Nepal: EBC Trek - Kongde Peak to Sagarmatha National Park

We woke up pretty early in the 2nd day of trekking, because that day gonna be a long day to hike up the steepest hill.

I didn't get very good sleep although we slept about 9pm and we were so tired, i felt headache but i hope this is not because of mountain sickness, but i did feel good and determined that time.

gear up and hide under the blanket while waiting John to get ready.

Where we slept in on the first night 

Me and the mountain behind the tea house

Short clip that John took.

So we departed from Kongde Peak around 8am, and reached Benkar around 930am, we took much longer time than the other because John and I cant stop taking picture.

You will understand as you scroll down to see some pic that we took.

On of the peak and so beautiful

Love this

mountain and river

look so chilly

photo of the day

We took a short break in Benkar and continue our way to Monjo.

The first steep trek is from Benkar to Monjo, although its short in distance but you actually have to hike it. Yes, with glove on hand and hike up to another small hill with waterfall. 

As i pass through a few waterfall and hiked up to a few small hill, i was attacked by asthma when we close to Monjo.

My asthma inhaler consumed faster than i imaged before we reach Namche Bazaar, our destination of the trip. 

I hold on myself to continue until we pass the first TIMs check point in Chhumuwa. 

first check point

As soon as i passed the check point, i feel even worse and i need to take rest every 10 minutes i walk.

Norbu, our guide think i should just drop here, because the steeper way is ahead and i looked so pale already. 

I was so close to Namche Bazaar, just another 2 hours, perhaps 3 hours walking distance. 

John insisted to drop in Monjo and i think i can continue, we did quarrel a bit and Norbu finally said there is a school attached with a clinic nearby, we can try the luck if any inhaler is selling there.

If there isn't any, we will just stop in Monjo. 

donkey jam back to Monjo

Short clip of donkey jam

When Norbu said "nearby", the school is actually located in another hill.

We spent 20 minutes to reached the school, but the person-in-charge is out to town, the kids let us waiting in the place and eventually all of the kids came out to see us.

the school

the classrooms

first curious kid came to see us

and more

shy kids

but adorable

cute.

Person-in-charge is not a doctor nor nurse, she is an ordinary villager and all the resource in the clinic is bandage and some pain killer.

And there, we go down the hill, and walked back to Monjo, and check into a tea house by 11am

I was so weak and felt so cold that time but i have no appetite to have lunch. John paid 300rs (about RM9) to buy me a hot shower (yes, you have to pay for hot shower or battery charging), and rushed to bed after that.

I woke up around 6pm for dinner, and get back to sleep around 9pm, just hope to get well soon and be able to continue the trek back to Lukla in the next day.

Cat in the tea house

dinner

the warm tea save my life in the middle of the night when the air was too cold to breath in

3 layers of thick blacket and i still feel cold. :(

Luckily, i feel a lot better in the next morning, and i feel even better as we go down the hill, the air is not chill that could cause asthma attack anymore.

Anyway i'll update more in the next post.











Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20131014, 1119am
Rach in goin for interview later.

Nepal: EBC Trek - Lukla to Kongde Peak.

So right after we landed on the Lukla Airport, and picked up our baggage beside the plane (yes, the worker will just throw your baggage from the plane to let the passenger pick up from the floor), and walked out from the gate (yes, you don't even need to go through custom, just walk out from the gate).

So our guide, Norbu picked a porter outside of the airport (plenty of porter waiting outside of the airport to get a job), and we all set to go.

P/S: You can always get a porter or even a guide in Lukla, as this is the hub for all the hiker and tourist. Of course, you can find porter or guide in Kathmandu and pay them air tix to fly to Lukla with you, but that will be hurt for your wallet.

As for us, we deal with a travel agency to pay USD500 per pax for guide, porter, all the necessary fee and cost, accommodation and food for 5 days. Click me and scroll down for detail and contact.   

Alright, so we arrived around 9am and get our porter, Norbu suggests to take a simple breakfast before we head to today destination, Phakding, around 7.7km from Lukla. 

We had our first breakfast in EBC trek here.

warm noodle soup, porridge, omelet and tea for breakfast. 

As i mentioned over and over again, everything on the mountain is expensive, because people brings everything from the city. 

For example, the porridge cost rs250 (around RM8, as the exchange rate of Dec 2012), the noodle soup is rs200 (around RM6)

We feel luckily that we made the deal with travel agency, we can order and eat as much as we can for every meal, its all inclusive in the USD500. 

So we started our journey around 10am in the morning.

lotsa cow and horse to carry stuffs and goods.

Lukla village, the only street of the village.

Leave the village and we stepped into mountain trek. Stupa everywhere in the mountain.

Stone-stack mean bless.

according to Norbu, this is the grave for someone big in the mountain.

you can see lots of porter that carry at least 30kg stuff on the road.

1st day is easy trek.

porters usually wear jeans and sandal only

porters will usually walk faster than hiker, and gather to rest in a spot with other porters while waiting their boss catching up.

no toilet in the mountain, you're lucky enough to found a big rock to cover you. haha.

nice weather and nice stone house

enter to another village

donkey with colorful clothes

stone house like this take years to build

i can never forget the scene.

love this pic.

pic of me with a cute local kid

stone of bless

another kid <3 td="">

as we walked into the mountain, we saw the chilling glacier river. 

scary swing bridge.

strong wind make the bridge swing even stronger.

love this too.

another tougher bridge across mountains

crystal clear river.

fats and I, this is not easy for us at all.

i was so pile coz the weather is dead cold.

We walked slow and take our time to take photo, so we reached lunch place 2 hours later, which other usually take only 1 hours. 

So we stop in a small village named Thadokoshi, and picked a random restaurant for simple lunch. 

lunch place. 

fried rice with egg, hardest and saltest fried rice that i ever had

tasteless fried noodle 

thick vege soup. 

We stopped for an hour and continue to trek to Phakding.

Although Phakding is only 7.7km away from Lukla, please consider you're walking on a rocky up and down road, if you're not an experience trekker like John, you might take a little longer to watch out every step.

Anyway, we reached Phakding earlier than expect, Norbu than suggest us to walk a little further as tomorrow trek is even worst than today, so we can save more time for tomorrow.

another town

quite but peace place.

calm 

old ladies that curious on the tourist.

So we reached the next village of Phakding, Kongde Peak (2650m) around 3.30pm, settle down and take a short rest before dinner. 

And i mentioned again and again and again, everything in the mountain is expensive and come with charged, such as water shower and battery charging. 

To save cost, we choose to only take shower when we cant stand it, while not taking shower day, we use wet tissue to wipe our body. Also, we take out all our electronic device battery and sleep with in the night to extend the life of battery. 

simple room, i mean, very simple one. No light, no heater, only blanket and bed. 

So we spend most of the time in the living room the only room with fireplace.

the host boil the water on the fireplace

dinner, vege curry rice for fats

vege pizza for me. 

If you've notice, we didn't take meat in for the whole day, also the next 4 days, because meat is not fresh on the mountain.

As show in the below photo:

chicken meat that we snap in a store. 

To avoid upset our stomachs in this trip, we never take any meat in this trip, but John is meat lover, so we bring dried meat (ba gua) from Malaysia, and i allowed john eat a few pieces everyday. 

Also, please do not expect you got to eat nice great food in the mountain, the only best thing we had is noodle soup with omelet, and some toast. Do not be picky in food, you have to get enough energy to hike. 

Alright next post gonna be more mountain pictures. Stay tuned!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20131001, 945pm

Rach in thirsty mood.