For March 30th-April 1st, 2022
Many eons ago, my friend Amy had planned a trip to Everest Base Camp. This was back before mask mandates and this thing we now call “Covid” existed. At that time I was getting ready to hike Kilimanjaro. Somewhere between my heading to Africa and returning, this new coronavirus started rapidly spreading and people started getting worried. Amy was just a few months out from her trip to Everest Base Camp when that plan was shut down. Her trip had to be postponed, so she moved it to fall 2020. Then it became obvious that wasn’t going to happen so it got pushed to spring 2021. Then it got pushed back again to spring 2022.
Meanwhile, I was going through the phases of post high altitude trekking. I had successfully gone through the “I did it!” phase and the “I’m never doing high altitude hiking again!” phase. I had then moved onto the “that wasn’t actually so bad” phase, before moving to the “maybe I’d consider doing something like that again” phase. After I returned from a trip to Iceland in fall 2021, I found myself in the position of figuring out what my next adventure was going to be. Needless to say, the day Amy cornered me at my desk at work about coming with her to Everest Base Camp, I was in a vulnerable spot. I said I needed some time to think about it, and asked for some information. By the time I left work that day, I was like 90% sure I had decided to go. And by the following day I had decided 100% that I was going to go. I mean, it’s Mount Everest! The highest mountain in the world and you get to see it if you hike out to Base Camp. And I would be going with someone I knew, and someone who had traveled to Nepal before. If I was ever going to go, this seemed like the right time. My plans for maybe going somewhere warm and beachy on my next trip were going to have to wait.
So then began the training. I had about 5 ½ months to get into shape. I had gotten a bit lazy on the working out front, so I was going to have to get going again. I figured my workout plan prior to heading to Kilimanjaro worked out well, so I was going to follow much of the same plan. Training classes that focused on the strength aspect, cardio days, stair climbing, treadmill “hiking”, and actual hiking when I could. I live in a 7 story apartment building and floors 3-7 have a great even set of stairs to climb. I started spending one day a week climbing stairs, before eventually stepping it up to two times a week a few months before the trip. By the time I left on the trip, I was doing somewhere between 50 and 60 flights of stairs two times a week. On Sunday mornings I would go to the YMCA in my hiking boots with my backpack full, and spend 60-90 minutes on the treadmill with varying steep inclines. Yes, sometimes you get weird questions, like “are you training for Philmont?” Do I look like a Boy Scout?
I booked my flights, got everything together. Really the big thing was what is the state of Covid? Is the trip actually going to happen? And turns out, the answer this time was yes.
I set out for Kathmandu, Nepal on March 30th. Nepal is basically on the complete opposite side of the world from Kansas. I was going to be shifting 11 hours and 45 minutes…Nepal is on a weird time zone compared to everyone else. The trip there was going to be so long that despite the fact I left on March 30th, I wouldn’t be arriving until April 1st. My first flight was on American from Wichita to Dallas-Ft. Worth, and it was late (this was going to be a theme). The good news was I had something like a 4 hour layover so I wasn’t really worried. I had enough time to walk all over DWF and get a nice sit down meal, and then even eventually find a quiet corner to rest for a bit. Finally it was time to start boarding for the flight to Doha, Qatar. We started boarding late, and then we also left late too. Qatar Airways’ reputation is of a nice airline with good looking flight attendants. I feel like that reputation is warranted. Food was good, cabin and bathrooms were clean. The worst part was it was something like a 15 hour flight. I watched a few movies and then did actually manage to get some rest. This was probably because I had an empty seat next to me.
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| The airport in Doha |
I landed in Doha sometime in late afternoon and the airport was dead, which seemed weird. Turns out that that airport only comes to life after dark. As I had an 8 hour layover I spent a while wandering the airport and then grabbed some food. I then headed into one of their Women’s Quiet Rooms to get some rest because while I did get some sleep on the flight, I definitely didn’t get enough. Two hours later I came out and found loads of people everywhere! I guess their location in the world means that a lot of their flights come in and leave in the 10pm - 3am range. I also found out when I got up that my flight was delayed 75 minutes (I mean, my other 2 flights were late so why not keep up the trend?).
Eventually my flight to Kathmandu took off. It was full. We also had to wait to land. We circled for a while. Watching the flight summary was annoying. “You’re 11 miles away from landing.” “You’re 25 miles away from landing.” “You’re 4 miles away from landing.” “You’re 35 miles away from landing.” Ugh! Finally we were able to land and they hilariously get us on a bus to drive about 100 feet. We could have walked to the gate faster than it took to get on a bus and drive over. After getting in, nothing is clear. There are multiple lines and no one is really explaining which line you need to get in. Answer, the lines to the right are where you need to go to get your Visa. Then you get in the line to the left to pay for your Visa. Then you get to get in the line through customs.
Buddha statue in Kathmandu International Airport
Eventually I managed to get through it all and had to figure out who was picking me up. I knew someone from the trekking company, Trekking Planner, would be there, I just had to find them. There was a whole lineup of people with signs and I eventually found one with my name on it. I was greeted with a necklace of marigolds and some air conditioning. As we wended our way through the streets of Kathmandu, I was exhausted, but excited to have arrived. Amy would be following 2 days later. In the meantime, I was going to meet up with another friend of Amy’s who was already there, Renee. She had arrived the day before.
I am so tired.
Upon arriving at the hotel, I crashed for about 3 hours. I then wandered out and found Renee. The two of us then set out to wander around the Thamel neighborhood where our hotel was located. This part is the rather touristy part of town, full of restaurants and shops. It was the day of the Horse Festival and someone told us we should come, but there was no way my body was going to make it very far after traveling for so long, so we just found a place to eat before heading back to the hotel.
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