It’s been a while since we last posted a blog… a busy summer so to speak. When I was last in North Korea, I realized that every time I returned to the country it became more of a special place to me, and that it had become one of my favorite destinations worldwide (actually it is now my most visited country by a long way). It then got me thinking about which were in fact my top three favorite places in the world. In this three part blog, I will write about some of the adventures which I have had in these marvelous countries. First up, the majestic kingdom of Nepal.
I knew since I was very young that Nepal would be a place which I would immediately fall in love with. The Himalaya mountain range, the people and the landscapes just make the place utterly magical and soaked in a captivating mystique.
I first went to Nepal in 2011, on a two week trekking trip up to Annapurna Base Camp. I remember landing in Kathmandu around midnight and in the darkness driving to our guest house through the bumpy roads in a clapped-out old taxi. It wasn’t until the next morning, when we woke up that I realized how the darkness had seemingly hidden the shocking poverty that one can witness in the Nepalese capital. Daylight had unveiled the impoverishment and it was a huge shock to the senses. It was the first, and really only time in my life that I have experienced such a profound culture shock, and I remember that after a few hours of wandering the dusty streets of Thamel that I was desperate to escape from Kathmandu. The next day we headed to the Phewa lakeside in Pokhara, which was an infinitely more relaxing place than Kathmandu, and then started on our 4 day trip from Phedi to ABC. The Annapurna Sanctuary trek was the most magnificent walk that I had been on at that point of my life. It contained huge steep valleys, creaking rope bridges stretching across ravines with rotting planks of wood for floors, snow peaked giant mountains, beautiful hill people (living in dreadful poverty but always with beaming smiles on their faces), and the great hulking Annapurna range, one of the most dangerous mountains to climb in the world.
I got back from that trip, and I discovered that Nepal was in my blood. After a few weeks of being back in China, I began to plan my trip back. Instead of another 2 week trip, I would go for 2 months and take on the toughest trek in the Everest region (according to The Lonely Planet), the Three Passes Trek.
I trained in the gym for a good 6 months beforehand to get my fitness level ready, and then on March 26th 2012 touched down in the Nepalese capital once more. The second time around, Kathmandu didn’t seem anywhere near as shocking as the first morning that I had wandered the streets just a year earlier, and like North Korea, the more time I spent there the more I grew to love the place. We headed to Pokhara once more, and did the Annapurna trek again as part of an acclimatization exercise before we headed into the Everest region. Truth be told, I had fallen in love with the people of the Annapurna region and had longed to go back and spend time with them again, being such well natured, humorous, peaceful and dignified people.
Once we had completed the Annapurna Base Camp trek, we immediately headed back to Kathmandu and took the petrifying 10 hour bus ride to Shivalaya, so that we could spend a further 5 days hiking into the Everest region, yet another process to aid our acclimatization for the high altitude trekking over the three passes. The Shivalaya to Lukla trek took in some very beautiful landscapes, but for the most part I cannot recall us seeing a great deal of the huge mountains that were to come in the Everest region. We met some very interesting people along the way, including many of the lodge owners where we stayed overnight. To sit and chat to these people, many of whom had scaled Everest, and risked their lives to make money to ensure that their children were given an education, was an absolute privilege and an experience that is both close to my heart and one that I’ll never forget.
We eventually arrived in the high altitude market town, Namche Bazaar, knowing that this was the last big settlement before we truly embarked on the Three Passes Trek. We replenished our high energy snacks, purification tablets, ate our last hearty meal, and had one final ‘knees up’ before we waved goodbye to Namche and edged closer to getting our first view of Everest. Climbing the steep slope an hour out of Namche, we got our first glimpse of Mount Everest far off into the distance with a trail of snow being blown off of its peak. That first sight was so profoundly moving that tears welled up in my eyes, and the excitement of what we were about to face took full grip.
Over the next few days we realized that all of the preparation on the Annapurna and Shivalaya treks meant that we could afford to miss out a mind numbing acclimatization rest day, so we arrived early at Chhukung ready to climb Chhukung Ri (5550m) before heading over the notorious Kong Ma La pass the next day. The climb up to Chukkung Ri was exhilarating. We had scrambled to the summit of a 5000m peak the day before, and at the top were closely circled by two big eagles which flew around us for what seemed to be an eternity, spiraling upwards until we lost sight of them in the heavens. In utter amazement, I remember saying to my friend that to date this was one of the greatest experiences of my life. When I reached the summit of Chhukung Ri, I stood at the large cairn complete with colourful Buddhist prayer flags, the world a huge distance below me with Mt Lhotse (8516m), the fourth highest mountain in the world smack bang in front of my eyes. It then quickly dawned on me that in two consecutive days I had been blown away by two out of this world experiences, which is something many people do not get a chance to have, and is something I was and to this day am utterly thankful for.
