my colleagues are going Nepal Trekking!

am delighted that our staff club is organising a trekking trip to Nepal. and i know some of my colleagues who are going. am just so excited for them!
it will be a very memorable trip which is worth every single bit of sweat, effort and breath.
wish them a safe and an even more spectacular trip than i had! enjoy e sceneries and have lotsa fun!

maps

we found maps at Pokhara shops after we finished climbing the mountains. it was actually not necessary to carry the maps during the trip as our guide did a fantastic job in leading us. we relied on those maps (most were handdrawn!) at each of the guest house we stayed or passed by to tell our exact location on earth and e altitude of where we were.

below's a copy of map i scanned from Egwin's purchase. glad to hv the map to rem our route and that the highest point i reached - MBC is 3700m. :)

icy palace

The landscape changed to white icy palace from green warm mountains after we passed Deurali on day 8. it was cold and we stayed indoor as much as possible. we left on day 9 after conquering MBC.

letter from Sanjye Rai

received a typewritten letter from land of stones - Nepal.

From Sanjye Rai
Chabahil
Kathmandu
Post Box : 20637
Nepal

My Dear friend

I'm sanjye Rai ya. and first time I 'sory because long time back I call you ya and sory ya. and how are you i think you fine ya. here i'm good ya i tray you r mail but emposibal ya. and this letter i give you ya. i have no e_mail add ya. I have best friend ya. he have e_mail add this you mail me ok this mail bhimlamatamang@yahoo.com this mail you mail me ok. and nepal situtan very nice ya. meny meny trekking ya. you mail me and we are going good trekking ya. i'm everyday remember our trekking annapurna ya reallya. ok you mail me ya. now this letter from bye.. ya. ok bye

your friend
sanjye Rai

-------
though the letter has much spelling errors and is not in grammatically correct English, i do understand what sanjye is saying. he had made an effort to write and am happy for that.

i do miss much of Nepal. One of the most beautiful places with the most sincere people i have ever met.

Just realised there were not many photos of the Annapurna Base Camp on this blog. (How cld I have not put them up earlier???) We spent much efforts to reach the place. Now looking back, these pics are very memorable. Can't believe I actually had been there. ABC was touted the highlight of the trip by my frens of the fellowship.

nepal fellowship

It's 2006 - a brand new year has slipped in without us noticing. Without a doubt, Nepal has enriched and refreshed us in many ways. Hope that we carry this piece of freshness and richness into the new year and bless those around us. Be blessed!

nepal nepal nepal

very happy to hear friends interested to visit nepal!

here's the contact of the company which made arrangements for our memorable trip:

Mountain Adventure Trekking (pte) Ltd
Adventure TRavel Company
(Established 1983)

Email: deepakbroka@yahoo.com
Tel No. Direct: 00977-1-4254607/4250061

Deepak is the Managing Director. He drops in Singapore some times to answer queries, confirm arrangements. He has often, responded quickly to emails.

Rainbow

Was listening to "Rainbow Connection" today and was inspired to do up this entry. Tot i will use song to bring out the meaning of this photo.

One song which came up for me during the trek was "Over the Rainbow"...

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Porters

This picture was taken while we were waiting for lunch. The bags belonged to a big group, i believe from Britain. The bundled bags are typical of the load of a porter. Each porter can carry up to 15-20 kg of load. Some interesting items i saw porters carrying were wok, foldable chairs. There was one porter carrying chicken at Ghorepani area... maybe he's the chicken seller.

Remembered seeing poster at International Guesthouse about the need to take good care of your porter. It says that if the porter is sick at higher altitude, one needs to accompany him down. I was quite intrigued to note that there was an association of porters to promote such awareness. Here's extract from my search for that association.

"A porter was paid one days wage and sent down alone after suffering severe altitude sickness in the Everest region. He was found in a state of collapse and brought to the Pheriche Aid Post, spent nine days in a coma, and had both feet partially amputated due to frostbite."

Sigh... why must one porter die because of someone's holiday.

