Learning outside of the classroom-Nepal Part 1

We have been back from Nepal for over a month now and while I had hoped to blog while away and as soon as we got back, that did not prove as easy as I thought. I will do my best to give a brief overview of our trip and what the whole experience was like. I want to say from the outset; that the trip really exceeded my expectations; in terms of the trek, the work, the people, the landscape; all of it. I feel so fortunate that I was able to be part of this adventure.

We arrived in Kathmandu after 36 hours of travel, with plans on heading off after a day of rest to do our trek which would start in Jiri and head west for 8 days towards Phaplu. This trek would see us going through some beautiful scenery including getting glimpses of Everest and a harrowing plane and/or bus ride back to Kathmandu. It turned out though that when we got to KTM, we found out that the country was about to be shut down through a general strike, which would mean that we could be prevented from doing any traveling at all! We met with our guide Mingmar and luckily, he presented us with an alternate plan that would still have us doing a 9 day trek, but going in a completely different direction. We decided that we would be fine with whatever plan he came up with as we really just wanted to go on a trek! Our plan was to fly to Pokhara, hike up to Annapurna Base Camp, come back down, do Poon Hill and then back to Pokhara, so that is what we did.

A very cool Lama with his friends at the airport. 

Myself and Renji (Mingmar's son) waiting to board our plane.

Our group (Me, Scott, Rhonda, Wes) and our bags ready to start the trek in Phedi.

Stairs, stairs and more stairs...

Our home for our first night-Landrung

Trying to read outside; temperature dropped dramatically once the sun went behind the mountains. If we only knew how much colder it would get!

Each day quickly fell into the routine of eat, trek, eat, trek, drink beer, eat, sleep, with little variety in the food; great variety in the landscape and even greater variety in the quality of sleep and toilets. Mingmar was very good at making sure we went slowly enough and that we ate enough; in fact, we had to tell him that we didn't need as much food as he thought. The days were warm and sunny and the nights cold, colder and really cold. The highlight was definitely the views at Annapurna Base Camp and especially the views from the little excursion we did out to a ridge where the mountains loomed above us and the glacier was so far below us. The boys taught Renji how to form and throw a snowball (he had never seen snow before!)

Our group at 3100m

Mingmar and I peeking over the edge.

Mingmar, Scott and I taking a break.

Renji and his first snow.

Sunset on Fishtail

 When we were up at this height surrounded by the majestic mountains, we all had thoughts of, "Can we go higher?" "How much more can we do?" We were ill equipped to do more, but we understood the temptation that has brought mountaineers to Nepal for a hundred years or more. While we saw monuments to faller climbers, we were still lured by the adventure, challenge and risk and Scott and I are quite risk adverse, yet we wanted more. We felt small and insignificant in the shadows of the peaks, but also so fortunate that we are able to just be in the shadows and to bring home memories and photos of our little adventure.

Cozy, warm dinner in the teahouse at -10!

The way down after ABC was filled with warm, tropical days and many, many steps down. I learned that walking poles can be your friend and that runners are really all you need for a speedy descent. I think the biggest piece of learning I take back with me is how easy our lives are, yet we think we struggle so, and we need so much. Many of the villages we passed were a 3 or 4 day walk from a larger town with access to health care, food, etc. 3 or 4 days! The villages needed to be self-sufficient and to rely solely on porters who bring goods through on a semi-regular basis. There is no running to Safeway when you need milk, or popping into the clinic when you have the sniffles. While I can appreciate the proximity of health care if something goes seriously wrong, say you fall from a tree 

Woman cutting down feed for her animals in her sock feet and with a rather large gurkha knife.

and can't move, I do think we can learn to do more with less and to rely on our own ingenuity and intuition. There were a certain sense of calm in the villages that was not present in the larger towns we went to. We did only spend just over a week in the countryside; but I did achieve some of the perspective I was hoping I would find.

Dal bhaat: this was our standard meal for lunch and dinner; delicious and filling; free refills too!

Scott trying to carry our pack and Chandra, our porter helping him 

Beer o'clock!

All of us just before our descent into Ghorepani

Chill sunrise at Poon Hill

The trek was really made complete because of Mingmar our guide. We found him through a personal reference and we would highly recommend him to anyone doing any kind of trek in Nepal. He has climbed Everest 6 times and summited twice; amazing! He took incredibly good care of us and made sure we had an enjoyable and successful day everyday. That even included bringing us really good coffee from Kathmandu that he made especially for us every morning. He also pulled out emergency Snickers bars at a low point when everyone needed a little refueling. Mingmar told us about his life in his village growing up and his adventures as a cook, porter assistant and now guide. On our final night, he gathered us all for a special farewell dinner, complete with beer for everyone and a special cake that the teahouse staff made for us. Our porters, Chandra and Don Kumar also made sure we were happy and well cared for; and we bowed down to them for carrying our monster packs over the 8 days.  

Poon Hill Sunrise

Our final night; celebrating with our crew.

That's it for the first part of our journey. Next will be more about the work at SIRC and our days wandering the countryside.