Back to Malaysia......(26th Oct 2006)

This is the day that we fly back to Malaysia. After settled the bill with hotel, everyone get refund of 726 Rupees from our common fund. We have 2 hours for shopping before proceed to airport. So, we separated into few groups and do our shopping for the last time. I bought a backpack and used up all the rupees that I left. Hari meet us at hotel at 10.30pm and fetch us to airport.

At the airport, I found out that I lost my spectacles. I called back to Hotel Blue Diamond and asked them to check whether I left it in the room. They found it. So, Kok Yuen, Kok Ming and I decided to take taxi back to hotel to get it. However, the officer doesn’t allow us to go out from the airport as we had checked in. As we called the taxi from the airport counter, the person helped us to negotiate with the office. Finally, we are able to go out and came back on time. Taxi costs 500 Rupees. I had used up all my Rupees. Luckily teammates still have some and I really have to thank all of them for helping me in this matter.

Our journey ended. We had back to reality. I had spent about RM 4300 for the whole trip. It was within the budget. We reached KLIA at 10.30pm. At KLIA, Teck Long lost his bag. Foung Yee’s backpack was opened up and lost several things like handphone, card reader etc. They went for reporting. I met my parents and went home by 11.30pm. It was about 1am when I reached home.

p/s: Teck Long’s bag was found and returned to him after a few days. For Lai, I hope she will be able to claim back her lost by insurance.

Tour around Kathmandu valley (25 Oct 2006)

There are some interesting places to see around Kathmandu. Since most of us are first time to Nepal, we rent a van from hotel to bring us tour around Kathmandu today. We paid 3000 Rupees for visits of 4 places: Swayambhunath, Budhanilkantha, Boudnath Stupa and Pashupatinath. We took off from Hotel at 9am. But soon find out that the road that we were heading was blocked. I have no idea what had happened but I saw the red Maoist flag. All vehicles are forced to turn back. Our driver tried to use another road and it was blocked once again. I saw burning tyres on the road. We started to worry will this happen when we want to go airport tomorrow? The driver seems to know a lot of alternative roads. At the 4th time trying, we managed to reach Swayambhunath.

Each of us paid 100 Rupees for admission. This hilltop temple is also well known as monkey temple because of many monkeys in this area. We can overlook the city of Kathmandu from here. The big stupa at hilltop with lots of prayers flag is quite stunning. But this is not the biggest stupa in Kathmandu. We spent about 1 hour at Swayambhunath before proceed to the 2nd destination.

I had fall asleep on the journey. When I woke up, we had arrived Budhanilkantha temple. The admission is free. A Hindu god Vishnu statue which carved on black stone is lying in the middle of small pond. There are a lot of Hindus queue up to bath it. Only Hindus are allowed to enter that area. We only spent about half an hour in this place.

Next destination is Boudnath Stupa – the largest stupa in Kathmandu valley. 100 Rupees admission fee is needed for each person. I saw it in magazines for many times. To my surprise, it is located at middle of the city. The eyes appeared on the stupa look in four directions. The eyes that look like half open half close with the question mark shape nose has become the special symbol of Nepal.

It’s lunch time. Kok Yuen found a special place for lunch. It is a Chinese restaurant at the small street behind the Boudnath Stupa. We definitely crave for Chinese food now. There is a garden in front of the restaurant. Persimmon fruits hang on the tree. It seems ripe but nobody picks them. Once the permission is given by the restaurant waiter, Kok Ming immediately climbed up the tree, picked the fruits and threw it to Kok Yuen. They worked very well with each other. One person picks and throws, another one hold and put it into plastic bag. ;) The food here was quite nice, big portion and cheap.

The last place to visit is Pashupatinath. I had been told that it is a crematory for Hinduism. It was built beside the Bagmati River. Once the body has been cremated, the ashes will be scattered to the river. Hindus believe that the water of the Bagmati River is holy because it eventually flows into Ganges. There are 2 cremation grounds separated by a bridge. One is used by the royalty and another is used by citizen. There is an orphan house near Pashupatinath. Kok Yuen and Foung Yee had brought some foods and clothes for them. We left this place and back to Hotel around 4pm.

