we left the outpost it only took a couple of minutes for us to reach where some people from the group were waiting for us. T.C. was really lovely and took my backpack off me to take up to the tea house.
The tea house looks like something out of a sci-fi movie, a house in the clouds. It was pretty cool looking but very cold. We all sat round in the communal room around the stove playing games while we got out rooms assigned. Embarrassingly Nima was still very worried about me and had one of the porters bring my pack up to my room and wouldn't let me bring it up myself but to be honest I wasn't feeling up to even that. We sat around and waited for dinner which I still wasn't very interested in. I still kept feeling like retching but tried to hold it back and I really hoped that the medicine would begin to work. Had some boiled rice and broth for dinner and headed to sleep, hoping I feel a lot better tomorrow.
Sat down to wait for lunch and began to shiver. I felt freezing although everyone else in the group was overheating. Rachel leant me her down jacket which I put on and I tried to take a nap before lunch. Woke up 2 hours later feeling even worse. Really really nauseous. Didn't even manage to eat anything at lunch. We've gained over 1000 meters today so far so it could be attributed to the altitude which apparently affects some of us earlier than others. Shona tried to get me to eat something but the last thing I wanted to do was eat. Toby gave me some rehydration salts which tasted surprisingly good. Not what you want to say. Apparently rehydration salts taste awful if you don't need them and I thought it tasted wonderful. Still didn't feel well but figured the best thing to do would be to try to power through it. I tried to take my mind off being sick by chatting and playing games with the others. Games make the hills go faster but as everyone started to become short of breath the games died out and it became harder to ignore how bad I was really feeling. I started to feel more and more like I was going to be sick. I finally stopped and retched but nothing came up. My throat and eyes just burned. The nausea continued and Shona, Naomi and I dropped behind the group and I started to feel sicker and sicker and the retching became more and more frequent. I still wasn't managing to throw anything up. Gross but true, after about an hour of this I couldn't take it anymore and stopped to make myself sick. Bad Idea. I only threw up liquid and bile but the retching continued but worse. The bile just got worse and the retching became every few steps. Nima started to get really concerned as he had never seen anyone ill like this and became even more concerned when it became apparent I had quite a fever. We got nearer and nearer where we were spending the night and right before we arrived there we came across a medical outpost and Nima insisted we stop and I get checked out.
When we got the outpost there was no one there so Nima went in search of the doctor who ran the post. Sadly there was no doctor, but a nurse who only spoke Nepali. As she watched me dry heaving as Nima tried to explain how I'd been doing she attempted to convince him that I wasn't in fact ill but pregnant. Probably my first clue there I should have taken her advice with a pinch of salt. After Nima persuaded her that was not the case and she agreed to examine me. She felt and listened to my stomach which is quite swollen and told Nima that I had too much acid in my stomach. She told me to only eat boiled rice and gave me anti nausea medicine and chalk to eat. When we left the outpost it only took a couple of minutes for us to reach where some people from the group were waiting for us. T.C. was really lovely and took my backpack off me to take up to the tea house.
The tea house looks like something out of a sci-fi movie, a house in the clouds. It was pretty cool looking but very cold. We all sat round in the communal room around the stove playing games while we got out rooms assigned. Embarrassingly Nima was still very worried about me and had one of the porters bring my pack up to my room and wouldn't let me bring it up myself but to be honest I wasn't feeling up to even that. We sat around and waited for dinner which I still wasn't very interested in. I still kept feeling like retching but tried to hold it back and I really hoped that the medicine would begin to work. Had some boiled rice and broth for dinner and headed to sleep, hoping I feel a lot better tomorrow.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Day 8: First Trek Day
First day of trekking! Cannot wait to finally be going somewhere. The Annapurna trek is the most popular and most beautiful in Nepal. We woke up this morning to a gorgeous view of the Fish-Tail mountain, an amazing looking mountain which does in fact look like a fish tail, like an M. You cannot actually climb the mountain as it is sacred and is officially named, Machhapuchhare, something I am still incapable of saying. We were all gobsmacked by our first views of the Himalayas. None of the pictures which you see can prepare you for seeing it in real life. It is a sight I cannot properly describe. We set off from Pokhara by bus to the start of the trail, which is really in the middle of nowhere. We were introduced to the 10 porters who have been traveling with us since Kathmandu all of whom had chatted with a few of us. Humorously most of them have the second name of Sherpa which they all found quite funny. Learning first names will be hard and most of them can't actually talk to us however seem to find everything we do very amusing. They do put us all to shame with the loads which they carry. They each carry between 40-60 kg (2-3 packs) which they bind together with rope. They then attach a rope with a forehead strap and carry their load that way. It looks extremely painful. Nima, our main guide, started working first as a porter before working his way up to be a main guide. He showed us his forehead which has been left flat and the hair rubbed away. Scarier still was the back of his beck where the bones protrude very far out from bending and lifting such heavy weights. As we exclaimed over when looks extremely painful Nima seemed unfazed. He told us that children now are much luckier than he was a child, getting education and not having to help make money for his family like he did. He told us that as a very small child he helped carrying large amounts of dried corn (corn drying from railings in a very common sight here) and leaves as well as wood for home. It still seems embarrassing as the porters laugh at us trying to climb the steep stairs in twice the time it took them with their heavy loads.
