Travel Footprints

The trekking team in the Himalayas pose for a group photo during a pit stop in Lukla

This post is a tribute to the wonderful people that made our trek in the Himalayas wonderful and oh so comfortable. First off, we would like to say thank you to Harkaraj Pariyar, whom we fondly call Kuya Henry or sometimes Jestoni Alarcon Kuya Henry is a Nepali married to a Filipina (Emma Pariyar) and they own and operate a tour agency for adventure travels in Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet based in Kathmandu.

This photo above was taken in his office in Kathmandu while we were given a briefing of our adventure and was also introduced to our guide (Sherpa). Kuya Henry patiently worked with us as we exchanged countless emails to revise and finalize our itinerary depending on our needs, capacity and budget.

If you want to get hold of Kuya Henry for any tour inquiries, contact –
International Adventures Treks & Expeditions
Mobile: 977 98510 27381
E-mail: treks@iate.wlink.com.np
Website: www.himalaya-trekking.com

We also acknowledge the wonderful support given to us by Ang Dawa Rai who did a fantastic job in guiding us all throughout the 12-day trek in the Himalayas. We were the third group of Filipinos he was able to accompany in the Himalayas – first was with the ABS-CBN crew led by Abner Mercado and the second was with a group of 3 Filipina tourists. We are very amused to see him sport a cap with the flag of the Philippines on it (he said it was given during the Everest Expedition of the Philippine team). He would patiently wait for us as we trudged slowly up the mountains, gently push us to our limits and encourage us when spirits are down. We are truly grateful for having such a pleasant guide to show us the way around the Himalayas!

Of course, we would not forget these two porters who came with us to unburden us with the load on our backs – literally. Our backpacks were carried by these two guys, who always have a generous smile on their face, all throughout the trek. They would also act as an advance team to our lodge, ably booking the best room available (e.g., closest to the common toilet room) so it is ready when we arrive. We will also never forget their sweet gesture of bringing tea when we need it in Gokyo Valley and Gokyo Ri.

And, last but certainly not least, we extend our warm thanks to our friend Chin who tirelessly researched for tour options in the Himalayas and sought tour packages we can avail that would fit our schedule, budget and capacity (we’re not exactly mountaineering people!). And for bringing the Diamox pills which certainly enabled us to cope with the altitude and ultimately finish the trek

It was such a pleasure to have had this wonderful experience of the trek with you all! ‘Til the next great adventure!

After our triumphant ascent to Gokyo Ri (5,360m) and drinking in the beauty of the majestic Himalayan mountain range as far as our eyes can see for a day, we are now faced with the task of climbing down for the remaining 4 days of the trek. Remember, our journey started from Lukla 8 days ago and as this is a 12-day trekking itinerary, our stint in the Himalayas is fast coming to an end.

It was an easier trek downwards as we retraced our steps back to Lukla. Here are some of the pictures in the last leg of our trek :

Roaming Ronos and friends in the Himalayas

Our experience in the Himalayas may be short but it is surely one adventure of our lifetime that will not be easy to forget

Trek the Himalayas Day #8: Gokyo Valley, Gokyo Ri
Elevation: 5,360 m
Relative Oxygen Rate: 50% (assuming sea level at 100%)
Price of Mineral Water Bottle: 350 rupees/USD 5

There was a soft knock on our door and a gentle voice saying, ‘wake up, it’s time!’ I checked my watch and couldn’t believe it’s already five o’clock in the morning! The voice that jolted us up to the freezing reality of the Himalayas was of course, Ang Dawa Rai, and he was making sure we got up for the early ascent up Gokyo Ri. He briefed us the night before that the best way to summit Gokyo Ri was to start at day break while the cold wind is not yet picking up. We agreed that was logical but did not realize how hard it was to wake up early in the morning!

Especially at this temperature! Even our water bottle freezes overnight

Mr. Rono was bargaining to extend time inside the sleeping bag, he didn’t want to get up until the sun is already out. On any typical Easter morning, we would have probably been woken up at 5am too. But instead of a salubong ritual between Mother Mary and her resurrected son and attending the pre-dawn mass, we get to celebrate Easter Sunday this year on top of Gokyo Ri – 5,360 meters above sea level – in the mountain ranges of the Himalayas.

