Alright I know it’s been over 12 months of radio silence from me, but it’s time for this blog to come back to life! It’s been a year of working and saving, to enable an upcoming year of adventure and travel.
To set the context, I’m currently writing to you from the luxury of my hotel bed in Kathmandu, Nepal. For those of you who knew me at 16, you might recall my first big overseas trip being to Nepal. See my earlier blog post for a recap on this, but I had the opportunity with Youth to Everest to trek through the Himalayas to Ama Dablam Base Camp. While both terrifying and exhilarating at such an age, I came home and immediately told everyone that one day I would go back. I fell in love with the landscapes, people, and culture, plus hiking to Everest Base Camp was on my bucket list.
Here I am, 8 years later – almost to the day, back in Nepal. And if all goes well, over the course of the next 3 weeks I will be trekking to Everest Base Camp, summiting Kala Patthar, and completing the three passes (Renjo La, Cho La, Kongma La). See the map below.
The opportunity to return to Nepal kind of just fell into my lap, and for that I (think) I am pretty grateful. It was the right time to go back. So I’ve spent the last 6+ months saving, planning, and more recently preparing/training for the trek. I’m gonna find out pretty quickly if I’ve done enough!
It’s was a 38 hour journey to get here, Whitianga -> Auckland -> Singapore -> Kathmandu, and tomorrow we fly to Lukla, the gateway to the Khumbu Valley. So amongst all that travel, today was a bit of a rest day in the big smoke (or smog I should say), with some sightseeing out and about.
We visited the Boudhanath Stupa, also known as The Great Stupa, which is one of the largest stupa in the world! This involved a bit of sneaky action as we didn’t have any rupee on hand to pay the entry fee for all of us- but the closest currency exchange places were within the stupa complex. So while part of the group distracted the guards and brought tickets, the remaining of us snuck past. Being young, dumb and blonde does have its advantages!
Following this we toured around the Hanuman-Dhoka Durban Square – a world heritage site and monument zone. This was interesting we saw many temples, museums and were even blessed with the Kumari’s presence. A living goddess, whom if you see, is supposed to grant you good luck. The history and tradition of the Kumari was interesting, and a little unsettling, especially to those of us whom a females from relatively progressive countries.
Without intending to sound insensitive to the Hindu and Buddhism cultures, here’s my understanding. A prepubescent girl undergoes a rigorous selection process to be selected as the Kumari – where she is then worshipped as “the living goddess”. She cannot leave her place of worship, the Kumari Ghar, and presents herself through a window/viewing platform to the public at different times throughout the day. Once she has her first period, a serious illness or bleeding event then she is no longer considered the living goddess, as the blood loss from the body spoils her purity.
While there is a lot more to it than that, there are clearly some historic ways of thinking behind this tradition, and all in all, it makes me a bit uncomfortable. I think many of us felt the same way – not sure if that ruins our good luck.
Following this we took a quick trip to the Monkey Temple. Another lot of temples and stupa, this time with lots of monkeys, and 360 views over the city!
I thought this was going to be a real short post, but it turns out I can definitely still ramble! We’ve got an early start tomorrow to get into the mountains, but hopefully I’ll remember (and have the energy) to post some semi regular updates of our trekking adventures!
~ Nikita’s Nomadic Notes
Nikita’s Nomadic Notes 