I forgot to mention the stairs! Which after today I may never want to see again. I have no idea how they managed it but our relatively short but by steep trek from Birethanti to Banthanti was 98% stairs. We have been speculating who an earth managed to build them while cursing them at the same time. The fairly short time until lunch (2 hours) already led us through mainly small villages with many tea houses geared towards trekkers. We managed to cover quite a few suspension bridges which gave us time to admire the awe-inspiring view, something you cannot do while trying to climb the stone stairs. The stairs, while amazing for being there are slightly haphazard and steep. I have trouble reaching the next step and I am fairly average sized here. the main concern in falling however is the horse and donkey poo which almost evenly covers the stairs. From where we began there is no access by vehicle so everything in this region is carried by donkey or horse as long as possible and then when they can no longer travel, by foot.
As I said before, I don't think any of us accounted for how hot it would be in Annapurna. Those of us who were attempting to follow the rules of modesty , covering your shoulders and knees, were quickly cast aside as pants were rolled and pinned up and athletic tank tops were unapologetically put on. For some reason still teased about my 95+ sunscreen but after seeing some of the sunburns today I think I can deal with the teasing. Pretty sure none of us remember sweating this much. Stopped for lunch at a place with an amazing view. One of the guides on the trip is in charge of food and cooks everything we eat, hopefully to stop any of us from getting sick. Lunch takes about 2 hours to prepare as there are so many of us and he makes sure all the plates and silverware are probably clean and all the vegetables and water used are boiled. [ NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: this next bit makes me laugh now, and is quite funny knowing what happens]. Medical care this high is extraordinarily hard to find and often when seriously ill the only option is to head back to Kathamandu, which would take days, so everyone is trying to be very careful not to get ill. We reached camp (a tea house) this evening and when were were there we saw a man carrying what we at first thought was a heavy load from his head strap which turned out to be a sick relative who needed medical attention but lived high in the Annapurna region. Being carried for 3-4 days can't be comfortable for someone that ill but for most people it's the only option. Hope he was ok. This highlights the importance of being safe about water sanitation as we have just begun using the water from the taps here (using water purification tablets of course).
When we reached the tea house (beautiful view) we were happy to learn that showers were available. Took an invigorating ice cold shower with an open window which allowed me to have a startling but very lovely conversation with a Nepali woman farming who seemed very unconcerned with my lack of clothing. Got out the shower and in to some normal and much warmer clothes as this high in the mountains it begins to get much colder at night. While some of us learnt to play tigers and goats and others backgammon I tried to write up the day in my journal.
As we all sat together in one of the rooms George informed us of the presence of some very large and quite scary looking spiders in the tea house. The room setups here are very simple. Each floor has rooms which are separated by either a very thin piece of plywood or a blue trap meaning that we can all have very nice conversations from bed with everyone around and above us. Before Bed we had some fun trying to fill out out Camelback pouches (water bladders) with purified water something which is easier said than done. The phrase water baby is born.
