Hiking to Everest Base Camp

 

When I decided to go to the Everest base camp in early 2023, It was full of excitement and a euphoria. Although, born and raised in Nepal, with the country of majestic Himalayas including Mt. Everest, I have never been to the northern part of the country where mountain rules the human’s imagination, where passion meets the euphoria and nature shows the complexities, human has never imagined.  Himalayas were calling me far from away this time and I was ready for the caravan.

April 01, 2023. We started the trip. It was long flight to Kathmandu – The capital of Nepal. It was more than 25 hours flight with couple of hours starting from San Diego to transit in New York City and Doha. Doha’s airport was amazing with trails of footballs all over the place, the hangover of the football world cup. We were traveling to the opposite part of the earth and yes, it was almost mid night there when we flew from San Diego at 9:25. When we landed in the Kathmandu international airport, the chaos of mismanagement was depressing but feelings of excitement were unhinged. After staying in the Kathmandu, Nepal for couple of days, we headed towards the Everest base camp.

Day 01: April 06, 2023. We reserved a jeep from Kathmandu to Manthali, a rural town in a valley with 1640 ft altitude in the eastern side of Kathmandu. It was four hours’ drive passing through the rides and small villages with agricultural land. We stayed at freedom hotel, which was good and ate nice dinner. We can also see the small, tiny airport from where we will be flying to Lukla, the world's most dangerous airport.

On the Way to Manthali, Ramechap

Day02: April 07, 2023. We had a flight with Tara airlines. Something the airlines did and unexpectedly our flight was early in the morning. There was a single air hostess in the airplane and half of the airplane had a cargo. The small twin Otter plan flew up in the sky and with the feelings of it touching the ridges of the mountain, we finally landed in the Lukla, the world’s most dangerous airport in the world. There is no way that plane can stop when taking off from the airport, the runway is too short. Search the YouTube and look some videos.

Tara airlines - half passenger half cargo! what's going on ?

World's most dangerous airport, Lukla Airport, Nepal

As we start to walk higher in the mountains from Lukla, Rhododendron, Dzo, mule, yak rule in the higher altitude, glad they are well trained and give you the pass when you met them. We found hikers from all over the world, Thailand, France, Singapore, German and also met a Tunisian French surgeon.  We stayed at Phakding, a small mountainous village. The Team is ready! 

                    Happy Dogs of Lukla

In the way to Namche Bazaar, Rhododendron flower.

Day 03-05: April 08, 2023. It was a nice trip from Phakding to Namche Bazaar, a harsh mountain and many suspension bridges. For the sake of altitude sickness, we stayed in Namche Bazaar for acclimatization.

Sagarmatha National Park,  Namche Bazaar

Day 05: April 11, 2023. We went to viewpoint which was 12,100 ft.  Story of Sherpa, Tamang and Rai – three ethnicities that rules the rural Himalayas, was interesting to learn on how each ethnicities tried to control the upper Himalayas. Most Sherpas are businessperson in Namche, and Sherpas are also trainers for mountaineering although our guide was a sherpa. There was old airport on the top of the Namche Bazaar. We met people from Australia, Cambodia, Switzerland and India. Rai’s are working on almost every hotel in Lukla. Even with newest democracy and secular country, equity and equality remain at horizon. We also met a PL/I programmer from Germany, who spent most of his time in IBM and Siemens writing assembler. Finally, after six hours we arrived at Pangboche at 2:00 PM.

On the way to Pangboche from Namche Bazaar.

Day 06: April 11, 2023 , the next we reached a Dingboche, small town of twenty-thirty lodges. We also went to the French bakery café – which was really nice.  We met people from all over the world in the lodge to name; Israel, England , Germany , French.

Dingboche 

Day 07: April 12. We had breakfast at hotel mother earth, lobuche. Drink hot chocolate at the world’s highest bakery café in the elevation of 4930 meter, met folks from Colombia. The next day we will reach at the Everest base camp. My heart was pounding a bit when I was sleeping, it was an oxygen issue, or something related with altitude sickness. Nevertheless, I didn’t have to take the altitude sickness medicine. It was also a sad day because on that day in the year 2023, three sherpas lost their life in Khumbhu Ice fall.

On the way to Lobuche

Worlds highest bakery cafe

Day 08:  April 13 As the altitude goes higher and higher, the cost of food increases exponentially. You even have to pay for a flask of hot water and charging the phone about 5$ each. Source of electricity is the solar panels which are not so efficient in the high Himalayas. One thing I was surprised was the huge number of hikers coming from the Asian countries and how things both culture and economy is changing in that part of the world. Nevertheless, median age of hikers skewed in 50s.

 

Day 08 : April 13: We left for Gorakshep at 6:35, the final destination from where we can climb Kalapatthar and go to the Everest base camp. We reached Gorakshep at 9:00 am. The helicopters fly every seconds – sometimes for evacuation, often to support logistics to the climbers. We can see the tent all over the places in the Everest Base Camp. We ate at the highest altitude restaurant – 5190m. The same day we went to the Everest base camp, take some cool pictures and call it a day. It took an hour thirty minutes to reach the base camp. The big, majestic stone was amazing.

way to Gorakshep

Way to Everest Base Camp

The final stretch way to Everest Base Camp

Finally, Everest Base Camp , April 13, 2023

Happy Face

Day 09 : April 14 We woke up at 330 am in the morning and make our way to the “Kala Pathar” – black stone, although we met couple of people on the ways, but we were the first one to climb the Kala Pathar.  It took 1hr 30m to reach the top of the Kala Pathar. We also met a girl from Czech Republic. There was a majestic view that you can see from Kala Pathar and Kala Pathar was 18519 ft, which is higher than Everest base camp, 17598 ft.

