14 days in Pokhara

We originally assumed we would be in the small lakeside town of Pokhara for around 3 days before going trekking however this was not to be the case. A string of various incidents involving chris's debit card not working, my being locked out of my own bank account despite having told them before leaving the US that i would be traveling, and finally the loss of my passport have forced us to remain here for two weeks. After around a week or so the financial issues were all worked out and we were preparing to leave when my passport and i were permanently separated on a local bus forcing me to go through a long process. I filed a police report and took the long ride back to Kathmandu to put in the papers for a new one at the US embassy and then again returned to Pokhara. I am definitely ready to get out of here. We have spent too much time walking up and down main street while continually hearing "yes please" left and right from local shop owners gesturing towards useless obscure items such as Tibetan singing bowls, wooden flutes, or questionable Pashmina fabrics. Despite the overwhelming psychological power of this sales tactic we somehow managed to abstain. The highlight of the two weeks was probably getting a haircut and having getting my terrorist-caveman beard shaved off. Nice to look like a human being again although i will miss the heightened problem solving abilities that result from contemplative mustache twirling.

We will be getting on a bus out of Pokhara tomorrow morning to begin the two week Annapurna Sanctuary trek after which we will be returning to Kathmandu to get my new passport/visa and heading south. Sometime around the beginning of December we should be leaving Nepal for warm climates, spicy curries, and seafood in India. A lot has happened and been learned here, but I have stayed a little longer than anticipated and its about time to move on.

Patan To Pokhara

We stayed in Patan. It is the old part of Kathmandu - originally its own city, now a part of the metro. The architecture there is incredible. Building facades covered in ornate wood carvings. Elvin doors lead to hidden courtyards surrounding individual shrines. Hindu influenced Buddhist temples dot street corners and intersections, with animistic iconography carved alongside the enlightened being. Meeting up with Jay was excellent, as I was feeling very out of sorts. Its much easier to cope when you are not alone.

Explored the area on day one. Ate traditional Nepali food; bakery goods, momos, then Newari food for dinner. The Newari consists of curried meats, primarily buffalo. The restaurant was empty when we walked in and the meats unrefrigerated. I was hesitant because of these reasons. We drank Chang, alcohol fermented from millet. Milk

white in color, it tasted like acidic watered soy milk. My stomach churned.

Walked back home past teenage Nepalis out for their night. The city closes down completely at 10pm but its lively until then. Ate delicious ice cream (very popular in Kathmandu). Passed old by men in a dimly lit rooms drinking masala tea.

Tightness in my stomach wakes me up throughout the night. Buffalo taste stuck in my mouth. The next day was not good.

The morning shower cannot break my daze. We walked down the streets looking for breakfast and I drag my feet like a zombie. The sights are too bright. Everything feels disorienting and alien. Smells are overwhelmingly strong. I feel empathy for pregnant women and go to lay down.

Lazed around all day watching Breaking Bad on our computer. At night we headed to a restaurant and ordered anything other than Nepali. I ate chop suey and Jay, Indian Masala. On the streets I breathed through my nose

to avoid the smell of buffalo.

The next day is better. Having exhausted Patan we taxi to Bodinoth, an apparent oasis of calm withing the city. Buddhist monks circle a gigantic golden stupda. Prayer flags rise to the stupa pinnacle. Gift shops encircle the stupa. Tourists raise their camera in all directions. It is not peaceful. Lonely Planet has failed us. We take a cab to the shared taxi station.

Traffic is very bad in Kathmandu, pollution is worse. We sit in the cab for 40 minutes. People burn trash along the road. My eyes water. Jay seems used to it by now. Many people cover their nose and mouth when walking around the streets.The cab approached the shared bus station. It looked like a market with many touts. Fifteen passenger vans troll the market periphery and hype men yell out the vehicles destination.

Our cab stopped and the hype men began banging at the windows. They yell "WHERE YOU GO?" A man pulled my bag away from me and told me to get in his van. I pull my bag away from him and tell him to get lost. Drivers crowd around to bargain.

How Much? I ask

------500 they call out

I laugh - 300

They collectively scoff

350 a voice offers.

Jay and I agree.