Had an interesting night. Got into my sleeping bag said goodnight to Naomi and tried to drift off to sleep knowing we had a tough day tomorrow. Instead around 15 minutes in I began to hear scratching noises above my head. Knowing I had to get some sleep I tried to tell myself it was either chickens or the donkeys grazing. However as the noise began to get louder it became harder to sleep but the worst came when I was awoken by sawdust on my face. I won't lie, I panicked as I thought the mice or rats which were obviously chewing the floor above me were about to fall on my head. Didn't help when I choose that moment to turn on my headlamp and have the following conversation with Naomi, "Was that you?" - "Of course not!" N "Are the spiders in Nepal poisonous?" - "Naomi, I don't think it's a spider I think its either mice or ra-" N " No I'm just asking because when I went to the bathroom there was a huge one on our door and inside above your pack but when I came back they were gone - Night!" And she turned over and fell asleep.
Did not sleep well.
I forgot to mention the stairs! Which after today I may never want to see again. I have no idea how they managed it but our relatively short but by steep trek from Birethanti to Banthanti was 98% stairs. We have been speculating who an earth managed to build them while cursing them at the same time. The fairly short time until lunch (2 hours) already led us through mainly small villages with many tea houses geared towards trekkers. We managed to cover quite a few suspension bridges which gave us time to admire the awe-inspiring view, something you cannot do while trying to climb the stone stairs. The stairs, while amazing for being there are slightly haphazard and steep. I have trouble reaching the next step and I am fairly average sized here. the main concern in falling however is the horse and donkey poo which almost evenly covers the stairs. From where we began there is no access by vehicle so everything in this region is carried by donkey or horse as long as possible and then when they can no longer travel, by foot.
As I said before, I don't think any of us accounted for how hot it would be in Annapurna. Those of us who were attempting to follow the rules of modesty , covering your shoulders and knees, were quickly cast aside as pants were rolled and pinned up and athletic tank tops were unapologetically put on. For some reason still teased about my 95+ sunscreen but after seeing some of the sunburns today I think I can deal with the teasing. Pretty sure none of us remember sweating this much. Stopped for lunch at a place with an amazing view. One of the guides on the trip is in charge of food and cooks everything we eat, hopefully to stop any of us from getting sick. Lunch takes about 2 hours to prepare as there are so many of us and he makes sure all the plates and silverware are probably clean and all the vegetables and water used are boiled. [ NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: this next bit makes me laugh now, and is quite funny knowing what happens]. Medical care this high is extraordinarily hard to find and often when seriously ill the only option is to head back to Kathamandu, which would take days, so everyone is trying to be very careful not to get ill. We reached camp (a tea house) this evening and when were were there we saw a man carrying what we at first thought was a heavy load from his head strap which turned out to be a sick relative who needed medical attention but lived high in the Annapurna region. Being carried for 3-4 days can't be comfortable for someone that ill but for most people it's the only option. Hope he was ok. This highlights the importance of being safe about water sanitation as we have just begun using the water from the taps here (using water purification tablets of course).
When we reached the tea house (beautiful view) we were happy to learn that showers were available. Took an invigorating ice cold shower with an open window which allowed me to have a startling but very lovely conversation with a Nepali woman farming who seemed very unconcerned with my lack of clothing. Got out the shower and in to some normal and much warmer clothes as this high in the mountains it begins to get much colder at night. While some of us learnt to play tigers and goats and others backgammon I tried to write up the day in my journal.
As we all sat together in one of the rooms George informed us of the presence of some very large and quite scary looking spiders in the tea house. The room setups here are very simple. Each floor has rooms which are separated by either a very thin piece of plywood or a blue trap meaning that we can all have very nice conversations from bed with everyone around and above us. Before Bed we had some fun trying to fill out out Camelback pouches (water bladders) with purified water something which is easier said than done. The phrase water baby is born.
Had an interesting night. Got into my sleeping bag said goodnight to Naomi and tried to drift off to sleep knowing we had a tough day tomorrow. Instead around 15 minutes in I began to hear scratching noises above my head. Knowing I had to get some sleep I tried to tell myself it was either chickens or the donkeys grazing. However as the noise began to get louder it became harder to sleep but the worst came when I was awoken by sawdust on my face. I won't lie, I panicked as I thought the mice or rats which were obviously chewing the floor above me were about to fall on my head. Didn't help when I choose that moment to turn on my headlamp and have the following conversation with Naomi, "Was that you?" - "Of course not!" N "Are the spiders in Nepal poisonous?" - "Naomi, I don't think it's a spider I think its either mice or ra-" N " No I'm just asking because when I went to the bathroom there was a huge one on our door and inside above your pack but when I came back they were gone - Night!" And she turned over and fell asleep.
