Saturday, March 22, 2008

And let the drums roll...

Kathmandu March 22 2008 6:00 PM

I am all set to start the trek tomorrow,had a pleasant flight Pune via Delhi to Kathmandu. It was great meeting my cousins and their daughter Shreya en route. As planned, I have booked my tickets to Lukla.

As soon as I finished my work at the airport,couple of guides and taxi drivers jumped to grab a pie of the trekking business. Found a semi free ride to he hotel. On the way a guide joined me as well, he told me about all the different services a guide could provide.Having a very low EQ doesn't help, and having read the low wages of porters in this area,I got brought in by the idea of having a guide. One thing he said really touched my heart he said, "you come here to enjoy the experience in the process you can help someone earn livelihood,that made sense to me.
More over I will have some company on this solo hike and would be safe in this political turmoil that this region is going through. So decided to hire a porter for the first 2 days sharing your loads equally. my plans of the trek remains unchanged though..Interesting thing to note is that the region is filled with all western hiking/climbing brands and also the "made in Nepal" version :)
I am done with all the last min packing, waiting for a dinner with a beer or wine and a good sound sleep..

Hopefully should have time to write from Namche.
Next to Luka,
Anil

3 comments:

Shankar AVSB said...

Hey Rao (and Rashmi), thanks a lot for sharing updates.
Here's wishing you a very enjoyable and successful trip, and hope that you manage to login to Internet (just for the sake of it :-) at Namche Bazar, and update your blog from there...that will be a great memory! Take care, and all the best!

Rajeev Char said...

Thanks for the update Aniluva...have good time...I'd caution you to stay away from the "Other Services" your guide offers you ;-)...Keep the updates coming.
Best of luck.
Renuka/Rajeev

Anonymous said...

goodluck. have a safe and successful hike :-)

- ledzep