SGTrekker 10D9N Everest Panorama Trek (17-26 March 2011)
- Thread starter SgTrekker
- Start date
ClemC
Senior Member
SereneXMM, great shot..nice...SereneXMM #3
Afew monkeys were picking fleas with their companions. One of their companions snarled at me. I quickly ran away...
Seem like you have a good feel for animal photography:thumbsup:.. the Myanmar trip, it was the seagulls and now it is the Monkeys
a personal take: prefer this "style" than the the "dark vignetting mask" you add on in the seagull images. just a personal feel.. I like the way you allow this picture to speak to us, without have to add much to the caption/PS editing..
limwhow
Senior Member
Sharing some of my shots:
Vngks, very nice! Especially with the Buddhas against the setting of a red-walled background building. Really Nepali-feel!
I am attracted to this shot because of the way the subject stands out among the bokeh-ed background.
Nice!
limwhow
Senior Member
Waiting for you to upload your photos liao lah, Hawk2846!
T R A V E L O G U E
Day 1 - Dinner at Bamboo Club, Thamel, Kathmandu
Allow me to just bring the travel account to dinner on the first night for now, as we wait for the rest of the team members to get ready their pictures.
Kathmandu is a constant stream of flowing vehicles and humans.
And its buildings are erected very close to one other, leaving literally only enough spaces for narrow little driveways in between these buildings, often times at odd and acute angles with each other.
Every one of us marvelled at the skills with which the drivers maneuvre their minibuses, vans or cars in making that hard-to-accomplish turn into even smaller lanes, only to blare their horns at passers-by who occupy a good part of the road, walking leisurely with nary a worry for the approaching mobile behind them.
Our dinner destination for the night was at a nice restaurant called Bamboo Club, located only minutes away from our hotel by foot, along the Bhagwoti Marg (Bhagwoti Road).
Here, Leong and wkcheah were just walking behind me as I turned back and snapped a shop of the sign board...
Classic Nepali style presentation.
Great dinner always come with a price - and Adrian made no bones about the impending event the next morning...
But of course, some one found that the shops around the area sell trek pants, trekking poles, outer shell jackets all at very good prices, and we all ended up in one of these shops and hum-tum the shop owner to get trekking sticks at 300rp (S$5.40), light trek pants at 600rp (S$10.80).
Goose became the shop keeper by standing at the counter and bargaining the prices with us, and bringing the prices down even more in the process.
We had a great time that evening. And the shop found itself lightened of more trekking sticks and cold wear.
[Picture noisy and slightly Out of Focus. But just for the memory of the moment.]
Honestly, I have never thought that I would come to Kathmandu to buy these items, despite SgTrekker's repeated assurance that this was a good idea.
I now agree, because although the products are almost all non-original North Faces and such, for that fraction of the price, they would do a more than enough good job for most of the treks up the mountains.
limwhow
Senior Member
T R A V E L O G U E
Day 2 - Our Attempt at Flying to Lukla Airport...
We must give the credit to this team of 24 participants (plus Adrian and Melvin, it will make up a total of 26.), because no one was late for the morning lobby meeting.
At 6:15am, all the backpacks were all guai-guai lined up in front of the reception counter.
And rubbing our sleepy eyes, we were all ready to risk our lives for that run down to Luka Airport's ultra-short runway.
Lukla Airport
What is so special about this Lukla Aiport?
Lukla is the tiny township at 2800m altitude, that is the gateway to Everest Base Camp's trek.
Almost every one that treks to EBC or any of the other towns along the same route would need to enter via Lukla.
There are a couple of ways:
Most would choose the latter for the ease of it, but the flight to Lukla could really be an exciting adventure in itself. That part comes a little later in our accounts...
Walking to the Departure Hall of the Domestic Airport
The Domestic Airport is just besides the Tribhuvan International Airport.
But a gate outside meant that we all had to hand-carry our big and heavy luggages all the way into the hall, which, not surprisingly, was another brewing pot of old-style loud speaker announcements, tired traverllers, more slow-twitch muscles officials and more confusion.
A classic scene here demonstrates the urgency with which Adrian tried to push for a quick take-off...
BUT...
