Nov 15-A Day Said to be Harder Than Trekking…

…Without any trekking!

I managed to sleep to the late late hour of 3:15am this morning. But, I was rested. Jenny, Makaela, and I went in search of a bookstore for some postcard stamps. Fortunately, we didn’t find them, because they would not have sent anyway (still closed due to COVID). Speaking of COVID, one of our party has tested positive. Hopefully they’ll be feeling better soon (Paxlovid is on board).

Today we met our porters. We have 4 in addition to Bhola. They will carry the stuff we don’t need on the daily treks. They got all the bags loaded onto two SUVs. 

Bags go on top. We are 14 people with the porters and Bhola. 

We set off for a 7 hour drive to Syabrubesi, a village at about 4400 feet. It wasn’t that far away from Kathmandu, but the road (and traffic getting out of Kathmandu) made for pretty slow going. 

Probably the biggest road we’ve been on. 

Interesting fact…only the driver of the motorcycle has to wear a helmet. 

A little temple

Little one headed to school. 

Slowly leaving the city behind. 

As we left Kathmandu behind, we started climbing. We would spend the day going up up up, then down down down.  We had to stop at numerous military checkpoints. 

The first checkpoint. 

Ah…starting to see some mountains. 

This was our first break at the top of the first long climb. 

Three school boys heading off to school at the top of the long climb. Have no idea where the school was. 

We came down down down to the Langtang river. Back up for a bit to where we stopped at a village to have lunch. 

Our lunch restaurant. 

Dal Baht for lunch. Much of it was too spicy for me, but the rice was good. 

The view from the restaurant. 

Marigolds are everywhere 

Jenny enjoying the view and the sun

Sean wasn’t feeling well. He gets pretty bad motion sickness. 

After lunch we continued to climb again. The road was very twisty turny, with quite a few vehicles. It’s also not a very wide road, which makes for some pretty tight squeezes. 

Lots of these big trucks. 

Coming into another small village. 

Nice green house there. 

At one point Bawa (for sure not spelled right), our driver, stops the car. Turns out we were where his mother lives! He gave her some fruit. 

Bawa and his mom. 

Jenny and John brought a bunch of markers and coloring books for the kids. 

John taking a photo of a kid who just got a coloring book and a colored marker. 

As we continued, the road was really deteriorated in many spots and almost always not much wider than one lane. We had a few moments where we would encounter vehicles coming the other direction with not enough room for the both of us. Sometimes with little room to back up. Yet, thanks to the driving talents of Bawa, we managed to squeak by every time. 

Yep, that truck is very very close!

Meanwhile, the scenery is unbelievable! Here’s a few photos…

This is mustard seed. 

So far down. The Langtang river is way down in the valley. 

We would pass through small villages with Nepali people walking around, working, or just seeming to be enjoying the day. 

Langtang Peak?

Woman herding cows. 

Also saw goats. 

Often saw women carrying large bundles. 

Grass for cows. 

This little dude…so cute!

Firewood


And the kids… We were stopped at a checkpoint at the entrance to Langtang National Park. They had to check all the bags, and we had to go with our bags into the building. One by one, they went through each bag. The only thing they seemed to be looking for were drones (interestingly, they didn’t search our daypacks). While I was taking a photo, after my bags were done, a group of school kids were coming up the road. They asked me to take their photo. Then they asked my name. They were having fun saying our names, and speaking English. 

This is Samil. He was the most outgoing of the group. His English was pretty good!

From the checkpoint, we had about another hour to go to get to Syabrubesi. We had to go all the way down to the river via numerous switchbacks. 

See the switchbacks?

Getting closer!

We crossed the river, then not long after, arrived at the village. Whew…we made it! First thing Jeff said when we got out of the SUVs was, “That was harder than any of the trekking we’ll be doing!” 

Our hotel (apparently, there are several different spellings of the village name).

Me and Makaela’s room. We have a bathroom with a shower, but no hot water. 

The view from the hotel. 

We settled in, then went for a little walk to check out the village. At least it’s not possible to get lost here! Back at the hotel, we ordered our dinners with Bhola. I was going to have Momos and fried rice, but Bhola said it would be too much food, so I just got the momos (Veg and potato). They were good. John had ordered some noodle soup, but wasn’t feeling good after the bumpy 7 hours. I tried his soup and found it to be not spicy, so I ate some of that too. Bhola brought us a plate of apple slices and pomegranate seeds. 

Makaela had Dal Baht

It was a good meal.

After dinner, we headed to bed. Even though this is an actual hotel, we are sleeping in our sleeping bags/quilts. Tomorrow we begin trekking. 

Across from the hotel. 

Goodnight from Nepal. 

Kathmandu-Throwing Ourselves Into the Sea of Humanity

Part 2 of Kathmandu started with…a nap. We were so tired! 45 minutes was about what I got, but that carried me through dinner, so…good enough. 

Before dinner, we went on a somewhat lengthy bus ride to the world’s largest Stupa (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). You just have to put all your trust in the driver (and the drivers of the other vehicles). It seems to be a dance that they all know. 

Cars and motorcycles going every which way. 

One of the crazy intersections

This was our bus. 

At the Stupa, we all piled out of the bus. Jeff purchased the entrance tickets, and wemade our way inside. 

The Stupa



Prayer wheels surround the outer edge. 

