Mt. Everest Base Camp - Nepal - May 2008

Trekking in Nepal - The Story

...and now the low-down on the high-up:

First a bit of background (for those who don't know the "cast") This past year I was living in EusoffHall, my residence at NUS where I made a lot of incredible mends who have helped me grow so much this year. One of them Johann, was a part of Singapore's first ever expedition up to the peak ofMt. Everest in Nepal. Johann was the "communications officer" which means that he sat on his ass for 3 months at base camp.(sorry Jo) and handled all of the satalite and internet communications for the team (11 people). Before he left Johann told us all to come and visit him, but I don't think that he expected us to actually take him up on it! Well, his best mend, and one of my buddies "Hwee Khan" (aka: HK or Khan or Khanz) decided that he was going to go there as his grad present from his parents, and next thing he knew there were 5 of us tagging along. Our group in the end was Hwee Khan, Ian (world's biggest Blue Jays fan), Desmond ("Cute Desmond" for those of you who knew all 5 dez's in the hall), Adeline (aka: Lynn or Adey), Yen Hong, and me. All of the planning started back in March and by May 10th, 3 days after exams, we were all set to fly off to Nepal!

Now just to make the story a little more complicated, Karin, who lived on the floor above me (from Vancouver) had been to Nepal at Christmas and became very close friends with "Naba" a guide there. So when we decided to go she started e-mailing him and set up our whole trip for dirt cheap, and in his fine care.

And now the good stuff:

So on the morning of May 10th the six of us ("The Unofficial Singapore Everest Expedition Support Team") left for Kathmandu armed with camping gear and all kinds of letters, FHM magazines, and Pringles for the boys at "Base Camp'.'.It was the last time we would see Sea- Level for a month. We arrived in Kathmandu and were immediately introduced to the developing-south-asian-country culture shock of Nepal. Kathmandu is a pretty incredible city, one of the only "walking cities" that I have ever seen. I mean here is a full city where the for a majority the roads are more like paths, and most of the peopler who have to get from A to B, walk there. Oh sure there are some small cars (mostly taxis), and pedalled rickshaws, and even those funky three-wheeled "auto-rickshaw" motorcycle-taxis, but mostly people just kind of walk around. We stayed in an area called Thamel which is mostly backpackers. I saw more white people and hippie-freaks in the first day than I had seen in six months in Singapore. All in all it was a very cool place, and the "visit Nepal Guest House" run by Mr.Chandra whould become our home on and off for the next month as we kept returning to home-base in Kathmandu.

We met up with Naba, and he was everything Karin had promised, incredibly friendly, and lots of fun. We knew this was going to be a great trip. He took us to his room that he shares with his brother (also a mountain guide) and sister-in-law and kids. She made us this incredible Nepali curry dinner that we all sat around on the mats on the floor and got to know each other.

Then we headed off to the mountains. The way you do that is by taking a little two propellor "twin otter" plane (wonderful Canadian technology from the bush pilots in the Northwest) that scoops you up into the sky and flies for about 45 minutes parallel to the Himalayas for one of the most incredible I had ever seen. The pilot then turned the plane hard left and we headed right into the mountain range, flying between two peaks and up a long valley. Our destination was Lukla, but two minutes out £romour landing we still couldn't see it out the cockpit window. We knew we were either getting close or something was wrong when the pilot started dive bombing down into the mountain in front of us. You know that sound that you hear on Bugs Bunny when the plane is zooming straight down, yup, that's the one. We still couldn't see the town. Then finally on the side of the mountain (not the flat side either!) we saw a small grouping oflodges and a postage-stamp sized gravel runway that ran at about a 45 degree incline up the side of the mountain. "That can't possibly be it!?!" we thought, but the pilot kept diving towards it so we all held on to our seats to keep £romsliding out the front window. Finally, just before hitting the gravel nose first, the pilot pulls the plane straight up, and all ofthe alarms and bells and whistles in the cockpit start sounding off The plane stalls about three feet above the "runway" and we touch down, racing up the 200ft of gravel. Just before we hit the cliff at the end of the runway the planes turns 90degrees to the right, and stops at the unloading area. TIllS WAS WHEN WE KNEW WE WERE IN FOR AN ADVENTURE!!