Read more about the Porter assistance project here:
http://www.hec.org/club/properporter.htm

Another article about Plight of porters:
http://www.kantipuronline.com/artha.php?&nid=52648

Making my Photo Album

Liked the cat picture PTI posted...did we see it in Nepal?

Am putting together a photo album with daily fresh revelation/learning that we gained each day of our trip. So excited about it and am sure it will be very nice cos got award winning characters (that's us), solid photography(Egwin), breathtaking scenery and of course, my artistic eye..ha ha! Hope to get it ready as soon as possible so I can share with friends and colleagues. :)

days of nepal

we had our daily group photo taken so as to keep track of the days... we didn't care if it was mon or tues or the weekend. it was really great to be holidaying for 18 days. i had a slight fear though - that i prob wld be redundant by the time i returned to work. ;)

My Best Guesthouse

there's many stories here. we met Maoists here, we brushed our teeth together and caused a ruckus here. quite a happening tourist place here. we passed bakery with quite delicious looking cakes which daisy salivated before reaching guesthouse...



this is our room at Nice View Lodge. the guys reached the guesthouse first and when we reached, they were so excited about the place. telling us how nice this place was. indeed, i was truly delighted to see our cosy room, with windows overseeing wonderful scenery. i slept at the bed nearest to the windows. And that nite, i woke up in the middle of the nite and saw a skyful of stars. i didn't have to brave the cold at all to watch the stars. it was all there. truly memorable. too bad i can't capture stars on photo... but then, the beautiful things are meant to be just for that moment. :)


this room belongs to the guys. first time the guys had a table in their room. first time their room is bigger than ours. they usu have added bed to a already cramped two bed room. so, was a real treat for them.


This is the view taken from the guy's room. i Like how the window frame the view. It oversees the mountains from Dhawalagiri. their view is different from the gal's room. think ours have nicer view than theirs. ;)






scenic views from outside of guesthouse. this place marks almost the end of our trekking. we began mostly descending to Birethanthi. I started counting down to end of trek. So started savouring each moment of trekking and the guys had to wait longer for me. hehe.

Day 1 at the airport. It's the first picture we took for the trip. Someone said i look like phua chu kang in my timberland boots.



Last picture we took for the trip before boarding the plane. Was the fastest pic we ever took. we were not allowed to take picture at the plane site!

For the past one week, I have had at least 3 persons asking me everyday how was nepal. I always have the same answers: Awesome, Great, Amazing and Truly refreshing! As I begin to recount my experience to the 20th person today, I can feel the weariness, so much so that I just point them to this blog site and ask them to read for themselves...

What truly went through my mind is whether I would do something different from what I used to before the trip. Has the trip changed me or will it be just another "trip" several months down the road. Being human, we think more than doing. I remembered my church pastor once sited that inventors are inventors because they try, try and try again (until they suceed). I thought of what I can put to action to start "giving" which came upon me during the trip.

*Ta da*...I decided to start a fund raising project come December for Children on The Edge (a child play programme) at East Timor, it is a playscheme which I will be going in March 2006. I always thought of doing it but never put my foot down to do it. Maybe we can all do something different from what you used it, continue doing it and this will make our nepal trip everlasting and life changing....

brought a big smile to see entries from my team mates. PTI sld be blogging soon too. he deleted my first invitation, thinking it was spam... sigh!

i initially wanted a particular order for this blog. so, been manipulating the date of the entries. guess all the blog entries are gonna be in a mess now that i can't control the blogging of my team mates!

anywaes, i sld be figuring out the header html and it will make this blog look neater. do visit the site for more entries!

am real grateful that i had Excellent company during this nepal trip. enjoyed the company very much. know PTI/Kenny mentioned that the feeling is mutual when we were talking on our last day at the everest hotel room. we have grown to know each other during the trip and it won't had been so fun without each other. there were lotsa laughter and each of us contributed readily to make this trip wonderful in our own ways. i only remembered one unpleasant moment at Patan when we disagreed on wht to develop the pictures for Pasang at Nepal, but it dissipated very quickly and we were great friends again. quite wonderful that we had very good chemistry. Real glad that Tongling connected me to PTI for this trip. am real missing everyone! daisy was telling me that we sld go trekking together again!

