We are back after an amazing 20 day trek in the Sagarmatha National Park and the surrounding Everest region. The views were incredible and nothing that I would be able to describe in words. You will all have to wait for us to bore you with the pictures, and we have enough for manylong evenings. The trek began on a flight from Kathmandu to a little village name Phaplu in the lower less trekked hills. The plane was very small maybe about 15 seats and standing up in the aisle was impossible. The pilots must flyon sight alone with an occasional glance at the GPS that they seemed to continually be wiping clear. The flight was rather scaryas it was verycloudy and the turbulence was outrageous often feeling like the plane dropped 10 feet all of a sudden. I guess it didn’t help that I was in the front row and could see out the front window of the plane and hear the pilots talk or should I say argue as each one tried to find the little short gravel runaway thru the clouds. Pat and I were the only tourists on the plane and the rest of the Sherpas (local people) really enjoyed my fear and laughed every time the plane dropped and I jumped. Well after about a 45 minute flight we landed safely.
Sherpas are the local people living in the hills and along the trekking trail. They are extremely hardworking, friendly, lighthearted people that long ago migrated from Tibet. They own and operate many of the lodges that we stayed at throughout the trek. Many Sherpa men take part in Everest expeditions whether it’s helping guide and lead or portering supplies and equipment up the great mountain to many of the different camps along the climb. We met many sherpa men that have been to the summit of Everest more than once. The majority do it for the income. One man in particular Pu Tashi Sherpa has climbed Mt. Everest (29,028 feet) 3 times and will climb again this year with an expedition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first summit of Everest completed by Hillary and Tenzing. Pu Tashi has also climbed Mt. Ama Dablam (about 23,000 feet) 3 times which in myopinion is the most beautiful and impressive mountain I saw on the entire trek. Pat and I asked him which was more difficult and he quickly said Mt. Ama Dablam, but then made sure we knew Everest was difficult because of elevation. He said need oxygen on Mt. Everest but not on Mt. Ama Dablam. He said Ama Dablam is more technical of a climb.
The trail that we hiked on for 20 days was much like any hiking trail that we have experienced with a few differences. First of all it was not set up just for a leisure hike in the mountains for a simple holiday getaway; it is the “road” used by all the local people to walk to work, walk to school, and trade and sell goods/food. On a days hike we would come across many porters carrying loads of 100-150 pounds in weaved baskets on their back with much of the weight supported by their necks with a strap that was secured around their forehead. Most Sherpas are rather short in stature and their loads sometimes were almost taller than they were resulting in baskets full way over our heads. Other daily encounters were children walking to school sometimes taking them 2 hours literally “up hill both ways”, big Yaks carrying supplies/food from village to village (Yaks are huge hairy, horned looking cattle that look as if they could kill in one turn of their head, but are actually quite scared of humans), we have many pictures of them to give good examples. Every once in while you would meet the occasional dog that would follow you down the trail for a couple kilometers before turning around and heading back to the previous village. Most of the Sherpa people are of Buddhist religion so along the trail prayer wheels (large or small wheels with prayers inscribed on them that are manually spun as they walk by) for efficient praying, or some prayer wheels are so big they have the flow of the rivers turning them, other forms of prayers are flags and large flat stones with prayers etched into them. Often the stones are piled up to create a wall and it is proper to walk on the left side of them with the right shoulder facing which brings merit and good kharma for the person. Even more daily encounters were little tea houses (which were just peoples homes where they served and sold tea and other hot drinks) or lodges (often stone or wood built one story buildings with a couple rooms and a sitting area with a wood stove) the lodges were also the homes to the local people they were not separate. The lodges were very cozy in the main sitting/dining area and the bedrooms were small, cold rooms with two sponge mattresses on top of wood platforms. With a good down sleeping bag Pat and I were never cold sleeping once we were inside the bag.
There were two distinct sections of our trek the lower hills and valley (less touristy) and then the upper hills (a bit more travelled by tourists). We spent 5 days in the lower valley when we first started out. At this point there weren’t any snowcapped peaks in our view, but the hills were beautifully terraced and forested; it was much more a quiet beauty than what came later. The children were lovely and the cutest that we have met on all of our travels so far. They are not very used to seeing tourists and some were even scared of us. For example we stopped for tea at a little lodge and when we walked in a 2 year old little boy began bawling and ran to his mother for comfort. A local teacher that was also enjoying tea at the time explained he had never seen a white person before and was very scared. We said Namaste (Hello) to him thinking it might help, but it just made it worse. At the end of our cup we got up to leave, while walking off down the trail a bit he walked out of the house and shared a small smile with us. He was proably just relieved we were leaving. The second night it snowed and we woke to about an inch on the ground, which made it very fun the next day on the trail. We met a little girl about 4 years of age when we stopped for tea and Pat taught her to make a snowman. We asked her mother if she had ever seen a snowman and she said no. Pat made two mini snowman and set them right on top of the picnic table. While Pat constructed the men, about 6 porters stopped with their heavy loads to watch and they also looked on in amazment at the silly snowmen. The little girl went up to the snowmen looking and giggling. We then went inside to drink our tea and she came running inside to get her mom. Her mom went out and peaked out at her and she had made a snowman also. She was very excited about hers and could not stop laughing. A bit later on down the trail we met another few kids who were throwing snowballs down the trail. Pat and I stopped to watch them and Pat made a snowball and thru it off the cliff. The kids were excited at how far he thru it so they started making snowballs quickly and just kept handing them to Pat. He must have thrown about 20 of them before we headed on. Be back soon to finish up, Pat and I are giong for some dinner.
|