But that feat is not entirely a walk in the park. Chin decided to stay in the lodge because of her colds (it was getting harder for her to breathe!) while Mr. Rono and I geared up for the trek. We didn’t even get to have any breakfast anymore – we just brought whatever trail food we have left (mostly GU gels and Nature Valley trail mix bars).

The frozen Gokyo Lake – considered sacred in the Khumbu Region and the highest freshwater lake in the world – looked colder than ever this morning. I looked up and saw the moon still shining down from the clear blue, star-less heavens as sunlight slowly creeps in from the tip of Mt. Makalu. The scenery was beautiful even from the Gokyo Lake vantage point but we wanted to see more.

About 45 minutes into our gruelling uphill climb, Team Canada suddenly came up from behind us. They must have stayed in a different lodge. Boy, they were fast! After 15 minutes or so, the Funny Frenchman also came up from behind with his monk guide singing what seems to me like prayer chants. We gladly gave way to them and their Sherpa as we continue to slowly (but steadily) climb up.

Ang Dawa Rai has estimated that we will reach Gokyo Ri summit in about 3 hours. We are well into the 2nd hour of our uphill trek and we still have a long, long way to go! Everytime I look up, I see a ridge and hope that it’s the summit. Only to be disappointed again to find out there are several more ridges to go. After a while, we met Team Canada again but this time they were already headed down from the summit! What the…?

A group of Germans with their Nepali friends we met at Namche Bazar were trekking as well but we let them pass us. We decided to give ourselves a break and have some of our morning tea. One of our porters was actually carrying a thermos of black tea with him plus some cookies for our breakfast. We were just happy to take a respite from our long uphill trek and enjoy our tea. Especially with all these other trekkers kicking our ass in the climb!

We got back to the uphill climb after our tea break and in a few minutes, we came across the Funny Frenchman again as he heads down a different trail path. Across the distance he shouts- ‘the view was wonderful!’ to which I replied, ‘we still have a few meters to go!’ And he says in his signature French accent, ‘yes you must go! Bistare, bistare (slowly, slowly) you will reach.’ This really is the beauty of trekking in the Himalayas – everyone you meet is a friend who encourages you to just do it! As the Brazilian-American lady we met in Tengboche said, ‘all of us here are survivors!’

On our way to the summit, we heard a helicopter that seems to be on the way to Gokyo Valley. But we were so high up we barely see the helicopter flying below us at all. As you can see in the photos above, the lodges in Gokyo Valley have now virtually become a dot in the horizon. We assumed it was a rescue helicopter and was a bit jealous that somebody is being flown back to lower grounds. Mr. Rono was already toying with the idea to seek for a rescue after we come down from Gokyo Ri. After all, we were covered with our travel insurance. We were surprised that another helicopter came up again after 30 minutes. Two ‘survivors’ did not make it, I guess. We got the low-down from Chin when we came back and found out that they came from the big expedition group. Two members of the expedition group probably couldn’t make it all the way up the summit (Mt. Everest perhaps?) anymore and decided to bail out from Gokyo Valley. Chin was able to capture this video too –

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

Trek the Himalayas Day #7: Machhermo, Gokyo Valley
Pit Stop: Gokyo Valley
Elevation: 4,790 m
Relative Oxygen Rate: 53% (assuming sea level at 100%)
Price of Mineral Water Bottle: 350 rupees/USD 5

Our stay in Machhermo overnight has been very challenging. We were coughing and sneezing all the time we’ve rubbed our nose raw because of our colds. Plus, we not only had to deal with the extremely cold temperature that dipped to negative degrees during the night but also the fact that we had to pee all the time. Now, you might think that we are getting overly dramatic at this point but really, peeing during the night is a challenge especially IF YOU HAVE TO GO OUT IN THE FREEZING COLD TO USE THE BATHROOM You have to understand that peeing frequently during high-altitude climb is a good sign – it means your body is coping with the altitude.

But all the lodges at this level have very limited facilities and all the toilets are normally shared with other guests. It would take Herculean effort for us to even go out of our sleeping bags, let alone walk out of the room and out of the lodge, expose our butt to the cold and then finally pee! But we had to do it. What makes our bathroom trips much, much more memorable in Machhermo is the fact that steam (yes steam) actually rises up from the floor-level toilet as soon as the warm pee touches the cold toilet! Ewwww. Then, you would have to deal with flushing the toilet using ice-cold water from the reserves which usually freezes up as well during the night.

