The Picture Gallery (contd...)
Trekking in the upper Khumbu
As one part of our three weeks vacation in Nepal, as most people who go there do, too, we trekked a short while through one part of these beautiful and unique landscapes over there. So we just had about one week, we chose the Khumbu Himal area and walked the first part of the so called Everest trek. Two years before, we'd been here already making the whole way up and down and also through some of the side valleys of the upper Khumbu lying in the so called Sagarmatha National Park. It's Sherpa land were you walk through, as we've already learned being another important ethnic group in Nepal, originally coming from the eastern Tibet and having settled there hundreds of years before.
It's not an easy trek. The lowest altitude you pass, is approximately around 2600 meters above sea level. So be aware of high altitude sickness!
Day 1 : We started our trek, as most people do today, in Kathmandu with a Twin Otter STOL (short takeoff and landing) to an airstrip at Lukhla.
So the trek leads through Sherpa land you always get confronted with its culture and its religion, the Tibetan Lamaism. One of the religious symbols are the so called mani stones (or better rocks sometimes), where there are prayer formulas written on them.
Please be aware of passing them always left hand!
Day 2 : One and a half day after leaving Kathmandu and soon after a rough hike up a 600 meters ramp, we arrived in Namche Bazar, the most important and biggest settlement in the upper Khumbu. The town lies in a horseshoe-shaped amphitheater, facing west at 3440 meters above sea level and you better stay here for another day for acclimatization. It's the so called market center of the Khumbu and therefore, of course, Namche has its bazaar, there are dozens of shops in the streets, but the real bazaar is an open-air market held every Saturday.