So we started that very morning at Lukla, 2,860meters above sea-level. First-day overall we went down 200meters to a little village called Phakding. The idea is to always try to sleep at a lower altitude than the maximum you reached during your day. That way you adjust to the oxygen levels easier and have less chance of altitude sickness. The air felt so thin that first day that we were all huffing and puffing even on the flat ground. (Oh, a little side note. The Nepali concept of "flat" is not exactly what we would think of Naba described it best that very first day: "Nepali flat: up a little, down a little", where 'a little' can be 150m at a time. Although you may only gain 300m in a day, during that day you will have climbed up and down so many valleys that you've actually climbed a total of up to 900m)

The plan was to spend 17 days on the trek, 3 of which we would be camping in tents at base camp. Now six people (plus Naba, our guide and Lakpa, world's best trail cook) means a lot of gear with tents and food for three nights at -15'C camping. So, we also had three Sherpa porters to carry some of the gear up to Everest. In the end though the plan wound up being very different! We slowly climbed up and up, trekking about 6 hours a day. Up at about 5:30am on the trail by 7 or 7:30. At night there was no electricity in most of the places (some had solar panels to charge up battery operated fluorescents for a few hours at night), so we were usually in bed by 8:30 or 9pm We stayed in what's called "tea-houses" along the way, which depending on the village meant different things. At their best they were heated ski chalet type places (not often!), more commonly though they were stone and wood cabins with a central wood stove that burned yak-shit mostly, and bunk beds around a single large room. Typically with a kitchen room off to one side and an outhouse outside. (some just had the kitchen...) The people who ran them were always incredibly mendly, and the trekkers that we met along the way was like a real United Nations. We met some really incredible people. Like Frederic £romParis who had spent the past year bicycling £romParis to Nepal. He was trekking for a month, and then was going to cycle around India for year, and then head towards Singapore and S.E.Asia after that. We also met Carrol £romNew Zealand who got downsized ITomher public relations job, with 4 months salary. So she packed up all of her climbing gear and had spent the past lOmonths climbing the world's most famous mountain ranges. She had been up Mt.Cook (N.Z.), around Matterhorn, and had climbed Mont Blanc (France), and Kilamanjaro (Aftica) already. Now she was trekking around the Himalayas, and then off to Thailand. Carrol was great fun and stayed with us for a few days, we met up with her again in athmandu, and well that will come later) These are just two examples of people that we met, but there were literally dozens that we ran into in Nepal, who were interesting, incredibly fun people. Most were students who had just graduated and were "taking a year to grow up" (common explanation) before getting locked into a 9 to 5. This made me think back on how much my travelling experiences have shaped who I am, and I realised how much more sense it made to do a personal journey like this people, rather than the standard out-of-school-into-work routine. I think maybe it makes for more rounded people, and gives you perspective on your life and career, etc. It made me very grateful for the many trips that I have been fortunate enough to take so far, and has made me into a lifetime traveller.

OK, so back to the trip We trekked up and up taking roll upon roll of unbelievable vista photos along the way. There is so much to see: long swinging rope bridges over raging white water rivers hundreds of meters below; towering peaks above us; herds of furry yaks (a cross between a wooly-mamoth and an American-Buffalo) carrying loads of supplies; and of course the tiny villages shoehorned between two snow-peaked mountains in these deep, winding rivervalleys. Most of all there was time to think. You're walking for hours and hours along these narrow paths through some of the rawest form of nature I've ever experienced, and your mind just opens up to this incredible clarity that was unprecedented. For me, that was the best part of the trip. All of you know to some extent the muddled, confused state that I have been in for months, well, those weeks walking and thinking was like a cleansing rain that washed away all of that. I finally understood so much of what had happened in my life and behind all of the clouds of confusion I finally saw again the path that I had lost so long ago. I suddenly remembered how important the outdoors were to me. I remembered why I came to Asia, and I remembered who I was and what I have to offer. I had forgotten, or pushed down so much of that, that I didn't feel like me anymore and that added to my confusion. I was fortunate to have a great group of travellers (including Evie who enters later) that helped me laugh-my-ass-off, like I had not done for a very-very long time. I thought a lot about home(s?) and all of you. We are usually so busy in life that we don't get to spend hours just reflecting on fun times had, and things said. I thought about the great times and conversations at 50 University after Law&Order; about sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon, (the last time I had really reflected on my life) I thought about afternoons spent in the Booth with Rosco fog and The Wall; and I thought about all the Seders and Birthday parties over the years. Some incredible memories, some incredibly painful. Overall it was one of the emotional experiences I've had. The overwhelming beauty of the mountains combined with a sudden clarity of thought and understanding. Maybe this is starting to sound a little flighty and bizarre, but trust me, go sit on the side of one of those mountains, surrounded in every direction by literally the most bohemoth towers on the face of the planet, and you'll see.

Sorry, back to the story. I won't write all of the boring details about each town and instead I will skip ahead to Lobouche where the story picks up a bit again. This is the first town that we stayed in above 5000meters. At that altitude there is 50% less oxygen than at sea level, and your lungs sure let you know. We were just 1 - 2 days away from Everest, and we were all starting to get pretty tired from the hard climb up. That's when the altitude sickness set in. Four of the group started to get ill: Hwee Khan, Ian, Yen Hong and Desmond. The next morning we were supposed to continue upwards, but we waited to see if they got better. By the afternoon Yen Hong started vomiting uncontrollably, Desmond was curled up in bed, and Hwee Khan was in incredible pain from headache. They had no choice but to start heading downhill, and fast. The four of them started walking out to Thukla which was 400m down. Unfortunately the only lodge at Thukla was full so Lakpa guided them all the way down to Pheriche in the dark. By the time the got down to Pheriche I hear Khan could barely walk, but refused to let Lakpa carry him. Remember there are no phones or radios or anything so Naba, Adelin and I stayed at Lobouche to see if the others would be better after a night sleeping low so we could continue the next day.

