Day 233 – Kathmandu, Nepal

September 27^th, 2019

Today when we woke up, we heard some American voices outside on the rooftop patio of our hotel.  They were going through all their gear and we could tell from their conversation they were getting ready to do something big.  I went outside to check it out and they had an incredible amount of mountaineering gear including skis all spread out.  I asked what they were here to do, and they told me they were summiting one of the Himalayan peaks in the area that is at 24,000 feet and skiing down.  The summit where they are going is negative 40 below.  It was so cool talking to them and watching them get everything organized.  They said they are here for two months and plan to climb and ski as many mountains as possible.  Later in the day we met some Aussies who were also here to summit a mountain over 20,000 ft.  They had come here together 20 years ago and did Everest Base Camp.  It was also really cool talking with them and hearing their stories.  I think it is so great to be in a place where many people are here to push themselves to their limits and do something super amazing.

We started our day with a very good breakfast at a little hole in the wall café.  They have vegetarian Mo Mo’s here which is a steamed dumpling and really delicious.  Brendan had cornflakes which they served in hot milk, which was a surprise and then we shared a veggie wrap.  We got coffee and tea, and everything was under $5. 

The food is super good here in Nepal, but I would be lying if I said we were not a little afraid about getting sick.  We have been trying to be really careful with food and water and keeping our fingers crossed we stay healthy for our trek. 

I had arranged for us to do a free walking tour of Kathmandu in hopes to learn some of its history.  The city is full of old buildings and temples that I wanted to learn more about.  It was just us and the guide and he took us all around the city and up to the “monkey temple”.  He spent over four hours with us and does free tours to earn a tip at the end.  Unfortunately, his accent was so strong it was really hard for us to understand him.  I think that he knew English well and even told us he studied English literature in college, but his accent was very strong.  It felt a bit like the tours in South America in Spanish when we could only pick up every 4^th word or so.  He was trying to explain about the religion and cultural traditions which I was really interested in, but so many of the words were foreign to me since I do not know anything about Hinduism.  Since the accent was so thick and I couldn’t understand the context, I never knew if the foreign words were a god, a person, a place, a street, or a food item.  It was very hard to follow, and Brendan somewhat quickly gave up and just walked behind saying “I can’t understand you”.  Since I was the only other person on the tour I felt bad not to be engaged and tried to listen to what he was saying.  I did a lot of head nodding and saying “uh huh” pretending to understand.   He was a super nice guide who was really trying to give us a good tour.  In the end I can’t say I know much about Kathmandu or Hinduism, but we saw some cool stuff and got a big walk and lots of stairs for some exercise. 

After the tour we went shopping for the rest of what we needed for the trek.  We went to Shona’s Alpine Rental which is a little trekking shop that looks like all the thousands of others in Kathmandu.  This place is very special though and if anyone is coming to Nepal to trek, you must stop here for great information.  It was a Mom and her sons who helped us, and they have been trekking in these mountains their whole lives.  They were a complete wealth of info (and spoke perfect English).  They were super honest and told us right off the bat which items were fake brands, what was real and what you could get away with for cheap, and what you needed to spend more money on.  This was our second time in this shop, and I felt so much better about our trek after we got all the advice. 

Our plan is to do the Annapurna Circuit which is 12-14 days.  We think we will do it unguided without porters (it is a popular trail that is very well traveled).  We can stay in tea houses along the way where we can buy our meals.  We have heard from many trekkers that it is doable on your own.  It still seems a bit daunting though as this will by far be the LONGEST trek we have ever done and going up to the highest altitude we have ever been.  We will cross over Thorong La Pass which is one of the highest mountain passes in the world at 17,769 feet.  So, I am super excited, but at the same time nervous if we will be strong enough to do it, and that we will stay healthy, and uninjured.  The lady at the shop was super awesome though and thought we will totally be fine.  She said there are so many hikers and so many places we could stop to rest if we needed more time along the way.  She showed us on the map where we needed to take a mandatory rest day and sleep at the same elevation for two nights, so we do not ascend too quickly and risk Acute Mountain Sickness.  She was the second person we heard say that most of the time it is Americans who get in trouble up there trying to push themselves too hard and ascend too quick.  She said they are the ones that never have enough time in their vacation so are always trying to rush.  I could sympathize, and again felt exceedingly grateful for this time in my life where I have the time.  We can go slower if we need which definitely helps calm my nerves.

After we got pretty much everything we needed we had a really great dinner at another good local place that cost us less than $5 (veggie burger, mo mo’s, and veggie chowmein with two sodas).  We went back to the room and got ready for our early morning bus ride to Pokhara.