Over the past two days while we've been exploring Kathmandu, it's been an experience for sure. The streets are narrow, with broken pavement and every type of vehicle imaginable trying to navigate the congested arteries. It seems like every vehicle honks it's horn to let everyone else know they are coming - as a result, it's a constant sound here. The dust and pollution are pretty full on -lots of people wearing face masks to keep it out. We haven't been able to see much beyond the city limits as a result of the heavy smog - so no glimpses of the Himalaya for us just yet.
While we've been here, we've been finalizing everything we needed to sort out for our trek - trying to navigate the streets as they assault our every sense! Signs stacked on top of each other makes it particularly challenging when you are trying to find a certain place! It seems to take at least 2 laps before you can actually see past everything, and finally start to see....hard to explain. There are people consistently coming up to us to sell their tour, jewellery, chess set, marijuana, taxi ride, you name it. As a result, the inclination is to avoid engaging people for help - so that you don't then get sucked into something you don't really want to be a part of - or sold something you really didn't want...or unsure whether you are supposed to pay them for their help...it's tough to be in that position, because it makes it much more challenging to communicate with the locals. Those that we have had interactions with, have all been really nice, and quite sweet. The guys that we rented our sleeping bags and down jackets from were telling us about how expensive the trekking has gotten - more than tripled from what it used to be. The villages along the way have started to realize how far they can push the prices - so as a result it now costs the better part of $3 for a litre of boiling water!
Tomorrow we leave here at 5am in order to get our flight at 6:15 to Lukla. The hope is that this flight will be while the weather is still clear, and hopefully not delayed too much! Tristan's just been looking at the weather forecast for the trek - and it is far worse than we were anticipating! Much cooler temperatures, and snow that isn't typical for this time of year. We learned today that the summit teams had to return to Everest Base Camp due to the conditions further up where they had been. Here's hoping we are well enough prepared!!!
Time to sign off. Good night! This will be the last post for a couple of weeks - we don't anticipate being back in Kathmandu until May 29th. We will probably be at Gokyo Ri for Tristan's birthday! :)
View from our rooftop earlier in the day.
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