At night, we went to Momotaru Restaurant again for dinner. Then, we went for shopping, bought some snacks back to hotel and played cards as yesterday.

Durbar Square (24 Oct 2006)

24 Oct 2006, we checked out Hotel Hana and moved to Hotel Blue Diamond which is cleaner and nicer. We get better room with the same budget. We took our time to have the breakfast, probably the longest breakfast that we took in 3 weeks. Then, 8 of us proceed our way to Durbar Square. Hai Poh stayed in hotel to write his article. We were attracted to a t-shirt shop not far away from hotel. There are a lot of t-shirts shops in Thamel area. The shop provides a series of pattern. They will sew these patterns to t-shirt according to the customer selection. So, it’s totally handmade and customizable. We spent quite sometime in this shop before walked towards Durbar Square.

On the way to Durbar Square, we passed by the local market. It was crowded with people, cars and motorbikes. There is no traffic rule here. I heard motor-horn everywhere. This place reveals part of the real life of Nepalese. Tourists will have to pay 200 Rupees for admission to Durbar Square. I had entered Durbar Square before on the 2nd day at Nepal. 3 weeks ago, our flight to Lukla had been cancelled. So, we spent the day to leisure around. I didn’t notice I was entering Durbar Square that time as nobody stopped me. But I didn’t visit this place in detail that time as team mates that stopped by the officer were waiting for me at the entrance.

Durbar Square is the important cultural site in Kathmandu valley. There are statues, ancient temples and monuments in this area. The restoration project is carried out at this moment. I went in a big temple for visit. From the brochure, this temple is named as “Kumari-ghar”. It is the home of the “Kumari” or living goddess who is considered to be an incarnation of the goddess Taleju. Kok Yuen and Foung Yee told me that the girl that had been chosen as “Kumari” will be the goddess until she gets her first period, when the goddess takes a new incarnation. “Kumari” never gets married when she returns to human form. This is probably because Nepalese believe that married a “Kumari” will bring unfortunate.

Restaurants were closed because of Deepavali celebration. We were only able to buy some snacks from a bakery shop. Peng Meng decided to go back Thamel while the rest of us would like to explore other area of Kathmandu. By looking at map, there is a tower which is not far away. So, we followed the map to look for the tower but we were lost. Instead of the tower, we reached a soldier camp. We asked for help from locals and finally found the tower. Admission ticket is needed for entering this white color tower. We were not interested to go in, only took photos from outside. It’s only after I went back Malaysia that I found out this is Bhimsen Tower, a landmark for that area. Then, we came across a shopping mall. We were curious but have no chance to go inside as it was closed. On the way back, Kok Yuen and Kok Ming were attracted to a special drink selling by hawker on the street. The drink was stored in glass bottle. We saw the seller used something to open up the glass bottle and pour the water from the bottle to a glass with lime. A lot of locals drink that. So, Kok Yuen and Kok Ming bought one. Dee and I also tried it out. It smells like drain water and taste salty. Well, I don’t think I want to try second time.

At night, it was really hard to find place to have dinner. Most of the restaurants were closed. We went to the Korean restaurant yesterday. The door was opened, so we walked in. We met Mr. Kim – the Korean man that can speak Mandarin again. The restaurant was closed for business. The owner served only a few regular customers today. The owner agreed to serve us with limited choices of dishes. This is because her workers are not working. She has to prepare all dishes herself. We were glad that finally found a place to have dinner. Kim helped out the owner to cook for us. Once the food cooked, we served ourselves with the food. :D

As usual, we were shopping around after dinner. Then, we back to the hotel and played cards until late at night.

