Michael King’s trek to Base Camp Everest continued…

SEPTEMBER 14th:  I arrived safely in Katmandu about 30 minutes late (Air China offered no reason for the delay).  When I went to the airport this morning the driver let me out in front of the domestic terminal even though he knew I was headed to Katmandu- so I went into the terminal and waited in line and then the ticket counter woman told me “wrong terminal” and gave me halting directions for the international terminal which I found without difficulty.

Here I lined up with about 15 other travelers waiting for the Chinese official to decide when to allow us to enter.  About 15 minutes later we entered and for the most part I experienced little difficulty getting through customs and to the waiting area for the plane

On the ride over I was looking out at the broken cloud cover down to the brown mountainous terrain below (we were flying at 32,000 feet) and then I happened to look straight out and there in the distance were several white peaks of the Himalayas – these were easy 25,000 feet or more and had several hundred to a couple of thousand of feet of mountain showing and they were magnificent – just about took my breath. Then a short while later the pilot announced we were going to pass by Mt. Everest – of course I was on the wrong side but I did see a bit of this incredible mountain.  I hopefully will see “Mother Earth” as the Sherpa name “Chomolungma” means along with several other 7,000 to 8,000 meter mountains.  I can’t wait!

Arriving in Nepal (somewhat old airport) I went and filled out my visa form and gain entry into Nepal and was excited to see my luggage made the trip with me, went out and found my A&K ground transfer and they took me to the Dwarika Hotel – very nice.  Katmandu is a real sprawl of a city – four and a half million people live in a wide valley between two mountain ranges.  The city appears to have a high air pollution (reminded me a bit of L.A.).  Tomorrow I will tour a bit with A & K and with others of our group that have arrived early.  The time here is 10 hour and 45 minutes ahead of our central time.

SEPTEMBER 15TH:  I was up early and after breakfast met our guide whose name sounds like ‘my nose’ who drove myself and another of our party – Jan – to a Kali temple out of the city.  Along the way he explained that in 1996 the Maoist started a war against the government which was then a monarchy in an attempt to overthrow the government and establish a People’s Republic (Maoist are communist by another name).  In 2006 the U.N brokered a comprehensive peace agreement and the Republic of Nepal was born. The U.N. established an office in Katmandu to monitor the political situation to insure a peaceful transition of government.  What happened because of the war is Katmandu grew from around 900,000 to it’s present day population of 4.5 million mainly because people in the rural areas came to Katmandu seeking refuge.  This put a severe strain on the public services – water, sewerage, roads, power, schools, and medical facilities from which Katmandu is still trying to recover.  The unemployment hovers around 50% in the country and many leave the country looking for work.

There are a total of 27 million people living in Nepal and the major religion is Hindu (80%) followed by Buddhism at 10%, and Christianity at 7%.  The temple we went to honors the goddess Kali who helps mortals improve their character (or so we were told); it is a form of Hinduism called Shakti and is an old practice over 1000 years – it requires sacrifice and here at this temple people come and sacrifice sheep, water buffaloes, goats, chickens, and ducks.  This supposedly helps the person rid themselves of ignorance, anger, confusion, greed, and lust. I was able to receive a blessing from a holy man for my journey (see pictures) which I found very special.  

The afternoon was spent getting a trekking briefing (found out we all packed too much), going over our route to Everest, discussing altitude sickness and its effects, and various other details and questions.

We will have a group leader – a Sherpa named Phinjo; a cook named Tamding; and two additional Sherpas named Mingma and Ramesh Rai. The group consist of two single young men (35 or under) a married couple from Peoria (probably in their 50s) a single woman – Jan who is 61 and then a man named bill from Boston who competes with me for the oldest in the group.  After getting the briefing we visited the oldest market in Nepal  and boy was it chaotic – you had to watch out for people, motor bikes (most common method people use to get around) and cars all moving on very narrow street – sometimes with no sidewalks.

Tomorrow morning we tour another part of the city and then in the afternoon I will repack and rest – we leave the next day at 05:00- I can’t wait to get on the trail.