We pile into the last remaining seats in the van, bags in lap. The rise is bumpy. We ride through the Kathmandu Valley and the air becomes clearer, the views better. It rains outside and the pollutionof Kathmandu is replaced with the earthy smell of the country.

I put my headphones on and listen to the Grateful Dead and Kanye West, ruminating on the line
"Im living in the future so the present is my past". Either Ye is experiencing the thrill of living some futuristic existence or the struggle of staying in the present moment.

We wind down tight turns on the slippery dirt roads. Two cars have collided head on. People gather around but our driver doesnt blink as we roll through another muddy switchback. The rain pours down and brings a feeling of clean and refreshment, so much different than the dusty city. My head feels much better at this point.

The passenger van arrives in Pokhara after dark. We don our rain jackets and jump out of the van and into a cab. The driver crawls into the darkness and down to the lakefront of Pokhara.

Arrival at the Gates of Hell

To say that arrival in Delhi was a shock would be an understatement. As I exited the airport the air smelt slightly smokey, reminiscent of burning plastic with a distinct rubber finish. Thick heavy smog hung over the parking lot lights. I got a cab and headed for Paraganj, the backpackers ghetto of Delhi. Taxis and motorbikes coast down the road without acknowledgement of traffic lanes, lazily changing lanes on a whim. The pace was unhurried, drivers seeming resigned to move slowly but steadily in a city where traffic is ever present. Honking seems to be regarded as a courtesy used to warn others of their intention to pass or merge. Many vehicles have “Please Honk” painted on their rear bumper.

    Delhi is not what we would call a “vacation destination”.  In my case, its a destination of necessity. Incoming flights are cheap and the location is in close proximity to Nepal, where Jay and I will be trekking in the coming days. Deep puddles pockmark the dirt roads that cut through narrow lanes of dilapidated storefronts. Many buildings are missing their facade entirely. Mangy stray dogs line the streets, rising to their feet to dodge oncoming taxis and rickshaws. A thick film of filth covers everything. Touts harass with offers of guesthouses, tours and taxis. And why is there so much poo on the streets? Needless to say, the place is a hell hole.

I woke up extra early (due to the time difference) and sat on the street drinking chai tea and talking with the vendor. Before the frenzy of the day began the street was filled with people going about their everyday business. Children in uniforms headed off to school. The boys wear these excellent cauliflower blue pants that crack me up. Shop owners open their doors before gathering around to chew betel leaf, a mild stimulant with bright red juice.

I walked the city almost all day just scoping it out. Confirming that it would be best to get out of

Delhi as soon as possible. I headed to the ATM to take out some cash to discover that Indian ATMs did not recognize my card. After many worried hours at the computer Mike was able to patch through some info that activated an ATM card I was carrying for Jay, saving me from sleeping in the Delhi train station. I booked a 42 hour bus ride to Kathmandu and slept through the night.

On and off the tourist trail

Much has happened since my last post. The mountain climb never happened as there were no boots that the company promised would be brought by the porter and no rental shop in all the Everest area had size 13 boots. I was surprisingly given a refund on my return to the office in kathmandu, so it wasn't much of a problem. I got out of the tourist area of Thamel as quickly as possible and vowed to avoid tourist areas at all costs. Tourist areas are halfway houses of overpriced mediocrity where people have flown 14 hours to the other side of the world to eat practically pizza and sometimes spaghetti. Who spends 1200 dollars for a round trip flight to experience some foreign interpretation of the very environment which you spent so much time and money to escape from? Most people it seems... they stay around all the other tourists thinking it is the safe choice to stay in a familiar habitat even though this happens to be where all of the shifty mcgriffs preying on tourists and aggressive touts gather to find creative ways of parting you from your money. It is also where the majority of beggars will be found.
Escaping the sushi and wifi I found solace in Patan where the architecture is hundreds of years old and pretty good meals can be eaten at street stalls for around a dollar. I spent a few days taking in the scene at other-worldy Durbar Square sitting on the temple steps reading the paper every morning with a cup of Masala Tea and a coconut roll. I even made some friends who lived in the area. Rahul who is a college student in Nepal took me out for dinner where we had a spread of different types of Newari food washed down with Chang, a local rice beer, and even insisted on paying - what a nice guy!
The contrast in what one experiences on and off the tourist trail is unbelievable. Two people staying less than a mile away will go home with descriptions of drastically different countries. If you want to get drunk, eat pizza, and go shopping for goods from another culture, you could accomplish this without even leaving your couch.
On another note chris frinally arrived after taking the nightmarish overland journey from delhi to Kathmandu. I cant say i didn't amuse myself with thoughts of his experience in Delhi and the bus trip having gone through the miserable experience myself. It is so outrageously awful you can't help but laugh about it. We since have left Patan spontaneously and are now in the cleaner lakeside town of Pokhara (on the tourist trail again) and are leaving soon to the mountains for a couple weeks to trek to Annapurna Base Camp once he gets over his fever induced by the feast of buffalo meat we had in Patan. Newari food is various parts of the buffalo served with beaten rice (practically woodchips). I found it pretty delicious, but his stomach may not have been ready as he has been here barely a week and probably not adjusted to all the foreign substances in the food. Photos coming very shortly.