wanted to make a 'thank you speech' to each earlier but having the acknowledgement on this blog may be more lasting and eternal. i really appreciate your contribution/company/friendship:

Kenny
thank you for being our leader. thank you for liaising with Deepak so that we had a wonderful package trip and that we have Pasang as our guide for the rest of our trip, thank you for yr 'siao kia' - you created lotsa laughter for us, we also want to thank you for buying us white wine to drink at pokhara, for paying at Yak and Yeti, for inspiring us to walk faster by setting the pace. you are really like our Papa! :) thank you too for driving us to Gurung Panti, to JB for dinner and yeah, more trips/wine to come? hehe.

Egwin
thank you for being our stylo professional photographer - by being on the other side of the camera, and whenever we need a pic, you will always readily volunteer and yup, we have beautiful pictures of this trip! thank god you found yr bag! thank you for holding the key to our deposit box for our passports and tickets, plus the Maoist receipt as well as the money for our guide and porters. know you indicated for daisy and i to be yr body guards but we know, you didn't need one! also, thank you for waiting for us gals at the back, walking with us when u cld be walking faster together with yr other half, kenny. Thank you too for the chlorine pills which kept our water safe to drink. Thank you for being our money lender, paying for our sweets when we were all dried up by the time we reach Patan.

PTI
thank you for being our information gatherer - know you are one of the very few singaporeans who dare to ask many questions. thank you for sharing stories about yrself, yr wife, yr nephews, etc. you showed that true love exist. thank you too for giving to the beggar, those children who 'carolled', for asking questions on how we can give a scholarship to Sanjay, and how else we can help. thank you too for taking pictures of flowers, morning sceneries, daisy and I along the snow trail - otherwise, we wld just had a walk up there and returned without the snow pictures, sending photo CD to my office - real grateful to receive photos earlier than the rest!, offering yr house for our sunday's get together!

Daisy
thank you for travelling with me these five years, thank you for yr handyplasts, sharing room with me, listening to me when i talk, sharing with me yr tots, giving me water when i need, reminding me of the things i hadn't pack, taking care of me, making prayers for us, for sitting next to me, for taking pictures of me, for yr candle fragrance and encouraging me during the trek!

it was my blessing to have gone on this trip. it's been a blasting experience.

Has long wanted to add to our dear blog site but am taking real long to get my engine started....

On our last day at Nepal, PTI asked us what has been the most memorable part of the trip and we quickly recollected parts of the trip which was experiential, heartaching, painful, scary, etc to ourselves. Alot of times, we travel or go on trips wanting to get something out of it - wonderful memories, gifts, photographs or merely a relaxing time.

This trip, personally, has been a trip full of giving. I am not the most generous and caring person around, but nepal really opened my eyes and heart towards the joy of giving. Shakit (forgot his name) for instance never hestitated to buy us tea when we are just sitting in his shop waiting for our friends. It also never occurred to me that we can give so much (e.g., buying and shopping for their clothes, financial assistance for their English lesson) and they meant something for them!

Back in Singapore when all is comfortable and fine, we tend to forget that there are people around that we can "give" too. I sincerely hope that this "tugging at my heart" feeling will stay, inspiring me to give in Singapore. This would be my best "take away" from Nepal.

we had such views when we trek. very pretty to me. there are many mountains and we were walking amidst the clouds sometimes. we crossed mountains after mountains. i like the terraces. there were wheat, malties, etc.

Fellowship of the Ring

me great pleasure to introduce the characters:

Frodo - Ng Chong Leong aka PTI
for carrying the ring. oh well, he's the only one with a ring amongst us. talks about his precious wife all the time. plus, he asks lotsa questions whenever there's any spaces in betw. his questions range from "which mountain is this" to "what is yr most memorable event today"?

