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.

02Oct Trekking Day 8 - Dingboche to Labuche: 6.5 miles

Another great start for hiking! I’m getting excited.. We will be at Base Camp tomorrow!!

We had a few snow flurries on the way to the tea stop at 4620m. Continued up to 5030m for lunch and the evening. We had one more acclimatization hike after lunch, and gained another 100m. We got to see the direction of Base Camp and a glacier.

01Oct Trekking day 7 - Dingboche Acclimatization day: 2.5 miles

Today was an easy day, small hike up to about 4750m and got to hang out a bit. This was the first day we woke up to sunshine, it was amazing! We got a demo of the PAC-Portable Altitude Chamber. You do not want to have to be in that!!

30Sep Trekking Day 6 - Phortse to Dingboche: 8 miles

This was the toughest day so far but we got our first peek at Everest! Started at 3810m up to 3985m for our tea break; 4040m for lunch. By this time I was exhausted… but must keep moving! Finally arrived in Dingboche at 4410m.

29Sep Trekking Day 5 - Namche Bazar to Phortse: 7 miles

Great weather and great views but a tough day. We started at 3610m up to 3979m for lunch, down to 3680m and then 3810m for the evening. We met Karmarita who owned the tea house we stayed at, he has summited Everest 12 times!

28Sep Trekking Day 4: Acclimatization hike - 3 miles

Woke up to a rainy morning with high hopes of getting the first glance at Everest. It stopped raining just before we started hiking which was amazing. Got to Namche museum view point but too many clouds to see Everest :(  We did some yoga and chilled out a bit.

Tenzing Norgay statue

We the continued to Shyangboche panorama view point 3800 meters with more hopes. We had tea and watched as the clouds floated in and out but still no sighting. I saw a glimpse of some rock up in the sky and yelled “Everest” and then was told it was in the opposite direction, heehee.

We had some free time to walk around and shop a bit.

Here is our Irish Pub…

27Sep Trekking day 3: Phakding to Namche Bazar - 7 miles

We started the day with a great breakfast and lovely weather. We crossed a few more suspension bridges and gained about 830 meters in elevation. We have some free time tomorrow to walk around the town. We will be passing back through here on the way home and we have found an Irish pub to celebrate in, with just one beer. Many more to follow once back in Kathmandu!