Did not sleep well.
Day 7: Mud Slide
Bus ride to Pokhara was certainly one of the most interesting trips I have ever taken in my life, not one I would like to repeat anytime soon. I woke up this morning with quite a queasy stomach but thought I had possibly just eaten something off the night before and I would feel better after a nap on the bus, bad idea. We hit traffic before we even left Kathmandu and as soon as the bus stopped I did not feel well. Managed to get off the bus in time and since we were stuck in a huge traffic jam got to sit on the step of the bus with my feet dangling off trying to get some fresh air. Something I have no mentioned before is that Kathmandu is very very hot. Something that not many of us have the clothes for as were were only supposed to be here for a few days in total besides the Everest trek which of course was suppose to be quite chilly. Also there is no such thing as air conditioning on the bus and keeping the windows open is not an option in much of the city because of the smell but also the dust, much of the roads are dirt and the dust which is kicked up by all of the vehicles is not to be inhaled. Did not particularly help with the stomach.
The trip to Pokhara is one which is suppose to take 5-6 hours, 7 hours max. When we first hit traffic we were worried but we could see ahead at the top of the hill it appeared that traffic was moving. The bus driver thought it would take us around 20 minutes to reach the top of the hill, but what we didn't know is that there had been a number of landslides the night before. We assumed that we would be running just slightly behind schedule, but we were very very wrong. It took over 5 hours for us to reach the top of the hill, putting us just on the edge of Kathmandu. When we reached the top of the hill we were thrilled. Sadly meaning a 6 hour drive from there, however we were caught in a 4 hour traffic jam. When the driver had told us there had been a landslide, I assumed he meant one at the top of the hill. Instead we probably saw more than 20 landslides and quite a few vehicles which had been caught in the landslide when it occurred either on the road or off the edge of the cliffs. The cars we saw had their windows smashed and the entire inside filled with mud. There were no signs of the passengers. It was slightly terrifying. The entire ride we kept seeing ambulances attempting to get through the traffic both to and away from Kathmandu, however in Nepal the ambulance etiquette is not the same and no one lets them through. It must have taken them hours to get to hospital. We also horrifyingly saw a man on a motorcycle get caught between two buses when trying to squeeze between the two of them and who required serious medical attention. The first really scary bit was when were were trying to squeeze past another bus on a small piece of road and the road on the left side of our bus began to give way beneath the bus. Oddly we just stopped as the road began to fall and just waited to see if it would stop or collapse and then continued.
Got to our lunch stop to grab some food quickly and use the bathroom, something no one had done in hours and then sadly headed back on to the bus. To add to the trip after our quick stock the driver of our bus began to reach fairly high speeds towards Pokhara. The roads in Nepal aren't very well maintained and the Nepali way of driving involves just honking if you wish to pass or before going around a blind corner. Sadly as it began to get dark he didn't slow down and the brakes began to make a horrible squeaky noise whenever he had to throw on the breaks when we reached a turn in the road. This went on for awhile before the general consensus on the bus led to a "bathroom stop" where the brakes were examined. Turns out the dirt and rust in the breaks had become a bit too much and the driver attempted to clean them while we all waited. When we finally reached Pokhara we had been on the bus over 14 hours, bringing a new meaning to 'Nepali' time. Got to the Candle Inn, which to us appeared to be a palace. The inn boasted views of the fish tail mountain which we have yet to see since we arrived long after dark.
Never has anyone been so happy to hear "Dinner is ready". We are a 'western' carb filled dinner of Nepali vegetarian lasagna and pizza. Sadly no running water, but the better get used to that before tomorrow! Let's hope tomorrow goes great!