The next day we were up at 5:00am and after receiving a packed lunch from the lodge owner, we headed out into the darkness with the task of getting over the Kong Ma La. This we knew would be the most difficult and energy sapping trek, and if I have to be honest we didn’t prepare well in terms of getting our bearings and getting on the right track from the start. We ascended to what must have been over 5000m, which proved a lot more strenuous and exhausting than the climb of Chhukung Ri the previous day, after all we were now carrying our badly packed and overloaded backpacks. It was when we got up to a high point that we realized we had somehow ascended too early and were very much in the wrong place. After further shorter climbs to try and ascertain where we were, we decided to descend. By this time we were already tired and had not even really started the trek.
After about an hour, we came across a farmer who was searching for his lost yak, and he was able to point us in the right direction and show us the way to the pass. We were way off!. The second climb up to 5565m was a real struggle as our legs had already been punished, and it seemed that despite all our efforts to acclimatize, the decreasing levels of oxygen was rooting against us and turning our legs into lead weights. At times the climb up to the Kong Ma La was treacherous with narrow slippery paths lying in close proximity to sheer drops, large enough to stir up a certain amount of fear. But by midday we managed to reach the top of the pass, and for a split second breathed a short-lived sigh of relief. When looking over the pass, and seeing what we had to climb down through, the climb up seemed tame in comparison. The steep path down was covered in ice and snow, and straight away I knew there was no time to rest after seeing clouds rolling in from the distance. In actual fact, we decided to climb down on our behinds, keeping a low centre of gravity so that we would not slip over and slide in an uncontrollable fashion down the slope toward serious injury or possibly even death.
Eventually we got past the slippery slope and onto an hour or so of jagged rock hopping before we found a comforting carpet of grass. It was then that we released our backpacks, and fell onto the floor, scoffing down energy bars and rehydrating in an attempt to claw back whatever power we had left. We sat for what must have been half an hour, seriously depleted in strength and spirit, knowing full well that to get to our destination we faced a grueling crossing of the Khumbu Glacier, a pathless creaking monster where one must rock hop and rely on the guidance of cairns for safe passage. It was not long after we eventually set off that we came to the edge of the glacier, which bore more resemblance to the moon’s cratered surface than to anything I’d ever seen on Earth. We discussed which was the best way of venturing across, had a few disagreements and uttered a few irritable words, and then set off navigating by sight of cairns and hoping that they would keep us away from danger.
It was a very tough two hours, which seemed to last an eternity. Rock hopping when energy reserves are in the red, not knowing if you are on the right track, and having the creaks and groans of the glacier reminding us that we were standing on a constantly moving mass of ice and rock was the one time when I questioned whether I had made the right decision to do this hike. In retrospect, had we not initially gone the wrong way and tired ourselves out before even getting to the Kong Ma La, then it wouldn’t have seemed so bad, but at that point in time I was definitely in a dark place mentally. When we finally got to the other side of the Khumbu Glacier and saw the lights of the lodges at Lobuche in the not so far distance, I was too exhausted to feel relief. If we would have had another hour of walking then morale would have certainly hit rock bottom, however luckily it was only about another twenty minutes before we staggered into a guest lodge and ordered a pot of steaming hot tea and garlic soup. We sat down, and for a good 45 minutes could barely utter words to each other, such was the uncomfortable ache of muscle and psychological fatigue.
The Cho La and Renjo La passes were much easier compared to the Kong Ma La, though we did witness a near fatal rock collision from on top of the Cho La pass. Luckily no-one was seriously hurt, though for a moment our hearts were pounding as a big boulder tore down the mountain towards a German doctor who was treating one of our friends for altitude sickness. They got out of the way with minor injuries, but the boulder smashed through an icy lake at the bottom of the pass. I shudder to think of what may have been had they not got out of the way, as you don’t want to get badly injured on the top of a Himalayan pass. Aside from trekking, we also took a 9 day white water rafting trip down the Sun Kosi all the way to the border with India, camping on the sides of the riverbank at night. It was a yet another amazing experience, but that’s a separate account to describe in possibly another blog entry.
There is not a day that I do not think of Nepal. Like North Korea it is a place where I would love to spend a year or two living and working, as these really would be life defining experiences.
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