LETTERS & PICTURES FROM ASIA, 1988 | EVEREST TREK | JIRI TO NAMCHE BAZAAR | PART 3

In 1988, when I was just eighteen years old, I set off from New Zealand to Asia on an adventure with my friend David. We were inspired to visit somewhere we imagined exotic by Tintin comics and National Geographic magazines, although we had never actually been overseas before. Our plans were vague - first Nepal, then India - then after that, as far as our meagre school holiday savings would take us. Once on the road, I wrote detailed but illegible aerogrammes home, which my father kindly typed up to make readable for the rest of the family. My father also generously lent me his Pentax Spotmatic camera to ensure I got some good pictures.

After bureaucratic delays and sickness, we finally manage to get out of Kathmandu and bus to the trailhead a Jiri, heading first for Namche Bazaar and then eventually the Solukhumbu and Everest region. Below is a postcard and the third letter I sent from Nepal, posted from Namche Bazaar (the first letter is here)

Postcard
23rd March 1988
Kathmandu

Dear Everyone, 

Well I can’t believe it; we’re finally getting to go trekking. We are packing our stuff now. We have managed to conquer the great Nepalese bureaucracy and extend our visas and trekking permits. We have also gotten rid of our illness. The doctor said that I had two bacterial infections that would have been serious had they not been treated. I shouldn’t get it again though and I have some pills for them.

Today we went looking for mail, but no sign. A guy we met said that it took 14 days for his mail to arrive from Denmark. 

So we are off tomorrow. Talking to some other people they said that there had been a lot of out of season snow storms. So hopefully we will get some snow. They also said it got down to -15c, so I’m glad that I have a good sleeping bag. 

Our visas go until the 2nd of May, so we will be here a little while. We may go on another trek afterwards. Things were starting to get a little boring here in Kathmandu just waiting to get better and to go trekking. David has gone shopping for stuff for the trek and I must do likewise in a moment. Then we’ll go and have some dinner, maybe pizza.

We went into the new part of town today and visited Nepal’s first shopping mall. All the shops sold the same items, a bit of everything but nothing specific. They had escalators and all the Nepalese were behaving like children on them, jumping off at the top then running down the stairs to do it all again. 

Letter
1st of April 1988
Namche Bazaar 

Dear Everyone,

Namaste, as they say. Here I am in Namche Bazaar, high in the Himalaya. They say that there is a mail service from here, but it takes a week to get as far as Kathmandu. We have been hiking for eight days now, leaving on Thursday 24th of March. We have to take a few days acclimatisation here because it is at 3500 meters above sea level. My hands are so cold that I’m having trouble writing. 

The adventure started as all good adventures do, with an unforeseen challenge. At the bus station, the ticket seller told us we had the best seats on the bus. When we got on the bus we had to try and evict some people from our seats. The bus was jam packed, fitting as many people in as possible. I had someone on my knee and someone else leaning out of my window; it makes a cattle truck look more comfortable. We left Kathmandu at 5.45am and rode like this until lunchtime. We then climbed up onto the more comfortable but very cold roof of the bus. The bus continued to fill up until both the inside and roof of the bus was crammed, mostly with locals. 

At one point we came to a police checkpoint and they told everybody on the roof to get inside. I honestly didn’t think it was possible, but somehow we all crammed in. The bus had a low ceiling so I was standing up with my neck bent at a crooked angle and unable to move at all. We carried on like this for an hour or so, then back onto the roof. Then at another checkpoint, back inside. The whole journey took about twelve hours, although it was only supposed to take seven. 

We stayed in Jiri, at the road end, then set off the next day for Bhandar, which was the next village we intended to stay. This was perhaps the hardest day. We climbed a total of 1500 meters, then lost it again. David got a bad cramp in one leg, then in the other and collapsed on the pathway. I was quite worried he wouldn’t make it. We rested on the path for an hour, then after a total of 10 hours walking we made it to Bhandar. 

The second and third days were spent going over a 3500 meter pass, where we had to stop at a village half way up to stay the night. There was thick snow on the pass and when we stopped at a bhatti for a lunch of dal bhat and chai, it began to snow. We went into the house and waited out the snow with about a dozen porters. Eventually the snow stopped and we crossed the pass then descended to Junbesi - which is a very beautiful village by a river. This was the first place to offer more than Dal Bhat on the menu, so we made the most of it.

Early the next morning we took a two hour detour to a monastery up on a nearby hill.  We decided not to barge into the morning prayers, so walked up the opposite valley and looked across at the Gompa. It wasn’t very big; not as spectacular as the Tibetan monasteries you see in photos, but it had a good feeling about it. Because of the detour it turned into a twelve hour walking day, partly because we also got lost and also took a swim in the river along the way. 

The next village was called Nuntala. All the villages are very small, just a clump of houses. We mostly stayed in guest houses where everything is cooked over a fire and we slept in often quite grotty dormitories. There is nothing flash and the toilets, food and general living conditions are not for softies. We were living like the locals, dirty and uncomplaining. I felt like a real person, not cut off from the environment, just another part of nature. 

From Nuntala it was a short day to a peaceful village called Khura Khola, then onto the next village called Sureken, also by a river. There I indulged in a hot shower, the water running through the back of their wood stove.  

It is just so beautiful on this trek. Every day I wake up excited about what is going to be next. Everything is so picturesque; mountains, rivers, valleys and villages. All the locals are very friendly, especially the children. I can’t explain it properly. I have taken lots of photos that I will post to you. 

It is also really hard. The best description is to imagine climbing Lion Rock (A large and steep rock at Piha beach, near Auckland) for four hours straight, and then spending an hour going down the other side. Then up again, then down. Most days are 8-10 hours walking, although we have also had shorter and longer ones. The down hill is harder on the legs, although we are both developing rugby player calf muscles. 

The next day we passed the turn off to Lukla, where the air strip is. All of a sudden the trek - which had so far been pretty free of westerners - became like a highway; mountain expeditions, tourists, trains of Yaks carrying supplies - and lots of begging children. Apparently only one out of four trekkers to the Everest region walk in from Jiri, the rest all fly in via Lukla. 

Today we did the four hour climb up to Namche Bazaar, the largest village and center for the area. It is still quite small, but does have electricity (wow!); Namche is quite touristy, but still has a charm. The village is fully surrounded by mountains. 

Right now David wants to climb up the hill to look at Everest and the sunset, so I’ll finish this later, by electric light! We have to spend tomorrow here to become acclimatised to the new height. 

It is now an hour later. We just saw the sunset over Everest and it was beautiful. I’m constantly awed by the country. Even now I have to kick myself to see if it is real. I walk along looking at everything and it is so different, like another world. The people live so differently and yet live so simply. 

Right now I am sitting around a table in a reasonably flash lodge in Namche Bazaar. There is a fire and there are some loud Aussies who have climbed some peak. We are eating lots because they have good food here, although it is quite expensive. Things get more expensive as you move up the trail. Coke stared at 5 rupees and bottle and now it is getting up to 40 rupees a bottle. Near base camp, apparently, it is closer to 70 rupees. Living is cheap in the lower hills, perhaps $US3-4 per day, but up here in the mountains it is more like $US5-7 per day. 

We are planning to climb up to Gokyo lake, then if we have time we will also go to Everest Base Camp as well. David wants to fly out afterwards, but I would rather save the money and walk. Also, I think I prefer the lowland hills because they feel less touched by tourism. After this we would like to go to Varanasi, then up into the Indian Himalaya, along to Ladakh and then Rajasthan. After that perhaps Europe where I might try to find some work. I’ll wait and see.

Read the next letter here. 
Read the previous letter here.