Lukla - Kathmandu (23 Oct 2006)

23 Oct 2006, I felt sick, sore throat and couldn’t speak. We slowly walked to airport after breakfast. I saw the landing of an airplane. The airstrip is short and at the edge of cliff. The pilots really need good skills to do the landing. The airport was crowded. We took pictures with our porters and guide before checked in. Dee’s sister and brother in law are coming to Lukla today. They booked the package from the same company as us. Co-incidentally, Man will be their trekking guide. While we were waiting at the departure hall, Dee saw her sister and brother in law got down from the plane. She immediately ran out to them. There are security guards at the door to check the boarding pass. Our flight is not yet arrived. So they wouldn’t allow us to go out. However, Dee managed to by passed the guards and went to her sister. I am not sure how she did that. :p

Our flight boarded around 9am, marked the end of our journey at Sagamartha National Park. By 9.45am, we arrived at Kathmandu. We checked in Hana Hotel at Thamel once again. After settle the payment at Hari office, we went for lunch at Momotaru Restaurant, a Japanese restaurant which recommended by Hari. Kok Ming is very generous. He contributed US 50 for the meal. So, we have higher budget for our celebration meal. We ordered as much as we can. The whole table was full of food. The food is tasty and the price is reasonable. We enjoyed the meal very much.

We shopped around Thamel area. At night, we went in a Korean Restaurant with name “More Than Kimchi” for dinner. When we stepped in the restaurant, a Korean man beckoned us to sit at a table. He speaks Mandarin fluently. He was traveled at China for quite a long period. We thought he is the owner of the restaurant. Later we found out that he is also a guest. But he is regular guest of this restaurant. He is very friendly and nice. He helped to take our orders and served the food. When he knew that I was sick, he changed the glass of cold water of mine to a glass of hot Chinese tea. We felt very comfortable here, a feeling like having dinner at home.

3 weeks ago at Kathmandu, the weather was hot. But now, the weather had changed. We have to wear jacket when walking on the street. When we back to hotel, there is no hot water supply. We had reported to the counter but they didn’t fix it. It was very cold at night. I slept without taking bath.

Namche Bazaar to Lukla (22 Oct 2006)

I woke up in the morning, looking out from the window and admired Mt. Thamserku and other snow-capped mountains for the last time. I stayed in the same room 17 days ago. I had stayed in this region for 18 days ……it’s like a dream, a beautiful dream.

There are shops selling trekking equipment, warm clothing and souvenirs at Namche. We shopped for a while before retrace our steps back to Lukla. 9.30pm, our trekking guide stopped us from shopping and pushed us to start the journey. We walked down quickly the steep hill but often delayed by the slow yak train. We crossed the bridge at the bottom of the hill and reached Jorsale at 11.00am. We lunched at Riverview restaurant. Sui Jing put on the video camera and asked everyone to say something for recording. I remembered a few of it:-

Teck Long : Am I good looking?
Peng Meng: A lot of yaks.
Kok Ming : Too “snake” ( very easy and leisure trip for him )
Jing Yee (myself) : Get cough . Can’t believe I reached Kalapattar.

We continue journey to Phakding after lunch. The weather changed very quickly. It was raining, then stopped and raining again. Nepalese are in festival mood. Porters are singing happily. We came to the Maoist counter after crossing a bridge. We showed them receipt and by passed. A trekker told us that now the Maoist asked for 100 Rupees per day. If you would like to trek for 18 days, which mean you have to pay 1800 Rupees to them. Well, it’s cheaper than what we paid. We paid 2500 Rupees previously. X-(

We reached Phakding at 3pm. Guide told us that there is still another 2 hours to Lukla. At Khumbu valley, the distance is measured by number of hours needed walking from one place to another. If you have doubt on what I am saying, refer to photo on right.

The walk from Phakding to Lukla seems longer than I remembered. I had finished all my drinking water, legs tired but Lukla still hasn’t come into sight. Kok Yuen, Sui Jing and I stopped at Cheffung to have rest and tea break. A cup of hot lemon tea made me warm. Hai Poh, Foung Yee, Kok Ming and Man (trekking guide) arrived after a while. Man didn’t stop for long as he would like to go Lukla to confirm the flight for tomorrow. We rest for about 40 minutes. It’s 4.50pm when we continue our way to Lukla.

