Well Damo won. It's our "rest day" and I'm exhausted after a five hour hike, in which we ascended 400 meters in less than an hour. Straight up hill, and STEEP! But I felt awesome and practically ran to the top since I was only carrying about 1.5kg. When we got to our first intended destination, Everest View Hotel, we were excited about the (mostly) blue sky so we could finally glimpse Mount Everest. I took a photo of what we thought was Everest (see pointing pict...

Today was wonderful! After a delicious breakfast of aloo parantha (I guess it's like an indian quesadilla filled with potato) we set off with only our day packs and walked around for over three hours. We tried to get to some lookout points of Everest before the clouds set in but were unlucky, and too late. Guess that's what we get for sleeping in till 6:45! The altitude is definitely felt here. Walking uphill gasses me like nothing else. But the fact that is fre...

I know I've been more exhausted than I am now but I can't quite remember when. This morning we woke a bit after 5am. Not surprising considering we went to bed before 8pm after a dinner that resembled prison food, and tasted like fire (not in the good smokey way). Damo reminds me that mountain food is sustenance and as long as it is edible, that's enough. I disagree, but anyway, I digress. It poured down rain all night last night and was raining heavily this m...

I survived day one! I only really threw one tanty and that was before we started, after landing in Lukla. First though, the Kathmandu domestic airport. No joke, we walked through a construction site that was the terminal. Dirt floors, exposed beams, discarded airport chair sets, and luggage carriers strewn about. I couldn't believe it. Separate security lines for men and women of course. The woman manning my security line had her toddler daughter with her who wa...

Tomorrow we fly to Lukla and from the airport set out on foot for day 1 of Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek. We spent most of the day shopping again for last minute "necessary" items. Here's my comprehensive itemised list which will go into the backpack: 3 trekking t-shirts 2 trekking pants 1 trekking shorts 1 set trekking poles 1 pair hiking boots 1 pair Chaco sandals 3 pairs socks 2 thermal tops and bottoms 1 fleece pants 1 fleece jacket 1 pair fleece bo...