Day 25 (slide show)The breakfast stunk. I have to stay focused on reaching base camp. It will be easy to succumb to the discomforts. This reminds me of my climb on Rainier. There will always be reasons to quit but it will be very hard to continue. The day was good and I feel strong. The injury from the bike accident is still a little with me but I fell much better. The landscape is beautiful and there are many waterfalls everywhere. We left after breakfast at 7am. The first part of the day was only 200m of vertical but in the afternoon it became a lot steeper. Namche Bazaar is (3440) so we went quite a ways today. The Tea House tonight isn't much better then last night. This one does have a shower for 200 rupees though. Everything cost on this trek. Arjun told me they were ripping me off and now I see why. Breakfast in the only thing included. Its colder here and so it will be easier to sleep. My 0' degree bag has been way to warm but I know I will be glad that I have it later. My right heel got a small blister on it today. Damn. I have to control this. Were told we are going to stay here two nights to acclimate so I can heal up. By the way it started to rain at 2pm.
NOTE:
Just found out that we are going on an acclamation hike tomorrow to the top of a small mountain behind the Tea House. I guess I won't get to heal up after all.
7 comments:
Sorry you didn't enjoy the trek Steve. Most of us had a great time & enjoyed the food and most of the teahouses! The guide was a cracking lad, we all warmed to him.
Hope your photos came out ok.
rob
If this blog were a book, the back page would surely read something like.............
A nightmare scenario of survival and endurance at Namche Bazar, where our hero, a spoilt 53 year old American has to struggle to nourish himself on pancakes that aren't quite to his liking in order to carry some gnarly varicose veins to Everest base camp. As if this wasn't tough enough, our plucky American has to contend with annoying Brits, who are surely mad, intent as they are on actually enjoying their experience, rather than pretending they nearly died just to impress their "friends" back home! Our blogger easily manages to blinker himself to the hard lives of the locals so that he doesn't have to feel humble about the fact he is carrying a day pack, rather than a fridge freezer. Armed with only cultural insensitivity and ten times the amount of equipment brought by a 21 year old British girl with no previous trekking experience, he manages to skive tipping the piss poor people who worked their asses off for him for two weeks solid. He even managed to annoy the shite out of the Brits into the bargain! What a guy!
Harsh but fair. Grow up.
As someone who stumbled upon your blog recently, and who has travelled extensively throughout Nepal I do have to agree somewhat with the previous poster.
During monsoon season, the poorer quality teahouses are actually shut. You, therefore, will have stayed in a fairly reasonable selection of accomodation, particularly if part of a group.
I really would suggest that you embark on a course of cultural awareness when you return to the goold old US of A. How could you possibly expect the same type of serice , accomodation, food as you receive in America.
The Nepalese are lovely people. I would be offended if I were one of them. It is no surprise, therefore, that you seem to have annoyed your fellow trekkers.
And you probably wonder why Americans have such a bad reputation abroad.
To whoever left the comments which slags Steve off, you are clearly a coward, as you refuse to leave your name. I was on the trip (Paul) and Steve's comments are spot on, and justified. We were being ripped off by the tour guide. Yes, he was a nice guy, and I liked him. However, he was making a tidy profit all along the way. As for not tipping the "piss poor people" as you so eloquently put it, Steve, and myself tipped individual people, and Steve tipped more than, I am sure, anyone else. With regards to the 21 year old. I presume you mean Sadie, that witches cackle laughing, miserable, surly, and rude girl. What kind of a person ignores someone after that person agreed to give her some water on the way to base camp because she lacks the foresight to pack adequate supplies? I sat next to her on the plane back from Nepal and India - we did not speak. If you remember correctly, Steve is off for two years, not 18 days, hence the larger amount of luggage required. Also, what you seem to have forgotten is that hardly any of the group bothered to speak to Steve; my what a friendly bunch we Brits are! So, whoever you are, have the courtesy, and the courage to actually reveal your name. Finally, make sure that your comments are factually correct, and that your grammar and punctuation is also correct.
Best wishes, Paul.
Paul, I have to say I do agree with many of the comments written by others above.
I was happy to keep these to myself until I noticed that Steve had made several derogitory remarks about several aspects of the trip.
I think Steve was culturally insensitive in a number of areas, and this was noticed not only by the rest of us, but by a lot of the locals too. The tea-houses we stayed in were certainly not among the worst & I'm at odds to understand why he did not realise that standards might not be a high in Nepal.
In addition, there were a few instances where his actions were a little 'dangerous', not purposefully, but due to his cultural nievity (I'm not just referring to the helicopter incident).
I did try to get along with Steve, but he insisted on trekking with his music on his headphones, making it impossible to hold down a conversation with him. I don't really think he was too interested in talking to us during the evenings.
I know that 10 of us had a great time, and have all kept very much in touch. Hope you are well Paul & that you managed to buy as much 80s music as I did when I got home!
rob
(His spelling & punctuation is poor too!)
Hello Rob,
Thank you for your comment. I'm surprised anyone looked at this. I don't want you to think I didn't have a good time. I enjoyed the trek to base camp. Your company and everyone on the trek. I'm trying to keep up with this blog from cybercafes which are slow and and the equipment is inadequate. In fact the last place I was in was an Internet game house and all the keyboards were full of Coca-cola and food. The good thing was the speed so I could download my pic's. I keep a daily log everyday for my own personal sanity. When I post I just copy the log to keep the accuracy. As you can see I'm a lousy writer. Sometimes I write a sentence then get interrupted and write again several hours later. As for the spelling and punctuation the keys on these keyboards don't always work. So, I hope you will watch and as soon as I can I will post the rest of the trek.
As for the other two anonymous comments thank you for yours as well. It's nice to see someone is watching. Please wait for the balance of the trek and send me another comment if you like. Its better to have the whole picture. Also please have the courage to put your name on it. We call it bushwhacking in the good ol' USA. Thats where someone shoots you in the back then slithers away so they won´t be seen. At least I have the courage to publish your comment.
Steve
P.S. Rob, I wrote this on Sept. 13 but couldn´t get it to publish at the location I was at. I´m sorry to see your next post but I still enjoyed your company.
Hi all. It’s Matt and I hope this works as I’m not a frequent blogger! I couldn’t look at this site without adding my own views and I hope they are appreciated. Steve, I am very impressed that you take on board so openly others views of you. My own opinion on you is that you may have been somewhat insensitive in Nepal and that you would have gotten on better with other members of the party had you left the headphones out. Your hearing difficulties might have made it harder to communicate (particularly with the locals) and I was a little sick of yelling “Steve, go round to the left” at those monuments as you went round the wrong way (I made a few mistakes myself)! I’m an atheist but I respect other cultures and I hope it wasn’t your intention to ignore the customs. You don’t change anybodies mind (even if it is wrong) by being rude and causing offence! You may have been a little blinkered, but you showed genuine kindness to us when we arrived in Kathmandu and I will not forget that quickly. It’s the kind of gesture that lets me know you are a good guy and mean no harm even if others feel it. All the best, I will make a second post to respond to Paul, if you are O.K with that? I think he needs what I have to tell him.
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