Solu Khombu Trek - Day 3

Seth woke up feeling completely better.  It was a quick recovery and he's back to his own self.  Good! Disaster averted!

We woke up bright and early, once again, to find spectacular views of the snowy peaks of Caryolung, Khatang, Numbur.  It proved for breathtaking views while walking up the hill to the Selo Monastery.  The Selo Monastery was very busy during our visit.  Apparently they are expecting a visitor within the next month who is a high lama from India and they wanted to make the monastery look beautiful for him.  They were repainting frescoes, remodeling guest housing, and refinishing wood, which was everywhere.  We got the chance to speak with the head lama of the monastery Tulku Pema Tarchen.  And then, one of his monks took us around for a tour.  This monastery focuses on teaching rather than practicing, so there are many children there.  It was nice to see their classrooms and their library.

After lunch we trekked for about two and a half hours to Thuptenchholing Monastery, which is home to 600 Buddhist nuns.  We were invited into the head nun's office for tea, and ended up being served two bowls of noodle soup.  You don't really have a choice in the matter.  There was a father and son there, also, and the father was trying to refuse more tea at one point, but gave in.  When the son was approached he grabbed his cup and told her no politely, but he still ended up having more tea.  That was pretty funny.

We spend a little time in the hospital where we were able to see a bit of Tibetan herbal medicine.  There was an entire wall filled with pictures of plants that are medicinal.  That was really neat.

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 2

We woke up bright and early with tea in our tent.  It was a cold night, but putting Nalgene bottles filled with hot water at the foot of our sleeping bags helped loads.  Our trek today was about two and a half hours, once again, and it was not too bad.  Well, it was not too bad for us.  I don't know how these porters do it.  They are carrying a ton of weight and they carry it all by using a strap that rests on their heads.  Totally different from anything I have ever tried.  But, I guess we've seen that many other cultures carry loads on their heads.  This looks very difficult though and potentially quite painful.  Seth brought up a good point, that  perhaps this is why there are many older people hunched over.  Not sure.

Junbesi is a picturesque village in the valley of some beautiful mountains covered in large pine trees.  A river runs through the center of the valley and is the lifeline for the village.  They actually have a really interesting solution to drainage.  They dig ditches and lay flat rocks to cover the ditches, leaving enough space between the rocks to allow the water to drain.  We visited Junbesi Monastary.  Though it was empty, it was nice to poke around.  The monastery was painted in bright colors and had beautiful murals on the walls.  The art form here is so different from anything we've seen so far.  It's refreshing.

We, then, went to visit the Hillary Secondary School.  Sir Edmund HIllary, the first to summit Mount Everest, is the namesake of this school.  Whether he made a donation or not is something I don't know.  It was nice to watch the children play.  And it's absolutely adorable when you say namaste and place your hands together in front of your chest, because most of the time they will return your greeting.  So cute.  We spent a while watching them play.  Seth eventually turned into the main attraction.  He took a picture of a little boy that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get him to smile.  He just looked at me like I was a giant ugly bug.  Then I saw him look at Seth and smile largely.  It turned out that he liked to have his picture taken.  Seth was soon mobbed by children who wanted to get their picture taken and then look at them on the viewfinder.  They soon figured out that you could swipe the screen and scroll through the photos.  But once two fingers touched the screen the camera didn't know what to do and just didn't do anything.  It was fun to watch as Seth was encircled by the small children.

That evening, Seth wasn't feeling so well.  He probably was running a fever, either way he was feeling pretty crappy.  Hope that remedies itself quickly, because I'd hate for it to mess up Seth's trip.

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 1

We left the hotel bright and early at 6:20 in order to catch our flight at 7:45.  Thomas and Lakpah got us to the airport in time for our flight, but it turned out the flight was delayed till 9:20.  That's ok.  We hung around for a bit before taking a short flight in a 20 passenger plane over some high valleys and mountain crests.  It was a beautiful little flight.  The descent was intense.  We followed a mountain ridge and them made a complete u-turn, dive bombing in order to land on a tiny dirt strip on the side of a mountain.  Fun!

Phaplu is a small village of about 700 people.  Before they built a closer landing strip, Phaplu used to be the landing strip to climb Mount Everest.  That's a long trek before you even reach base camp.  We went up to Hotel del Sherpa for some tea, and then met with Buddha, who showed us around the local hospital.  It was actually a very nice, clean facility.  It was nice to see, and to find that people use the cheap, if not free, medical service.  Then we had a quick lunch before heading out on our trek.

