a new country!

I finally made it out of India and am now in Thailand. It's VERY different from India (but then again, every other place is) and is set up to make tourists' travel very easy. The beginning of the photos (my camera ran out of battery before I could finish this posting - dang).

reclinging Buddha - 45 meters long and what large feet!
outside the grand palace in Bangkok
Railey Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches i've ever seen

hopefully i'll be able to finish this post very soon and continue with other updates. off to cambodia tomorrow...

remaining bits of nepal and india...

here are a few last photos from nepal and india. enjoy!
mama rhino and baby! i spent the night in a tower in the jungle and woke up to see a mama rhino and her baby. shortly after this, about a million elephants with 4 people riding each one (so 4 million people!), descended on this poor pair
so cute!
the "toy train" in darjeeling, india. yay pollution!
these 2 young tibetan girls chatted with us for quite a while. their english was excellent!

scenes from the trail

Below are just a few scenes from the hike that I liked and thought I'd share.
part of the Khumbu Glacier
more of the Khumbu Glacier
just cool mountains with a relatively small glacier on top
the trail, mountains, and yaks
remember those Scholastic posters? this one was in a lodge around 14,000 feet

Everest Base Camp!

Base camp is quite a surreal place. It is mostly a tent city with no rhyme or reason to the scattering of tents. I'm not sure how many expeditions are there at the moment, but I know that the Chinese are keeping a close watch on everyone staying there because of the torch. There was even a bakery at base camp - probably the highest in the world, and a photos exhibit of glacial melt from the past several decades. I didn't stay very long, but it was interesting to see the spectacle. (Note: you can't see the summit of Everest from base camp.)


reminder: the peak behind me is not the summit to Everest (don't ask about the outfit)

this one is really dark, but you can see the famous/infamous Khumbu Icefall on the right side

the photos you've all been waiting for...

Okay, well maybe not, but Everest photos are below. First a couple of others on the way there...
part of the Everest range; this part of the trek was like walking on the moon
the eastern side of Cho-la Pass (over 5300 meters) - an amazing glacier was waiting for us after a loooong ascent up 600 meters in the snow
moonrise
and there she is
sunset casting colors on the mountain - it was freezing cold waiting for the sun to finish (this is from a view point called Kala Patther - 5550 meters high/over 18,000 feet; highest point I've ever been!)

incredible!

Before going to Everest Base Camp, my trekking companions and I decided to take a detour up another valley to a place called Gokyo where we were supposed to have amazing views of the mountains, including Everest. It was a long slog to the top of a small peak (5360 meters/17,688 feet) and worth every step (encouraging words we heard from people on their way down as we were still ascending).
a very tall cairn on the way to gokyo (i'm a little dark, but you get the idea)
the mountains, including ice covered lake
same mountains from a bit higher elevation

that would be me with everest directly to the right of my head - i was so happy to make it!

"the girls," my trekking buddies: Jasmine, me, Valerie, Irene

on the trail

There were so many amazing scenes while we were on the trail; the following are just a few of them.
the porters never ceased to amaze us with the loads they were carrying
an "aerial" view of one of the larger towns where we stayed - Namchee Bazaar
clouded over mountains
porters and yaks along the way

the beginning

It all began with a flight into the Tenzing-Hillary airport in a town called Lukla. We were lucky with fairly clear weather for the flight, which allowed for some very nice views of the mountains on the way. The first day was an easy warm up with only about 3 hours of walking mostly down and flat. Below are some photos of other things besides the mountains, there will be lots of mountain photos in the near future.


my trekking buddies: Irene (Holland) and Jasmine (Canada)
one of the many yaks we encountered along the trail
huge boulder with prayers engraved and painted all over it; these were very common at the lower altitudes
the numbers board at the national park entrance