LETTERS & PICTURES FROM ASIA, 1988 | EVEREST TREK | NAMCHE BAZAAR TO KALA PATTHAR | PART 4

In 1988, when I was eighteen years old I set off from New Zealand to Asia on an adventure. Accompanying me was my high school friend David. We were inspired by Tintin comics and National Geographic magazines. Although we had never actually been overseas before, we wanted begin our travels somewhere more exotic than the usual teenage Kiwi destinations. Our plans were vague - first Nepal, then India - then, after that, as far as our meagre holiday savings would take us. Once on the road, I wrote detailed and mostly 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. 

In this fourth letter sent from Nepal, we set off from Namche Bazaar (after market day) towards Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar. Along the way we experience Tengboche Monastery, some altitude sickness (not myself) and also a minor snow storm. Read the first letter from Kathmandu here.

10 April 1988
Namche Bazaar
Letter

Dear Everybody,

Well, I'm back in Namche Bazaar having returned from the adventures in the mountains. The adventures include getting caught in blizzards, altitude sickness (not mine fortunately) and conquering Kala Patthar.

I'll begin from where I left off in the last letter. Before departing, I went to the Saturday market here in Namche Bazaar. It was a great spectacle, people, yaks, noise and bustle. People travel for days to the market and their entire income depends on it. There wasn't anything that I wanted to buy, but I took a lot of photographs and just sat on the hill and watched. It truly felt like another country. We lazed for the rest of the day and then set out for Tengboche Monastery. I should add that we had changed our mind and had decided to climb Kala Patthar rather than Gokyo.

We took the long way so that we could stop at a large village with a Hillary School for lunch. We arrived at the monastery in the early afternoon and stayed at the Gompa Inn. It is situated on a ridge at 3900m and has great views of Everest and lots of other mountains. They also have yak yoghurt which made a nice change from rice, noodles or potatoes.

The next day in the beautiful sun we descended and then ascended up a barren valley to Pheriche, a windy desolate village which is basically just a set-up for trekkers and has a small hospital run by New Zealanders. What a surprise when we arrived and saw the New Zealand flag up! We were now at 4200m, which is higher than Mount Cook. I hadn't felt any effects of altitude but David and a few others felt a bit off-colour. The following day was an acclimatisation day and I sat out in the sun and read a book.

Since Namche Bazaar we have been surrounded by mountains (big!). David had a sleep and woke up sick; he had a bad headache and could hardly walk. We took him along to the hospital and the doctor said that he should descend immediately because he was in a dangerous state. They gave him some drugs so that he could make it down the hill and with instructions that he should only ascend again when he is feeling 100%.

It was late afternoon and a freezing wind had blown up. We struggled our way to a village between Tengboche and Pheriche at about 3600m. It was a terrible, grotty, expensive lodge that we stayed in.

The next morning David was still sick and so we hung around. In the afternoon, however, he felt much better so we ascended back to Pheriche. He still felt OK so we stayed there. It was a bit of a bummer having to fall back a day because we got behind all our friends. However, we really did have to descend as the doctor said that David's altitude sickness was quite serious. People become really paranoid about altitude sickness because you hear so many horror stories about it and at every village there is somebody who is suffering from it and is having to descend. There have been a few cases of people falling into comas and having to be carried down in the night. I don't think that anybody has died so far this year!

The next day David felt fine so we continued up in the thin air to Lobuche, which is basically a set-up for trekkers. We met our friends there who had spent the day climbing Kala Patthar and were on their way down again. Since Jiri we have been travelling with two Germans and two Americans; we have also travelled with a lot of other people but mostly in patches here and there.

Lobuche is also very barren; all there is up here is rocks and mountains. There is a disappointing lack of snow, just patches. There is a frozen lake nearby and all the rivers are frozen in the morning. At Lobuche I had a completely sleepless night but this one bad night was the only problem I ever had with high altitudes.

The next morning we said good-bye to our friends and made the final part of the trip up Kala Patthar. I had a bad stomach-ache from something that I ate, but I had no other problems other than breathlessness. I can't explain the difficulty of climbing at high altitudes; you get puffed doing your shoelaces up or taking a photograph. You take a [ew steps and then collapse puffing. Kala Patthar is 5545m and it took us 3 hours to climb the last 300 metres! I'm not sure that we would have made it if we hadn't packed our bag with chocolates (rare and expensive!) which we promised ourselves that we wouldn't eat until we reached the top. At the top the view was amazing. All the way around we were surrounded by giant peaks with the black rock of Everest to the East. The chocolate was great! We could see Base Camp down below (5300m) and a huge glacier. Unfortunately there were so many people on the peak that we couldn't actually get on it!

