something else...

here is a look at something else... last year jan/feb i spent about a month in nepal. after starting out on the wrong foot by getting ripped off on my taxi ride from the airport into kathmandu, i found myself a guide to go on the everest base camp trek (ebc). at the time nepal was ruled by the king and in some places marshal law was in force, i read more about it on my flight out after my visit. this also explained the few tourist in the country at the time. the aussies had actually put out a travel advisory to not go there... wussies!
well, i got my flight early into lukla (2784m) - met up with some german students and trekked with them and my guide arjun! he really badly wanted to be called a sherpa... but he just did not have the look. good oke tho. namche bazaar (3555m) was the first rest day and the last hot shower. the last bit up to namche is on helluva climb. but like i was to find out, all well worth the effort!
at tengboche (3860m) the monastry is awesome, the monk's have got a nice spot up there and it's the highest (altitude) monastry in the world. i spent an extra day relaxing there as i think i was suffering a bit from ams (acute mountain sickness). i was a bit worried as i felt sick, already so low down, one german turned back...
we pushed on to dinboche (4360m) - here i spent another day, the weather was spectacular. we also heard that 3 other people had died from ams, 2 of them from just ascending too fast... i figured staying put was a nice idea.
the next day we got to our last overnight stop lobuche (4940m). i stayed at the inn of the present base camp to namche, everest marathon champion. this guy was a machine. arrogant as hell. made good food and his place was tidy.
the next morning we headed for gorak shep, got some breki and then headed for base camp. this was the only day where the clouds were covering everest slightly. the trek to base camp is quite a short distance but the ground is loose gravel, lots of up and down and the air is a bit thin. base camp is a heap of loose rocks. there is no sign that says: "this is everest base camp"(5364m). we basically walked in circles a bit until we found a spot and said ok, this is base camp. we parked off near the crashed chopper and had an awesome view of the khumbu ice fall. there is no sight of everest from here but the clouds were clearing so we decided to head over to kala patthar peak.
what a walk to get there... we were all knackered by the time we arrived at the top (5550m). the view from there was worth every step. breathing was a little shallow, but the trek down was a laugh, although the leg muscles had started cramping and twitching. we got back to lobuche just before night fell and after a well deserved beer and a shot of everest whiskey i sodded off in a heart beat. the next morning, desperate for a piss and slug of water, i snuck my arm out of the warmth of my sleeping bag and found my water bottle frozen closed. i put on my freezing cold boots and went to the long drop, where i slipped on the frozen bog water lurking around this dodgy smelling toilet. luckily i caught myself! mr everest marathon champion was already awake and whipped up a bit of breki with some warm yak milk - puke!
the trek back to lukla went fast... in namche we had a bit of a bender. the real party started back in kathmandu, first was a massive meal, pizza, burgers, fruit and then washed it back with a mix of nepal's finest barley, malt, hops and water.
i still did a 3 day side trip to chitwan national park. this involved the dodgiest bus ride ever and a ride on an indian elephant. well worth it.
all in all an awesome trip and highly recommended. i just wanna get on the bike and go... enough of the planning. pk, sort that bike out dude!!