Merry and Pippen - Kenny Tay and Egwin Law
hard to decide who is merry and pippen. so, you go figure. they are also known as our papa and mama, cos of Egwin's pregnancy. hehe. anyways, they are always having secret conversations. Kenny's the one who will break into chinese songs and Egwin's our official photographer. Very comical couple. They are like cartoon characters when they play.

Legolas - Daisy Tan
my best friend. the fan of legolas, or rather i sld say great fan of Legolas. she's the only one with long hair amongst us, the only resemblance of Legolas. she's got no arrows to shoot or bow to carry. Her only weapons are camera to shoot and water bag to quench my thirst. clear headed gal when we need her to do mathematics on our financial status.

Sam - Siew Mui
ha... last but not least, the eat alot; walk behind; carries the food Hobbit... ta-da! me... always in a daze and laggin behind with Anzana. i enjoy being at the back. i get to enjoy the sceneries and one time, i had 'huan yin huan yin' welcome at Chomrung after completing more than 1000 steps up.

Friends of the Fellowship

Our Guide - Pasang Sherpa
Pasang - our very obliging, obedient and quiet 33 year old, single and available Sherpa guide. (very easy for us to rem his name cos in chinese, Pasang means climb mountain.) He's got a brother who married Hongkong gal. Super nice man. He's either in front or at the back of the pack. takes short cuts sometimes... we will see him walking below us near the river and the next moment, he will be up on the hill with us. he can read papers while he trekked! guess we are too slow for him. he will pause and watch the scenery sometimes to give us lead time.

Our Assistant Guide - Book
Book's our assistant guide who's also our porter. His nepalese name means Book in English. So we call him Book all the time. PTI describes him as gentleman. yes, agree with him. Will best remember him for "What Happened?" - when he helped take photo for us and the camera didn't click when he pressed the button cos the timer was set. he's also our hero cos he carried daisy's and my day pack up to ABC. Daisy will be eternally grateful to him cos he helped opened the road for her so that she has a safe snow descend down to MBC.

Our Porters
- Sanjay
our very shy, cool and young porter. Guess he's got the Jay in his name so has similar traits as Jay Chou. Sang for us Pi Lee Lee in the van during our day tour at Pokhara, wearing funky yellow pullover sponsored by Egwin. Strong man who put in his best to carry our bags. We gave him our fellowship's English scholarship. hm... am looking fwd to receive his letter one day. :) He fell ill just before our last day of trekking. he had fever but still continued to carry our bags. glad he was better after taking panadol without any allergic reactions.

- Anzana
our super cute and funny Anzana, wife of Book. saved my life several occasions - esp when those donkeys were pushing me down the cliff while i was trying to capture pictures of Daisy and Egwin with the donkeys. She will usu walk behind or beside me, my companion when the rest deserted me. Strong lady who carried PTI's bag, always offering to carry my day pack when i seem tired. We were all impressed by her agility... she wore slippers. There were steep downhills, streams, algae slippery stone steps, and slow painful ascends which she managed while carrying PTI's backpack. We did a cheers thing with our coke bottles and she did with her tin cup.

Our Favourite Shops
- Agfa Photo Shop owner
he deserves to be listed here. Am touched by his friendliness. Daisy and I spent an hour with him after a tiring day walking around Thamel. we took refuge at his shop after shopping when the weather turned cold. Chatted with him while we waited for our photos. We were treated to delicious milk tea and he gave each of us a Tibet photo he took. he's been to Everest base camp k. shall await his arrival to Singapore next year.

- Pashimina Shop Owner at Pokhara
super fierce man who turned out to be quite friendly after all... we were all stunned when he started throwing all his pashiminas on the floor and asking us to choose the colours. He has long hair and was quite big size. Decided not to buy from him cos of his fierceness. But turned out, his shop gave very good price like what he claimed and he is actually quite a nice man after all. much friendlier on our second visit.

kathmandu city

view from 7th floor of everest hotel where we stayed. it's called everest hotel becos... it's the highest building in that city.