Around 2pm the next afternoon Ian showed up back in Lobouche with the crushing news that the others wouldn't be able to continue on. Our wholejourney, the idea of getting to Base Camp and visiting Johann, --Hwee Khan's idea in the first place-- was wiped out because of the altitude. The message from the others though was "carry on". It was already too late that afternoon to start the trek to the mountain, so we stayed yet another night, in Lobouche. By this point we had spent so long there, waiting to see what would happen that any chance of us camping out at Everest was wiped out because we still had a S day hike back down to Lukla after Everest. At this point the best we could hope for was a few hours visit. Lakpa, as disapointed as we were, went back up to Base camp to pullout all of the gear that we had sent ahead with the Yaks. The next day we started out at Samfor Gorak Shep, and Kala Pathar, our last stop before Everest.

Kala Pathar is famous. It is the "mini-mountain" (at S,600m this 'mini' is higher than most other mountains on the Earth) at the top of the Kumbu valley. From its summit you can get a clear view of Everest, Lotse, Nuptse and Pumori. Four of the top 10 highest peaks on the planet. Not to mention an incredible view of the valley and the Solukhumbu Glacier, the largest alpine glacier in the world. Needless to say the climb up to the peak of Kala Pathar was the single most difficult challenge of my life. What I didn't expect was that emotionally it would be harder than it even was physically. Ian and Adelin went up ahead of me and once they were gone I discovered that all of my demons were there waiting for me on that mountain. Every self-doubt, every question, every ounce of pain and confusion, they were all hiding behind the rocks on that hillside and jumped out at me with every oxygen deprived step that I took. Each painful step brought a decision, "Do I take another step? or do I sit down on this rock andjust give up on this hill, on these problems, on this life?" I'm telling it was unbelievable It took me three hours of taking one step at a time to get up that bastard. It was then that I came to the deceivingly simple realisation that STOPPING, --be it from climbing, or jogging, or working through any challenge (physical or emotional)-- is a conscious decision. You have to DECIDE to allow yourself to stop, it doesn't just happen. So I started saying to myself "failure is not an option", and then I would take another step. (This is the same mentality/technique that got me through my triathlon back in Singapore) Three hours later, I came up over the edge of the summit and turned around to see Everest and Nuptse sitting there staring at me. I sat down on a rock andjust started bawling. I mean I cried like I hadn't cried in years. It was as if, upon reaching the top, I walked through a doorway in my life, and this huge wall just came tumbling down. For the rest of my life I will always remember that moment, and how it felt Always.

From that point on, I've had a new sense of confidence. I made it through that, and I'm ready for the next challenge. Bring on life!

Not bad considering it was only day 12 of the trip. After that the rest of the journey (and everything since, also) has been almost pure fun. We went up to the Base Camp, met the climbers who came back while we were there from their first attempt on the summit. Johann loaned me some crampons and ice-axes and we went ice-climbing in the "ice-falls" on the side of Everest. Then the journey back down to Kathmandu and a couple of days of White water rafting that was an absolute BLAST!! Of course I could expand on all of that, but this story is already getting very long, and I'd rather show you pictures anyhow!

What I will say is that on the rafting trip there was four of us (HK, Adeline, Des and me) plus Rhonda (a really nice nurse from Boston) and Evie (a tv/film producer from Australia). Evie and I hit it off almost instantly, laughing non-stop for the whole trip. She was in Nepal for a week waiting for her work visa for India to be renewed (she took a year off and is home-teaching for a British family living in Bombay). We introduced Evie to our (by this time) very good mend Naba so that she could do some trekking after the rafting. On June 2nd we were back in Kathmandu, fully packed and ready to fly. We went for breakfast with the full Everest expedition Gust back from their successful summit!) aridthen were supposed to head off to the airport at 11am.We were all feeling rather sad about heading home, especially there was nothing pressing to do here. During breakfast Evie turned to me and said: "Why don't you stay in Nepal with me, and come trekking again for another week?" Well, as you know by know, by the end of breakfast my flight was changed and Khan and I were headed off to the Annapurna mountain range for another 6days of trekking with Evie.

Since we weren't going with the agency this time, Swee Chow, one of the summiters loaned me his sleeping bag, and we boarded the 12 hour overnight bus to Baglun to start our trek at 7am the next morning. There are a full 6days worth of stories about Annapurna with Khan and Evie, (including our incredible 4:30am climb up Poon Hill to watch the sun rise over the Annapurnas) but as Hammy Hamster would say: "but that's another story "