Nepal

so many words to describe it, gorgeous will do for now, the trek was changed at the last minute, instead of doing Mustang loop as we had planned, we did the Everest Base Camp loop which took us up to 18,500 ft. This is a pretty popular route, but we actually started in this town called Jiri. The point of starting here was to do the trek the original way, see less Western people and it also helps your body to acclimitize to altitude better. These days most treks start in this little hill side village called Lukla. Lukla is a whole other story in itself. The town is situated on the side of mt. the airport runway is very short and has about a 30 degree pitch. A little nerve racking on the take off! We would eventually get to Lukla, just not for 24 days. This would be our last stop before flying back to Kathmandu. The trek itself was very difficult, there is nothing easy about it, up and down mountains and then throw in altitude. At the height of our trek, it litteraly was one foot in front of the other, at a very relaxed, controlled pace other wise you were completely out of breath. The mt regions are primarily Tibetan Buddhist, some of the friendliest people I have ever met. One note I just thought of, the one thing that really bothered me was the lack of respect for the enviroment, but I guess that should not surprise me. But really there was garbage everywhere. I guess they do the same things all humans do, just on a more simplistic level. Have a candy bar and then just throw your wrapper on the ground, the river, wherever! So after 24 days of trekking, dealing with rain and leeches on the lower levels and snow and altitude at the higher levels we made it back to Kathmandu. Kathmandu is organized chaos. It is primarily Hindu, I checked out the old temples, watched cremations done right next to the river (as kids played in the river 100 yards down way). A real neat city, but I was ready to leave after 4 days of city life.

Here is a YouTube link of a video from Kalla Pattar: http://www.youtube.com/user/Jamesbevanrobinson69