We stayed in a hostel by the lake and had an amazing time lying around after hiking for so many weeks. While we were in Pokhara, Kathy celebrated her birthday and Alejandro got a tattoo. Our time and visa were running out after two weeks and we got on a bus that would take us to Delhi in India.

After reaching Kathmandu, we went to one of the more relaxing hostels in Kathmandu to take some time after the exhausting trip. Max wanted to go back to India next to do some yoga so we went to the inidan embassy to get a visa for India.

The pressure to do anything was off so we took some time to take in the sights around Kathmandu and do some shopping there. We treated ourselves to a lot of good food and lots of relaxing. We went to the place where they burn the dead and Paula nearly got robbed by a monkey.

Also, down was a lot faster than up. After reaching Namche we got a message from Tije that he had already reached Lukla and that his sister was waiting for him in Kathmandu.

It was nearing the end of hiking season so every day in the afternoon there was a snow storm where everyone had to take care to be inside.

Max stayed with the group and successfully climbed the pass. They stayed first in the lodge in Dughla, then another night in Dzongla and finally on the third day went over the Cho La Pass at 5420m. The last part of the trip they followed a guided tour through the stone- and icefield next to Gokyo since it had already started snowing for the day and reaching Gokyo was getting difficult.

When arriving in Gokyo the girl with Paula was sick because of the altitude and had to be transported out. Thanks to (very expensive) internet at the lodges, we all met up again at one of the lodges.

We stayed at Gokyo for a few days to relax and even had a hot shower in one of the lodges. We hiked up to Gokyo Ri at 5480m and took a day trip to the lakes around Gokyo. Since Paula was getting used to the altitude there were no problems reaching the top. Of course Max and Alejandro had to do some yoga at the top of Gokyo Ri.

Gokyo Ri

Paulas way up the valley

Day trip to the lakes

There was a big snowstorm on Kongma La that was supposed to last for a few days so the group decided to not go through the pass but to walk back and take the normal route to Everest Base Camp.

We hiked back down to Dingboche and up the Base Camp Trek in the direction of Gorakshep. On the way we stopped in Thukla for the night and had our first shower in forever. The prices went up again and bartering was getting difficult since this is the main tourist path.

After reaching Gorakshep, the town by the Base Camp, the rest of the group went to visit the Base Camp but we stayed behind because Paula was not feeling too god with the altitude. The next morning we started up early to get up to Kala Patthar. You have to get up really early to have a nice view up there. While Max reached the top and had an awesome view of Mount Everest, Paula went back to the Lodge half way up.

We did not stay long in Gorakshep because it was really, really expensive and made our way to the second (and our first) pass.

After hiking to the next village we tried to take a little day trip to a higher altitude to get used to the air. In Dingboche we also took a break day as recommended.

After talking to the owner of our lodge he also allowed us to store some of our things that we felt we did not need for the rest of our way.

Our group at the beginning consisted of Tije from the Netherlands and Cory from Canada. On the way we met a lot of other people, for example Alejandro from Mexico and Arthur from Russia. They both were very good at haggling and our groups kind of merged. Of course there were a lot more people who we met from time to time, depeding on the guest house we were staying in.

The first days were really hard because the whole way to Lukla consists of going up and down and no flat hiking in sight. We could really see how high we were with how much the whole area changed. In the valleys there were lush forests and on the top of passes and mountains there mostly were no trees in sight. Also in the valleys there were whole villages while in the higher areas you could sometimes only find a single house where a family lived. Most of thouse houses were also guest houses.

While in the beginning therer were normal pathways, the closer we got to Namche the more bridges there were, crossing over big rivers. Sometimes it was really scary to cross them when a herd of animals was crossing at the same time.

When we got to Lukla, a few of the people we met on the way went up to the town while we continued on without stopping. Arthur had bought shoes in Kathmandu that were totally broken by now and had to buy new ones, and others also had noticed on the way that they were missing Equipment.

On the way up from Lukla to Namche there were noticably more people who were taking tours and hade porters carry their stuff. It was quite funny passing them buy with their small day backpacks, huffing and puffing up the mountain while we had the training by now and could now easily carry the 10-15 kg backpacks up. So it turned out that hiking to Lukla was a very good idea and prepared our muscles for the hiking in the everest region.

Also, we discovered fried mars bars. It has a looot of calories and is one of the sweetest things we ever tasted but since we needed the calories it was not even a guilty pleasure.

After comparing the options we decided to do the „Three passes three peaks“ trek in the region around Mount Everest. There was a lot of preparing to do and we met a few people who wanted to do the same trek. After seeing the prices for flying to Lukla we quickly decided to take a bus to Jiri and then hike the five days to the higher regions.

Most of our time in Kathmandu was spent shopping and preparing for the hike. Since we did not go with a tour company we had to get a lot of different permits for hiking through the national parks. Also, we took a lot of time comparing the calories-to-g-ratio of different sweets so that we would not have to carry too much. Shopping for medicine also presented a surprise since there was a lot of stuff that would have needed a prescription in Germany. Kathi, one of the travelers who also wanted to do the trek has a doctorate in Biology so she was a big help in buying the right medicine.

We bought some clothing for hiking and even found the label store where they sell the fake labels for the fake brand clothing! Nearly everything you can buy in Kathmandu is branded with North Face or Marmot, but everyone knows that all of it is fake. Of course there is a real North Face store, but shopping there was way too expensive for us.

Of course we also did some sightseeing and played cards with the other travelers at the hostel