Day 2 - Our Attempt at Flying to Lukla Airport...
We must give the credit to this team of 24 participants (plus Adrian and Melvin, it will make up a total of 26.), because no one was late for the morning lobby meeting.
At 6:15am, all the backpacks were all guai-guai lined up in front of the reception counter.
And rubbing our sleepy eyes, we were all ready to risk our lives for that run down to Luka Airport's ultra-short runway.
Lukla Airport
What is so special about this Lukla Aiport?
Lukla is the tiny township at 2800m altitude, that is the gateway to Everest Base Camp's trek.
Almost every one that treks to EBC or any of the other towns along the same route would need to enter via Lukla.
There are a couple of ways:
- either a 10 hours bus ride to a town Shivalaya south of Lukla followed by a 7 day trek to Lukla (to avoid taking the plane to Lukla)
- or take a tiny 16-seater Dornier popeller-engined flight on a 30 minutes journey through Himalayan countries to land at the short 460m and inclined runway at Lukla.
Most would choose the latter for the ease of it, but the flight to Lukla could really be an exciting adventure in itself. That part comes a little later in our accounts...
Walking to the Departure Hall of the Domestic Airport
The Domestic Airport is just besides the Tribhuvan International Airport.
But a gate outside meant that we all had to hand-carry our big and heavy luggages all the way into the hall, which, not surprisingly, was another brewing pot of old-style loud speaker announcements, tired traverllers, more slow-twitch muscles officials and more confusion.
A classic scene here demonstrates the urgency with which Adrian tried to push for a quick take-off...
BUT...
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limwhow
Senior Member
The Excitement of Flying... soon...
The feel of the physical boarding pass in hand worked powerful magic.
It meant that you have been given a place on board the tiny little popeller plane and you should be flying soon.
Unable to conceal their over-flowing excitement, our good team members channeled their energies to poker cards while awaiting the departure...
SereneXMM:
The feel of the physical boarding pass in hand worked powerful magic.
It meant that you have been given a place on board the tiny little popeller plane and you should be flying soon.
Unable to conceal their over-flowing excitement, our good team members channeled their energies to poker cards while awaiting the departure...
SereneXMM:
"Wah! Our flight is scheduled at 7:30am... It's now 7:06am. Only another 20 more minutes or so and we'll be airborne already!"
limwhow
Senior Member
... Some Delays in our Flight?
7:30am came and went.
But still no movement towards the doorway to the plane yet.
Some official news filtering down from somewhere mentioned that the weather in Lukla was bad and it was foggy with very poor visibility.
The experienced pilots of the various small little airline that traverse this route knew enough of the unpredictability of the condition to risk landing at Lukla.
... hmmm, so it seemed that we had no choice but to wait and hope that the weather over there clear up soon.
Meanwhile, time for some useful activities... like equipment check.
It was really good of Wkcheah to have brought his pair of Motorola Walkie Talkies because only his could marry up with SgTrekker's Motorolas.
Mine was utterly useless. Maybe different frequencies, perhaps. But at the end of the day, wkcheah and SgTrekker's walkie talkies turned out very very useful on the trek.
And more useful activities - someone realised that the Nepali counter girl in the domestic waiting hall was very very pretty and many of the guys started shooting photos of her.
She was pretty sporting and she posed for all of them...
While the guys were busying themselves checking equipment and shooting pretty Nepali girls, other members made themselves useful by recce-ing and finding an important spot - water station for topping up our rapidly repleting water bottles!
This spot would become our home ground over the next couple of days...
It was 10:30am, three hours after our flight was scheduled to fly and still no news yet.
And our Trek Leader decided that enough was enough. And led by example in getting enough rest to recuperate to fight another hour (day).
7:30am came and went.
But still no movement towards the doorway to the plane yet.
Some official news filtering down from somewhere mentioned that the weather in Lukla was bad and it was foggy with very poor visibility.
The experienced pilots of the various small little airline that traverse this route knew enough of the unpredictability of the condition to risk landing at Lukla.
... hmmm, so it seemed that we had no choice but to wait and hope that the weather over there clear up soon.
Meanwhile, time for some useful activities... like equipment check.
