NEPAL [ A Family Trekking Travelogue ] - by limwhow & SereneXMM

[limwhow]

Thanks for sharing. One of the best thread ever.
Indeed I login every few hours to hope there is more update from you.

I have been to Nepal almost 10 years ago. Your thread inspire me to go trekking one day with my family.

Aaah.. you flatter. Thank you thank you.
Frankly, wong_se, trekking in Nepal (slowly) is usually not an issue.
Most individuals with relatively reasonable fitness can do it.
My main aim here in this thread is to share with all my good forum members here in ClubSNAP that trekking with family is highly possible and strongly recommended because of the bonding.

Just came back from Nepal on almost the same trek last month. Hasn't had time to process all the photos yet but couldn't help but smile at your description going up to Ulleri. Boy, talk about deja vu. After some time, you are just mechanically walking upwards. Legs lost the feeling and stuck at one single pace. I could still remember my guide telling us that section up to Ulleri is about 3342 steps. :sweat: :bsmilie:

Oh that's great!
Please share with us, CamInit your experiences as my travelogue progresses.
Thank you somuch for coming on board... and you must have counted the 3342 steps! LOL...

I was there last month doing a solo trek up to ABC as well. I share the same feelings regarding the endless steps and uphills. Siong!!! :sweat: :bsmilie:Waiting to see your pics from Poon Hill as I missed out that portion.

Solo trek to ABC...!! Kow tow kow tow!
Then my this threk is small mountain see big mountain already.
Please also share with us your experience as my travelogue progresses. Thank you, Beserk!

 

[MichaelLee]

Aaah.. you flatter. Thank you thank you.
Frankly, wong_se, trekking in Nepal (slowly) is usually not an issue.
Most individuals with relatively reasonable fitness can do it.
My main aim here in this thread is to share with all my good forum members here in ClubSNAP that trekking with family is highly possible and strongly recommended because of the bonding.

agree, but my youngest is only 5. have to wait for him to grow to at least 12 to do the trekking. Have to wait many years.
meanwhile, i could only enjoy your thread..

 

[Blackmafia]

I was there last month doing a solo trek up to ABC as well. I share the same feelings regarding the endless steps and uphills. Siong!!! :sweat: :bsmilie:Waiting to see your pics from Poon Hill as I missed out that portion.

Beserk, what route did you take to ABC? How did you miss Poon Hill?

 

[Blackmafia]

Nice travelogue~ It is always a good thing to spend more time with the family. I would have preferred the mountains more than the city in Nepal.

 

[limwhow]

agree, but my youngest is only 5. have to wait for him to grow to at least 12 to do the trekking. Have to wait many years.
meanwhile, i could only enjoy your thread..

Hey no problem. Very soon you can bring him up.
While we were there, there were a couple of young boys probably only about 8 or 9 years of age from The UK.
They were trekking and flying over the steps. Powerful!

Nice travelogue~ It is always a good thing to spend more time with the family. I would have preferred the mountains more than the city in Nepal.

Thank you Blackmafia!
I agree with you that the mountains are a more enjoyable place.
Though for my family, this time round I really just wanted them to see some of the historical sites in Kathmandu.

 

[limwhow]

... Some similarity? LOL...

I was surprised when I saw this photo of SereneXMM climbing up.
It was not too long ago when I last saw her climbing up at around the same angle and kao-beh-kao-boo-ing at the same time...

Now this trek ..................................................2 Years ago Clickable for the link to the old thread...

Hmmm... don't know if there is going to be a third trek... or even a forth trek in the future?
LOL...

 

[limwhow]

Finally. One last turn. And we see Ulleri.

The feeling is that of both a relief as well as an anti-climax.
Why anti-climax?
Haha.. honestly I was expecting something like.. so steep at the last last LAST stretch that requires me to be on all fours to climb up.
Wahahaha... just joking.
It was good that we arrived for the sky was turning dark already.
Any later we would be walking in the dark.

Here is the video of that last stretch up to Ulleri...
[video=youtube_share;CF-ILMf3Fxc]http://youtu.be/CF-ILMf3Fxc[/video]
The walkie talkies have been exceptional.
Throughout the whole trek, every single one of us has been communicating through them,
and was kept in tuned with the progress of every member.
I love them, these Motorola walkie talkies.

YES!!!!
So happy ah, this AhLiXMM? Haha... steady lah, all the children.
Of course, the Gege 哥哥 (Elder brother) is the most tok gong. He must have been up there for quite some time already.
That fellow arrived with the porters... and the donkeys (or were those ponies?)...

And of course, well done to SereneXMM too.
Like a mountain goat she climbed and climbed and climbed...

Haiyah.. this Gege ah... he has the leg power of a pony, and the appetite of a horse.

And yes, this climb has been taxing on all of us, especially those of us who have weak knees.
That's why we got everyone a pair of knee guards to be used every day on the trek.
We can ill afford to have any injured knees right at the beginning of the trek.
But still, the toll on our knees seemed to have started right on day one...

