Travel Footprints

Trek the Himalayas Day #6: Phortse, Dole, Machermo
Pit Stop: Machermo
Elevation: 4,410 m
Relative Oxygen Rate: 57% (assuming sea level at 100%)
Price of Mineral Water Bottle: 250 rupees/USD 3.57

Lucky for our group, the Diamox pills seem to be taking a positive effect on Mr. Rono and Chin. So, on this early morning, we set out once again to our trek towards Dole and Machhermo after a breakfast of sweet rice porridge, boiled eggs and honey pancake. Once again, we went down to the Dudh Kosi river and up again in another mountain.

It was a good 2 hours of trekking until we finally saw other trekkers on the trail – a couple, Dutch by their accent, and they had neither a guide nor a porter. They were actually carrying their 30-kg bag while they trek! Goodness gracious!

It was getting colder and harder to breathe as we slowly made our way up the hill from Phortse towards Dole. Knowing fully well that today was Good Friday, I spent time while doing the trek to pray the Holy Rosary and remember the Passion of Christ through Stations of the Cross. We might not be in a church praying right now for the Holy Week, but this might just be the longest pasion we have ever done in our entire lives!

Although the sun was up, the wind was chilly! All the lakes and waterfalls on our way were frozen solid –

We had our lunch in Dole (4,200 m) where we met an Australian fellow who was travelling on his own, but who also seemed to be a seasoned trekker, on his way down to Namche Bazar from Gokyo. We had a nice chat with him and he was excited for us when we said we were heading to Gokyo Ri. ‘I’ve forgotten how beautiful it was up there til I came back,’ he would say. He has already been to Gokyo Ri twice and Everest Base Camp 5 TIMES! He said the panoramic view of Everest Base Camp does not even compare with that of Gokyo Ri. We were thrilled with his affirmation. Over our lunch of chicken noodle soup and boiled eggs, we talked about the Philippines (us basically convincing him to come visit since he’s been to Indonesia and Thailand already), trekking in Nepal and altitude sickness. He explained to us that Diamox was originally intended as medication for glaucoma but people eventually found out that one of its side effects is to help cope with altitude sickness. From Gokyo, he would meet his group in Namche Bazar and proceed to Everest Base Camp from there. Such a cool guy! He even has solar-power charger for his iTouch

From our lunch break, however, it was all ‘suffer-fest’ of uphill climbing in high elevation.

Remember that we were supposed to be coming from Dole today trekking towards Machhermo. But because we decided to take a rest in Phortse, we were catching up on lost time of trekking to be able to stick with our schedule.

If you don’t see the video, click here!

We did arrive in Machhermo super-exhausted with the long day a little before 5pm. Because the sun is already setting, we were really freezing our arses off already by the time we reach Yeti Lodge. Oh by the way, on our way up, I noticed that one of my Columbia trekking shoes has a gaping hole on it. I was very disappointed with that discovery. I’m not sure how I get the tear from my Pagora trekking shoes but we’ve barely reached the goal of the trek and my shoes is already conking out on me!

In the end, I was also just grateful that the only thing that needed stitching on the entire duration of the trek was my shoe

We’re leaving for Nepal today. After months of training and travel planning, our Nepal holiday will finally start today. It will take us 2 days – today and tomorrow – to travel to Kathmandu alone (Thai Airways flight has a stopover in Bangkok). We are expected to arrive in Kathmandu mid-day tomorrow.

During the weekend, we once again scoured outdoor shops for additional gears we will be bringing along for our trek. It was important for us to bring thermal clothing that are water-resistant AND lightweight. Majority of the gears we bought were from Columbia. We even got to be certified Columbia Titanium card holder because of our ‘loyalty’ to the brand. We hope Columbia lives up to expectations during our trek in the Himalayas. And we do promise to give a gear review after our trip along with the other gears we bought (e.g., North Face, Aigle, Habagat) from ROX.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we will be safe and sound (and comfortable!) throughout the trek. In the meantime, cheers to pad thai and tom yum soup as we take time to relax in Bangkok first before the next great adventure of our lifetime!

And it has not even begun yet! We haven’t been posting in our blog lately because we were so caught up in our training plan in preparation for our travel to Nepal next month AND prepping ourselves to move in a 2-bedroom bi-level condo unit we bought for nesting right in the heart of Metro Manila. Yes, the RoamingRonos are moving house soon!

So, our typical weekends this month were spent either mountain-biking in San Mateo, Rizal or Bataan, having our physical check-up in Medical City (we want our pink of health when we travel to a high-altitude country), bargain-hunting for outfits to bring to Nepal or window-shopping for furnitures that might fit nicely in our condo.

So far, on our quest for lightweight, thermal wear clothes for Nepal, we’re loving selections from Columbia (we already bought Columbia thermal wear, trekking shoes, jackets and long-sleeves blouse) and ROX (we got Aigle trekking pants on sale!). Rustan’s has a varied selection of travel stuff (travel bags, lock for our backpack, etc). Needless to say, we’re stacking up on shopping bags in our room already! 

All this big (and small!) purchases made Mr. Rono and I re-evaluate our finances this month as well. We love doing this to make sure that we are on the right track with our financial goals (successfully building a retirement fund for one!). As a DINKY (Dual-Income No Kids Yet) couple, we feel privileged to have the freedom to travel and splurge on our hobbies. But, we always have a big picture in mind in terms of finances (hence, the condo purchase among others). So, even if our top spendings are on travels and eating out (and now house amortization), we can still sit back with satisfaction on our financial health. I guess you can say we have become sensible lakwatseras as we grew older

We will be posting any other interesting preparations for our trip to Nepal as we try to make the most out of the few weeks left to stick to our training plan! For our future posts, we are inclined to put more tips and real-life experiences for the travelling couple. Since we both have full-time day jobs, we realized it’s pretty amazing how much travelling we try to do in a year. We wouldn’t say it’s easy though. It’s challenging to even take time off work for holidays. So we want try to write about our experiences here as much as possible and dedicate this to the road to our maturity. You know what they say, travelling…

…when you’re in your 20s, you have the energy and time but no money
…when you’re in your 30s, you have the money and energy but no time
…when you’re in your 40s, you have the time and money but no energy

So cheers to adventure travels for us in our 30s (almost!). We are both looking forward to sharing our amazing travel stories to our future kids and travel with them, in a milder fashion, as they grow up.

Some of the other highlights for the month of February for RoamingRonos: watching RENT The Musical (Mr. Rono didn’t enjoy as much, which woud have been avoided if he had a slight idea what the musical is about before actually going to the show) and eating ‘designer burritos’ at Ristras in Greenhills (we call it designer burritos because you customize all the filling depending on your preferences! We spent two of our Sunday lunches here this month alone!)

Notice that Ristras serve authentic Mexican beer (a bit expensive at Php200/bottle). Btw, DINKY is the term I got from Lindsay’s blog which I have been checking out lately for decor ideas on our condo