The views are certainly great up here, but I prefer the lower hills. Up high it is just rocks and mountains; no locals, just tourists. There are no toilets so behind every rock is a pile of shit, toilet paper and rubbish. The mountains are beautiful but they don't have the human aspect. I was also disappointed because there was little snow and cold (but this comes later in the story). There are all these people with their high-tech gear, when all you really need is a good sleeping bag and a jersey for the nights; you can wear shorts during the day. We returned to Lobuche and slept very well.

We decided that we would make the next day, which was yesterday, a long one. We
set off for Namche Bazaar early with a New Zealand girl who had had to descend because of altitude sickness. She stayed at Pheriche. Even though I had not had any altitude sickness, at one point we felt pretty lightheaded and rolled around on the mountainside with hysterics!

When we were about two hours from Namche Bazaar it began to rain. We sheltered in a small house with lots of porters. It rained hard for a few hours, then began to ease a little. We got into all our gear and decided to make a dash. As we climbed the rain got hard again, then turned to sleet and then to snow. It was thick and hard. The path was now a river and my feet were very cold and wet. I was glad of my good raincoat; it covered both me and my pack. David wasn't so lucky; his pack got soaked. At one point we passed a porter carrying on his back 16 (4x4, I counted) pieces of 4x2 planks about 10 feet long, like this - ////). They were all waterlogged and the load looked heavier than I could even lift when it was dry. He was quite old and only had a thin jersey and sandshoes on. After seeing that I decided that I could never complain again.

We trudged on through the sleet and snow getting wetter and wetter. We saw three beautiful pheasants and then later, another. They are supposed to be rare but we have seen five so far; I guess that either they are not really rare or we have just been lucky. Eventually after going round ridge after ridge we rounded the corner to Namche Bazaar, covered in snow. I would have loved to have got a photograph of us soaking in the snow, and the village, but it was too dark and wet and the camera was buried in a dry place in my pack. We were so relieved to get to Namche Bazaar. It was getting dark, I was absolutely stuffed and we were both drenched. We had a hot tea of potatoes and then crashed off to sleep.

a big feed on or around the 20th. Food and toilets seem to be the main topics of conversation for trekkers. People go into great fantasies about what they are going to eat back in Kathmandu; you get so sick of rice, potatoes or noodles.
People are always complaining about toilets or lack of them, as well.

There hasn't been much wildlife, only birds. They are very colourful. There are ravens, crows, robins, vultures and tons of small colourful songbirds. I don't know their names but they are really pretty. We have also seen ferret-like animals (marmots?). The weather has been great until yesterday, and even that was great in another way. We have had clear blue skies every day. It is rare to be able to see all the mountains all day, as we have. I'm getting a tan.

We are going to buy a tent in Kathmandu because they are apparently quite cheap and you can sometimes sell them for more in India. We want to do some trekking in the Indian Himalaya and the tent would be useful if we go on to Europe.

Well, I feel pleased with myself for climbing Kala Patthar, but I can't say that it was the highlight of the trek. I much prefer the hills where all the people live and there are less tourists. I'll think that we'll stop in a nice village by a river for a day or two, curl up in the grass and go to sleep or read a book, then go for a swim and lie in the sun.

One thing that I forgot to mention that was quite neat was that I got to go to the monastery's early morning service in Tengboche. I don't think that it was really allowed but this German girl who was really into Buddhism went in, so I thought that I would try it too. First there was a lot of gong banging then conch blowing, a few then gave gifts at the altar whilst one monk chanted at great speed (so, so fast), they all left and the monk chanted for about 20 minutes at this great speed. We left and when they opened the monastery at eight o'clock after having a look around.

Unfortunately, foreigners forget to take their shoes off, talk loudly and take photographs. I think that I might have mentioned how I was bothered about people being rude to the Nepalese people; many treat them like they are really dumb and are just slaves. They don't realise that they are guests in the Nepalese' own country. People in Nepal are usually generous - you can only feel their resentment very subtly; it always dissolves if you are friendly and kind to them.

Read the next letter here.