Chapter 1: Namaste & Tashi Delek - My tryst with the Land of the Great Mountains
Nepal ·This is my attempt at making this travel story more free-form. Enjoy!
April 23rd, 2024
A momentary thought from the past echoes in my head.
“What’s it like, standing on the summit of the last of the three passes? Or any of the passes for that matter” “And how would you celebrate it? A fist bump? A hug?”
That thought was from a year ago. It’s the kind of thing that felt so far-fetched, so out of reach, that it was easy to dismiss it as a dream. But sometimes, you end up chasing it. Because when you actually pull it off - the sense of achievement is unlike anything else.
And here we were, on the summit of Renjo la, taking the moment in. A fist bump was the perfect way to celebrate the effort we’d made to get here. Above the clouds, literally and figuratively.
How and why were we here? Honestly, was just something we wanted to do for a long time. Read on ;)
2 weeks ago, April 10th, 2024
“Is that Annapurna?” I asked, with a hint of disbelief in my voice. I was chatting with a fellow passenger as we flew from Delhi, the capital of India, to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. We had just crossed into the Nepalese airspace, and I could see the rising mountains, transitioning from the Indian Himalayas to the Nepalese.
“Don’t think so,” they replied, sensing my newcomer’s excitement. “You might catch a glimpse of the ranges, but I doubt you could pinpoint Annapurna specifically.” I should have figured it wouldn’t be that easy. Feeling a bit let down that I couldn’t spot Annapurna, I then tried to identify Dhaulagiri, but even that was dismissed by my co-passenger. I suppose I was getting carried away, but could you blame me for it? I’ve always been fascinated by these marvels.
You’ve probably guessed it, but allow me to expand more on what this is all about. My friend and I were headed to Nepal, specifically to the Everest region; home to some of the highest (and the highest) peaks in the world. Living in Australia now, I decided to head to India (where I’m from) to travel along with my friend rather than coordinate this whole thing from different timezones. And we were going there for a trek!
This plan was definitely a step up from our past escapades but along with it being a step up, it was a journey that we really couldn’t ignore, or so we thought at the time at least. And so we began planning, almost a year in advance come to think of it. We’d been to high altitudes before, but a multi day trek of this extent? Nope, uncharted territory. But hey, that’s half the fun, isn’t it? Pushing your boundaries, seeing what you’re truly capable of and all that stuff. We also decided not to hire a guide or a porter for this trek. Full send (for us amateurs at least).
Landing in Kathmandu felt almost surreal. Nepal’s far from going to the other side of the world; it’s more like visiting your next door neighbour when you’re coming from India (it literally is). The two countries are practically cut from the same cloth when it comes to the culture, language, food etc. I guess despite that, there was a sense of excitement and a realisation that we had absolutely commited to our idea of trekking the three passes. There was no backing out now….oh well we could’ve just stayed in Kathmandu or gone elsewhere if we really wanted to back out. But the allure of this trek was that it was a challenging one, and crossing multiple high altitude passes in a single trek? Sign me up!
I mean, if you wanted more proof for why people came here, just watch the baggage claim carousel as you go to collect your bags. It’s probably one of the only major cities in the world where I’ve seen more trekking backpacks and duffel bags with mountaineering equipment come in than actual suitcases, or whatever else people like using.
The first thing we had to do was exchange our Indian currencies. Well the first thing was to get a sim card but we were practically shoved into the queue to get one so it wasn’t much of a thought we came up with. Back to conversions, I’d already converted my Aussie dollars to Indian rupees, which in hindsight, probably wasn’t the best idea. But hey, you live and you learn….. right?
Anyway, this currency exchange thing ended up being way more of a hassle than it should have been. We must have checked every single forex place in the airport, and not a single one of them were swapping Indian rupees. Honestly, I felt more surprised than frustrated, and a part of me feels like I’m sure I missed something when I was there. But to be fair, having Indian rupees instead of Nepali rupees isn’t the end of the world. Turns out, pretty much every shop in Nepal will take the Indian stuff. The only real reason we wanted to convert it was because up in the mountains, most people only accept Nepali rupees. You’ll occasionally see some Indian rupees being used, but it’s pretty rare.
II - The Kathmandu Warm-Up: Blending in and sticking out
We decided to head out of the airport, hunting for Nepalese rupees. To make things easier, we decided to make use of the services of a Driver, who was more than eager to show us around. Luckily, we did eventually find a place that could hook us up with the Nepali rupees we needed, thanks to our driver. And while we were at it, we also had to confirm our flight reservations to Lukla, the little town that’s basically the gateway to all things Everest.
So, all in all, not the smoothest start to the trip, but we got it sorted out in the end. Everything’s an adventure if you want it to be one :D
Alright, we had a few things to knock out before we could really get this show on the road - like getting our permits for the park and locking down those bus tickets to Ramecchhap/Ramechhap. Easy enough, right? Well it was, because when we swung by the Tourism office, they shared some surprising news with us. Turns out we didn’t even need to worry about the permits here in Kathmandu - we’d be able to grab those once we got to Lukla. Good to know.
