Everest Base Camp!!

There it is, at Everest Base Camp! 

View of Everest from the plane (photo credit to Christy!)

There I was in March doing another looooooong run and a fellow running friend, who doesn't even run with us that often, blurts out, "anyone interested in doing Everest?" Hmm... I thought. She then told me her and a bunch of friends were going in October. Seed planted. I later contacted her about details and she sent them along. Hmm.... , I thought. I've been into these 'active' trips for awhile, October was a good enough month for me, I had the leave days, Everest IS one of those bucket list things to do, AND.... am soo soo close to Nepal and while I am in Dubai, am really trying to take advantage of things like that. Well, haphazardly mentioned it to a few friends.... Liz, well, she is my ultra running friend and she immediately was keen. Heather took a bit more convincing as she is afraid of flying and there is a short flight from Kathmandu to Lukla and possibly had work conflicts, and then Christy, don't even know how it came about, but it seemed it was 5-6 weeks or so when we were just chatting and she decided to join. Funny enough, Shabri and all her friends ended up canceling their trip, but we had planned to go a few days earlier so it all somehow worked out for the best for everyone.

I have to say, one of the things I appreciate most in life is timing. I've had soo many of these "random" experiences that have led me to a certain path in life and it never ceases to amaze me. If Shabri hadn't happen to run that morning, I never would have had this incredible experience and neither would Liz, Heather and Christy.

Funny enough, I was there 10 years ago in Nepal with my friend Char, but that time we did more sightseeing and did a mini trek just to get a view of Everest (to Nagarkot) and we saw so so many trekkers that were going to/from Everest Base Camp and at the time I remember thinking, "I have to do this." So flash forward 10 years, here I was at the same hotel in Kathmandu, Kathmandu Guest House with Christy instead of Char. The Guest House suffered a bit from the recent earthquake but in general was much nicer than what I remembered, a beautiful garden. Kathmandu also had more paved streets, NO power outages as before, and we had en suite bathrooms which was a nice surprise. So all and all, I was 'impressed' with the 'modernization' of it (friends were laughing because it is definitely not modern but a big improvement from 10 years ago!!!

This is from 10 years ago, view from Nagarkot:

Char and I at Kathmandu Guest House, Nov 2007:

And now Christy and I at ... Kathmandu Guest House, 2017!

And fine, will admit I do look so young back then, lol. 

Soo.... unlike Kazakhstan, which unintentionally was a "preparation" for Everest, and was peaceful, quiet, and serene, just us on the mountains, Everest is the exact opposite. Hoards of people do it, all walks of life. I have a few friends here that have done it and all of them more or less said, "don't expect an authentic or zen experience." So I am glad I was prepared for that because it certainly was crowded and busy, both internally and externally. Internally meant our group itself. Went with Intrepid and when we signed up, there were almost 8-10 people, which I thought was a perfect size. But then when we showed up, 16 people! Wowza! Our youngest was 19 y/o and the eldest 70 y/o! Next up was a 60 y/o, 2 in their 20's, and then the rest in 30's and 40's. Because I hadn't seen Christy in maybe 7-8 years (met Christy randomly in Thailand 10 years ago!), Heather since the summer, and Liz since Comrades, was busy chatting and catching up with them not to mention meeting and greeting the others in our group. So needless to say, the first few days I was actually tired from talking so much and felt I only had about 2 minutes of quiet time and that was pretty much going to the restroom, ha haha.

Anyhoo, the big hooplah is the flight from Kathmandu to Lukla. Probably wouldn't have thought much of it if Heather wasn't freaked out by it and then others were watching youtube videos. It IS rated as one of the 10 most dangerous airports in the world (#10!) because of the mere 100m landing strip. I am a fairly calm traveller and don't get nervous on airplanes, which was good for Heather! The plane was super small and never have seen a plane before that was wide open looking into the cockpit directly, so that was really cool. Here are some pics from the flight going and then coming back, thank gawd we had awesome and perfect weather as we heard a group a few days before us outgoing got held back a couple of days, but we were lucky on both ends, yay!!!