Mt. Everest from Kala Pathar. 

Day 10: April 15 The new day began, and we are going down from today, glad we accomplished, it was a difficult hike, but we are going down. We arrived in Pangboche, it took about eight hours.  We will be heading to Namche tomorrow. We are racing against the time. 

Day 11: April 16, we headed towards the Namche. It was really easy going down but still it was beautiful and amazing. There were about 12 people in the room ready to eat dinner every day and there is always a furnace in the center of the room and wooden logs. 

Day 12: April 17. We headed towards the Lukla from Namche Bazaar, still the hike is all about going down, meeting yaks, Dzo and mule along the way and passing through the suspension bridge. Wondering about these himalayas and when I am going back again. Sometimes you see somebody working in potatoes field. I bought few bracelets and two T-shirts.  Everybody looks happy slept in a very nice room adjoining to the Lukla airport.  Next day we fly to the Ramechap  from Lukla, the world's most dangerous airport and we were back to the Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal

What an amazing trip, I would love to do it again. Thank you Jeweltrek.com and our Sherpa Rinzi for making this trip wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trip to Catalina Island

12/24/2022-12/27/2022

It was a beautiful day on December 24, the Chrismas eve and we headed towards the Catalina Island. It was an hour drive from San Diego to Dana point and one hour fifteen minutes via catalina express west in pacific ocean. The Dana point itself was great place to explore with beautiful ports and lavish restaurants. It was easy to get a parking pass and park nearby in the parking lot after you pay parking fee.

Santa Catalina, one of California’s Channel Islands, lies southwest of Los Angeles. It's known for its wildlife, dive sites and Mt. Orizaba, its highest peak with altitude of the 2097 ft. The resort town of Two Harbors lies to the north. To the south, in the city of Avalon, palm trees and cabanas line Descanso Beach. Avalon’s circular, art deco Catalina Casino is a cultural center with a movie theater, ballroom and museum.

Catalina express leaves the Dana point at 2:45 PM and its an hour and 25 minutes ride. Dana point is an  hour drive from north county, San Diego. The island is 22 mi (35 km) long and 8 mi (13 km) across at its greatest width. The Catalina Island is about 30 miles from Dana Point.

In the pacific ocean , way to catalina island. It was a nice blue water and cool breeze. Drinking hot chocolate and watching seamless and endless ocean was not only  fun but shows the beautiful nature in the water. I remember the whale watching trip I had at San Diego couple of years back,  and trip in south-china sea at Shenzen in the year 2007.

The golf cart is the main vehicle in the island for transportation that has about 4000 people. I love the concept of using golf around the Island as it conserve the environment. There are about 100 cars (my guess) When we reached the island, we took the taxi to go to the hamilton cove, the home for next three days.

Bison Tour: The Bison were brought to the catalina island in 1924 for shooing the movie, the vanishing american. Bison became the dominating animal in the island ruling widely in the north west side of the island. Its fun to have a bison tour where you will navigate the north west and west of the island where Bison rules and see the beautiful nature. There are currently about 100-200 Bisons ruling the Catalina Island. The trip take you to north west of the Catalina Island and further towards north west, where you can see the Los Angeles in the clear day. We also saw the amazing dwarf fox - they were really small whose ancestors are huge in the mainland.

Bison ruling the Catalina Island.

Zipline Trip. Zipline was fun from the top of the mountain ( so called ). I met the same driver who was driving hummer for the Bison Tour. The guy has a good history of the Catalina Island and talks about fire on 1915 when Island was half destroyed develo. He also talks about casino which is literally a ball room and the history of tiles manufacturing in Catalina Island and how Bison were introduced in the Island. The second part of the zipline was pretty long and exciting. It didn't excite me much although you can see the pacific ocean and it was long when you are ziplining. I had similiar experience of zipline in The Big Island, Hawai. 

Parasailing. This was totally a new experience for me. I find it very much fun and exciting as you put your safety belt and the captain start to let the rope go ahead with parachute. It will go upto 400 ft above high , you will see the tiny boat,  long rope and the port of Catalina Island. I find it very safe and relaxing on the top of the pacific ocean in Parasailing.

Glass bottom boat - fish watching trip. This is an almost an hour trip where you have opportunity to see thousands of the fishes from the bottom of the ship. Its amazing to see so many types of fishes and different types of living things below the ocean. Its very exciting trip that mesmerizes the complexity associated with the nature and how things are working perfectly, amidst of the natural complexities.

Food. Food was amazing in the Island , we tried few different types of food but sea food is dominating in the Island. It was usually very busy and hard to find the restaurant in the chrismas eve and christmas day.

Downtown catalina island

This was an amazing trip and I vow to return to Catalina Island in the future in this decade. The things remaining in my bucket list are day hike, submarine boat trip, trip to two harbor city, museum trip and botanical garden trip.