 

[limwhow]

Hot drinks, boys and girls?
Erm.. hot shower, any one?

Superb, this Superview Lodge.
I wasn't expecting this, but they actually had attached showers for the two rooms allocated to the girls.
We two boys were upstairs on the third floor. That one had no attached shower. But it's ok, we can still use the girls' shower.
But... it was 5:15pm already. In Nepali Winter term, it was sunset and it was COLD...!
[video=youtube_share;UZNQtegFDEo]http://youtu.be/UZNQtegFDEo[/video]


I checked the recorded temperature at 5pm on this evening and it was at 16 degree Celsius.
Strange. Really didn't feel like a 16. It felt even colder.
Anyway, I was the first one to grab a towel and went into the shower which was pitch black because I couldn't find the switch to the light.
The moment I finished the hot shower, and tried to dry myself, I was shivering like an old donkey.
GGGGRRRRRRR... gGGGggRrrRRRRR...
Every body looked at me walking out of the shower and unanimously decided NOT to try their luck.

How was the rooms?
Well.. they looked like this.
Really not too bad in mountain lodge's standard.

You just got to make sure you close the windows tight at night while you sleep so that the cold wind cannot seep in.
This one has concrete walls. We were lucky tonight.

"Mahesh, where can I charge my camera batteries?" I asked.
"Aaarrr... you can charge it in the kitchen. There is a common charging point for every one."

Heng ah.. at least still has charging source in this guest lodge. I was prepared for the worst.

Dinner was a warm affair in the fireplace heated dining hall.
Some die-hards were still studying in the dinner area...

 

[tecnica]

those stinging nettle were nasty huh?

anyway, camping here to see more photos!

 

[gapman]

this is way more interesting to follow than those TV series! I'm camped here......

 

[limwhow]

First night at Ulleri...

That night, the temperature went down to about 6 degrees.
We slept with our base layers + middle layer + out layer + merino wool socks + gloves + heat pads all stuck to the body...
... all wrapped up in the sleeping bag lined with a inner fleece layer.
Of course for those poor little things who dare not shower, they all had the luxury of a powder bath.
Dinner over, we went up and knocked out.
Yeah, sleep.
When you trek, you usually sleep very early, about 7-8pm because everything is dark, and there is no TV to watch, and no computer games to play.

3am...
Then suddenly at 3am, I was woken up by the hungry horse...
Yeah. Really. We literally just woke up.

We looked out our windows to see only one light left on.
Crazily we braved the cold and went down. Hoping to do what, I didn't know.. maybe.. to see stars?

It was actually very very dark. My shots all could not make it one.
Had to use very very slow shutter speed, so lots of movement blur and all that.
But I thought that made things a little more real and raw...

We stayed for a short while outside.
And decided that enough was enough.
And we walked back up third floor.
The stairs and floors were all wooden and they creaked like nobody's business..
And at 3am, every single creak became a huge croak..

Yupe.. We came back up to our room on the third floor...

 

[limwhow]

Day 2 of trekking

6:30am. I took this shot out of my window.
The sun was just about rising.
Another new day. Another new adventure.

The children were really not bad. Managed to squeeze all the sleeping bags into their cases, and pack their backpacks,
and managed to get ready for the roads again in a short time.

After breakfast, Mahesh gave every one a run-through of our trek for that day... and soon, we were off..

 

[Dfive]

As a 5 time visitor to Nepal for Mountaineering I still found this very entertaining.... and detailed !

Nepal is a great place !!

Thank you

 

[limwhow]

Ulleri (2070m) to Ghorepani (2870m)
​

This day's trek was essentially an upward hike towards Ghorepani,
a large Margar village, and the starting point for the trek to Poon Hill.
As usual we didn't know what to expect.
Mahesh reassured us that today's trek is going to be easier than yesterday's
But strangely I felt that it was equally strenuous in terms of the climb.
Looking back at the GPS data, I realise that the climb was indeed quite significant,
but thankfully analysing the vertical distance gained and lost,
it was clear that there wasn't too much of ups and downs..
More of up and up and up... Exactly like what Mahesh said.

This is the actual GPS track of our trek from Ulleri to Ghorepani


Click on the image above for a larger version
​

 

[limwhow]

those stinging nettle were nasty huh?

anyway, camping here to see more photos!

Tecnica, nasty. As nasty as can be. Be careful with them. LOL...

this is way more interesting to follow than those TV series! I'm camped here......

gapman buddy yah, gapman buddy. Thank you, my good man.
I'm sure SereneXMM will say she'd rather watch TV leh.. why don't you ask her.. Wahaha...

As a 5 time visitor to Nepal for Mountaineering I still found this very entertaining.... and detailed !

Nepal is a great place !!

Thank you

Dfive, now I see what the 'five' in your 'Dfive' means ~ fiver times to Nepal.
Champion, you!
Thank you for coming by. We only climb small mountain leh, not big ones.
LOL...