The trip to Pokhara is one which is suppose to take 5-6 hours, 7 hours max. When we first hit traffic we were worried but we could see ahead at the top of the hill it appeared that traffic was moving. The bus driver thought it would take us around 20 minutes to reach the top of the hill, but what we didn't know is that there had been a number of landslides the night before. We assumed that we would be running just slightly behind schedule, but we were very very wrong. It took over 5 hours for us to reach the top of the hill, putting us just on the edge of Kathmandu. When we reached the top of the hill we were thrilled. Sadly meaning a 6 hour drive from there, however we were caught in a 4 hour traffic jam. When the driver had told us there had been a landslide, I assumed he meant one at the top of the hill. Instead we probably saw more than 20 landslides and quite a few vehicles which had been caught in the landslide when it occurred either on the road or off the edge of the cliffs. The cars we saw had their windows smashed and the entire inside filled with mud. There were no signs of the passengers. It was slightly terrifying. The entire ride we kept seeing ambulances attempting to get through the traffic both to and away from Kathmandu, however in Nepal the ambulance etiquette is not the same and no one lets them through. It must have taken them hours to get to hospital. We also horrifyingly saw a man on a motorcycle get caught between two buses when trying to squeeze between the two of them and who required serious medical attention. The first really scary bit was when were were trying to squeeze past another bus on a small piece of road and the road on the left side of our bus began to give way beneath the bus. Oddly we just stopped as the road began to fall and just waited to see if it would stop or collapse and then continued.
Got to our lunch stop to grab some food quickly and use the bathroom, something no one had done in hours and then sadly headed back on to the bus. To add to the trip after our quick stock the driver of our bus began to reach fairly high speeds towards Pokhara. The roads in Nepal aren't very well maintained and the Nepali way of driving involves just honking if you wish to pass or before going around a blind corner. Sadly as it began to get dark he didn't slow down and the brakes began to make a horrible squeaky noise whenever he had to throw on the breaks when we reached a turn in the road. This went on for awhile before the general consensus on the bus led to a "bathroom stop" where the brakes were examined. Turns out the dirt and rust in the breaks had become a bit too much and the driver attempted to clean them while we all waited. When we finally reached Pokhara we had been on the bus over 14 hours, bringing a new meaning to 'Nepali' time. Got to the Candle Inn, which to us appeared to be a palace. The inn boasted views of the fish tail mountain which we have yet to see since we arrived long after dark.
Never has anyone been so happy to hear "Dinner is ready". We are a 'western' carb filled dinner of Nepali vegetarian lasagna and pizza. Sadly no running water, but the better get used to that before tomorrow! Let's hope tomorrow goes great!
Day 6: Not Happy Campers
Our flight was suppose to be at 11 but it's 11 now and we are still waiting in the lobby. Upsettingly a Childreach group who arrived late last night got to get on the first plane today which took off and landed in Lukla. No flight has left since. Not looking very good. There are even 2 other Childreach groups here waiting for flights as well. We are at least going somewhere today and soon we will know where and on what. Will write when I know... I lied. Soon after this excitement built and we were told that flights 2 and 3 had taken off. We were on flights 4 and 5. We all ran around grabbing last minute things and were all ready to go when we got the horrible news that flight 2 had to be diverted and flight 3 had to turn around due to zero visibility. We were told to wait still and the weather would clear up soon. Starting to think our bums will resemble the couches in the hotel lobby. It wasn't until around 5 we were finally told it was a no-go meaning that we will be going nowhere today, a blow to the whole group as we thought we would at least be starting our trek somewhere tomorrow. Pokhara, the start of the other trek, is 6 hours away and it was too late to leave.
The emotional roller-coaster has not gone well for anyone today. This is our 5th day we have waited to hear news. Every day we are up early and have to re- pack our packs for the trek. We are always dressed, ready to go, hiking boots on and expecting to begin our trek in a matter of hours, instead we have spent hours waiting hearing news that normally isn't true. All of us are dreading coming back home and having to tell people the bad news about Everest, but trying to stay positive about everything. Our project visit will be when we arrive back in Kathmandu and I can't wait to see the work Childreach is doing here and hear more about it.
Tomorrow off to Pokhara!
The emotional roller-coaster has not gone well for anyone today. This is our 5th day we have waited to hear news. Every day we are up early and have to re- pack our packs for the trek. We are always dressed, ready to go, hiking boots on and expecting to begin our trek in a matter of hours, instead we have spent hours waiting hearing news that normally isn't true. All of us are dreading coming back home and having to tell people the bad news about Everest, but trying to stay positive about everything. Our project visit will be when we arrive back in Kathmandu and I can't wait to see the work Childreach is doing here and hear more about it.