The good news is, we’re trekking a short distance today from Machhermo to Gokyo Valley. The bad news? We were extremely exhausted from the day-long climb (Phortse-Dole-Machhermo) the day before. Remember, we went up an altitude of 700 meters in one day! Maybe that’s why our body systems have gone haywire with colds, coughs and frequent peeing (and farting! :p) overnight. I was very tired in the morning, I didn’t felt like I got some rest during the night at all. Plus, I can barely eat my breakfast of pancake because it tasted weird to me so I stuck to eating just egg drop soup. Bad idea! I should have known that despite the short distance from Machhermo to Gokyo, we were in for a long, long trek today after all…

This route would have taken a regular trekker 3 hours to complete (2 hours for locals), but we took more than 5 hours and we are simply exhausted! It’s not really just about being physically fit, it’s dealing with the altitude and ‘oxygen deprivation.’ Five short steps at this level made us feel like we’ve sprinted 100 meters. After hours of trekking in barren lands, we welcomed the sight of bodies of water – it’s the sacred lakes of Khumbu Region! We are finally near Gokyo Valley!

Gokyo and its associated lakes has been declared as a Ramsar site in 2007. This World Heritage Site is also considered the world’s highest freshwater lake system and is sacred for both Hindu and Buddhist. Which is just as well, because while the Holy Rosary helped me survive the gruelling trek yesterday, my mantra for today’s trek was Ohm Namah Shivaya when I felt I needed to draw in energy from meditation (just like we do in yoga) tapping into my inner strength. This journey has suddenly become spiritual for me as well.

It has taken us an extremely long time to reach our lodge that one of the porters (who usually goes ahead of us to reserve our rooms) was on the lookout from the 2nd lake. We gladly gave him our daypacks to bring to our lodge in the hopes that we can maybe trek faster now that we did not have to carry anything. He went ahead of us, carrying all our daypacks, to bring to the lodge. It still amazes me how strong and well-adapted these locals are. A few meters from the lodge, the other porter met us carrying a thermos of black tea and biscuits. It’s already past noon and they must have been worried we’ll just pass out due to hunger and exhaustion. Ang Dawa Rai, our Sherpa, is coordinating the ‘rescue’ efforts today quite well.

We finally reached our lodge and rewarded ourselves with some treats of Pringles and Coke (for a whopping 500 rupees each!) before eating our lunch of vegetable roll and mushroom pizza. Luckily, we were the only ones in the lodge so we were given undivided attention by the owners. Our demands are very simple anyway – rest and warmth. We just stayed in the dining area the rest of the day, the lodge owner even lent us some blankets to use while in the dining hall. We also entertained ourselves with the beauty of the Gokyo Lake overlooking the lodge and observe trekkers from a big expedition group below.

By 530pm, we were glad to see them bringing in yak shit for the heater – at least we have this to look forward to during our evenings

We’ve given it a whole lot of thought and it was finally decided that, despite the odds, we would still want to do the 16-day trekking package for Gokyo Valley Lodge Tour. The package came out way higher than originally quoted because there are only 3 of us left willing to do the tour (minimum of 8 persons required for the original quote). But what the heck! We only live once

In a nutshell, this is what we will mostly do while in Nepal as part of the package tour we got :

Day 1: Arrival in Kathmandu (1,327-m.), meet and greet at airport and transfer to Thamel. Overnight hotel.

Day 2: Free day in Kathmandu to explore on your own while we prepare documents for your trek. Overnight hotel.

Day 3: Drive early morning to airport for short flight (35 min) from Kathmandu to Lukla (2,840-m). After arrangement of local porters, trek Lukla-Phakding (2,610-m) – 5 hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 4: Trek Phakding – Namche Bazaar (3,440-m) – 6 hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 5: Rest day for acclimatization in Namche/excursion to Syangboche (3,720-m), Everest View Hotel (3,859-m), Khumjung (3,780-m) and Khunde (3,840-m) & return to Namche – 5 hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 6: Trek Namche-Dole (4,200-m) -  6½ hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 7: Trek Dole – Machhermo (4,410-m) – 4½ hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 8: Trek Machhermo – Gokyo (4,790-m.) - 4½ hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 9: Rest day/excursion to Gokyo Ri (5,483-m) & return to Gokyo – 5½ hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 10: Trek Gokyo – Thore (4,300-m) – 5 hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 11: Trek Thore – Tengboch (3,860-m) – 5 hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 12:  Trek Tengboche – Monjo (2,835-m.) via Namche – 7 hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 13: Trek Monjo – Lukla (2,840-m) – 6 hours. Overnight lodge.