And the way back to Kathmandu....:

When I did Kilimanjaro, the summit was the goal. It was up up up and there was a remarkable goal at the end, literally being at the top of Africa and the world, so it seemed. It was so overwhelming in a good way, I remember feeling quite emotional when I did reach the summit. Here, as people said and it is true, it is about the journey. This time we walked through villages so in that sense it was a great cultural experience. I looooooooooooved seeing the simplicity of mountain life. Children playing with simple items like broomsticks and paper, the manual labor that goes into living up in the mountains without roads. It is sooooooooo amazing to me that everything that was on top of the mountain was carried by yaks, horses, or people.

Namche Bazar especially is a proper village yet had North Face and an Irish Pub and wifi everywhere. Things got a bit more barren and sparse the higher we went, but that is to be expected. We even watched a movie with popcorn in a cafe (Sherpa's, a very good movie and inside perspective to the Sherpa life and their role with trekkers)!

What was also funny was that it wasn't until we were about to head to Everest Base Camp when we saw a sliver of Mt. Everest itself. Then actually AT Everest Base Camp you don't see Mt. Everest at all and it is not anything different than anything we saw before. BUT not disappointing because... that is what you expect! It REALLY is about the journey to get there. So here are the actual views of when we made it to Everest Base Camp and our shots of Everest when we did see it:

Avalache (for real) while we were at Base Camp

And then later when we were at Dingboche we got some fab views as well:

I was feeling GREAT the whole time, maybe a little dull headachy at Everest Base Camp because we spent quite awhile there then, just as in Kili, the coming down part killed me. Well, not killed me, but was just super tired from the day (we started super early), it was cold, I was tired, and.... just lost steam as we made it back to teahouse. The last stretch was dragging and felt nauseous and almost as if I was going to vomit. We got back to the teahouse, and I looked and felt like crap. I literally went to the gross bed, didn't even bother changing or doing anything, and lied down to try and rest but had a very bad headache and just felt blargh. Went down and had a soup, and then took an ibuprofen, thought I felt a bit better, but then went to bed (at like 7pm, mind you as another early morning start the next day to get to Kala Pattar) and literally 'slept' maybe 5 min? Had this horrible headache, couldn't get comfortable, felt like arse, felt like was going to vomit again, but I didn't. Come the morning I had ZERO intention of getting up. Christy (my roommate) was up and about and I said I would pass as felt like crap and although was stubborn for a wee bit to give it a go, then started vomiting and new it wasn't going to happen. I took another ibuprofen and also a diamox, which I had avoided up to that point. They all left, I actually did sleep, and 2 hours later when I woke up, the headache was gone and felt 90% better. Of course, Kala Pattar had GORGEOUS sunrise views and despite all of them saying they practically froze to death, for some reason I really didn't feel like I missed much. Later nearly half if not more got cold sick from that excursion and I was just grateful I made it to Everest Base Camp as another lady Linda missed both and she was by far super disappointed. Soo.... besides that little bout of altitude sickness, I was fresh as a daisy, was full on mountain energy, somehow avoided the "kumba" cough we joked AND a cold (unlike many others) and overall was healthy. Sooo yayyy! Am happy about that! And even happier had no tummy issues or anything else.

Anyhoo, on a more pos note, soo happy with the weather! Bright and sunny skies most of the time and got plenty of glam and group and random fun shots of our journey from: Kathmandu -> Lukla -> Namche Bazar -> Phortse Gaon -> Dingboche -> Lobuche - > EVEREST BASE CAMP -> Orsho -> Tengboche -> Monjo > Lukla -> Kathmandu:

I'll write another blog about do's and don'ts and more practical things, but overall, looved the experience. It is definitely one like none other, it was cool sharing the experiences with so many people although we were a wee bit divided and had the usual group dynamics stuff. The Fab Four as we called them did their own thing, a couple who was a bit slow did their own thing, and the "middle group" was everyone else and we all got along. Our poor 4 guides really had a handful with this! Ishwar (main guide), Santos, Indra (the best), and Ratna couldn't and even didn't know how to guide us for that reason, lol. Overall, considering it WAS such a big group, we had no mama drama's in the group, some bickering, yes, but nothing major, no major illnesses or ailments, no injuries, sooo... I really count that as a BIG success!!!!!