There are shops and restaurants that form an outer ring around the Stupa. 

Pigeons 

Shops are crammed full of all sorts of things. 

At one spot, we could walk in to a small room within the wall of the Stupa. There was a monk offering us a powdery incense to throw on the fire for a good life. It was very smokey and fragrant. 



Off to the side was another smaller room with two giant prayer wheels. 

We continued our clockwise loop. Everyone travels clockwise. Many, including numerous monks, are saying a specific prayer as they walk, working their way through a strand of prayer beads. 

If you want to pass someone, you only pass to the outside (left).

We made our way to a rooftop restaurant called the Roadhouse Cafe. 

Good pizza

Pretty nice view from the restaurant. 

Here’s a view of my dessert. A brownie on a sizzling wood fired plate. It was smoking hot (literally)!

Group photo (left to right-Jeff, Makaela, John, Heather, me Jenny, and Sean).

As we were walking back to where we had come in, there were these dogs playing with some string. 

They seem to mostly ignore the people. 

Then there was this little fella. He just sat there…observing.

One final photo of the Stupa, and then we were headed back to the bus. Bhola had found us and led us to where the bus was waiting. It was on the other side of the very busy road. When we got to where we were going to cross, Jeff told us to all stay close together (critical mass). It was like “Frogger Extreme” as we made our way across the street. There are no traffic lights or crosswalks or anything. There is the occasional police directing traffic at some of the more complicated intersections. 

It was a bit faster drive back to the hotel, with slightly less traffic. We all said our good nights, and headed to bed. Tomorrow would be a long day driving in a jeep to a village on the way to Langtang. 

Kathmandu-A Feast for the Senses-Part 1

We have arrived in Kathmandu! What an amazing assault on our senses! Bhola met us at the airport (getting 7 people’s luggage out the door was something).

Somewhere underneath all that is a trolley. 

Our transport arranged by Bhola. 

Bhola gave us all the traditional welcome to Nepal flower necklaces. 

Makaela and Jenny with their flowers (these are the flowers in season right now).

Driving from the airport to our hotel was…well, let’s just say I’m glad I wasn’t driving! It was crazy! Cars, motorcycles, and scooters, going every which way, and even a few bicycles! Horns honking, as they weave in and out of other vehicles, and pedestrians too! It’s like my head was on a swivel trying to take it all in! Here’s a few photos I took from the van. 

The”river” has quite a bit of trash in it 

Fruit and veg stand 

We arrived at our hotel, and unloaded all the bags. We were told to take a photo of the hotel, and also get the address in case we got lost (oh so easy to do!). 

This is our hotel…Jampa Hotel. 

We eventually all got our rooms. Makaela and I have a room with three twin beds. So far, amongst our group, we have the only shower with hot water. 

Jeff took some of our cash and exchanged it to rupees for us. Basically, we get 1000 rupees for $7.26USD. We each got 26,000 rupees. 

Having showered, and done a wee bit of organizing of stuff, John, Jenny, Sean, Makaela, and I met in the lobby to go do a little exploring (Heather was taking a nap and so was Jeff).

You have to watch for vehicles, and also for holes in the road, all while gawking around at all there is to see!

Little temple. We took photos of things like this to leave a bread crumb trail to find our way back. 

Rickshaw 

Ginormous avocados!

The photos don’t do justice to all there is. 

I didn’t get any photos of the dogs, but there are quite a few that roam around. We did see one cat, and a few chickens. 

Those who drink beer wanted to find some, and we ended up on this high up bar and restaurant called Local. 

The view from the restaurant. Our hotel is at the turn. 

Five of the seven (left to right, me, John, Sean, Makaela, and Jenny. 

The first woman to summit Everest. She was Sherpa. 

After a couple of rounds of beer (Coke for Sean and I) and a few orders of Momos, we headed back out on the street. At the end of our trip, we will return to Kathmandu, and have a couple of days to explore more, and shop (you can get knockoffs of everything). Today we were just looking. Running out of steam a bit again, we came back to the hotel. We’ll meet again in the lobby to go to…I think, a temple, then go to dinner. I’ll post those photos with Part 2.

On Our Way To Nepal!

There’s our plane!

We departed Seattle at 4:20pm. It was a long long flight, almost 15 hours to…Qatar. Yes, we are not even in Nepal yet. We don’t board our flight to Kathmandu until 12:50am. It’s currently 7:40pm here in the Doha airport. The flight wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t really sleep. Every time I would doze off, either the flight attendant would come by with more food, or one of the guys next to me would want out. 

We arrived at 5:15pm in Doha. We killed some time wandering around the airport. It’s pretty fancy. 

We found the lounge room, and a couple of our group went in to lounge for awhile. The rest of us continued to wander the airport. 

Qatar is hosting the World Cup starting Nov 15th. As you can imagine everything is World Cup themed. 

Giant soccer ball 

Giant teddy bear…is this the mascot??? Looks a little sad. 

Soccer “fields” in a number of places. 

We parked ourselves on the 4th floor outside the spa. Makaela, Heather, and Sean went in for soaks and showers. I didn’t have any extra clothes, so I didn’t go in. Instead, I’m doing this blog post. 

Once we get to Nepal, especially Langtang, it’s unlikely I will have WiFi. You’ll all have to wait for the posts until I get home. Good y for now from Qatar.