Tomorrow off to Pokhara!
Day 5: Panic sets in
Since there was now such a long list of people trying to get on planes to Lukla that had been cancelled we were no longer on an early flight so got to wake up a little later today. We spent a lot of time playing Mafia (a game) in the lobby while waiting to hear news. We were originally told that planes were taking off but fond out later that no planes had taken off at all that day to Lukla. As we only have 1 more contingency day we were told tomorrow would be the last day we try to get to Lukla. So as of now our trip to Everest is off. Everyone is crushed. We know that this oculd have happened but none of us really thought about it. No one handled the news well. The thought of letting down everyone who sponsored us was horrendous and having to tell everyone that we failed because of something that we couldn't control as was to us as trivial as the weather was more upsetting. After we all (fairly) pulled ourselves together the man from ReallyWild told us about the other possible trek to do, the Anapurna trek which is suppose to be the most beautiful trek in the world. But it's not Everest.
We still had our last afternoon to explore Nepal and we got some snacks and got on the bus to Bhaktapur, just outside of Kathmandu, the first time we've all been outside of the city. The air was lovely out there, I'd forgot how nice it is to deeply breathe in the air, something impossible in Kathmandu (many people, ourselves included, wear face masks or tie bandanas around their mouths when in the city). Bhaktapur is actually an entire town composing of 3 squares, ala Durban Sqaure, filled with temples. It was more like we thought Nepal would be and in comparison to Kathmandu, Bhaktapur was crazily clean. We managed to be in the centre of the main sqaure when the procession from the festivities of the women's festival began. There was dancing and singing and all of the women wore red saris, traditional during the festival. We then went to go see the potter section of the town where we realized in all of the confusion of the festival we had lost Naomi and Robbie. Thankfully we did eventually find them.
Bhaktapur was the first time any of the children had been really friendly and we had 3 boys who followed us all day who were quite funny. As is always a problem in Nepal however a lot of kids follow you around and ask for money at the end of the day, something that none of us are used to seeing or know how to deal with. We did see kids in Bhaktapur at school on their lunch break in their uniforms, however there are still a large number of children who seem to not be going to school and either beg or just seem to be around all day. It's not something that you really want to see and all of us are still learning how to deal with it.
Got back to Kathmandu and we all knew that tomorrow was our last day to go to Everest and that if not we would have to decide what to do about our trip. Another thing no one wants to deal with. Fingers crossed.
We still had our last afternoon to explore Nepal and we got some snacks and got on the bus to Bhaktapur, just outside of Kathmandu, the first time we've all been outside of the city. The air was lovely out there, I'd forgot how nice it is to deeply breathe in the air, something impossible in Kathmandu (many people, ourselves included, wear face masks or tie bandanas around their mouths when in the city). Bhaktapur is actually an entire town composing of 3 squares, ala Durban Sqaure, filled with temples. It was more like we thought Nepal would be and in comparison to Kathmandu, Bhaktapur was crazily clean. We managed to be in the centre of the main sqaure when the procession from the festivities of the women's festival began. There was dancing and singing and all of the women wore red saris, traditional during the festival. We then went to go see the potter section of the town where we realized in all of the confusion of the festival we had lost Naomi and Robbie. Thankfully we did eventually find them.
Bhaktapur was the first time any of the children had been really friendly and we had 3 boys who followed us all day who were quite funny. As is always a problem in Nepal however a lot of kids follow you around and ask for money at the end of the day, something that none of us are used to seeing or know how to deal with. We did see kids in Bhaktapur at school on their lunch break in their uniforms, however there are still a large number of children who seem to not be going to school and either beg or just seem to be around all day. It's not something that you really want to see and all of us are still learning how to deal with it.
Got back to Kathmandu and we all knew that tomorrow was our last day to go to Everest and that if not we would have to decide what to do about our trip. Another thing no one wants to deal with. Fingers crossed.