2+ weeks of fresh air, beautiful scenery, totally being disconnected from technology and the world was amazing. I really REALLY do love these active trips, 5-9 hours of trekking a day was just awesome. We all actually lost a bit of weight because we weren't eating nearly as much as we were burning. The food itself was actually good, momo's (these steamed dumpling type things), ra ra noodle soup (Nepali version of ramen noodles), and Dhal bhat, were staple dishes as well as pizzas, pastas, lots of carbs and more carbs, and.... my fave, ginger/ginger lemon, lemon tea. Was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much nicer than camping to stay at teahouses with actual beds (more like futon mattresses), pillows, and just having a roof over our shoulders.

Was much less 'roughing' it than actual camping, and although people complained about the squat toilets, at least we had toilets!!

Other random pics from the trip:

(Yes, that's me, ha ha. Was too sunny out)

And.. back to Kathamandu just in time for Diwali!! So fun to see the streets all lit up and all the decorations:

Above: Our farewell party (and speeches!)

Our Intrepid group:
Guides - (main) Ishwor, then Indra (the SWEETEST!!!), Ratnar (joker and money collector), and Santos
Our group: We had the Fab 4 - Howie, Jeffrey, Sarah, "Jam." Then the 'middle group' - my awesome friends with myself, Heather, Liz, and Christy. Then Jess (from UK, although 23 y/o, we called her an 'old soul' as she somehow knew all the movies and music from our generation and is very mature for her age!), Seb (UK, was too too funny about him not liking trekking, loving heavy metal and death stuffs), John (60 y/o widowed, retired, and going strong traveling!), Jinny (Canada, same age as Heather and I, super sweet girl), Linda (Canadian as well, but grew up in FL), and our fave 70 y/o (no joke, so awesome!) Joseph, that was quiet but always present and right behind us as far as stamina, and taking pics (from Czech Republic). Then the super couple Craig and Marie Ellie also from Canada.

And finally, random comments/jokes from the trip:
-Is that Everest?
-Jam Jam ('let's go' in Nepali)
-Yakkie yakkie on the trackie
-Lots of Yak-ction on the road!
-Stay on the mountainside! (when yaks were coming)
-Lots of movie and song talk/singing (of course Sound of Music, lol)
-Lots of toilet commentary: We did a "momo" scale of toilets, 1/5 momo was a really crappy one, up to 5/5 for a nice one. The 'worst' one was nearest to Everest Base Camp.... ugh, won't go into details, but we were on the 2nd floor and when I went to this squat toilet the above floor leaked on my head. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!! And yes, we were just below the 3rd floor toilet. Blargh!
-Besides ample amounts of pizza and soups, we had 'local food' of momo's and dhal bhat (and as mentioned ra ra noodles):

                                      

-The Fab Four (hehe, that was for the 4 speedsters that always were at the front of the group and pow wow'edahead)
-Liz and her fear of the bridges, Heather and her fear of the flight to/from Lukla (Jess too, more so on when we were leaving)
-The mystery of the two rather good-looking chaps on the trip
-Kumba cough
-The infamous flight to/from Kathmandu to/from Lukla, rated the top 10 most dangerous in the world (because of weather conditions and the 100 m runway at Lukla, eek!).
-AMS (acute mountain sickness) and the associated 'irritability' and 'combativeness' among other things and also LMS - Lower Mountain Sickness, lol

Soo..... here is how I feel about the trip, I can't wait for more (Annapurna Circuit 2018 anyone? hehe)