Our trek today was only about 2-3 hours.  It was a pretty easy day through a beautiful valley where we ended up in Beni, in an open valley to camp by the river.  It's a nice peaceful area.  There are a lot of people who pass by, and everyone is smiling and appreciative of a, "namaste".  We watched children having an organized play time during school, where they played games that were unlike our childhood games, and difficult to figure out.  We watched a pack of mules walk by our campsite and cross a narrow wooden shaky bridge over a river.  It's a nice start to our trek.

Yoo Hoo Kathmandu!

We're still in Kathmandu, but we're so close to heading out on our trek.  We met with our Nepal fixer Thomas Kelly, and mutual friend of August Thurmer.  He and his friend Lakpah met us at our hotel to give us the rundown on our trek.  We found out that we needed to gather up a few more things before we could consider ourselves trek ready.  So we headed back to Thamel, the tourist center,because that is where all of the outdoor equipment stores are concentrated.  These are places where you can find anything from a fluffy, down North Fake jacket, some Pseudogonia fleece long underwear, or some Nullgene water bottles.  But, all the stores are bargain-able.  And if you find the right shopkeeper, you can cut a good deal, especially if you level with them, reminding them that it's not really the brand name gear.  But there are actual brand name stores as well.  I found my t-shirt at the Mountain Hartwear store.  It turned out that we needed a lot more gear than we had expected, but we wouldn't have been able to carry all of it anyhow.  So, we went shopping.  

That day we, also, ate at two wonderful restaurants.  For lunch we went to Chez Caroline, which Thomas recommended.  We were in heaven.  Thomas told us that they were known for their salads and that we were safe eating there.  Seth and I split a BLT and we each ordered a Caroline Salad.  Man oh man.  It had been a while since we were able to eat a salad, and it happened to be a great one.  And the BLT was wonderful as well, with proper bacon.  The only thing missing was the Crystal hot sauce for the sandwich.  For dinner we went back to New Orleans, the restaurant from our first evening in Nepal.  It's still beautiful, and the food is still delicious.  But, I don't think they know what a smoothie is, or perhaps their blender broke.  The first time Seth ordered a milkshake, but ended up with chocolate milk, and this time he ordered a fruit smoothie, and ended up with fruit juice.  Both were nice options, but not what he had ordered.  Hmmm...

The next day our planned part of Nepal began.  We were picked up from our hotel by Lakpah and taken back to Budah Stupa (maybe called Budahnath in another post), that's the place where the Buddhists circumambulate around the stupah in prayer.  It was a very different experience from our first visit.  The first time it was nice to just take in the scenery and make conjectures on what was going on.  This time, we were given a wealth of information from Thomas who explained everything we asked and more.  And he speaks Nepali, and loves to shoot the shit, so he has a lot of friends anywhere he goes.  It's neat to watch him interact with the locals.

Very close to the Budah Stupa lives Pema, Thomas's foster daughter.  She runs a sort of clinic where they have herbal medicines, acupuncture, and massage therapy.  Thomas had set up a massage for Seth and I.  It was so wonderfully welcome.  And we both agreed that it was probably one of the best massages we'd ever had.  Following our massage, we found our way upstairs to the kitchen where we would help to make momos.  Momos are Nepali dumplings.  The are delicious.  We made chicken momos and potato momos.  They were served with a peanut and tomato sauce that was quite tasty.

After that, we walked with Lakpah to Pashupatinath, which is a Shiva Temple complex.  So, we were switching from Buddhism to HIndu.  The feel of both places were quite different.  At the buddhist temple there was a warm happy feeling and an overall sense of love.  Though the Shiva temple complex was pretty, it was quite dirty, filled with monkeys, and absent of people.  There were people there, but way less than at Budah Stupa.  From the Shiva temple we made our way down to the Bagmati river where there are cremation ghats.  The hindu people have a tradition of cremation, but it involves the holy river as well.  First, they wrap the loved one in a cloth and bring them to the river.  They strategically place the body on a ramp that leads to the river so that the person's feet are in the water.  They allow the river to wash the deceased's feet for some time before lifting them from the water to rest them on a funeral pyre, where they set a butter lamp inside the mouth where the fire will start to burn.  Once the person is fully cremated their ashes are scattered in the river.  We were able to see different stages of this ritual during our visit.  I think it is a nice way to lend some closure. 

