TRAVEL | NEPAL | HIMALAYAS
H Is For Himalayas — My A-Z Of Favorite Travel Destinations
My first official cultural experience.
My very first journey to Nepal was in 1982. At that time, my dad was part of the first Canadian Everest Expedition and my mom and I flew to Kathmandu to meet him as he came off of the mountain. I was just 5 years old, so my memories are very scattered about that trip.
I do remember playing in the huge hotel pool and also playing in elephant poo at some point. I also remember the ‘monkey temple’ and the jewelry vendors with their mountains of sparkly and shiny things.
There were numerous Nepalese kids around that I and other expedition members kids played with and I now see that experience as my first official cultural experience. Prior to Nepal, I had been to places like England and Hawaii.
Nepal was very different.
In 1992 my dad wanted to return to Nepal with my mom and me so that he could show us the Himalayas. I can see that he wanted to share that culture and experience with us.
We flew into Lukla, a village at 2860m (9383ft) then did a three-week trek to Everest Base Camp and back to Lukla. For those who know Lukla, and know that runway that drops off the cliff at the end — when I was there it was dirt! And very bumpy.
The plane would bounce its way down the runway until we reached the end of the cliff. Then the plane would literally simply drive off the end of it for take off.
Talk about terrifying and exhilarating at the same time!
I turned 16 on that trip. It was an impressionable age and one that has allowed me to remember most details of the experience. Thankfully.
This was the first time in my traveling life that I had been so immersed in another culture. The trek took us three weeks, and we did nothing but walk between villages and sleep in tents each night in a new location.
One can’t help but be impacted by the local culture on a trip like that.
An excerpt from my journal:
Jackie and I could not stay warm so we decided to try and play hacky sac. It didn’t even warm us up. Finally tea did warm us up. After tea we had a little treat. Kami (our head sherpa) came to ask us if we wanted to sit by the yak sheet (shit) fire. It was pretty funny when he said it and we all had a hoot about that. The fire was great. We wanted to sing camp fire songs but we didn’t know any. Nima tried to start a Sherpa song but all of the others were too embarrassed. It was cute!
Unfortunately, on this attempt, one of our group became sick and we were forced to turn around before we reached Everest Base Camp. But it must have bothered me a little that I didn’t make it because 3.5 years later, at the age of 19, I organized a trip for me and 6 friends so that I could make a repeat attempt.
It was May 1996 and we young kids would bear witness to the mountain's largest disaster at the time. Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air was written about this misadventure. We were at Base Camp the day that rescue helicopters were flown higher than they ever had been before as they attempted to bring climbers off of the mountain.
Of course, we didn’t understand the gravity of the situation while we were there. We knew climbers had died, and the sherpas that were with our group were very concerned about what was happening. There was even talk of some of them joining a rescue party, but that never transpired. It wasn’t until we returned to Canada to see the headlines on magazines and newspapers that we finally understood what we had been a part of.
Down where we were, we only got a dusting of snow, but high up on the mountain a huge storm raged that killed 8 climbers including two very prominent mountain guides — Scott Fischer from the US and Rob Hall from New Zealand. It was a disaster of epic proportions at the time.
In 1996, organizing a trip like this wasn’t as simple as going online and sending a few e-mails back and forth. I had to do all of it via fax machine and a good old-fashioned landline where I made long-distance phone calls to Nepal.
Thankfully I was able to utilize the services of the same organisation that my dad did in 1992 so many of the details were sorted out already. I wanted to organize a similar trip to what I had done with my parents, with just one adjustment. Instead of flying out of Lukla, we would hike out to a point, a town called Jiri, where we could catch a bus back to Kathmandu.
The bus was crowded so we asked the driver if we could ride on the roof. He did comply, but each time we were coming to a police checkpoint, they would pull the bus over a few kilometers early so we could all climb down and go inside the bus. The legal way.
Once past the checkpoint, the bus would pull over again and they would wait for all 7 of us to climb back up again. Sigh……the things they do for foreigners.
I can’t exactly remember how many times this happened, but I think the drive was about 10 hours so it must have been a few. It also looks like the weather wasn’t the greatest. Crazy kids!
We spent almost a month in the Himalayas. At that time internet was just starting to make its way to the public and we had seen a few internet cafes along our trek. But none of us used it because we didn’t really know how. In fact, it wasn’t until later that year that I attained my first ever Hotmail email address.
I like to think that we were some of the last to really experience the true culture in this region of the world before it exploded into the trekking destination that it is today.
Trekking in the Himalayas was a special experience. The memories of my trips are so vivid and it amazes me that so much time has passed since I was there last. I do yearn to return, and Chris wants to go there as well. But I know that I will have to try and hunt down some sort of off-the-beaten-track trail so that we can try and have an authentic experience.
Part of me wants to go back, and part of me doesn’t want to erase the fond memories that I have and replace them with new, more modern, ones.
When I think back to this trip I realize now that travel and organizing trips was what I was made for. However, shortly after this I made my way to college on Prince Edward Island, Canada and somehow found my way into living a conventional life for the next couple of decades.
However, I’m also grateful for my experience of living in Eastern Canada and learning about the culture out there. So, there are no regrets.
Thanks for joining me on my H destination. I have had this in my drafts since about February, so it is high time that it gets published!
Here are some other A-Z posts that fellow Globetrotters have posted this year:
Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturist
To learn about all of my favorites:
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