I reached Lukla at 5.30pm. There are a lot of people singing and dancing at the street. I think this is the way they celebrate Deepavali. I was very tired, rested at room before going up to restaurant to order dinner. Hai Poh was not feeling well. He went back to room for rest after dinner. Foung Yee and I also got sick. We cough badly. Luckily I only got sick when the journey was going to end. Tonight will be our last night at Khumbu valley.

p/s: Lai, you look cute and pretty in this photo. Nobody can say you are ugly now. ;)

Dole - Mong La - Khumjung - Namche Bazaar(21st Oct 2006)

I woke up at 5.45am. Only a thin layer of snow covered the ground. Kok Yuen wish to build the snowman was not able to come true. However, Dole looks beautiful after the snow. We took a lot of time to take pictures. We slowly trekked down from Dole to Phortse, passing the beautiful rhododendron forest once again. The scenery was excellent. We were unwilling to leave this beautiful place.

Today will be the long hike from Dole to Namche Bazaar via Mong La and Khumjung. Half an hour after we left Dole, the steep uphill trail to Mong La began. I maintained the slow pace as usual. I felt exhausted and the ascent was like never ending. I kept myself moving and finally reached the top after 1.5 hours climb. It was about 11.30am. So, we stopped for lunch at Buddha Lodge. The owner was a Lama previously. He had just climbed up Everest peak without oxygen tank 5 months ago. He was tall and looked strong.

When we would like to continue our journey after lunch, it started to snow and spit rain. We still proceed our way to Khumjung. The rain getting heavier and the visibility low. We stopped at Khumjung for tea break. Khumjung is a large settlement in this valley. Anyway, we have no chance to walk around as it’s too cold outside. 2.45pm, the rain had stopped but it was still snowing. It was getting late, so we had to move to Namche Bazaar. We walked through the walled fields, climbed up a small hill and came to Syangboche. When I descended past the airstrip, my memories flash back to 16 days ago when we ran happily here. I felt happy and sad at the same time. Happy because I had completed the route and sad because the journey is almost comes to the end. I reached Everest Hotel at 4pm.

Today is Deepavali.. Nepali celebrates Deepavali for a week. It’s a big festival for them. We would like to treat our porters and guide for dinner. But only 1 porter was in the hotel. I guess others must be gone to their friend’s house for celebration. We had a nice dinner together with the guide and the porter. Tomorrow, it will be the long hike from Namche Bazaar to Lukla.

Reunion at Lhabarma (20 Oct 2006)

20 Oct 2006, we woke up to a winter wonderland. Majority of us felt lazy to climb up Gokyo Ri. We were more interested to the “snowman project”. The project kicks start after breakfast. 20 minutes later, a tiny little snow man was built. He was wearing hat, gloves and two eyes and buttons made out of stone. Look at our snow man above. He was the star. We queue up to take photos with him.

Gokyo is extremely beautiful after the snow fall. We took lots of photos before retrace our steps to Dole. I turned back several times to look at Gokyo and its lakes, remembering this magnificent, magical moment. My first experience with snow is truly unforgettable.

The downhill trek was easy. We reached Pangka at 10.30pm. Half an hour later, we arrived at Machhermo and stopped for lunch. After lunch, we continue to move towards Dole. Around 1.30pm, we had reached Lhabarma, a small settlement before Dole. I was a bit behind, seeing team mates walked into a tea-house and cheering.

