We flew into Nepal and it was fifteen degrees outside. We walked through the terminal and I started to feel like an ice cube! We got our luggage and tried to find an ATM but there were none in sight. As we left the terminal someone came to us and asked us if we were gong to a hotel called Hotel Veda. We were and he was the manage of it!

We jumped into the van and started driving to the hotel. My dad asked if we could stop at an ATM. We stopped, got out some money and started driving again. The streets in Kathmandu are very small and filled with lots of people, bicycles, cows, tuk tuks, so you have to swerve around everything as you go.

We arrived at Hotel Veda and the manager asked us if we needed any food or drinks. My dad looked at Caleb and I, we were practically falling asleep! (It was very late and we’d been up since 3 a.m.!) So, we decided that we would get into our room and go to sleep. My dad was still hungry so he went out to find some food. By the time he got back Caleb and I were already asleep.

The next day, we had the best breakfast ever! We weren’t able to have breakfast at our hotel because there was no fuel since India has blocked most of the fuel (for cars and kitchens) from crossing the border into Nepal. We went to another hotel down the street that had some fuel to cook with. They served us bacon, eggs, sausage, an stir-fried potatoes with green pepper and onion. With that, we had tea, fruit juice, and a plate of toast. I tried to eat all of that but you can only eat so much.

After the amazing meal, my mom was looking forward to doing some trekking so we needed to make some arrangements. We went back to our hotel and talked about it. We decided that we would do a five day, six night trek from Pokhara to Poon Hill. Caleb and I were very excited. We needed to get some gear for our trip so our hotel manager took us to a shop where he had a friend that sold mountain equipment. We bought everything we needed and headed back to our guest house.

The next day, it was time to start our trek. But first, we had to take an eight hour bus ride to a place called Pokhara. After the very long bus ride, we arrived at the bus stop and waited for someone to take us to Hotel Orchid. A car pulled up in front of us and we jumped in. Before we knew it we were at the hotel and it was nice.

After a night there, we took a one and a half hour van ride up the mountains to begin out trek. The trek started easy, going down a hill and then it was flat. We thought it was hard but it didn’t get any better! After the flat part, we had to go up a very, very, steep hill. Then we had to go up stairs and that was really painful! But then it was down hill so our legs had sweet relief! After a few hours of mountain climbing, our guide told us that lunch was a few more minutes head. Now we had something to look forward to!

 

 

We kept on passing villages with little restaurants but we didn’t stop for any of them. Finally, a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere seemed to be the lunch station. Our guide Dhana gave us a menu and there was lots to choose from. I got noodle soup and it was delicious. It took us about half an hour to eat lunch. After the amazing meal we started walking and it was only up hill for four hours. Most of that was steps. Dhana said that there were three thousand five hundred steps. We walked and walked until Caleb pointed to a blue house in the distance. He asked Dhana if that was our tea house (guest house). Dhana said it was. So, we walked some more and low and behold, there was the blue house! Caleb and I rushed to the blue house but Dhana said we needed to go just a little bit further. We climbed some more and arrived at another blue house. We asked Dhana if this was our house and Dhana replied just a little further! When we were walking we saw about nine more blue houses but none of them were ours. Finally, the ground started to level out and we came across a pink house and it seemed to be ours! We went inside and asked for our room key. I was frozen when we went into our little room. I looked outside our window and we were over the clouds.

The next morning we had to walk for six hours. Dhana said that this was the hardest day of trekking. We had breakfast and started walking up steps. My mom asked Dhana if these were still part of the three thousand five hundred stops of pain! Dhana didn’t know but he said that the steps were about to end. After about an hour of steps, Dhana said that there were only a few more steps to go. Of course, a few more meant a lot more than we expected! We climbed another while and it was finally “flat”. Flat in Nepal means a little up and a little down – Nepalese flat! After the flat part, we stopped at a restaurant and had lunch. Dhana said we were going to the top of Poon Hill so we could see the sunset.

After lunch we settled into our room and my dad was so tired he took a nap. He slept for about an hour until we had to go. We left all of our bags and other stuff in the room. We started up to Poon Hill and then we had more steps to

climb. After a few flights of stairs they curved and my dad was falling behind. After a few flights of stairs, they curved and my dad was falling behind. WE told him not to look around the corner, but he did anyway……Still more stairs! My dad started feeling like Po from Kung Fu Panda, if you know what I mean.

We managed to get to the top and woo-hoo, there were benches! After a few sunset pictures we headed back to our hostel. It was very dark so we pulled out our flash lights. We got to the bottom of the stairs and walked to the guest house. We got inside and ordered a loaf of

corn bread. After that we went upstairs and went to sleep. 

 

The next day our guide told us we would need to climb the next “hill” before we would start to go down, so there were another couple of hours of up hill. Then we had to spend a couple hours making our way down the mountain before we stopped for lunch. We stopped at a small tea house for lunch and you could see a cloud come right in over us. It was very cold. Even my dad was freezing and he never gets cold! We had some warm soup and decided we needed to get moving before we got even colder. We continued our way down the mountain. We were so happy to see our next tea house. They had a small steel drum inside where you could warm up. We had to wear our long underwear, toques, and socks to bed that night to stay warm. Caleb, my mom and I cuddled into one little bed, while my dad got the other. It was cosy as long as you stayed under the covers!

Our final two days of trekking were more down and Nepalese flat. They weren’t too bad and it started to get a bit warmer again. Our guide and porter taught us how to play a game on their phone and we taught them how to play euchre and hearts. It was fun.

Once we reached the bottom we caught a truck back to Pokahara where we stayed one more night. Then we returned to Kathmandu. Trekking was fun!