08Oct Kathmandu

We wondered around Kathmandu to Swayambhunath Temple (Monkey Temple), Durbar Square and Asan Bazar and ended with another nice dinner. I had to be up for a 04:30 taxi ride to the airport. I decide to start my journey home a bit early and stop in Istanbul, I mean why not, right??

09Oct Kathmandu to Istanbul

I got a seat on the flight, woohoo! It was delayed first because of a “small technical error” and then after that wa fixed delayed a bit more because of air traffic. But either way I made it to Istanbul, found my Airbnb, right by Galata Tower and went straight to

07Oct Trekking Day 11 - Lukla to Ramechhap to Kathmandu: .5 miles

Well we did it!! Now how to get back to Kathmandu?? We take a very small plane that we were up at 05:15 to catch but couldn’t fly out till about 10:00 because of clouds. The weather changes quick in the mountains and when it does, they really get those planes moving!! The plane holds 18 passenger plus 2 pilots and 1 flight attendant. The flight was about 18 minutes to Ramechhap.

Just us waiting for the clouds to move out!

And we are off!!

18 minutes later landed in Ramechhap were it all started 13 days ago.

Then we had what was a 4hour drive when you start at 03:00, that was now about 7hours on a Friday that is also a holiday, eek! But ended the evening with burgers, yum!

06Oct Trekking Day 10 - Namche Bazar to Lukla: 11 miles

“Almost home”, yeah right! Today was about 8 hours, but easier than I thought it was going to be, probably because of the oxygen. Never underestimate your good friend Oxygen, heehee! We were so close and then the trial into town was insane, my legs were yelling the whole time! We did make and it was the nicest tea house of the trip! We had a shower and flushing toilet in our room!! We enjoyed our last dinner with our guides and porters. The porters were amazing, our bags always beat us to our rooms and no way I could have carried all my things and made it to Base Camp without them!

05Oct Trekking day 10 - Pheriche to Namche Bazar: 12 miles

Another sorta rainy day but again we were on the way home. I was focused on having a beer at the Irish Pub in Namche that I saw going up on day 3. I was determined!! Our tea break was at a Buddhist monastery that we were allowed to visit. This wa a long day but the pace was quick given all of the extra oxygen and it being “Nepalese Flat”. Nepalese flat is now a joke, we do go down a lot but then the next thing we see is a super tough up hill. It definitely was not all down hill from here”!! I did manage to get everyone to the Irish Pub that evening, woot woot!!

04Oct Trekking Day 9 - GorekShep to Pheriche: 8 miles

So happy to be going down in elevation after making it to Base Camp…. YAY for Oxygen! The weather decided to turn gross from here back to Lukla but so glad we had a great day for Base Camp. Not so many pics now, just focused on getting down in elevation. The trekking got easier but still very long days!

03Oct Trekking Day 8 - Dingboche to Base Camp to Gorekshep: 8 miles

Hardest day ever!! We started the trek about 05:30, arrived to Gorekshep (5165 m) about 09:30 for second breakfast and then headed off to Base Camp. We had beautiful weather for pics along the way and at Base Camp. Arrived back at Gorekshep completely exhausted. There was an optional hike the next morning to the top of Kalapathar. The hike to the top was averaged at 4hours and then we had another 7 after that… May body was toast, so I did not join.