Trekking in the mountains for the first couple of days had already been an incredible experience had I not already met amazing people; but I also had the opportunity to view the majestic Mount Everest from a distance. The next day started weird again and a big personal decision needed to be made…
THE EXPERIENCE
Weird dreams and…
I woke up early realising that I had had the worst dream ever. Another one in the mountains. We had a big day ahead and so we had breakfast to get our day started with some energy.
Before we left, we had to pay for the lodge again, a necessary daily business, and when tried to work out how much everyone had to pay, we got it eventually – everyone put in their money – but when calculating the money, N500 Rupees (5 USD) suddenly just disappeared somehow. We kept looking around and were all sure that the amount was correct but we couldn’t find the missing money. We didn’t know what to think and couldn’t work it out for ages and we were like “what the fuck.” So this was another a really weird morning in the mountains. We met some other friends we had just met the day before at the bar at around 7am but it was 8am before we headed towards Koschwana.
The toughest decision
After hiking for around 90 minutes, we came to an intersection, where we had a discussion about where everyone was heading. Everyone, apart from me, was heading to the ordinary (typical touristy) path and I just didn’t want to go that way as I wanted to be different and a Swedish girl had told me that this path was less crowded. Can you imagine how hard it was to make a decision when you are with a really nice group of people and the others are trying to convince you to come with them ? In the end, it was a pretty tough decision for me to make but I decided to go straight up towards Gokyo, whereas the others headed towards Tengboche, which was my initial plan; and since I was tight with time I thought I would go straight up there. Dorb decided to go with the others and it was a sad time to say goodbye to the incredible people I had met. I call them my friends and hope to see them again – a sad moment but we all left with a big smile. From that moment, I was by myself again and it felt really weird at first, but then adventurous. I was sad though to have left the others, and always thought how much fun they must be having – big regrets.
While hiking by myself, it was actually pretty boring to have no one to talk to. Sometimes I was amazed by the landscape but that was pretty much it, and the only thing that excited me being all by myself. After some time, I thought to turn around and go after them but something stopped me – I don’t know what it was, maybe it was my personal challenge; I honestly don’t know. I really thought about turning around, but 15 minutes had already passed and I thought I couldn’t catch up with them – inner conflict in my head, trust me!
Later on, I bumped into some Canadians, who I met a couple of days before and so I had a lunch break with them in Monglo. They then left and I stuck around for a little bit longer. I met some people from Holland, who quit their job to go traveling – I gave them a high five.
The trail led me around 200 height meters down, then it went up a very steep hill – very exhausting but with beautiful scenery, sunshine and a blue sky.
Inspiration along the path
While going up, I was really impressed to see a guy with no legs and his guide going down – no excuses, pure respect ! If I hadn’t gone that way, I wouldn’t have seen him.
The journey continued. I met a lot of locals (guides and porters) and stopped to have a conversation with them. I very much love to connect with the locals.
Arriving at Dhole 4,200 m
Around 3:45pm, I got to Dhole, 4,200 m above sea level – definitely thinner air because I realised the hike up was more exhausting. During the final part, I was hiking with my Dutch friends. Before I picked one of the five lodges, I went to check all of them out and then picked the best one, which I selected for the comfort, busyness and price.
Hanging out with the locals
That night, I actually just chilled with the locals at the fireplace, had a cup of tea and felt really tired at this point. I then made plans for tomorrow to get up whenever and head to Machermo, apparently only about 2 1/2 hours away. For dinner I had Dal Bhat again at around 6:30pm, which is always a bit different wherever you go, but it was still good. The locals offered me to try some chili, which I did, but then I had to spit it out because it was burning and spicy as hell; my mouth was on fire.
Meeting people from Japan
Later on I met some guys from Tokyo and had a conversation about what to do in there and what it is like because I am going in January – I didn’t really get useful tips but it was still nice talking to them.
I TRAVEL FOREVER’s VIEW & RECOMMENDATION
The day was okay because I met a lot of people from all around the world, but the weird dreams and the decision I had to make gave it a different twist of being unsure; and at night I still had to think whether it had been the right decision to leave the amazing people I met days before.
#TW
