For trekking here I would highly recommend Sherpa Expeditions and Trekking, and specifically our guide Prabin Tamang and porters Rupesh and Purna Tamang!
Jeep bringing kids back from school
Some photos with a story
This ancient library contained buddhist scriptures that were hundreds of years old! They had one scripture that was open for us to see (photo on right), quite amazing to be able to hold it and see it up close like that.
This buddhist temple near Shyala was undergoing renovations when we visited. The nature of the work being dirty and unworthy of divine presence, the buddha's faces were temporarily covered in silk. After the renovations finish and the workers leave the premise, the monks would remove the silk face-covers to return the temple to buddha.
The climb to the Layrke pass started with a freezing cold wake-up at 3am. As we got dressed in 3-4 layers of hiking gear and prepared our bags, our brains were stuck somewhere halfway between complete auto-pilot and questioning our past decisions.
After a quick breakfast, refill of our camelpaks and check-up with the team, we set-off in the darkness. It was -10°C, 4am, and the only visible light besides the starry night was a faint trail of headlamps winding up the mountain ahead.
After one hour of walking, the water in my camelpak drinking tube actually froze over. Luckily a backup water bottle kept me hydrated until the sun came out. Lesson learnt: when it is so cold, keep the water in your drinking tube flowing!
Nature was so silent here, leaving space for the sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing only. At this point the low oygen level, though manageable, became much more apparent. Two hours after our departure, the sky behind us began slowly turning purple, then orange. The landscape that had thus far remained hidden in plain sight revealed itself.
Beautiful, majestic, peaceful, inspiring, calming...
I had personally never felt so overwhelmed yet calmed by a landscape before, but it's like everything else I had been thinking about completely fell away for a while. It was unforgettable, and the 10 days of prior effort leading up to this made it all the more worthwhile.
I can't wait to go back myself, and I can't recommend this enough!
Some photos from Kathmandu