Day 14: Fly (35 min) Lukla – Kathmandu, on arrival transfer to Thamel / Trek ends. Overnight hotel.

Day 15: Free day (buffer day in case the flight from Lukla cancels on schedule) in Kathmandu. Overnight hotel.

Day 16: Departure day/transfer to airport for onward flight.

We are arriving in Nepal early on for better acclimatization to the place before we fly to Lukla, the trailhead for the trekking trip. We were told that unlike others, say Canadian or European trekkers, Filipinos need more time to do a high-altitude climb because the sherpas (guides) always have to bring them back down to a certain level to avoid altitude mountain sickness (AMS). Here are some of the pictures from the travel agent :

Landing at Lukla Airfield (Short Take Off and Landing)

Mt. Everest (8,848-m.) from Gokyo Ri (5,483-m.)

Yak, Himalayan Oxen, used for transporting goods

We’re a bit apprehensive that we don’t get to complete the trek all the way to Gokyo Valley but we will damn well make sure we try our hardest

We’ve seen how earthquakes have rocked the planet the past few months starting from Haiti, Chile, Taiwan, Turkey (very recently!) and our very own Cagayan, Philippines. Some geologists have even predicted that earthquakes may hit Nepal next! Check out this news article about Nepal ‘bracing for a big quake’ after Haiti.

Of course, these kinds of news makes us a bit concerned about our safety and got us thinking about revising our travel plans. We originally planned on doing the Gokyo Valley Trek tour which was described by the tour agency as –

“The Gokyo and Khumbu Valleys are arguably the most dramatic and interesting of the Everest region. This trek explores friendly Sherpa villages, visits monasteries, seeks wildlife and unveils dramatic mountain scenery. We have two days in Kathmandu to experience one of Asia’s most fascinating cities before flying to Lukla, the starting point of our trek. We follow the Dudh Kosi Valley to Namche Bazaar and then trek into Gokyo Valley. The trail ascends gradually and we enjoy a series of short trekking days to ensure proper acclimatization, walking beside the moraines of Ngozumpa Glacier and turquoise lakes to reach our lodge in Gokyo. From here we can climb Gokyo Ri (5,48-m.) to a view of all of the region’s 8000-metre peaks including Mt. Everest (8,848), Lhotse (8,414-m.), Mt. Makalu (8,485-m.) and Cho Oyu (8,153-m.) – a breathtaking panorama. From Gokyo we trek back to Lukla via Thore, Phortse, the beautiful Tengboche Monastery, Namche and Monjo.”

The package we originally considered was a 16-day moderately strenous trekking involving a domestic flight from Kathmandu to Lukla via a tiny twin otter plane. Here is a picture of Gokyo Valley sent by a friend –

Pretty eh? I fell in love with the place with this picture alone. Unfortunately, we have to revise our travel plans to a package where we would not have to be so far from the capital city of Kathmandu. So, instead of a full trek, we decided to do a bit of everything Nepal has to offer – trekking, rafting, bird-watching, cycling, etc. And we’re doing it just within the outskirts of Kathmandu, around 5-hour drive from the city.

This is how the travel agency describes our ‘revised’ Nepal package:

“This trip is designed to get most out of a short trip in Nepal with adventure and culture activities. It does not involve high altitude trekking but snowcapped mountain peaks are visible from Bandipur and Pokhara provided the weather is clear enough. Visiting Nepal during January to April and October to December for culture and trekking tour is mostly ideal with good moderate temperature. You will experience the country side, culture and see wildlife in their natural habitat.”

We’re still staying in Nepal for 21 days but this package will give us a more intimate experience of Kathmandu and its surrounding villages. I’d have to say, though, it was the cycling part of the tour that convinced Mr. Rono to go for a more subtle package compared to the Gokyo Valley trek. A website describes the experience as “dirt roads and trails in the hills of Nepal are excellent mountain biking tracks and are a biker’s dream come true. It can provide the adrenalin rush as well fantastic view of the Nepali countryside and the Himalaya. You however need to be physically fit if you wish to tour the countryside on a mountain bike as some of the up hills can be grueling challenges.”

There’s always next time for Gokyo Valley *cross fingers*