At last, Kok Yuen had back to the team after 8 days. We opened up the map, asked him to detail out his journey of the past few days. Then only we realized that he had done the “amazing race” in this valley alone, without guide and porter. He only used 3 days to complete the route from Namche Bazaar to Gokyo, cross Cho-La pass to Dzongla, then back to Tengboche. This journey will usually take 5-6 days. Here’s the summarization of his journey:

12 Oct – He was descended from Lobuche to Pheriche. After taking the oxygen, he was not recovered. So, he descended again to lower altitude. He stayed at Deboche that night.
13 Oct – He had recovered after a day rest. So, he went up to Pheriche again.
14 Oct – The porter gave him incorrect information, told him that there were 2 girls in team that had serious AMS and descended to Namche Bazaar. So, he quickly trekked from Pheriche to Namche Bazaar.
15 Oct – He knew that the porter lie to him as he couldn't find us. So, he decided to go Gokyo to look for us. According to initial plan, we supposed to cross Cho-la pass and reach Gokyo at 16 Oct 06. Porter doesn’t want to follow him, so he was trekking alone. From Namche Bazaar to Gokyo, he only took 8 hours.
16 Oct – He climbed up Gokyo Ri. By 1pm, he left Gokyo and reached Thagna 2 hours later.
17 Oct – He crossed Cho-la pass and continue to trek down to Tengboche. The journey from east to west, he took about 10 hours trekking. This is amazing. If you have map of Sagamartha National Park, you will understand what I mean. The trail includes crossing the glacier, climb up 5400m and a subtle set of ascent and descent.
18 Oct – He went down from Tengboche to Namche Bazaar.
19 Oct – He visited Khumjung and back to Namche Bazaar.
20 Oct – He trekked up to Lhabarma and met us there.

We continue the journey to Dole. Half an hour later after we arrived Dole, it started to snow. We showed our snow man photos to Kok Yuen. He was praying that snow will get heavier and then we can build another snowman again tomorrow. Tonight, we will have our reunion dinner and there are lots of things that we want to talk about. :)

Pangka - Gokyo (19 Oct 2006)

The temperature dropped to -5 degree Celsius in the room yesterday night. Forcing ourselves out of the sleeping bag and changing clothes was quite torturing. I woke up at 5.30am, seeing thin layer of snow had covered the roof and the land. We started the trek to Gokyo at 7.45am. At 9.00am, I saw the first lake of Gokyo. Half an hour later, second lake came into view. The first lake is quite small and the second lake is bigger. I stopped to photograph this beautiful turquoise colored lake. (photo on left)

However, the 3rd lake is even more beautiful than the 2nd. Gokyo(4800m) is just beside the 3rd lake. I reached Gokyo Resort at 10.40am. We had the room facing the lake, the view was fantastic. Photo on right is taken from the room.

12.00pm sharp, we would like to climb up Gokyo Ri(5400m) as planned. It was a chilly afternoon. The weather was not good. When we just started the journey, we saw the England trekker who we met at Dole, went down from Gokyo Ri. She told us that the visibility at the summit was poor due to the cloudy weather. So, we abandoned the trek to Gokyo Ri. Teck Long, Hai Poh and I decided to go back to the lodge for rest. Peng Meng, Foung Yee, Kok Ming, Dee and Sui Jing proceed to trek to 4th lake.

1.30pm, it started to snow. We wondered when the others will be back. Around 2.30pm, Sui Jing, Dee and Peng Meng came back to the lodge. Foung Yee and Kok Ming didn’t come back with them. They had decided to go further to 5th lake. For the next few hours, it snowed heavily. The restaurant was crowded. We sat at a corner and watching the world outside turn white.

3.30pm, we still didn’t see Kok Ming and Foung Yee. The snow was getting heavier. Hai Poh was very worried and nearly set up a rescue team to look for them. He had no mood to do anything, kept on looking out the window anxiously. An hour later, I went outside with Hai Poh and Dee. It was still snowing. But we ignored it as we were too excited with our first few inches of snow. We took pictures and played with the snow balls. Teck Long joined us after a while. Suddenly, Hai Poh spotted 3 persons from far and he quickly ran to them. Guess who? It’s Kok Ming, Foung Yee and Man (trekking guide). When asking about their journey back, Man said he’s dying. Kok Ming said it’s fun and exciting. Foung Yee said the snow kept on flying in her mouth, poor visibility and can only recognize the trail by mani stones. We were glad that they had returned safely.

