Most Inspirational Moment
Trekking with seven really nice, like minded people, I'd not previously met, all with their own stories to tell of their travels around the world which just inspires you to see and do even more in life. Being in the Himalayas itself, a previously remote and distant place, you hear lots about and finding it to be stunning.
Our lead Sherpa, Lhakpa, only 30 years old and he's summited Everest twice, that's an inspiration in itself.
Thoughts on Group Leader
All our guides from lead sherpa Lhakpa, guides Mingma and Chheten to the quietly spoken (but slick dancing) yak driver Kumar were fantastic. They were great people to be with, they were friendly, funny, professional, informative and attentive at all times. I really do not have an even remotely critical word to say about them.
Advice for Potential Travellers
I/we found our trek in late November going into December, just outside peak trekking season to be an excellent time to do the trek. By far the majority of our trek was done on cloud free, blue sky, sunny days and we were told the trails and lodges were far less busy than they were only two weeks before, which I think was an advantage on what becomes quite clear is a well trodden tourist route. The only negative aspect is that the temperatures do drop significantly at night. Upon waking in the morning at Lobuche I measured -2C in the room. Condensation freezing on the windows is normal higher up. A stove burning dried yak dung never seemed so appealing!
Take plenty of (quality) tissues. Due to the dry and dusty conditions irritating your nasal passages you go through far more than you'd think. They can be quite easily bought along the way at every lodge but it's nearly £1 per pocket pack of flimsy cheap and nasty tissues. You really appreciate a Kleenex that doesn't disintegrate with the first blow. A Buff or similar item you can pull up over your nose and mouth while trekking helps keep the dust out. Vicks inhaler type things seemed quite popular too. I and others did end up with the notorious "khumbu cough" at the end.
Alco-gel hand sanitiser is a must. I also used it more widely than just my hands... arm pits, groin and feet. It's great for dealing with the bacteria that causes body odour but the thought of using it in such places may make you pull your face as much as it did some of my fellow trekkers :D Showers are routinely available with gas fired water heaters but they looked a little grim to me. I was happy to join in the little joke of no shower 'til Kathmndu! The water that came of me was brown with dust and grime when I finally did get back to the hotel. Exfoliating body scrub is the perfect thing for the job.
Water is very readily available. Each evening we could pass our containers to the guides who would fill them with tap water from the lodge kitchen, we could then treat the water ourselves. Boiled water was also available from the lodges but I don't think any of us used it. Bottled water is also very readily available for a fair price (same as boiled), even at the higher levels of the trek. I have to admit to buying more bottled water than I anticipated but on the positive side we passed several recycling bottle bins along the way so while the use of bottled water is not the most responsible option at least something is being done to deal with the used bottles.
The internal flight to Lukla has a low 10kg weight limit on your main kit bag. The Royal Singli Hotel has a good set of luggage scales for fine tuning your kit to get as close as possible to the limit. I came in at 10.6kg and there was no issue with that. In fact the group was collectively charged for 20kg excess baggage, the quivalent of each of the eight of us being 2.5kg over the 10kg limit, which simply wasn't the case. I assume this was really "tips" for the check in staff but it was only a couple of quid each.
If I'd known in advance of the flexibility of check in I wouldn't have binned off so many of my munchies and sancks. So if space and weight allows I would suggest taking some snack foods. A good old fashioned sugar fix is heaven up there. Mars bars and Snickers can be bought for a price but there is no guarntee they will be in date. The intensity of the trekking isn't really high enough to justify the need for sports supplement type energy bars but there's no harm in taking some if you like them. There isn't a lot of variety to the food available and it gets monotonous, when you see the menu at the first lodge you stay in, you've pretty much seen the menu for the entire trek. That's where some munchies could come to the rescue.
Money is always a tough one. I exchanged £300 cash upon arrival at Kathmandu airport. I know some of our group had problems with ATM machines accepting their card and because the banks had closed in Namche ended up having money changed in a shop for a 10% fee. There was no difference between the exchange rate offered at the airport and the Royal Singi Hotel of 150R to £1. The £300 easily lasted me for all food and drink on the trek and the group tipping of the assistant guides at the end. Upon returning to Kathmandu for the last two nights, I exchanged another £120 to cover my contribution for the lead guide's tip, eating out, souvenirs and sight seeing in Kathmandu.
I've previously climbed Kilimanjaro. I took a couple Diamox on Kilimanjaro but the altitude gain is much gentler in comparison on this trek affording much better acclimatisation. Have Diamox available but you might not need it.
Oh don't forget some ear plugs. Even if your room mate doesn't snore, the walls in the lodge rooms are only a couple sheets of ply wood so you'll still get it full on if it's coming from the adjoining room. They also block out the sound of mice scratching and scurrying about in the wall and ceiling voids.
