Mardi Himal, aka Fish Tail. The most sacred peak in the Annapurna Range. It is forbidden to climb the front peak. Climbers are only allowed on the back peak.
It was 13.5 hours from Chicago to Abu Dhabi, the longest I've ever been on a plane. I slept most of the way there. After a few hours layover, we arrived in Kathmandu. We arrived at about 9:30pm, so the airport was not the clusterfuck I was expecting. I could still sense an electricity in the air, and the chaos was very liberating. There were very few stop lights in Kathmandu. Just a large dirt road, on which literally anyone or anything is allowed....scooters, Mack trucks, bicycles, cows, dogs, pedistrians, cars....anyone! There are roundabouts everywhere and it just seems to work.
At the airport, prepping to board our flight to Abu Dhabi. It was supposed to be 16 hours, but the jet stream was in our favor, and we made it in about 13.5 hours.
At out hotel in Kathmandu. 90% of Nepal is Buddhist. About 9% in Hindi, and the other 1% is Muslim, Christian, or other.
Our hotel in Kathmandu. I loved the ambience of the courtyard. Also, that pink azalea is four stories tall!
Electrical lines in Kathmandu. In the country, there were also power lines, but not like this. A lot of houses in the country had a solar panel on the roof to charge batteries. On our hike, the tea houses would have enough juice for a few hours of light in the evening.
An entertaining dinner in Kathmandu:
Around Kathmandu:
My view of Kathmandu from the top of Mitrata HQ, where we did a one day clinic. It was sweltering up there, plus the jet lag. I was not happy at the end of the day!
Working at Mitrata clinic:
Mark and Diane:
Trish and Yours Truly:
Fiona:
Mary G:
Kathy, MD, and John:
Group shot at end of Mitrata clinic
Our third day in Nepal was an eight hour bus ride on a very rough, dirt road to Lisansku. We stopped for lunch, and I had my first encounter with a Turkish toilet. I went in, looked around, and came right back out and asked what I was supposed to do...there was a hole in the ground, that part was obvious. But then there was a box in the corner, a large bucket of water, and a smaller pitcher of water. I hit my head on the doorframe. This was the first time of many that I conked my head in Nepal.
Lisankhu is a remote village. Our sherpa, Karma, is from there, and that is how our organization came to care for the people in Lisankhu. Some of our doctors met Karma several years ago when he was hired as a guide for another trip they went on. They really connected with him, and were able to organize a medical/dental trip to his home village because his family are elders and leaders in the village and can facilitate these types of things coming together. On the 2017 clinic, between medical and dental, we treated 698 patients over three days
In the country, all the houses had chickens and/or goats. People grow rice, millet, and vegetables. There is milk and cheese. The millet is used to make a homebrew called raksi (roxy). I did not partake, but some people in our group who did got suuuuuper sick.
This building is the school in Lisansku, and it was the home to our clinic for three days. There was no electricity. We had a gas generator:
Registration at Lisanskhu clinic. Some people walked three days to come see us. The elders of the village were part of the decision-making process for which patients had care first and such:
Eye glasses station at Lisankhu clinic, Kathy and John:
Dental clinic at Lisansku:
Marvin (Dentist from Honduras, currently living in the States and trying to get into dental school here, and Diane:
Trish and Joe:
Yours truly working in dental clinic. My patients laid down on a wood plank and spit into the blue bags.
Medical team at Lisansku clinic:
Dr. Donna and one of our translators, Pawan, who is from Mitrata, provide for a Lisanskhu man:
Beth and Fiona:
Some local Lisankhu women
More Lisankhu locals:
This is Anil, one of our translators. He is 30, and had just returned home to Nepal after living in Dubai for five years for work. A lot of Nepali men in their 20s leave to work in the Middle East. At the end of our Lisankhu clinic, some of us played soccer against the local kids. The whole village came out to watch. Anil played on our team, as did two of the local police officers. It was really nice to see the police in a positive way like that and interacting with the local community, especially considering the hostile climate with law enforcement in the States. Anyway, I played soccer, too. I'm sure it was a sight! I actually jumped up and touched the ball with my arms at one time and the crowd erupted because their home team got to penalty kick. It was fascinating to see the locals running around on the dirt and rock pitch with flip flops or barefoot. Anil played barefoot and score our lone goal. I had a hard enough time running around with my regular shoes on! We lost 3-1 but it was still a lot of fun.
