Journey to Kathmandu

 10/25

A packing and prep day in Estes Park. We biked around Lake Estes so that Elisha could watch the elk herds and see the bulls bugle and fight. I also worked on some pollination project stuff before leaving.

10/26

Zach, Mary, Mom, and Dad arrived around 4am in the morning. There had been a hurricane that sprang up out of nowhere and impacted Zihuatanejo, but they were able to get out. More packing. I was dealing with UPS to try to get my new phone that I had ordered since my old phone was hardly working and the camera isn't so good. I got it just in the nick of time, and ended up setting it up at the DIA airport. Flight to Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa. It was a nice flight with good food and copious drinks

10/27

Arrived to Frankfurt. Got a pretzel at the airport, then Flight to Chengdu, China

10/28

Arrived very early in the morning to Chengdu. For some reason our flight itinerary (booked using miles) had us not catching that same day flight to Kathmandu, so we had to spend the night in China. It was a bit of a challenge at immigration to get through since we didn't have a visa and the airport (super big and beautiful) was brand new, so the people there didn't seem to understand or know about the 24 hour transit visa. We kept getting bumped from line to line. Eventually I showed them an old 24 hour China visa I had in my passport, and they figured it out. 

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express airport hotel (though it's a 25 minute drive to the hotel b/c of major construction). We rested in the hotel, then took a taxi to a nearby city to walk around and get some yummy noodles. Welcome to China where a big noodles lunch is only $1. We taxied back to the hotel and then had the famous Sichuan spicy hot pot (fondue style), which would wreak a bit of havoc on the digestive system the next day. We then went back to the hotel and just crashed.

10/29

Had a huge, amazing breakfast buffet at the hotel before heading to the airport. Chengdu TFU airport is brand new and very fancy. It's very technologically advanced: security gates that recognize you by your photos and open for you.

Flight to Kathmandu on Air China. It was an incredibly scenic flight! First we flew over the heavily glaciated and snowy mountains of China. Then we flew over the mountains and high and dry plateau of Tibet from where we could see Mount Kailash (a very holy Tibetan mountain) and Lhasa with the giant Potala Palace. Then we crossed into Nepal and flew by the Nepalese Himalaya, including many 8000m peaks, including Mount Everest.

At the airport, we had an ATM machine freeze and almost eat our debit card, but we were able to pull it out. We were picked up by our trekking company (Green Valley Nepal Treks; https://www.greenvalleynepaltreks.com/ ) and greeted with floral lays. We were dropped off at our nice boutique hotel (Hotel Friends Home), then made arrangements with the trekking company for our upcoming Manaslu Trek. Because the Manaslu trek is in a special conservation area, a guide is compulsory. We would prefer to go without a guide for cost and freedom reasons, but it is the only way to do this trek. I had a contact, Arjun, from the previous time I was in Nepal that helped to arrange a porter-guide (junior guide) so that it would be cheaper for us. 

We explored around Kathmandu a bit--in the Thamel area and the narrow bazaars. The streets of Thamel are busy and full of pedestrians, bikes, cars,and motorbikes. So it can get annoying walking through them. The bazaars are super narrow, and it's shoulder to shoulder walking, but motorbikes will still try to forge ahead through. The streets can be pretty dusty and often polluted as well, so many people wear masks, including us most of the time. Otherwise you can get a Kathmandu Cough (similar to the Khumbu Cough, but instead of caused by cold and high altitude it's pollution). We ate some Indian food and momos.

10/30

Went to Durbar Square for sunrise when it's still very quiet, and we enjoyed some chai. Durbar square is the old medieval palace and temple area and full of old and ornate buildings as well as holy men, pilgrims, tourists, and people selling wares on blankets. We ended up having 2 breakfasts. haha. We did more walking around Kathmandu and visited Freak Street, which used to be the seedy backpacker area, but is now a more hip place with bubble tea shops and more. We had a Korean BBQ lunch there. In the afternoon we packed for our trek and then went out for a fancy (but cheap) dinner at 3rd Eye, a delicious Indian restaurant. And the prices are right so that we can enjoy the main meal, but also tea and lassis and appetizers and desserts.