At this point, we were starting to get a pretty solid feel for the city, and wow, all this running around had us absolutely starving. So we let our driver take the reins and lead us to this Nepalese spot for a traditional thali. Let me tell you, that might have been one of the best meals I had all year. If you haven’t tried a proper Nepali thali, you’re seriously missing out.
By this point, we were pretty worn out and just wanted to crash in a hotel room. I mean, we’d been lugging these trekking bags around all day - I have no idea why we didn’t just book a room earlier and stash our bags there? I think I saw our driver giggle once and now I realise it must’ve been because of that. Anyway, our driver had warned us about the touristy vibe of Thamel, so we decided to set up shop closer to the airport instead. Figured it’d be a bit more authentic that way.
Finally, we could unwind, right? Nope, not quite. We still needed to nail down our bus tickets to Ramechhap. My friend had been making some calls, and we managed to find a tour operator who could get us tickets for 2,500 Nepalese rupees - way better than the 10 grand our driver had quoted us. I was wired enough to head out and grab those tickets myself, even if Aditya was ready to call it a day. And you know what, I’m glad I did - that little trip to Thamel gave me a chance to experience the unique vibe of Kathmandu. Maybe we should have just stayed in that tourist hub after all…
The walk to Thamel was about 7km one way, and I just decided to consider it a nice little pre-trek warm-up. Walking through Kathmandu was this strange yet familiar experience in so many ways. Everything about it; the way the traffic was managed, the way the shops operated, the noise - it was all just so reminiscent of most Indian cities. I felt like I blended into the crowd pretty seamlessly, following the directions Google Maps was laying out for me. Unless I opened my mouth, there was a good chance a passerby would’ve thought I was just a local. Heck, I even felt like one at times.
The streets had the same sort of charm as back home in India. The one thing I did notice a lot more of, though, were all these adventure and outdoor tour operators, as well as trekking and hiking gear shops and supplies geared more towards the mountains and alpinism. I mean, it makes sense; Nepal relies heavily on tourism, especially the adventure tourism kind.
And then I got to Thamel, and I immediately understood why my driver (and my co-passenger in the airplane) was against it. Thamel almost felt like an enclave of another country within Nepal. I’m exaggerating a bit here of course, but I’d be lying if I said the stark increase in the number of eateries and clubs and bars didn’t catch my attention. The entire suburb had been developed with the idea of making it a “base” for all things adventuring, with the streets dedicated to all sorts of gear - maps, hiking, trekking, rock climbing, you name it. A lot of it was cheap, not the original stuff from big companies, more like replicas or “fakes,” if you will. But hey, sometimes they hold up pretty well and are good enough for a fair few activities. Works for me as I needed to grab another set of trekking poles for my friend as well as another paper map of the trail.
When I reached the office, I told the receptionist that I’d called earlier about the tickets to Ramechhap. She promptly noted down my details and handed over two tickets for each of us. Apparently, the bus would be ready to pick up the tourists around 1 AM the next morning in Thamel. Not too surprising, considering we had to catch our flight out around 9 AM. What did annoy me, though, was the fact that we weren’t going to be getting much sleep on this journey, and we were already pretty tired from the day. So I made it a priority to get back to the hotel as soon as possible and rest up a bit, even if it meant skipping dinner.
The walk back was another 7 km, but I decided against it this time and just caught a taxi instead. I had a whole trek to do more walking for anyway. Reaching the hotel and our room, I ended up keeping the tickets in my bag and face planted into the bed, hoping to catch a few hours of sleep…
III - The Invite to Ramechhap
Waking up a couple hours later, I looked at my phone - it was just past dinner time. We figured room service would be the best bet for tonight, considering we were resting up and had a pretty long journey ahead of us in the early hours of the morning.
With dinner done and our packing all sorted, we decided to go for a little walk to freshen up. And seeing as it was getting close to midnight, we asked the hotel to help us arrange a cab to get us over to Thamel, where our pickup was supposed to be.
Arriving in Thamel in the middle of the night was…interesting. Our driver warned us to stick close to the shops on the side of the street, since there were a lot of drunk people and other, uhh, interesting impulsive behaviour going on if you know what I mean.
And true to form, just like back home in India, things were never really on time. I think it was well past 1:30 AM before the bus finally decided to show up. But in the meantime, we got to meet some fellow trekkers who were all pretty excited for the adventures ahead. I wouldn’t exactly call the vehicle we ended up traveling in a “bus” - it was more like a 10-15 seater van. But hey, it was pretty comfortable, at least. After getting our packs sorted on top, we bid farewell to Kathmandu and headed off towards Ramechhap.