Alexandra couldn't get enough of the fresh air, crisp blue skies, outrageous scenery and arctic cold, so we headed off to trek the Everest Region last week. During those eight days, we had an unforgettable flight, dodged trains of yaks, watched first light on Mt. Everest from our room, drank yak butter tea with chanting female monks, met more remarkable travelers and nearly froze our appendages off in the winter cold.
THE WORLD'S MOST SPECTACULAR FLIGHT
Because the trek to Lukla is very strenuous and there is a good chance of bumping into money-extorting Maoist rebels, we decided to skip that part of the journey, fly to Lukla instead and begin walking from there. Now flying into a TINY airstrip in the Himalayas isn't your average flight. It looked more like a scene from a Road Runner cartoon where he tries to land in a bucket of water from thousands of feet up.
We lucked out and sat in the first row, which meant we were looking out the pilot's windows for most of the flight. When they weren't reading the paper or pointing out planes to each other that they should avoid, the pilots were inviting us to poke our heads into the cockpit and taking pictures with our cameras. The runway is steep and way shorter than we would have liked. But these pilots are good, and before we knew it, we were on the ground with our packs on our backs and were taking the first steps of our second trek.
THE MOUNTAINS
The first time you see an 8,000 meter peak, it confuses your mind. You're looking at a space that up until now has been reserved for things like the sun, moon, clouds and airplanes, and you are staring at a piece of snow-covered rock. Even standing at twelve or fifteen thousand feet, these peaks are STILL miles above you and make you crane your neck to see their tops.
The first time you see Mt. Everest, it isn't really that impressive. From the Nepal side, most of it is blocked by another mountain, and some of the surrounding peaks are more picture-worthy. But from our guesthouse room, we watched the first rays hit the world's highest mountain both mornings, and that helped put the 29,000 foot summit in perspective.
The scenery on a trek like this spoils your eyes and mind. Every corner we turned, there was another snow-capped behemoth burning its image into our already-overwhelmed brains. The villages, stupas, monasteries and mountains stopped us dozens of times a day to gawk, photograph and try to take in what we were seeing.
WE'RE TALKING REALLY COLD
A word should be mentioned about just how cold it is on a trek like this, most of which took place above 10,000 feet. To give you an idea of what it's like, just imagine you are on a ski vacation except that at the end of the day, instead of kicking off your ski gear and relaxing in front of a roaring fire with the heat cranked up, you put on every layer of clothing that you brought and spend the next twelve to fourteen hours in rooms that are well below freezing.
Fortunately, all the guesthouses have wood-burning stoves, and as long as the owners are willing to put more wood in, everyone stays glued to the heat. (This is of course contributing to the deforestation of Nepal, but it's cold up there!)
OSAWA THE ECCENTRIC
On the flight to Lukla, we met one of the most remarkable travelers either of us has had the pleasure to know. Osawa is an 80 (eighty!) year old Japanese man that is on his 25th trek in Nepal. Osawa comes to Nepal every year and makes a pilgrimage to a lake at 18,000 feet near a place called Kala Patar. There he has his guide and porter cut a hole in the twelve inch thick ice, and he goes for a swim. The air temperature is usually in the single digits, and he stays in long enough for his guide to shoot a roll of film.
Osawa is in the Guiness Book for something related to this feat (though we couldn't understand all of what he said), and claims that all he needs is a few minutes in front of the fire and a cup of tea to warm up afterwards. He says that Everest protects him, and everywhere we went on this trek, people knew of the living legend, Osawa.
HIGH ALTITUDE RELIGION
We stayed at a guesthouse in a place called Tengboche (3,860 meters) that was opposite one of the most famous monasteries in Nepal. It turns out the lama of the place is the brother of our guesthouse owner. When he could first speak (around five), the lama told his parents that he was the reincarnated lama of the monastery in Tengboche. Monks came from all over the Buddhist world to see if it was true. They placed in front of him identical pairs of objects from different places, and he unfailingly chose the ones from his past life (like the scene in the movie Kundun).
As if that wasn't enough Himalayan fame, the lodge owner's wife's father was one of the head Sherpas on Sir Edmund Hillary's historic ascent of Mt. Everest!
One morning, we were lucky enough to join a group of female monks as they did their morning prayer session. While sitting to the side of the women in a freezing cold monastery, we witnessed them chanting, reading from their holy books and playing their drums, cymbals and horns. Their hospitality included hot cups of salty yak butter tea. Just when we breathed heavy sighs of relief from downing the final gulps of the drink, the generous bald hostess came around and refilled our glasses - to the top.
YAK TROUBLE
Having heard enough stories of yak attacks (a French woman was casually tossed to her death from a high bridge recently), we made sure to keep our distance every time we came across them, which was many times a day. Alexandra in particular kept her distance from these unpredictable beasts, which was often accomplished by putting her husband between herself and the horned animals.
Possibly even more perilous, after eating a pizza covered in yak cheese, she realized with great dismay that she is YAK-TOSE INTOLERANT!
THE TWELVE DAYS OF TREKKING
When you're on a trek, your mind has a lot of time to wander. This being the holiday season, we put together the Twelve Days of Trekking which, if nothing else, kept us chuckling as we walked up and down the mountains. Please sing along to the familiar tune...
On the twelfth day of trekking, my Sherpa gave to me,
Twelve snow-capped mountains
Eleven freezing guestrooms
Ten cans of Pringles
Nine spinning prayer wheels
Eight blown-out flip-flops
Seven painted stupas
Six piles of yak dung
Five Na-ma-stes...
Four apple pies
Three mean yaks
Two cups of duchia
And a big plate of yummy dal bhaat.
MORE THAN JUST A HAIRCUT
Yesterday, I had the unusual experience of going for a "haircut" here in Kathmandu. The barber's English was worse than my Nepali, which meant that we had few words in common. What began as a very short haircut soon turned into a combination haircut/shave/beard trim/head massage/wrestling match/chiropractic session. At one point, he had my head on the counter, my arm behind my neck and my head twisted about 300 degrees around and was pounding on my head with his free hand.
Alexandra couldn't keep it together, and when she wasn't taking hilarious video clips of the match, she was cackling away, making the situation that much more comfortable for everyone. Turned out to be a great experience (though I couldn't help but be concerned when he had the straight razor to my neck) and not a bad haircut.
Next stop: India...