Day 4: Still Waiting
Got up at 5:20 this morning, shockingly all on my own. Got everything all packed up in our bags and brought everything downstairs, hopefully to get on a flight this morning. We were supposed to leave by 6:30. Sat in the lobby and waited for our van to arrive to take us to the airport. And waited. And waited till now. There is 0 visibility in Lukla so we are waiting here till it clears. Fingers crossed.... No luck. After hours of waiting we were told the visibility in Lukla was still at zero and we were not going to be flying today. It's worrying. We decided to all go and see Durban Sqaure and a stupa in the center of Kathmandu. Durban square contains the hosue of Kumari, the living goddess, many temples as well as residences of the royal family when they were in power. The Kumari is a young Buddhist girl who is chosen around the age of 2 or 3 from a certain caste in Nepal. She is chosen from a group of girls who are put each put in a dark room on their own. Then a group of men dressed in terrifying masks and holding freshly severed buffalo heads come in and throw blood at her. The girl who doesn't cry out of all of these is likely to be the Kumari as a living goddess would not be scared by such small things. The last hurdle is the girl then has to pick personal belongings of the last Kumari, much like the Dalai Lama. She then becomes a Hindu goddess, changing her faith. Until her first period or first injury where she bleeds she will be worshipped as a living goddess. After either of these events occurs she has to leave the palace built for her and once again becomes a regular person however she is considered unlucky and extrememly unlucky for anyone to marry.
After seeing Kumari's house (she sits in view of the public for 4 hours a day but we had been waiting for our plane!) we went to the Unesco world heritage site in Kathmandu, a temple. There is a saying in Nepal that there are as many temples are there are people in Nepal and that is starting to appear to be true. Nepal is the melting pot for Buddhism and Hinduism and this temple, like the monkey temple yesterday had both Hindu and Buddhist elements. We went to see an art school along the edge of the stupa where paintings are made using brushes which are often only one hair thick. The masters take 20 years to learn the skill and we got to watch some of them in their workshop. Our guide for the day, Ram, had many pearls of wisdom. My favorite: Be positive. Think positive thoughts. They may you happy. Happy makes you healthy. Healthy makes you beautiful. And Beauty leads to Nirvana.
Trying to think positive thoughts and keep fingers crossed for tomorrow!
After seeing Kumari's house (she sits in view of the public for 4 hours a day but we had been waiting for our plane!) we went to the Unesco world heritage site in Kathmandu, a temple. There is a saying in Nepal that there are as many temples are there are people in Nepal and that is starting to appear to be true. Nepal is the melting pot for Buddhism and Hinduism and this temple, like the monkey temple yesterday had both Hindu and Buddhist elements. We went to see an art school along the edge of the stupa where paintings are made using brushes which are often only one hair thick. The masters take 20 years to learn the skill and we got to watch some of them in their workshop. Our guide for the day, Ram, had many pearls of wisdom. My favorite: Be positive. Think positive thoughts. They may you happy. Happy makes you healthy. Healthy makes you beautiful. And Beauty leads to Nirvana.
Trying to think positive thoughts and keep fingers crossed for tomorrow!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Day 3: Lukla?
Woke up at 5:45 to get ready and go downstairs. We headed to the airport to catch our flight to Lukla. Upon arrival we found out that the flights had been delayed and just to wait, so that is what we did. Learnt a lot of cards games and got good at crossword puzzles. 5 hours later we were told that all of the flights to Lukla were cancelled for the day due to bad weather. There was a plane crash in Lukla recently (shh don't tell Mum) so everyone is being very careful. We will try again tomorrow but it means we won't have our project visit till after the trek. We came back to the Hotel and headed to the cafe down the road to eat some lunch. Naomi tried MoMos, one of the national dishes of Nepal. They are steamed dumplings stuffed with vegetables with spicy (what else?!) sauce. Most of us are trying to stick to the vegetarian food as the meat in Kathmandu is apparently either very good or very bad.
We went to the monkey temple in the afternoon on a hill on the edge of Kathmandu. We decided to brave a taxi (driving in Nepal is scary!) with Naomi, Robbie and George. Don't think I will ever get used to the driving here. When we had left the hotel the monsoon has lived up to its name and there was an absolute downpour, but as we reached the edge of the city the rain subsided. We got to drive through some more areas of Nepal and see what it's like. The monsoon rains flooded most of the streets, making the trash problem very apparent and very pungent.
