Here are a few of my favorite panorama photos that I have taken, along with a few stories about them!
Favourite Panorama’s
Basecamp Journey Video
Just thought I’d share a short video of my journey to basecamp & India afterwards.
Phakding (2610m) and Namche Bazaar (3440m)
Its been a long few days, on our last night the tour guide took us out to a place for dinner, subsequently a few of us got sick. It certainly made flying into Lukla airport a lot more interesting.
If you have never heard of Lukla airport, i’d suggest having a look at youtube and watching a few videos of landings. Its infamously known as one of the most dangerous airports in the world due to the short runway and steep descent.
Continue reading “Phakding (2610m) and Namche Bazaar (3440m)”
Last day before the hike
So today is the last day before the hike, this morning I went out and organised my Jacket (i think its a bit too big!) and a sleeping bag. It was really cheap, around 160 nepal rupees per day for both. I got them from Shona’s which is in Thamel. Everything was super clean and i’d read a lot of good reviews. Hopefully everything holds up well.
I went to Patan this afternoon, it wasn’t too bad. A lot of the buildings in the square had been destroyed by the earth quake or were being held up by wood splints. It was worth the visit.
Firefly Children’s Home
I experienced one of the nicest things today, I had organised to visit Firefly Children’s home in Kathmandu. After a fair bit of researched I emailed them asking if I could visit and bring some resources – Laptops, pens, lined paper.
Hari picked me up from my hostel in the morning. I can’t say id ever been on the back of a motorbike carrying 6 laptops in peak hour traffic not wearing a helmet. I now can! Continue reading “Firefly Children’s Home”
Welcome to Kathmandu
So I arrived in Kathmandu after about 24hours of flying. I’m not completely sure what I expected Kathmandu to be like, but it certainly took me by surprise. Chaos isnt a word I use lightly. There are cars, people and motorbikes everywhere.
The first thing that hit me was the amount of pollution in Kathmandu, unfortunately Kathmandu lies in a valley which makes it difficult for wind to clear the pollution, in addition to the daily power cuts that result in people turning on their diesel generators.
Kathmandu has a very different vibe to it, you certainly know its a gateway to trekking as there are trekking shops everywhere, they sells lots of knock-off brands and genuine brands. I found the owners to be very honest and up front about their products.
My first morning in Kathmandu I walked up to Swayambhunath, it was certainly worth the 4am wake up and walking in pitch black. There were monkeys, dogs and a fair few people – Exercising, playing instruments, praying & meditating.
The rest of the day I explored other temples, food and trekking shops organising last minute things for Everest. Tomorrow I have something special planned.
25 Hours
Well it’s 25 hours to go until I fly out on my adventure, I’ve pretty much done everything. Bags packed, still working out the logistics of taking some laptops across to a Children’s home in Katmandu, but I’m sure that will work out.
I still have a few more things to sort out for the students at school before I leave, such as lesson plans but there is some spare time tomorrow in addition to a little bit of time before I leave.
Its crazy to think this is happening tomorrow night. I’d been wanting to do this for years and putting it off for one reason or another, come to think of it around 6.5 years i’ve been putting basecamp off!
I can’t workout whether I’m more exciting about Everest or India, the more I think about them the more excited I get. The sights, the food, the people and the culture. It will be like nothing I have ever seen.
My aim is to post every few days or so when I’m away.
7 days 6 hours
So the time has come up extremely quick, almost exponentially. There is pretty much nothing left to organise except the items I am buying in Nepal (jacket, sleeping bag & perishables)
I organised my accomodation for India last weekend along with trains & planes. What a mission that was! It took me the better part of a nice but it’s now down. I highly recommend a website called Cleartrip to book indian rail train tickets. Its a task to get the account setup as you need to email IRTC with your passport to activate the account. But after that just punch in your To/From city and purchase a ticket. They download as a PDF.
Unfortunately I couldn’t stay in some place as long as I’d anticipated, but that is one of the joys about travel and just making the most what you have. I’ll be going from New Delhi –> Varanasi –> Agra –> New Delhi
Depending on weather and delays when leaving Kathmandu there is always the small chance that I may not get to see much of India at all.
