Nepal Adventures

Quite an accomplishment if I might say so myself! The hike definitely wouldn't be considered anything less than difficult from my point of view and I'm sure Brittany will agree on that considering she was having the hardest time of us all. I don't blame her though. She came straight from sea level to over 18,000 feet in a week. That's a drastic change! I'll tell you, altitude is not an easy thing to overcome either! We walked an average of five hours a day up, down, over and around the mountains! The days were filled with nice scenery. I must say though, that it reminded me a lot of playing the video game "Final Fantasy". Each day is a new quest, reaching towns, staying at the "Inn", regaining health (in this case eating snicker bars), asking for information from the people in town and along the way, losing and meeting new characters that join the journey (aka Brittany) etc.
The trek was a blast and worth every ache in my body at the time. I got to see THE Mt. Everest with my own two, too curious, eyes! I'm not going to give all of the credit to Everest alone but to every single, snow topped
mountain in the Himalayan range! They are better than words and priceless. Kala Pathar was definitely something. Breath taking in fact......Pun intended. While I was hiking, in the dark at 4:30am with the glory of the stars overhead, I had trouble convincing myself that it was worth it. But as the morning brought new light into the air all hesitation was lost. I forced myself up that mountain and was returned with an unforgettable, 360 view of the highest and most spectacular mountains in the world! We climbed to the top of Kala Pathar in the equivalent of hiking the "Grouse Grind" in 1 1/2 hours at 18,000 feet plus!! It was rough. Snickers are a good source of calories but don't do much good when you can't breathe and eat at the same time. Altitude sure does get in the way of things, especially over the 17,000 feet mark. It's the weirdest thing to breathe in and out but still feel completely suffocated! You have to be there to feel the power. Pictures just can't say enough!

I am by far the youngest tourist here in the mountains. It is sometimes awkward to be in the lodge kitchen surrounded by much older people who are doing the same thing that I am. I mean, it took them all of their lives to actually get out to doing these things and here I am at the age of 15 having an experience of a life time, simple as that! The people are really nice. We met a couple of awesome Canadians and New Zealanders.
Kathmandu is a crazy place. Wild traffic, monkeys, snake charmers and even bats hanging in trees in the middle of the city, just to sum it up!! Yeah!! Fun town. There are also the Holy Men that walk around in their outfits. Face paint, robes and dread locks down to their knees. Never a limit to the entertainment! The snake charmers are my favorite!! It's exactly like from the movies with the cobra and flute etc. I love snakes so much. I even held the boa constrictor around my neck. I couldn't help myself especially when the guy acted as if I was afraid of it. Well, I showed them!
Let's see what else there is out there!!
Savannah