We had the luxury of touring the city for about two to three days before we began our trek.  We were brought to a place called Bodnath, the largest  Buddhist temple in Kathmandu valley.  Magnificient building.  Included in the itinerary was Durbar Square,  the towering Naytapole temple.  This was a vibrant street.  It was a very touristy area.  With tourists, there will be souvenir shops. Abundant.

Another vibrant place that I remember was the Thamel Street.  A place full of cafes and small restaurants, book shops and hiking/camping shops.  I can recall a small restaurant that sold very good steak.  What was unique with the steak was they added two sunshine eggs to your steak.  Food and cholestrol level  was not important to us.  Why ?  After the trek, all of us had lost much weight.  So it was all go to feast.

I do not know why but it was the tourists who were selling their stuffs to the local people at a night bazar.  We were there to shop around.  Instead, we were asked, ''how much your radio"?; "how much your watch" ?  It was interesting for once to be turn the table around.  Some of us even managed to make some profits out of it.  I sold away a few pairs of my old t-shirts.  In retrospect, it wasn't a honourable task to earn profits from these poor people.  However, looking at a different perspective, it was purely an entrepeneurial  trading transaction.   You paid, I sold.

After a few days of relaxing and touring Kathmandu, it was time for the trek.  We needed to reach Lukla, our starting point of the trek.  Landing at the air-strip in Lukla was most frightening experience of the expedition.  If not for the outstanding skill of the pilot, I am not here to relate this story.  The air-strip was a short perhaps 200 metres long runway.  The Otter twin-engined aircraft needed to stop in time or else it would hit the mountain at the other side of the runway.

After this adrenalin high landing, we were rewarded with awesome scenery.   Breathtaking.  I was stunned by the magnificent sight.  Photographs may able to capture the colours and image of it.  However, you need to be there phyiscally to truly enjoy the personification of beauty by Mother Nature.

Physically, I was not trained for this expedition.  I had underestimated the physical endurance of the trek.  On average, we needed to walk about six hours daily.   The food was not good.  A kind of dough to go with jam.  It was cold.   We were also faced with high altitude sickness.  Hence we needed to acclimatise to the weather condition as we proceeded from one level to another level.   At times, we camped at wooden lodge.  Some times, we pitched camps at sub zero temperature conditions.  It was tough but manageable.

At such great height and cold environment, bathing was not considered a very important necessity for our porters and expeditiion helpers.  So to bath with boiling hot water, we needed to pay for it because wood was scare up there.  It was a luxury to have a boiling hot bath.  It took a little time for me to get used to not bathing for a few days.  Somehow, I managed.

Thanks to our porters who carried most of our bags and the advanced party who would make sure we got our food and drinks before we arrived at our next destination.  I think they were the fittest team.  Some were boys of about ten years old.  There were some female helpers too.  They led a simple and tough life.  Yet I did not hear them complaining.  Probably I did not understand their language and they did not understand mine either.  Sometimes we communicated by the universal hand signal language.

Trekking amid the beautiful scenery was a bonus.  Along the way, we met other trekkers.  There was one Indian man about 70 years old trekking alone with one porter.  Another Brazilian young lady also came alone.  A couple of Japanese nationality whom I had mistaken as man and wife. A cosmoplitan of trekkers from various countries.

Our goal was to ascend to the summit of Kala Pattar,5545m(the starting point of each Everest expedition).  We were rookies.  We were city folks.  It was a challenge to us.  Not all us reached the summit.  I was one of them that could not make it.  Every step I took, I had to stop to grasp for more oxygen.  My heart was beating rapidly. 

Our next town to visit after Kala Pattar was Pokhara.  I was sick with diarrhoea.   It was bad.  Everyone was enjoying.  I was lying on my bed.   Fortuantely, I brought along Lomotil.  I was able to recover after two days.  It was such a great relief to be well and running.