Taking the Plunge

     Five hours until departure from Newark airport. Fourteen hours on a plane before descending on New Delhi, India. The first stop on an open ended travel to the subcontinent and south east Asia.Ill be meeting Jay in Kathmandu, Nepal some time next week.
     Im anxious and excited . Jay and I have been planning this little adventure for a few years now. Even as I moved to San Francisco I did so with the understanding that it was a temporary home. Somewhere beautiful and exciting to hunker down and earn my travel fare. During work hours Jay and I excitedly chatted back and forth, listing off potential destinations and longings for how life would be. How we would bust out of our monotonous nine-to-five existence and see the world. 
     Well, now that time has come. I quit my job on August 12 and left the first place that felt like home to hit the road, literally. Its exhilarating to talk and plan a great adventure, but now that departure is upon me, im kind of alarmed. The goal of this trip is to become comfortable with the unknowns in life. Confident enough to know that whatever arises, Ill be able to handle it. A great writer once said "People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground". Its time to take the plunge!

Down Time

Finally back on the internet again. 2 weeks without a reasonably priced connection! The mountains are a truly unforgiving environment. I have been all over the place the past 14 days... I went to Everest base camp and discussed climbing conditions with an Argentinian guide who has been there ten times, traversed the Cho La Pass where some french people got naked and crossed yet another insanely massive glacier (the Ngozumpa) while viewing collapsing ice shelves and rock slides around me as i walked through the eerily unstable environment. I then spent a couple days at the lakes of Gokyo which were the color but not temperature of the Caribbean, climbed Gokyo Ri to get that classic view of Mt Everest and several other 8,000m peaks, and then walked down yesterday through Gokyo along the Dud Kosi River on one of the most scenic days I've had so far. All this was a combination of the three main treks in the area (Everest Base Camp Trek, the Three Passes Trek, and the Gokyo Trek) and have now finished my custom Khumbu Circuit. The perfect way to see the whole region.

I've met alot of really great people along the way from all over the world and all walks of life. Surprisingly the average age of trekkers around here is around 35-40, (many are even older retired folks and i had the pleasure of having dinner with one 75 yr old from California who made it to just below base camp around 17,000ft). He started hiking in his 50's and has been all over the world now...pretty amazing all you can squeeze into life when you never take a moment for granted.

Its been quite an amazing trek. Now I'm at Namche Bazaar again hanging out for a couple days and using the Namche Laundromat (all your clothes in a tin bucket with soap and water while a Nepali woman stomps on them with her bare feet) before heading back up to attempt to climb one of these monster peaks with a group of people i have yet to meet. Although its at 12,000ft, the air at Namche seems a whole lot thicker than it did when i got here 2 weeks ago and I feel like i can just about blast off and fly out of here like its the Matrix. Just had a hot shower, pringles, and a mars bar, so i am really living the high life right now. Might even treat myself to a sizzling yak steak, but maybe ill save that for after the climb.

