My Trip To Nepal
How it happened…
During my time at school, I was presented with an amazing opportunity to a two week trip to Nepal and all I had to do was a written project, simple enough! The project was a science essay regarding the Himalayas and a little personal touch on why I should be the one to win this trip. So I sat down on the weekend with my Dad who used to be a passionate climber (he’d climbed mountains like Kilimanjaro) and banged the project out in two days until we were satisfied. Unfortunately, I didn’t win… however, the teachers who were hosting the competition were so impressed with my entry that they offered me an all expense paid trip if I was willing to pay for the plane journey. So I did! I trained for months to prepare for the hike as I was told the journey to see Mount Everest was quite demanding (who’d have thought?). Then the time came around to head off to Kathmandu.
Arriving In Kathmandu…
My first impressions of Kathmandu was that it was an extremely busy city with a lot of bustling cars and people getting on with their day. As I came out of the airport I noticed that it wasn’t a particularly structured place and it was a bit hectic. On the way to the hotel that we were staying in before we set off to Lukla airport, I saw further into the city, there were a lot of children playing by the roads and anywhere they could play football, it’s incredible to see a sport be loved so far around the globe.
After we had prepared for our trip to Lukla we all decided to rest up before our long trek across the Himalayas.
Lukla Airport (The Most Dangerous Airport In The World)
Lukla airport is classed as one or if not the most dangerous airports in the world… and I was landing there. The runway for the airport is approximately 527m long and hangs off the side of a mountain. You can see more about Lukla airport by clicking this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing%E2%80%93Hillary_Airport . Knowing this information, it’s safe to say that I was terrified and I believe I was right to be. When you hit the runway, due to it being so short you have so little time to come to a stop, all I had the power to do was to cross my fingers!
The Trek Begins…
The trek consisted of 8 days of walking. The lengths varied between 8-14 miles a day, we walked through many towns and villages all filled with local people, I must say that the Sherpa people were the most sharing and humble people I have ever met and some of them would do the routes we took in barefoot! They were incredibly fit and healthy and enjoyed everything they did, which was definitely uplifting after walking all day. One of the most memorable villages we had trekked through was Namche Bazar (this is where I bought all my souvenirs) it was filled with lots of unique things like shrines and shops, there was even an Irish bar! (there’s always one!). The view from Namche Bazaar also made it so memorable take a look below and you’ll see what I mean!
Mount Everest
We finished our trek by a monastery, with the most beautiful sites and between two massive mountains was the biggest of them all, Mount Everest. It felt like a massive achievement being able to see the most famous and largest mountain in the world. Definitely an experience I would love do again. From there we stayed in a hostel which overlooked Everest and we played football with the monks who lived in the monastery beside us, however, due to the altitude all the English folk were gasping for breath after five minutes as the oxygen levels were so low. The monks ran circles around us.
There was a lot more I would have loved to have included but I hope this shows you enough about how incredible Nepal is!