Trekking in Nepal - William Ha
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My trips with Mingma Sherpa (SmileHigh) and my friends from BrothersReid
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Trekking in Nepal - William Ha
- 13. Khumbu valley (Everest region) • Snowball incident • Charity work • Bathroom photo – How are you going? – How often are you going? • Extra food • Tips for hiking everest region – once you get to your destination – • 1 seat toilets are rare • 2. find out where all the toilets are – some are just planks of wood • 3.
Hinweis der Redaktion
- When people think of Nepal, they think of Mount Everest (pause 3 seconds)
- And deaths on mount everest. You may be hearing on the news, all of the recent deaths of climbers now trying their luck up the mountain. And if you hadn’t heard of Nepal prior to last year…
- You would have heard about the Earthquake in Nepal where 8000 people died, 21 thousand were injured and 3.5 million were left homeless.
- But Nepal is more than just a one deadly mountain and a rare but major earthquake. It has undeniably beautiful landscapes and kind people.
- Being a mountainous country, much has to be transported by foot. If you’re going to Nepal, you best be comfortable with walking and comfortable with seeing people carrying ridiculous loads..
- My first trip to Nepal was to the Everest region.
- It involves landing at an airport where the runway starts off at a cliff face and ends at the side of a mountain. The ground is indeed, not horizontal.
- If you are part of a large group, you can get yaks to carry your gear. Many of you should know John Martin, who studied dentistry with me and is a member of the ASE. Some of the photos that I’ll show belong to John.
- You will see the sun rise over the Himalayas. The tall mountain that you see in this picture is Ama dablam which is 6 thousand 8 hundred metres above sea level. Despite how remote you may be, there is still internet access in the towns. That green roofed building on the right hand side, is an internet café. You’ll see the occasional buddhist monk from the nearby temple go there and log into facebook, probably checking if the Dalai lama accepted his friend request.
- Half way from the lukla airport to the base of everest is a town called Khumjung which is the hometown of my friend, Mingma, who has organised all of my trips to Nepal. At this town, John Martin and I had a snowball fight with 30 or so children. I never thought assaulting children would be so much fun. Unfortunately I have no photos of the snowball fight as I was busy having fun. The gloves that I brought to Nepal and wore when I threw those snow balls were not waterproof. We were only half way in our trek and it was going to get colder from here.
- We did some token dentistry in Khumjung. As you can see everyone is in down jackets. And I’m the idiot in the top right corner wearing a white button up shirt with a long sleeved shirt underneath. So, you know when your mum yells at you to wear a jacket when it’s barely cold outside. Well I always refused and habits die hard. I did wear a jacket for parts of that trip, but mainly when we were stationary. I didn’t bring a down jacket and I can’t emphasise enough how cold it can become.
- The nights in the Everest region can get very cold.
- If you ever decide to do some high altitude trekking you’ll hear that you should ascend no greater than 300 to 400 m per day to avoid developing altitude sickness. For complicated reasons not related to me, John Martin or my friend Mingma, our group was ascending quite fast, notably on one day we ascended 700. Near Kunde hospital we heard a talk from a volunteer doctor about altitude sickness. I remember as he was educating us about altitude sickness, looking at John Martin thinking, what the hell did we get ourselves into.
- This is the view from Kallapatthar, where I stood in 2008. Only four out of fifteen of our group got here as many of the group were struck with pneumonia or altitude sickness. Somewhere at the bottom of the photo is everest base camp. 8 year olds to 80 year olds do the everest base camp trek. It is not technically hard if you ascend following the 300-400 m guide because should be a slow trek. On the day this photo was taken I ascended 500 metres. This is separate to the other day that was almost 700 metres. Also, those gloves I used for the snow ball fight were still wet and felt like gloves of ice. This photo does not do justice as to how cold it was that day. I had a water bottle in my backpack and turned into ice. I could not feel my face or my hands. I had just graduated as a dentist. I had no income protection. Out of the two large mountains in this photo, Mount Everest, I believe is that mountain on the left. It doesn’t look that high does it? Mount everest is 8800 m above sea level and where I’m standing, which is 5600 m above sea level. I like to think that I’ve been two thirds up mount everest. But where I stood. It was hard. I’d take a step. I would have lost my breathe and once I got it back I’d take another step and lose my breath again. What messes me up is the fact that the 3 people who were with me on top of Kalapatthar were smokers. I supposed they are used to being out of breath but, to be fair, they were ex military and the hardest I had pushed myself, prior to this trip, were my jogs around Brisbane. I have no interest in climbing mount everest. The trips to the summit cost somewhere between twenty to eighty thousand dollars and I think that risking your life, and your guide’s life, and spending that amount of money bragging rights is a waste.
