After the border, we jumped on a bus to Kathmandu. (took us a while to think of it as Kathmandu the city, not Kathmandu the clothing brand!) The lonely planet guide told us how bad the roads were in Nepal, how dangerous they were to ride in a bus. Wow - they were like the Auckland Southern Motorway in comparison, so so much better than India.
We got to KTM around dark, and jumped in a tiny Suzuki cab to our prearranged guest house. We drove through a smoggy, kind of seedy looking city - not unlike many we saw in India, only more polluted, to get to Thamel.
Thamel is the backpackers "ghetto" in Kathmandu, and is way way different from the rest of the city. It is tidy and well organised, with hundreds of travelers cruising from souvenir shop, to fake outdoor gear shop, to cafe/bar. I have never seen so many Australians outside of Australia.
As the lonely planet told us, it was a place to be reckoned with. Sellers and touts at your every turn. This proved similar to their quote about the roads, and we found it to be pretty peaceful compared to anywhere we came across in India.
So for a few days, we lavished ourselves in the abundance of 80 rupee ($1.20) flat whites (as good as any I have ever tried) and Wifi pretty much everywhere we went. Not to mention the amazing food we had. However, all luxuries must end and we had to go trekking. Before we were to leave, we asked for various peoples advice on the EBC trek, and got all sorts of different ideas - which put us into a bit of a tailspin of feeling very underprepared. This mostly turned out to be pretty incorrect, as we well overprepared - for example, Sarah hired a HUGE down jacket to go over top of her down jacket(and the macpac marino, other thermal, shirt, thin fleece and thick fleece). The problem was, that December is one of the coldest months for trekking in Nepal, and we were going to a pretty decent altitude, which meant really really low temperatures.
Side note - at some stage during our shopping, some thief got into Sarah's handbag, and whupped out the new camera - including all the photos of the Taj and Varanasi! This was the afternoon before we were to fly, so as you could imagine there were plenty of tears (snorting and ripping up tussocks - fam joke!) and apprehension about the fact that for the most photogenic part of our trip we were to be camera-less! However, this kind of turned out ok because our friend Juan had a pretty decent camera, and as we did most of the trek with him, we ended up with some pretty cool photos. (And some grainy snaps from the cellphone when neccesary)
So we got all the gear, layers of fleece, socks, thermals, beanies, gloves, sunscreen, lollies and chocolates, and hired boots, -35 fake north face sleeping bags, and Sarah's Jacket. We booked the neccesary flight, and spent a day or so worrying, packing and panicking about what terrible events could possibly get us.
To the airport, 5:30am - for a 6:30am flight to Lukla. Waited for the weather to clear, until 1pm. All flights cancelled, come back tomorrow. Bugger.
To the airport, 5:30am - for a 6:30am flight to Lukla. This time the weather worked for us, and off we flew! The flight was a bit freaky actually, 30 minutes of completely stunning Himalayan beauty, mixed with the most crazy feeling of flying through thick gray fog with the pilot navigating only with his little Garmin GPS screen which kept flashing "software update needed - expiry 2007"
Apologies for the face... Sarahs "game face"
Actually we talked to a Nepali guy later who said - "In Nepal, we don't fly on cloudy days, because the clouds are filled with mountains" When we got back to KTM after the trek, a bit of googling showed us that the Tenzing - Hillary Airport has been tagged as the most dangerous airport in the world. A friend told me to take earplugs and a spare pair of underwear. We didn't need them, however one German lady on the flight couldn't hold on - she was lucky she had a plastic bag in hand to use! Awkward moment.... But we landed in two pieces (Sarah and I, not two pieces each) and after many profuse thanks to the Pilot, we headed out into the bitter air.
We got to KTM around dark, and jumped in a tiny Suzuki cab to our prearranged guest house. We drove through a smoggy, kind of seedy looking city - not unlike many we saw in India, only more polluted, to get to Thamel.
Thamel is the backpackers "ghetto" in Kathmandu, and is way way different from the rest of the city. It is tidy and well organised, with hundreds of travelers cruising from souvenir shop, to fake outdoor gear shop, to cafe/bar. I have never seen so many Australians outside of Australia.
As the lonely planet told us, it was a place to be reckoned with. Sellers and touts at your every turn. This proved similar to their quote about the roads, and we found it to be pretty peaceful compared to anywhere we came across in India.
So for a few days, we lavished ourselves in the abundance of 80 rupee ($1.20) flat whites (as good as any I have ever tried) and Wifi pretty much everywhere we went. Not to mention the amazing food we had. However, all luxuries must end and we had to go trekking. Before we were to leave, we asked for various peoples advice on the EBC trek, and got all sorts of different ideas - which put us into a bit of a tailspin of feeling very underprepared. This mostly turned out to be pretty incorrect, as we well overprepared - for example, Sarah hired a HUGE down jacket to go over top of her down jacket(and the macpac marino, other thermal, shirt, thin fleece and thick fleece). The problem was, that December is one of the coldest months for trekking in Nepal, and we were going to a pretty decent altitude, which meant really really low temperatures.
Side note - at some stage during our shopping, some thief got into Sarah's handbag, and whupped out the new camera - including all the photos of the Taj and Varanasi! This was the afternoon before we were to fly, so as you could imagine there were plenty of tears (snorting and ripping up tussocks - fam joke!) and apprehension about the fact that for the most photogenic part of our trip we were to be camera-less! However, this kind of turned out ok because our friend Juan had a pretty decent camera, and as we did most of the trek with him, we ended up with some pretty cool photos. (And some grainy snaps from the cellphone when neccesary)
So we got all the gear, layers of fleece, socks, thermals, beanies, gloves, sunscreen, lollies and chocolates, and hired boots, -35 fake north face sleeping bags, and Sarah's Jacket. We booked the neccesary flight, and spent a day or so worrying, packing and panicking about what terrible events could possibly get us.
To the airport, 5:30am - for a 6:30am flight to Lukla. Waited for the weather to clear, until 1pm. All flights cancelled, come back tomorrow. Bugger.
To the airport, 5:30am - for a 6:30am flight to Lukla. This time the weather worked for us, and off we flew! The flight was a bit freaky actually, 30 minutes of completely stunning Himalayan beauty, mixed with the most crazy feeling of flying through thick gray fog with the pilot navigating only with his little Garmin GPS screen which kept flashing "software update needed - expiry 2007"
Apologies for the face... Sarahs "game face"
Actually we talked to a Nepali guy later who said - "In Nepal, we don't fly on cloudy days, because the clouds are filled with mountains" When we got back to KTM after the trek, a bit of googling showed us that the Tenzing - Hillary Airport has been tagged as the most dangerous airport in the world. A friend told me to take earplugs and a spare pair of underwear. We didn't need them, however one German lady on the flight couldn't hold on - she was lucky she had a plastic bag in hand to use! Awkward moment.... But we landed in two pieces (Sarah and I, not two pieces each) and after many profuse thanks to the Pilot, we headed out into the bitter air.
Man I love yr blog. Been away and catching up is awesome. LAUGHED at the tussocks and snorting!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha. Laugh at lotsa thngs you write.
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Love Mum xxxxx to both