Back to story of Kok Yuen, we couldn’t find him at Gokyo. The owner of the Gokyo Resort claimed that he was here 2 days ago. Foung Yee made a call to Everest Hotel at Namche Bazaar. The hotel told us that Kok Yuen stayed there but was not in the hotel at the moment. Around 7.30pm, the lodge owner told us that there was a call for Foung Yee. It was from Kok Yuen. The line was unclear, they didn’t talk much. We will meet him at Lhabarma tomorrow. Kok Yuen was separated from team for a week. Where had he been? We were very eager to find out.

Dole - Machhermo - Pangka (18 Oct 2006)

18 Oct 2006, we stayed at Pangka (4548m) for overnight. This wasn’t in our plan. We would like to go up to Gokyo today. However, the change of weather had made us stopped and stayed at the Fanga View Point Hotel which runs by a young and pretty Sherpa lady.

The day started with climb up a steep hill. Dole looks very beautiful from the hilltop. The trail is quite flat after the steep hill. Moving towards above 4000m, the scenery was changing once again. We had left the forest behind and came across the place with large patch of white cotton grass (photo on right). I enjoyed today’s journey very much. I am seeing the white cotton flying into the wind and admiring the beautiful valley scenery. Stones houses, walled fields, snow capped mountains made up a beautiful picture. It was like scenes in the fairy tales.

We reached Luza at 10.20pm. Then, we climbed up the hill beyond Luza and reached Machhermo around 11.00am. I ordered Ra Ra noodle and hot lemon for lunch. Later, the 3 Japanese women were also arrived. We had funny chat with them this morning. They could speak very little English and we knew very little Japanese words. So, we speak English and they speak Japanese. We don’t understand each other and most of the time can only guess the meaning via the gesture. But they were friendly persons and I think the incident yesterday night was only the misunderstanding.

After lunch, we started to climb uphill. Wind blew strongly. I heard Kok Ming shouted:” Look! It’s snowing!”. Snow flurries started. Our guide suggested us to stop at the next village due to sudden change of the weather. That’s how we ended up in Pangka.

Along the way, we kept on asking for Kok Yuen news. As of now, only Kok Yuen was not yet back to the team. At Machhermo, someone said that Kok Yuen stayed there for 2 days and went up to Gokyo yesterday. If this is true, then most probably he will descend from Gokyo today and we might meet him when we trek up. However, we did not see him. His whereabouts was unknown.......

Pangboche - Phortse - Dole (17 Oct 2006)

We took off at 8 something in the morning, trekked towards upper Pangboche, and followed the trail that contours high above the river. The trail was quite scary at some point. Narrow rock trail cuts across a vertical cliff face. 2.5 hours later, we saw the village of Phortse, perched on the edge of a deep valley. We went downhill, to the river and stopped for lunch. It was about 12pm when we reached Phortse Thyaga.

We continue the journey around 1.30pm. The trail uphill was very steep but the continually changing scenery drove us onwards. We were entering the beautiful forest of juniper, pine and rhododendron. The view is very spectacular in the autumn months when the leaves turn to yellow and red color. The scenery is totally different from the previous days.

I reached Dole (4048m) at 4.00pm. We checked in Namaste Lodge. “Namaste” is Nepali greetings. Along the trail, regardless of the nationality, trekkers always greet each other with “Namaste”. We got news of Kok Yuen; our guide told us that he was at Dole 2 days ago. We hope we could meet him on the way up tomorrow.

The tea-house is modest. We met a trekker from England. She was traveled alone without hiring porter and guide. There were also 3 Japanese in the restaurant. Contrary to that England trekker, they hired 3 guides and 4 porters. They reached quite late. There was no room for 3 of them. So, 2 of them have to sleep in the restaurant. After dinner, we played cards, chess and chit-chat as usual. Via their guide, they asked us to lower down our voice or go back to our room as they would like to rest. Some of us were not happy as it’s still too early for sleep. So, we moved to a corner and continue the activities.

It’s very cold at night, around 2-3 degree Celsius. I hold the bottle that filled with hot water and fall asleep.