BUT, there's a reason why there is a problem with water contamination in India and Nepal.  HIndus use the rivers for way too much.  I've just mentioned what they do with their deceased, and on top of that they bathe, wash clothes, potentially go to the bathroom, and throw their trash in this holy river.  The water is horribly polluted.  That part is hard for me to digest, and that is why I will not touch a river near human habitation.

After the ghats we went over to a hospice center run by Mother Teresa's nuns.  It was a really nice place for the elderly who were not able to grow old in the care of their families.  It was very nice to see, but you should not picture an old folks home like in the US.  It was quite different from that.  But the elderly here are quite different from in the States.  They are a functioning part of the community until they no longer can be.  These old ladies are tough.  The place had good vibes.

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 6 (Berkley)

I felt unwell all night.  I ended up waking up at midnight and was not able to fall back to sleep.  In the morning I felt horrible.  I was weak, my body was shaky and sensitive, and my stomach was feeling all kinda of nauseated.  Though I tried to continue, it was decided that it was a better, safer, choice for me to head back.  Whether I was feeling that way because I was sick or because of elevation didn't matter, I couldn't go on.  But, not before I got to see some yaks!  Though the people there would probably say I wasn't excited to see yaks, I totally was.  It was on my list of Nepal things to see.  And since I won't be seeing Everest anymore, at least I got to see some yaks. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450"] Peanut butter, honey, and raw garlic. Poor choice...[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Yakety yak, don't talk back.[/caption]

Through a little convincing Seth went on without me.  I took our Cook down to lower elevation.  Purba, our sherpa guide, was pretty convinced that what I was feeling was altitude sickness, but I was not completely convinced.  As we quickly descended in altitude not much changed.  It became a little easier to walk, but just a little.  Otherwise I still felt pretty crappy.  I was still weak, shaky and nauseated (especially since Purba told me to eat a giant clove of raw garlic for breakfast to combat the altitude sickness.  I accompanied it wit a spoonful of peanut butter, and I was burping up that combination all day.)  It took about four hours to reach our destination of Junbesi, and I felt like crap every grueling step of the way.  I was so careful not to trip and fall, or slip off the mountain in my weakness and sheer exhaustion.  At this point I'm back at the Apple Valley Lodge where I am resting, but still feeling horrible.  I meet with Seth in a few days back in Phaplu.  He's going to be completing the trip at a more accelerated pace.  HIs job is to take tons of photos and to remember everything, so he can tell me all about it.  I'm glad one of us gets to complete the trek.

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 5

Our walk from the Thuptenchholing Monastery to Singephuk was beautiful.  We made our way out of one type of terrain to find ourselves in a forest.  The mulched ground and the mossy trees lent itself to such a silence.  It was a beautiful trek.  On our way we stopped at a 'cave' where monks used to spend time in solitude.  So, this is something interesting we've learned about since visiting Nepal and many monasteries.  When I picture a monk living in solitude, it is usually in a sparse room alone, maybe only a book of Buddhism to keep him company.  But apparently what solitude means is that a few monks go to a place and lock themselves away from the rest of the world, but the monks can speak with each other.  It's just different from what I pictured.  Anyhow, we went to look at a 'cave' that monks use for solitary thoughts.  I use the word cave loosely, because they had fashioned an overhang of rock with bricks and a window, and called it a cave.  Once again, we had pictured something else.

We stopped by a monastery school to look around, and they invited us in for tea.  People talk about trekking and stopping in Tea Houses along the way.  Well, I don't think I've seen a tea house, or stopped in one, but we have stopped in numerous monasteries where they offer us tea galore.  It's a nice practice.

We finally made it to Shengeephuk, and it was breathtaking.  A rounded out valley of massive proportions.  Spring fed streams twist and tangle all about the valley floor.   Set up of the left side of the valley wall sits the cave where the well respected, and recently deceased, Rimpoche spent three years in meditation.  Seth and I went for a walk trying to find the main source of the spring, but we decided that it was too high up on the wall.  By the time we decided this we were a bit of a boggy walk back to camp.  We spent a good amount of time rock hopping so as to not step in mud or fall in the water.

A little while later we went back up to the cave house with all of our guys to pay respect to the late lama.  It was a very nice experience to be ble to share that with them.  We had a bunch of katas (prayer shawls) that we gave to all of them, and Poorba, our sherpa guide shared some of his grain with us in order to make an offering that way.  We then hung our prayer flags.  It was very nice.

That evening is when I began to feel unwell.  But, I was determined to shake it.