It was really good of Wkcheah to have brought his pair of Motorola Walkie Talkies because only his could marry up with SgTrekker's Motorolas.
Mine was utterly useless. Maybe different frequencies, perhaps. But at the end of the day, wkcheah and SgTrekker's walkie talkies turned out very very useful on the trek.
And more useful activities - someone realised that the Nepali counter girl in the domestic waiting hall was very very pretty and many of the guys started shooting photos of her.
She was pretty sporting and she posed for all of them...
While the guys were busying themselves checking equipment and shooting pretty Nepali girls, other members made themselves useful by recce-ing and finding an important spot - water station for topping up our rapidly repleting water bottles!
This spot would become our home ground over the next couple of days...
It was 10:30am, three hours after our flight was scheduled to fly and still no news yet.
And our Trek Leader decided that enough was enough. And led by example in getting enough rest to recuperate to fight another hour (day).
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limwhow
Senior Member
Hello Learnphotography, don't say that.looking forward to see photos from u guys!
Some of u r really rich! It was only a few mths ago when some of u went for Myanmar.
As much as i wanna join u all, im held back by my 'allowance' as army boy
As in everything in life, the time will come.
Your time will come.
Chempaka our good friend, haha... good to have you here!
And thank you very very much!
SK1968, again you are modest lah.No no, this time I 'chickened out' as this trek is only meant for the fit and brave ones so I am only camping here for fun stories and beautiful photos
Among us you are one of the fittest, I am very sure about that.
Never mind... a few of us are thinking of going all the way the next round along the same trek.
It would be good to have you along then!
My goodness, Stevewhy Sir... the honour is ours.
To have an experienced photographer and a fit and seasoned climber like yourself for company on this trip is a big bonus to us.
And having you share with us your shooting (both Photography and non-photography) experience, it was really enlightening.
Thank you, Sir.
And looking forward to your works!
limwhow
Senior Member
Flight Cancellation...
Finally after 5 hours of wait, the loud-speaker lady announced the cancellation of all flights to Lukla due to unrelenting bad visibility over at Lukla Airport's side.
We grabbed our heavy luggage and trudged out of the airport's X ray door frames...
... and across the messy carpark filled with cars and taxis, to reach the end of a field where we threw down all our luggage and waited for our buses...
Finally after 5 hours of wait, the loud-speaker lady announced the cancellation of all flights to Lukla due to unrelenting bad visibility over at Lukla Airport's side.
We grabbed our heavy luggage and trudged out of the airport's X ray door frames...
... and across the messy carpark filled with cars and taxis, to reach the end of a field where we threw down all our luggage and waited for our buses...
SK1968
Senior Member
Wah lau, tell me when and I will make sure I find another tonnes of excuses to SIAM ! hahaha
Honestly, I look forward to joining you guys in the next round
Keep me in the loop as I may be able to fit in.
divinemoment
Senior Member
Wah lau, tell me when and I will make sure I find another tonnes of excuses to SIAM ! hahaha
Honestly, I look forward to joining you guys in the next round
Central Vietnam? Not to take away from the main thread, perhaps PM is better way.
Gerard Goh
Member
Very informative and instreating trip. Hope to see more photos uploaded soon. Thanks
Seems that every trip there are people wanting to make a round trip again :dunno: :sweat:
vngks
New Member
Thanks for the compliments Wee How. Those were taken at 2.0 aperture. There are some taken at 1.2 at Bakthapur later for you to salivate over
I'm still at Swayambhu. More pics to share soon.
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limwhow
Senior Member
Thank you very much K3N, on behalf of my team mates!
:thumbsup:!
:thumbsup:!
Thank you so much, on behalf of my whole team, Gerard Goh!
You know why make another round trip, and this time round perhaps all the way up?
So that we may have the honour of traveling with you.
Lai Lai Lai... hit me with the f/1.2!!!Thanks for the compliments Wee How. These are taken at 2.0 aperture. There are some taken at 1.2 at Bakthapur for you to salivate over
I'm still at Swayambhu. More pics to share.
divinemoment
Senior Member
Honestly speaking ah, they may have missed the sunrise lah.
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