Pictures from Nepal

The caption for each picture is below the image. I don't know why the spacing is messed up on some of them.

Kathmandu

The airport at Lukla, this is where we started trekking.

Namche and Kongde Ri.

This was our first view of Mt Everest and Lhotse, Ama Dablam is on the right.

Tengboche Monastery

Island Peak, the route we climbed is around the right side.

Lobuche East, the second peak we climbed.

Ama Dablam at sunrise.

Brian and I on the summit of Island Peak.

Island Peak basecamp, our tent is the only green one.

Everest, Nuptse and the Khumbu Glacier from the summit of Lobuche East.

Our porters descending on Lobuche East.

Brian making friends.

Prayer flags on the way to Thame.

Everest, Lhotse and Makalu from Renjo La.





Ama Dablam

When I asked a passing guide what kind of goat this was he told me a "high mountain goat." It's actually called a thar.

This porter carried all our gear from Namche to Lukla.

Boudhanath, Kathmandu

This is the river we went rafting on for two days.

Riot police tenderly holding hands before they kick the crap out of some protestors.

Kathmandu from Swayambhunath.

Patan Durbar Square

Island Peak Summit

This video is from the summit of Island Peak.

Frustration in Kathmandu

I'm still stuck in Kathmandu but there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I've spent the last several days standing in various lines at various different airline offices being told various different things. I was originally supposed to fly with Thai Airlines back to Bangkok, but because Bangkok is still a mess thats not going to happen. Instead I was told that Thai Airlines would pay for a new ticket for me to a different airline hub, I'm trying for Hong Kong. So I ran all over the place trying to find a flight to Hong Kong, I finally found one on Royal Nepal Airlines and was told to go back to Thai to have them endorse my ticket. I waited at Thai airlines for 4 or 5 hours before I made it up to a ticket agent. The agent takes one look at my ticket and says "I can't do anything with this." A rather loud and protracted shouting match ensued where I very diplomatically explained to the man that it was in his best interest to make the ticket for me, he declined and I loudly voiced my disagreement with his incompetence, to no avail. After this little encounter I walked into a different section of the office, sat down and handed a different agent my paperwork. He took care of my ticket right away, no shouting, cursing or threatening required.

So I have a ticket out to Hong Kong on the 4th of December and then flights on to Taipei and Anchorage on the 5th. So I'm hoping that all that will get worked out and I should be back in Alaska by Friday morning. I'm looking forward to getting back there, it sounds like the snow is already piling up which means I need to get out my skis.

Killing time in Kathmandu

Well for anybody that hasn't heard Bangkok is a mess and I'm supposed to be flying there today, right now in fact I should be seated on a Thai Airways flight winging my way towards the "land of smiles." Instead I'm sitting in Thamel doing a blogpost. A few days ago anti-government protestors stormed Bangkok's international airport and closed it down. It's still closed and will remain closed at least through tomorrow. I'm on a waiting list with the airlines for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday I have a confirmed reservation. So I have no idea when I might be getting home. Well at least Kathmandu is a really cheap town to be stuck in.

Yesterday I went to Durbar Square and to Swayambunath (the monkey temple). Durbar Square was interesting, it has some of the oldest building in Kathmandu and a lot of very intricate woodwork. I went up to Swayambunath just before sunset and walked around the stupa and a few of the other shrines. The view from Swayambunath looks out across all of Kathmandu, or at least all of it that can be seen through the smog. Its a beautiful place. The monkeys are pretty entertaining as well. I watched one monkey snatch a candy sucker out of a kids hand before he could even get it to his mouth.

I have no idea how much longer I'll be here, at least through tomorrow. I'm hoping to be back in Anchorage early in the week, but there's really no way to tell right now.

Whitewater Rafting on the Bhote Khosi

We just got back from a two day rafting trip on the Bhote Kosi river. We had a lot of fun. The river has class IV and V rapids on it. Because its late in the season for rafting the water was pretty low and there were a lot of rocks. We left Kathmandu on the first day and drove about three hours to the first put in. We floated down the river and through several class III rapids. The water was not as cold as rafting in Alaska, but it wasn't very much warmer either. We stopped for lunch along the river and shared our lunch spot with a group of curious cows.



After lunch things got more interesting. Coming into one of the bigger rapids on that secton of river our raft went into a rock, got pinned there and flipped over sideways dumping most of us into the water. The current sucked me under the boat and through the wrong side of the rapid. I popped out of the first rapid and floated on downstream through a few other waves. The other boat came floating by upside down. Apparently my boat was still stuck on the rock and the other boat had flipped on another rapid, so there were about a dozen of us floating down the river. The safety kayakers gathered up some folks and the rest of us climbed onto the over-turned boat and paddled it to shore. Eventually they got the boat I was in unstuck and we regrouped on the bank. No big deal, lets keep going. Some of the other folks were pretty shaken up and two dropped out for the following day. I managed to get thrown out of the boat once more that day but after the ride I'd taken earlier it wasn't a big deal.



