Suzanne and I took a trek in Nepal Nov 7-20 of this year, part of a tour offered by Wilderness Travel, called “The Everest Adventure”.    We chose that time of year because you get better views of the mountains, even though it gets cold compared to a spring trek, and because of a Buddhist Festival called Mani Rimdu, which was to take place in Tehgboche. 

We flew from Delhi to Kathmandu and met the rest of our 14-person group at the Hotel Shangri-La.  Our tour guide, Ray, had lived for several years in Kathmandu and spoke fluent Nepalese.  That combined with his interest in Buddhism made him a great source of information on our trek. 

After spending two days acclimatizing in Katmandu at 4,000 feet elevation, we flew to Lukla, 9,000 feet, with its rather spectacular airstrip perched on the side of a cliff.  There we were greeted by our 21-person staff of Sharps, cooks, Yak herders and a team of 7 Yaks to carry our duffels. All we had to carry were light daypacks.  We were rather spoiled.

The views of the Himalayas peeking over the foothills were spectacular right from the start and everyone’s cameras were working overtime.  The trail was quite busy with Sherpas carrying mind-boggling loads, Yak trains with their bells clanging, and just a lot of trekkers coming and going.  It was an absolute visual feast, gazing at all the interesting people along the way and seeing how they live.

About mid day we would stop at some beautiful spot, a tablecloth would be spread out and we were served a delicious multi-course meal of Nepalese food and drink. After a good rest we would hike for several more hours to arrive at our village, only to find our tents already set up, complete with double down sleeping bags. Tea and snacks would be served either in our cook tent or else in an adjacent tea house.  Dinner was served a couple of hours later.  Hot tea was served in our tents early each morning, a very nice touch.

We reached Namche Bazaar on the second day, ll,500 feet, and spent two more days acclimatizing at that elevation before continuing on.  From there the views just got better and better.   Everywhere you looked you would see a peak over 20,000 feet. The most beautiful peak was Ama Dablam, which sort of looks like the Matterhorn only a lot bigger!   Mount Everest was sort of anticlimactic, since most of the view is blocked by Lhotse and Nuptse. 

  For the next five days we were never below 12,000 feet.  The weather was clear and cold, with the temperatures in the teens at nights.  We stayed in Khunde, Phortse and finally Tengboche, elevation 12,500 feet. Along the way we visited monasteries, gompas (Buddhist temples), the Hillary School and a nunnery.

Mani Rimdu festival actually lasts for two weeks, but we attended the last 2 days, including the” long-life blessing” and then a day of dances done by the monks who live in the monastery.  It was amazing to experience this ancient Buddhist tradition,   with their long horns sounding as we sat in a small courtyard, the Himalayas towering overhead.

After two more days of hiking we arrived back in Lukla and had a big farewell party for our Sherpa staff.  They danced and sang traditional Sherpa songs for us and we were very touched.  Then they wanted us to reciprocate and the only thing we could come up with was the Hokey Pokey!  We became very attached to those sweet people and it was sad to leave them.

All in all, it was a great trip, well worth the hassle of getting to and from Nepal.  We just managed to escape Kathmandu before the whole city was shut down due to political unrest, but we never did feel like we were in any real danger.  Now we have hundreds of pictures to review and memories of our trip of a lifetime to Nepal.