Shortages in Kathmandu

Kathmandu, city of 2.5 million people and unable to satisfy their energy needs. Lines at the gas stations, no electricity for ten hours each day, and a water table which has dropped to extremely low levels.

For the people who do not have running water in their home, the choice is lining up at wells to fill their plastic containers. Some deep wells involve lowering a bucket and hearing it scraping the bottom - I can only imagine the quality of the water. Of course one can purchase bottled water everywhere but poor people cannot afford it.

Farm to city

In Tibet the main crop is barley, but here in Nepal it is wheat. I do not know if they get two crops per year, but they were already harvesting and it is only May. Strangely they bring the wheat into the city and separate the grain from the chaff on the small squares.

It is a sub-tropical climate here so crops grow easily and there seems to be a wide variety of vegetables in the stores. With the exception of a couple of meals with chicken, I have been pretty much vegetarian on this trip. Kathmandu is the place to eat Momos which are small dumplings, so I will definitely try those.

Street scenes

Just a couple of Kathmandu street scenes.

Mountain to valley

After a lovely stay at the Dhulikel Lodge we have now arrived in Kathmandu. The valley suffers from air pollution, but so far it has not seemed bad and our biggest problem is the heat. No matter how much we drink we are always thirsty!

Our first day was a walking tour with our guide, and the ancient city seemed easy to navigate. In Tibet they have no maps, and as all the wording is in Chinese we could never find places.

Women here still do a lot of manual labor but our guide said that girls have much more opportunity than before. His own mother was illiterate, but after he completed his college education, he taught his mother to read and write. You see school children and schools everywhere, and all the kids wear uniforms.

From barren to lush

Crossing into Nepal meant saying goodbye to our trusty driver Yambil, and our sweet young guide, Samden. We also crossed from the barren brown colors and endless mountains of Tibet, to the green gorges of Nepal.

The border crossing was thankfully without problems. Their main questions concerned reading material, especially guide books or literature about Tibet neither of which we had. They did not mind me having a small Hong Kong guide book however.

After entering Nepal, we spent an hour or so just people watching in the narrow street waiting for our ride. Nearby Mount Kailash is an attraction for serious climbers, and the women function as porters carrying all their heavy supplies to be loaded on buses. It is the only work they can get, and it pays $6 each trip. Once they leave their load they climb back up the hill to find another one, carrying infants and toddlers along with the heavy load on their backs.

After at least 5 hours driving on the edge of gorges where I could not even see the bottom, we arrived at a beautiful lodge on a hillside overlooking a valley, and in the evening we enjoyed a Nepali curry on the terrace. Considering we spent two evenings where dinner was a protein bar, this was luxury.

I made it

Yes, that is me at Mount Everest, we had the same beautiful weather our whole trip. Deb refused to do the whole climb, so we took the buss up with our guide. Once the buss lets you off, you still have a short steep climb for a clear view of the mountain - it really is spectacular. Later Deb took the buss down, while Samdun and I hiked back to the camp which is about 4 miles.

In the second photo you can clearly see the row of orange pup tents which is the base camp for those actually climbing Everest.

Our Everest Hotel

We made the choice to sleep in the tented camp, which is the base camp for tourists. It is like a small village of large rectangular tents made of woven black Yak hair. However, what a difference inside, carpet, weavings, beds around the perimeter, and a stove in the center. The young man who runs it does everything, makes hot tea, cooks food, makes pancakes for breakfast and tucks you in with big puffy quilts. That night six of us slept in the tent, Deb and I, our driver Yambil, our guide Samden and 2 Chinese girls, so as you can imagine it was a sleep in your clothes night. I won't describe the toilet but you had to go outside. It was really toasty inside, until nightfall came when the temperature plummeted, but we were very snug under our pile of bedding. Quite an experience!