When we got to the monkey temple it was still raining in Kathmandu and we headed up the main stairs. The first level had a large peace fountain and as we headed up the stairs and looked back down we saw hundreds of strings of prayer flags. Each colour in the string of prayer flags represents a certain element, the idea of hanging the prayer flags is that the wind will carry the people's prayers to all to spread good thoughts. This was the first temple we had seen in Nepal and both Buddhist and Hindu religions are represented at the stupa. The stupa itself is a Buddhist symbol with Buddha's eyes painted on and the Swayambhunath, the monkey temple, is possibly one of the most sacred pilgrimage spots for all of Buddhism. While the stupa is a Buddhist site, along the edge of the stupa, between the rows of prayers wheels were Hindu shrines where people came to leave offerings for their Gods. The temple merges both Hindu and Buddhist religions as one religious site, which is common it Nepal.
It was amazing. We were starting to think that the monkey temple was just a name and that there were no monkeys living at the temple however as the sun started to come out, so did the monkeys. There were more than a hundred of them. Pilgrims to the shrine leave donations of rice to the Gods and when soaked from the rain the monkeys ran around stuffing their faces. We began to walk around the temple, clockwise as here in Nepal you have to walk around religious sites clockwise as a sign of respect, and came across a monkey who had stolen a small bag of flour. He very carefully tore the bag open and ate half a bag of raw flour covering himself in white powder. We had already been told not to taunt of tease the monkeys because they will bite. They were really vicious with each other fighting over food and stealing food off people but in general they ignored most pilgrims, as long as food wasn't involved.
We spent 4 hours at the shrine in total and it was breathtaking. Headed back to the hotel and we paid the cab 800 rupees, roughly 8 pounds for all 4 of us for 6 hours, we were informed later we had vastly overpaid. We came back to dinner, a mix of curry and french fries. Got back around 8 and everyone was exhausted and headed to bed. Managed to get the internet working, since I've had some serious trouble trying to get my phone to work, and sent an email to my family (haven't spoken to them since Heathrow!) and to Drew (it's his birthday!). Took what could once again (hopefully) be my last real shower for awhile and headed to bed. Hopefully we have more luck tomorrow.
Day 2: Kathmandu Airport
We arrived in Nepal around 3 yesterday. The flight was delayed in the air because of the bad weather in Kathmandu. We arrived and went through customs, which was crazy. You filled out a slip of paper to hand in. Some people even got their visas right there. We got our bags and headed out to our first views of Nepal, The mountain we could see was gorgeous but mostly there was just clouds and rain. We got on a small van and all squeezed in to head to the hotel.
The trip was only meant to take 20 minutes but the traffic was insane. Also the Nepalese way of driving involves beeping every 20 seconds or so for no particular reason and getting as close as possible to the other cars, mopeds, bikes and people. This gave us all an opportunity to see some of Kathmandu. There is trash absolutely everywhere in huge heaps and just tumbling into the river (the Ganges) from a makeshift dump, which people seem to live on. The smell is something that I have never experienced before. Unbelievable. Human waste, rotting food, trash and animal carcasses are piled by the side of the road and sometimes set alight to dispose of them.
We were running late when we got to the Hotel Tibet. We quickly got our room numbers (rooming with Naomi) and went off to the tourist district to exchange money and rent/hire equipment. It took ages to get there mainly to the horrendous pavement which at times was just mud and huge holes. When we first started walking George spotted the groups of huge bats flying overhead which were soon only feet from our heads as they dove across the main road and into trees. The sound and smell of the bats led to much ducking on our part. Sadly on the way to dinner Rachel fell in a hole more than 5 ft deep on the sidewalk because there are no lights on the street to speak of. She wasn't hurt but sadly the hole was filled with something and thus she had to go back to the hotel shower and change, our first introduction to always wearing shoes and watching where you step on Kathmandu's sidewalks.
To give you some idea of the money in Nepal, for every pound we exchanged we got 112.5 Nepalese rupees. Fun fact: It is illegal to be in possession of Nepalese currency outside of Nepal. We arrived at the restaurant near 10 to meet the other group and some leaders from Childreach. Headed back to the hotel to take our last real shower for awhile and headed to bed way past midnight, off to Lukla tomorrow!!!
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