After a few days R&R in Kathmandu, it's time to turn around and do it all over again...the stiff climbs, the steep descents, the landscape turning from lush to stark, the stars extra crisp in the sky with less intervening atmosphere. We meet Lama...
Nepal
Refund
When I visited the family in Phakding who had originally taken Maya in, I learned that Maya's father had heard she'd been placed in a foreign-run orphanage in Kathmandu. He had come to demand some money (now that rich foreigners were involved). The strong wife of the...
Maya In Action
Here's the video. Need I say more?
Maya Comes For A Visit
Maya is not a morning person. Like a friend with a hangover, she ignores the sun pouring in as the curtains are drawn back, and when she finally rises with the back of her arm shielding her eyes, she acts like getting out of bed is the greatest of effort...
Back In Kathmandu
Back in Kathmandu, the once medieval city now offers us every amenity: soft beds, hot showers, pizza & salads, shopping, drinking… We roam and relax and enjoy some wine and a delicious meal before everyone flies home! Over 17 days in Nepal, it feels...
Down And Down Some More
Days 10 & 11 see us losing altitude rapidly. What took us 5 days to ascend takes us 2 to descend. It's a relief to be down below 14,000 feet, where our lungs suddenly feel FULL with air, where trees grow, villages dot the landscape, our bodies feel...
Peak Experience
Day 8 the world turns to a moonscape. We cross the Tsang-ri glacier up and down and up and down over the rocks into Gorak Shep (place of the dead crow). Aptly named, there's not much to sustain life up here. It's an extreme world of rock and ice--and trekking...
Buddhist Images
Not Your Average Gods
The Thin Air
On Day 6, the sun returns, and it elicits easy smiles despite the heavy breathing on our acclimatization hike. We string prayer flags over Dingboche and climb to 15,800 feet just for the views (and the oxygen adjustment). Day 7 pushes us higher to Lobuche, where the...
A Blessing From Lama Geshe
Day 5: Meeting with Lama Geshe always brightens my heart, and my trekkers were so moved by his blessing and his warmth that they were crying. This 80+ year old Tibetan lama chants over us, instructs us in mantras, blesses our prayer flags before we hang...
And Then It Snowed
On Day 4, we walked out of Tengboche Monastery after the monks finished chanting prayers to find snow starting to swirl around us. Finished with our hiking for the day, we retreated to the warm comfort of our lodge, complete with iron stove and yak dung fire inside....
It All Started With A Helicopter
Maybe it was the blessing we received from the Hindu ascetics during our day of sightseeing in Kathmandu, but whatever the reason, luck was with us even when the weather wasn't. After rising at 4am to catch the first flight to Lukla for our trek to...