- Due to altitude sickness, one of our members was helicoptered out of the area. But this should not deter you from trekking here. My group was, on occasion, doubling the recommended ascension rate. If you ascend at the same rate as everyone else, you’ll be fine.
- Despite the fact that many members of our group fell ill at some stage of the trip, as a reflection of how much we enjoyed the beauty of Nepal, six out of fifteen of the group made their way back to Nepal within two years of this trip and I went there for a third time last year.
- In 2010, I visited the Langtang area which is a little off the beaten track.
- The places that you stay in these treks are feel like the family homes of the locals where they have added extra rooms so they double as a hotel.
- Just to ensure this short talk is relevant to your dental CPD theory points, I’ll make the statement that uh… dental disease is a problem in Nepal.
- If you do the everest base camp trek, there are no leeches as you start the trek at almost 3000m above sea level. But many of the other treks start in the forests so there will be leeches.
- A highlight of the langtang area is gosaikunda lake which is 4 thousand 4 hundred metres above sea level.
- It’s a lake that meets the sky. [Pause 3 seconds]
- The treks through the hills and forests of Nepal have a lot of these wooden bridges. If you do the everest base camp trek, the bridges are all metal bridges.
- And sometimes the paths go by groups of animals, who eye you off as you walk past. But…. I’ve never been attacked by an animal, nor have I had a bridge collapse.
- If you visit a developing country, consider travelling by motorcycle as it feels more immersive. Just keep in mind that your travel insurance may not cover you should you have a fall.
- I did some token dentistry while I was in the Langtang region.
- In a town called Dhunche.
- Which was one of the towns that was heavily hit by the earthquake, so it makes me wonder how many of my patients survived the earthquake.
- But, in Nepal. All is not lost. This is Dhurba square in Kathmandu when I was there in 2010.
- It’s pretty much the same in 2015 after the earthquake.
- However, there are certainly some buildings that were completely destroyed. This is photo I took of a nearby Temple in 2010.
- This is how it looks the last time I saw it.
- So I did another trek in Nepal, which is in the Anna purna region.
- It’s a popular trek renown for its beauty.
- All to see Anna purna ----- Meeting Notes (26/05/16 17:56) ----- and in particular, to see anna purna
- And the mountains around Anna Purna. A day after this photo was taken. This happened.
- These were $300 shoes that I bought in Australia and this was their first trek. But, they were quickly repaired by locals in Nepal for $3 dollars.
- If you’re going to Nepal, you best enjoy, or least be able to, tolerate, this meal. The Nepali people typically eat this for lunch and dinner. And if you’re out in the middle of nowhere, you should eat what the locals eat and you’re less likely to become unwell. I generally eat this for every meal when i hike in nepal and I've never been sick in any of the hikes.
- Some of you may have noticed a Nepali fellow who’s in several of my photos. Mingma takes time away from his clinic, and family, to provide volunteer dentistry in remote areas of Nepal. There is no ‘school dental service’ in Nepal
- He visits schools that are only accessible via jeep rides, helicopter rides or significant hiking treks. Mingma visits locations where there are no local dentists.
- Once the school has been treated, the children are all addressed and are given a talk on how to care for their teeth.
- Here’s one of my favourite photos of people in Nepal.
- This is a friend of mine, Lawson Reid, who went to high school with me and we caught up in Nepal. He motorcycled his way from Australia to Nepal.
- He and his brother are fundraising for depression related research at QIMR as they lost their sister to depression.
- As I knew he would be in Nepal when I was there, I brought him motorcycle components from Australia and took home some gear he no longer needed.
- They are currently in central africa. If you’re a travel enthusiast, into motorcycles, please follow their travel adventures on facebook. If you feel touched by their cause, please donate.
- So back to Nepal. I took this photo from a café in Kathmandu. Much of the city is still standing, there are some people still living in tents but as a whole, it’s back to it’s vibrant self. ----- Meeting Notes (26/05/16 01:35) ----- in kathmandu ?better photo
- I know there were disastrous scenes shown on TV. The country is still hurting but as a tourist, Nepal is stlll a great destination. it’s a wonderful place to visit and I encourage you to visit Nepal.