We spent the night at the Borderlands Resort. It was a nice place right on the river with beautiful waterfalls coming down from high on the mountainsides. We put in on the upper Bhote Kosi aound 10:30 in the morning. The second day runs more challenging sections of the river. There were definitely some nervous faces in the group before we set off. We floated downstream through some pretty good rapids before stopping for lunch. After lunch we got our boat broadsided on a rock maybe 10 yards from the lunch spot. The boat got pinned against the rock and wrapped around it. Brian fell off the front of the boat and got to go down through a few nice waves before one of the kayakers got to him. The rest of us were stuck on the half of the raft that was out of the water, the left side of the raft was totally swamped. The other guides came back up the river bank to us and threw us a couple ropes. We secured the boat with one (although it was pretty secure against that rock) and used the other to get people off the raft. They would slide off the raft and into the water and then the rope would swing them with the current into shore. Everyone else got off the raft but the guide asked if I would stay and help him get the raft unstuck. We tried a few more useless things before breaking out a rope and a few pulleys to set up a hauling system on the bank. Once the guides rigged the ropes and started pulling they managed to tear three of the sewn D rings off the boat. We rerigged the system to try to flip the raft over. After a few tries we managed to flip the raft and the guide and I dove onto the inverted raft as it drifted by. The rope system swung us over to the shore. We packed up the gear and got back on the water. The rest of the trip down was pretty straight forward. Brian managed to get popped out again, we were both sitting up front where there isn't much to hook your feet under to keep you in the boat. The guides took the rafts through two class V rapids, but the clients all had to walk around. The rapids didn't look too bad but a swim in the middle would probably kill you. When the water is higher they can run those rapids because its less likely you would flip with the rocks deeper underwater. We finished off the day with a 3 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu and most of our boat went out to dinner together.



Just a few days left in Kathmandu. I'm trying to see some more of the sights before I leave. I've had a great time over here, but its just about time to be moving on.

A Bandh in Kathmandu

Brian and I made it back to Kathmandu yesterday morning after wrangling a flight out of Lukla on a different airline than we had tickets on. We landed back in Kathmandu to find the city in upheaval. Apparently two younger guys were killed about a month ago and their bodies just turned up earlier this week. The Maoists are blamed for the killings and since the Maoists control the government, people are blaming the government. So in protest of the lack of investigation into the killings there is a city wide bandh or strike. Nearly all of the shops are closed today. The only place where much of anything is open is the tourist district where I am staying. Its not a dangerous situation just very different from what I'm used to seeing. It took us an hour to get to the guesthouse from the airport because protestors were blocking main roads with burning tires. The ride should have taken 10 or 15 minutes. Because everything is closed a lot of people are out walking the streets, just kind of checking things out. Foreigners and Nepalis are just out for a stroll to see whats going to happen. The atmosphere doesn't feel hostile at all, especially being a foreigner I feel pretty insulated from whats going on.

We were planning on being in Kathmandu for just a day or two but its looking like it may be a bit longer than that depending on how long the strike lasts. I doubt if it will last for more than a few days. I'll probably post again in the next day or two especially if we are stuck in Kathmandu for a few days.

Namche Again

I'm back in Namche again, still trying to beat this lousy chest cold I've been fighting. Every time I go back up to altitude it gets worse so I'm hanging out in Namche for a few days until I can get it sorted out. Brian is still up valley in Gokyo and will probably join me here in a day or two.

The trek that we did was pretty impressive. We went up the valley to the west of Namche through Thame. This valley doesn't have any really huge peaks in it so very few trekkers head up there. For us it was great to escape the crowds that flock towards Everest Base Camp. We spent two days hiking up this valley and then crossed over a pass called Renjo La into the Gokyo valley. Climbing up to Renjo La took about six hours and was over 1000m of elevation gain. The trail up to the pass was mostly stone steps, thousands of never ending stone steps. I was exhausted when I finally reached the pass, but the view was incredible. I think that the view of Everest from Renjo La is one of the best anywhere. All of the other views we had gotten of Everest so far were of just the peak barely peaking above the Lhotse face. The view from Renjo La really put the mountain in perspective. From Renjo La we were far enough away from the mountain to really appreciate its immense size. I can't wait to put up the pictures when I get back. The descent down to Gokyo was steep but the views were great the whole way. Gokyo sits right on a beautiful alpine lake. The lake is a bright blue color, just incredible.

I hiked down to Namche from Gokyo yesterday in hopes of finally beating this chest cold. I'm just hanging out in Namche until I get better or Brian arrives and we decide to head down further. This means I've got some time on my hands so I'll try to post again in a day or so.

Hope everyone is doing well. Just a couple weeks until I'm back in Alaska.