Until then I'm going to relax and attempt to make sense of some of the more nonsensical journal entries i jotted down as brilliant ideas while under the influence of thin air the past couple weeks. Be patient for photos, i'm awaiting the arrival of my USB cable when i get back to Kathmandu and have probably over a thousand pictures to sort through. Mostly of Yaks.

Himalayan Dispatch - recap of past week

I am in fact alive and thriving in the mountains. What an adventure it has been the past week! I just completed an 8 day trek through the Solo-Khumbu, which is where you find barely any tourists and experience the "real" nepal. I stayed with familys and ate nepali food with them most of the time. I have been out of touch for a week as these people have no phone, internet, and often no power or hot water.

I have reached Namche Bazaar (12,000ft elevation), the main hub for the tourists entering the Everest area, which is why i am back in contact. It has been 8 days up steep mountain passes of 10-12000 feet and plunging down
into deep valleys across long suspension bridges only to climb another 3-4,000 feet back up. There are no roads in this area as the terrain is too steep to allow road construction.
99% of the thousands of tourists who come to the everest area fly from kathmandu to Lukla and walk to namche in 2 days. They employ a guide and a porter to carry all their gear as most people cannot carry a full backpack up the steep mountains especially getting into higher altitudes. I decided to take the harder route for training and adventure purposes and took a bus to Jiri (which was an adventure in itself sitting on the roof on top of a pile of luggage and boxes of fruit with my feet dangling over the cliffs - my asian sized bus seat was too small for my large white body.

I trekked through the region where the Sherpa people are from called the Solo Khumbu carrying a 55 pound backpack. It was very difficult at first trekking 8 and sometimes 10 hours a day carrying this weight. I made friends with the only other 2 crazy people along the way (2 Germans from the Bavarian Alps about the same age as me) and trekked with them for the first 5 days during which it rained most of the time and i ended up getting a fever.
I continued trekking growing more ill and weak, barely managing to carry my pack over the passes. Eventually i wore down and had to insist that my friends move on while i take a rest day. I physically could walk no further and needed to recover. The reason i pushed it this far while already sick was because the only place with any medication was still 4 days away in Namche and i had to try my best to get here quickly if my illness got serious. The only way to get here was on my feet. I spent a day recovering in a small town where i drank 10 cups of strong ginger tea, ate several bowls of tibetan noodle soup, and slept for 13 hours. My fever peaked that night and being alone in a remote village curled up in my sleeping bag with no one for miles around that could help me and no way to call/email anyone I had possibly the loneliest night of my life. I kept having dreams of being with my friends only to wake up back in my dark hole with no heat deep in the mountains.

The next morning i woke up feeling absolutely amazing. Never have i recovered so quickly and strongly from being sick in my life. I had a massive breakfast, drank 2 cups of coffee and literally jogged through the mountains my pack feeling lighter than ever before. I was flying up and down passes as if i woke up with an entirely different set of legs. I felt such an amazing sense of freedom being alone for the first time while trekking and the excitement gave me even more energy. Not to mention being thrilled to be feeling better again. Despite being 4 hours behind, I made
up all the lost time that day. Today i woke up feeling even better, which is good because it was the toughest climb so far. I managed to make the 3,300 foot climb to Namche in 5 hours which was one hour less than average while carrying one of the heaviest backpacks on the trail (besides the Nepali porters of course who carry in excess of 80 pounds). I am taking 2 rest days here to prepare for the high mountains and am feeling as healthy and strong as i have ever felt before. I am really excited to get to the high mountains of the Khumbu. My trek takes me above 17,000 feet and my climb will be to 21,000 ft. The rain has cleared and the biggest peaks in the world are shining impossibly high above me. It will be great weather now as the monsoon is over.
Despite its luxuries of pizza and wifi, Namche is still a small village resting in a notch with 20,000ft peaks looming overhead. There are valleys plunging thousands of feet below these peaks and waterfalls carrying snowmelt the entire way to the river below.. Its an other-worldy place, well the Himalayas are another world altogether.... This may not be my best thought out entry and merely a day to day recap, but internet is very expensive here so i had to be quick. It will be another 2-3 weeks before my next dispatch as im going way up into the mountains now.

Until next time,

Jason Sherpa