 

[tt32003]

I've never been to Nepal before.
Just wondering with the porters and donkeys/ponies around, why do you guys still need to carry your own back pack ?
Need to bring some many things ah ?

Btw your son really look like you in your younger days.

 

[limwhow]

I've never been to Nepal before.
Just wondering with the porters and donkeys/ponies around, why do you guys still need to carry your own back pack ?
Need to bring some many things ah ?

Btw your son really look like you in your younger days.

tt32003, thank you very much for coming by.
The porters carry the big back packs. But still, we have to carry a day pack containing:

• water bottle
• camera equipment
• walkie talkie
• torchlight
• extra batteries
• jack knife
• food - snicker bars, snacks..
• emergency medicine
• gloves, headgear and such..
• space to store our middle layer when we take it off when it becomes too hot..

Essentially anything that we need should a situation arise or something we need en route.
Because the porters are usually way ahead of us.. they usually forge ahead to secure the guest lodge and get things prepared, upon the guide's instruction.
We don't use any ponies ourselves at all, although there were some travelllers who choose to take ponies for ascend and descend.

Edit: Hmmm.... I kept thinking of the question you have asked.
Actually it's really a good question.
In addition to what I have written above, I would like to add... I tried to keep everyone's daypack to less than 5kg. But for some of us, it's a little tough.
For me myself, and the son - we end up carrying about 6.9 - 7kg of stuff in our daypack.
After the first day trek to Ulleri, we tried to pare down the stuff. But ended up still with the essentials.

Hope that helps.

 

[limwhow]

8:30am. The Singapore flag moves out.

The recorded temperature read 6 degree Celsius.
We all were decked in our outer shells on this morning because it was cold.
As we started to walk, the morning sun came shining onto the side of the mountain.
But strangely despite the sun, the air was still cold.

What I have come to realise so far on this trek was, the contrast between the lit areas and the areas in the shade was great.
Thus often, the pictures turned out half black and half bright.
'twas really hard to shoot.
Some more, what I have found on the first day of the trek was, as we climbed and walked, I was too tired to focus on every shot.
Thus I had to depend a lot on using hyperfocus and a smaller aperture (around f8) to ensure focus.
In such a way, SereneXMM and I were literally just shooting with the rangefinder in a point and shoot manner.

We had quite a lot of muesli bars and snacks.
And as much as I remembered in my heart that we should try our best to refrain from giving out these snacks to the children so as to help
prevent dental decay, somehow the urge often overcome our kind intent.
We still ended up handing out the goodies.

Remembering the GPS track, we started climbing almost right away.
Sometime into the middle of the trek, I felt that we were walking much faster than yesterday.
I asked Mahesh:
"Hey Mahesh, do you find that the children are walking faster today?"
Mahesh: "Yes, all of you are walking faster."
Me: "Hmmm... why is that so, I wonder? Perhaps every one was well rested last night and has gained much more confidence today."

I believe my postulation was correct. The level of confidence was high.
Spirit was high.
A few of us had started to develop thigh aches and knee strain.
But the knee guards and some anti-inflammatories kept things at bay.

.. and a shot by SereneXMM... showing just how happy the Jiejies are...

 

[limwhow]

Trekking is pretty interesting.
I tried to walk with every single child in turn for a stretch of the track.
Sometimes we would see things that interest us and that got us talking and talking non-stop.
Sometimes, we would all be lost in our own thoughts as we walked, but our eyes were still alert and were always on the look out for unique scenes.

And on a trek like this, as long as we kept our eyes open, we would discover new things and new sights.

Like young little kids, the girls would always exclaim when they come upon buffaloes, horses, goats and even chicken and ducks.
City-dwellers like us have been really too starved of such lovely creatures of nature, creatures that until a couple of generations ago, were still commonplace back in Singapore.
Haha.. so much so that we had to rediscover them on a trek in a far-away land. What an irony.

For me, personally, it's a time of rediscovery of my own link with the children.
Every step I walked just behind them or in front of them, was a renewal of the bond with them, a bond which many of us parents working hard in this modern world have in certain ways neglected.

On this morning, I looked up and marvelled at how blue the sky was.
I remembered Adrian of SgTrekker telling me that this was a great period to trek in the Nepali Himalaya because the sky is clear and beautiful.
Indeed. Lovely sky.
I wondered if it would snow any of these days, just for the pleasure of the children, but while doing my research back home, I have come upon forecasts that stated that the few days we were trekking would be clear days with almost no precipitation.

 

[limwhow]

Along the trek, we would see many of the local people who went about their own business.
I didn't believe it at first, but I was totally swept by how easily a single word Namaste and a sincere smile could bring out a similar response in the passers-by.
How readily they were in returning that greeting.
I was surprised how swiftly our children learned to do just that.
And they greeted almost every body on the trek whom they meet.

These two school-going girls were very cute.
They greeted us with clasped hands as we Namaste-ed them.

This pair of young and old ladies smiled and nodded at me when I smiled and took a shot of them

And this wrinkle-lined old lady in beautiful ethnic costume returned me a smile when I said Namaste.