The newbs of the group, in perfect bell curve formation, on a hike of Lisankhu. It was on this hike that I slipped off the rice paddy terrace and Bacchu grabbed my backpack and pulled me back up.
Farewell ceremony at our camp in Lisansku with our translators from Mitrata.
A Buddhist blessing at our camp on our final day in Linsakhu:
Bacchu and our bus driver on the way back to Kathmandu. Bacchu is sitting on the transmission block, I am sitting on a bench next to him with a propane tank (full of gas) between by legs, and Mayra is next to me with the tools for changing flat tires next to her.
Prop plane was our ride to Pokhara. It was either a 30 minute ride via plane, or an eight hour bus ride.
Pokhara is a beautiful tourist spot in the Annapurna Range. Pokhara was where we started and ended our trek. I did another four days in the woods without a shower.
Our first stop on the trek, Shangri-La Tea House. This was a challenging day. I don't know how much altitude we gained, but it was hot as balls and sunny as fuck. The view was worth it. There was no shower, but my room had a western-style toilet (FUcK YeS!)
At Shangri-La. Those little trees?--marigolds! The flowers were huge in Nepal, because at the lower altitudes, the growing season is year-round.
Some shopping at Shangri-La:
Second day of trek, on our way to Forest Camp:
These are the types of living structures seen along the path to the various tea houses.
Yours truly, Bacchu (who is about 4'8" and saved my life when he pulled me back onto the terrace when I slipped as we were walking along a rice paddy), and my roommate Salia, who is one of the coolest people I have met. She is a pharmacy student, and this trip was one of her school rotations. This photo is from the second day of our trek, when we stopped for tea.
Second night, Forest Camp. That is coreopsis next to me. At home it is a ground cover, in Nepal it was five feet tall with flowers as big as my palm. There was also marijuana plants behind the chicken coup at Forest Camp. No shower, a community hole in the ground, but one of the other buildings here did have a western-style toilet (FUcK YeS!)
Day three: high camp. Quite miserable. Cold as fuck. Altitude sickness. But a great view. I almost started crying when I we arrived. out of shear joy at making it. It was a cold and rainy hike, and I conked my head open on a low tree branch.
The view at high camp was beautiful:
Once we got above the tree line, the terrain became rather Tolkien.
On our way to scenic overlook at Mardi Himal. We went up to about 13,000ft. Most of our group experienced some sort of mild-moderate altitude sickness. For me, it was waking up several times in the night, gasping for air, and lots of painful gas and bloating. As soon as we started to descend, the gas went away like some one flipped a switch. This trek to the overlook was the hardest thing I have done in my life. I was having flashbacks to some of the most intense swim team training sets from high school and college.
Yours truly atop the world:
Yaks atop the world:
This is Low Camp tea house. I killed two spiders (one tiny, one the size of my palm!!) in my room, right by my head. I was afraid to sleep on my side facing the wall for the remainder of the night. My back was so sore, but I would NOT roll over! Low Camp was still at a high altitude, and it was cold. I slept in my clothes inside the down sleeping bag.
How do you spell relief? Sidhing! My first hot shower in days, a western style toilet (FUcK Yes!). A great view, beautiful gardens, and some asshole French people. But we had a party with our guides since it was the last night. It was a lot of fun.
Going back down from Sidhing to Pokhara. It was a three hour ride in these Jeeps on very rough terrain, and some of our guides just rode on the roof.
Back in Pokhara, it was Diwali:
Our group in Pokhara, after a Diwali blessing:
Kathmandu during Diwali:
Yours truly and Mayra in a rickshaw. We raced to the restaurant. Our driver came in third place. It was a wild ride with pedestrians, other rickshaws, scooters, and dogs in the street as well.
My roommate Salia and I at final dinner, in traditional clothing we had made just for us.
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