Bad luck

[Rakshi]

Hi !!!
It' s time to share with you my bad luck...:-( . I have planned Gokyo trek for my wife and for her friend for the worst days in their lives. Thet were supposed tp come to KTD 9th of Feb . Since we had no news from anybody from Nepal due to the phones cut I had to cancel the plane tickets yesterday.... (4PM). And what happened then? 3:30 am next day I got an e-mail from our Nepali friend that phone lines and internet are back!!! But it was too lat to have the plane back for 10:40 am departure...

Thanks to that I will do everything to come to Nepal with my wife and my 10 years daugther this March

Long live Nepal and the Himalayas!!!

All the best to all of you who love Nepal - Rakshi

[yakshaver]

I guess I want to make a point, not so much for you Rakshi as the situation has past now, but for anyone else out there freaked by the fact that they can't contact their Nepali contacts... I mean, I guess you decided not to go, not so much because you could not contact your agents, but because of the feel of volatility of the situation.
Others have had the same experience last week, just 2 days after the King's coup, and they were in Bangkok trying desperately and unsuccessfully to contact their trekking agent and the guest house. In the end they decided to hop on their plane. Once at Tribhuvan International, they simply took a taxi to the guesthouse, who then called their trekking agents and everything was ok. I mean, even if you don't find your agents anymore it does not matter much. There are so many other agents and hotels to serve you, and at relatively cheap prices.

Regarding going with your 10 years old daughter to Gokyo. No problem with that. Just a couple of things to keep in mind: children take a bit longer to addapt to altitude. I would suggest to sleep one night in Lukla (or Phakding 2600m) and another night in Jorsale (2700m), before climbing into Namche Bazaar (3500m). Also it would be good to spend three nights in Namche (or maybe a combination of two nights in Namche and one in Kumjung, before setting out for the higher places at Dole, Machermo and Gokyo.
When I took my son for the first time trekking in 1999 he was 10 years of age. Only had the usual Phakding sleep before Namche. He got a very accute case of altitude sickness after about 2 hours of reaching Namche. Our exceptional guide (good ol' Santaman) put him on his back within 2 minutes of establishing the cause of his sudden splitting headache and raced downhill to Jorsale in about 50 minutes in the dark. My wife and I followed down with the porter. As it turned out our son was quite ok once they've lost about 300 meters altitude, somewhere halfway between Namche and Jorsale.
So I strongly advise two nights sleep before reaching Namche with kids.
I have been in the Khumbu area myself three times, and always slept only one night between Lukla and Namche, with just the mild headache for a couple of hours, but nothing major. However with children it is different.
Also it is important for the child not to get bored. What may be an interesing trek for the parents, may become boring and tiring for the child after a few days. Maybe try and do shorter days giving the child time to recover, play with local children etc, not the usual times recommended by the likes of Lonely Planet.

[Rakshi]

HI Yakshaver!

Thanks for the advice for March. Our daughter is a bit experience traveller who climbed the Tatras and trekked different parts of the world. I hope everything will be fine in Solu Khumbu and Gokyo with her and with the old as well. Trully she would be for the first time at such attitudes. SLowly means better. I know this very well.

Coming back to my wife' s bad luck you are right that there were some people already on the plains.... who were landing in the middle of the strange to foreigners political situation. Now we know - true adventure.

We visited Nepal three times in the past and we did not hire an agent. That's why we felt sad that our Nepali friends this time were not able to give us even a hint what was going on. But all's well that ends well. When will you be coming to Kathmandu? Maybe we' have a chance to chat for a while?

Reagards

Rakshi

[yakshaver]

Rakshi,

My son and I should land in ktd on the 2nd of April and leave around the 24. It would be good to meet.
Please let me know your moves as you get closer to arrival in the kingdom.

[Rakshi]

Our plans changed again... The most probably time we will come is afer 17th of April. My wife's brother is getiing married so till that time we rather should be in Poland.....:-)

Smiles from Poland :-)