#1 April 2016

Bismillah...

Tersentuh...

After a few soft knocks,  I twisted the door knob and walked myself into the room without waiting for a permission to come in. The guy on the first bed gave me an impassive look and went back to looking at his phone. I moved to the next bed which was hidden behind the orange curtain.

There he was, sitting on the floor on his prayer mat. His hands raised in prayer. I paused and waited for him to finish. We chat a little. I asked him where is he staying,  who is coming to get him,  is he working or still studying and talked about my stuffs; the drugs...

It's easy to judge based on what is briefly written in one's social history. But,  I realized those few lines doesn't define his whole life. That's just one of his mistake that have made him ended this way. Watching him pray moved me. He is facing many uncertainties; he knows very well what he is put on is suboptimal. And there is chance for failure. Perhaps,  I wouldn' t know if that one particular prayer that I saw is more sincere than the hundreds that I've done.

Terasa...

When I was a kid, some kids teased me because my parents got divorced. It happened when I was very young so none of the other kids' parents were divorced (yet). My parents tried their best to raise me lovingly despite living separately. I never felt deprived of love at all in my entire life and I think I grow up just fine..

But,  I guess even at this age being someone who has a complex family tree is a taboo. I just dont understand and I feel it's unfair to be judged by what's not even my fault to begin with. Just because my family went on different courses in life, doesn't mean we are bad people. That was our fate,  that was our test. What matters is we went throught it just fine~

I almost ask,  "Do I look like I'm someone who was raised in a bad environment and surrounded by bad people...?" but I held my tongue because I haven't seen the person in front of me for months and I was happy to see that person.

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Gokyo Ri: Part III

Bismillah..

It took another 20 minutes hike from the check point to reach Namche Bazaar. Surprisingly, it looked more densely populated than Lukla. When we arrived, the entrance of the village was crowded with women and children doing laundry in a flowing stream. We  went directly to the teahouse to put our bags and have lunch. Luckily there was internet connection there that evening. We haven't been contacting anybody at home since the day we arrived in Lukla and SJ wrote on my timeline "Mane korang ni? Dah 3 hari takde citer.." so I posted a pic of us having early dinner at the teahouse

We spent the rest of the evening strolling around the village, looking for stuffs that might be useful for the rest of the trek. After all, Namche Bazaar is the last point to shop. I got myself a pair of knee guards because I left mine at home. Bijak bukan!? Bijak membuang duit~

As we wander into every nook and cranny of the village, we met a very nice family from Canada. Ada ibubapa, anak-anak dan atuk nenek ok! They only hike up until Namche Bazaar and will be going back to Lukla the next day. They did the hike just to have a feel of it since atuk and nenek are too old to hike until the base camp. Aku harap cucu aku bawa aku hiking begini satu hari nanti..Mudah2an masih larat hendaknya~

We stayed for two nights in Namche Bazaar because on the 2nd day of our arrival was the acclimatization day to avoid from getting altitude sickness as we move to a higher altitude each day. Basically, this means that we have to go to a higher altitude on the acclimatization day and then go back to Namche Bazaar to sleep. This method allows our body to get used to the high altitude that has less oxygen. So on that day we hiked to Everest View Hotel early in the morning.

There were many people going there for acclimatization. Some went very early in the morning that we met them on their way down when we were only half way up. Tapi.. Yang bikin down sebenarnya budak pergi sekolah. There is a primary school in Namche, but the secondary school is located in another village. According to our guide, the school is situated somewhere in the middle of all the other villages in the Khumbu region for convenience. So everybody in this area goes to the same secondary school, I presumed. The school kids' pace were slow but consistent so they didn't take as much rest as we did. "Kalau aku jadi dorang ni, mesti aku selalu ponteng!" RA exclaimed.

We didn't get to see the Everest on that day because it was too foggy when we reached the hotel. When it was time to descend, I started to have a throbbing headache that worsened when we reached the teahouse. I knew it was one of the sign and symptom of altitude sickness aka AMS (Acute mountain sickness). I tried to counter it by drinking a lot of water but that didn't work. It was the worse feeling ever; felt like my body was about to shut down. I've never felt so uncomfortable in my life before. I took out my medicine only to find that the amount of dexamethasone that I took before leaving the office was not enough for the whole AMS regimen and I chose to take Diamox instead. I slept and only woke up for prayer and dinner. 

That night I woke up several times to pee because of Diamox. And guess what, the teahouse actually switched off their water pump during off season and the tap water was running very slowly. And this tap was actually located outside the toilet, near an opening that was only covered with plastic and I don't know why on that fateful night, the main door was not closed at that hour. So there I was, shivering as the chilly Himalayan wind gnawed my skin while waiting for my bottle 'hikmat' to be filled to the brim~

And actually even at ~3440m we could already feel the thin air. Even a simple activity like solat felt laborious, I had to take a deep breath when I rose from sujud. Mula lah rasa oksigen nikmat terbesar yang tidak dapat dilihat oleh mata kasar~ syukur~ syukur~

Hello Abang Sudan~ (^^)

And after Namche Baaar... that was where the greenery start to be replaced by alpine shrubs and meadows and yeah everything seems to become more and more surreal as we go higher and higher...

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Gokyo Ri: Part II

Bismillah..

Actually I'm quite pissed that I accidentally posted the incomplete part 1 but past is past so let me just continue with our story...

We arrived that morning in Lukla and met our porters at the airport. They were very young. Songer was 19 and Jolopuru was only 16. They were shy at first and our communication with them was quite limited due to language barrier. But after a few days, all of us got along very well and started to tease each other. They taught us some Sherpa words and in return we taught them some English and Malay words. Jolopuru wished to be a guide in the future and he was working hard to improve his English
.

On the first day we walked from Lukla to our first stop in Phakding. We went up and down some hills but they were not too steep and since we were only at about 2800m above sea level, the oxygen level was still okay and I was not that tired. We reached our teahouse in Phakding before sunset. It was off season and I remember there were only about 5 hikers spending the night there.

One thing that stuck in my mind about this place is the chef looked like Radhi OAG!!! So we were actually staring at him while he was cooking in the kitchen. There was an opening that they use to pass food from the kitchen to the waiter and we could see him clearly through that opening hahaha

Well, due to lack of research before the trip, we were not aware that heaters are not available inside the rooms. And what makes it even colder at night is that the walls are made of plywood. And yes, this applies to all lodging including the one in Gokyo. Luckily we were provided with a super thick sleeping bags by our tour operator so the sleeping bags were the only ones that had kept us warm. So, TIPS!!!!!!!!!!!! Make sure you have a sufficiently insulating long john for comfortable night sleep and also to keep you warm while indoor.


Since it was low season, to my despair at that time, there were no wifi and to MR's despair there were no bread too! They don't bring up bread at low season and they only have this home made roti which taste good anyway hehe

The second day, I would say is the toughest of all the days because we had to trek from ~2400m to ~3400m where there is a big village called Namche Baazar and it was all climbing up and up and up all the way. At this part of the journey, I couldn't afford to wait for my friends because I easily get tired if I don't keep up with my own pace and we were separated. I was walking with different people on my way up. You won't get lost because the footpath is very clear.

The first part of this leg had one of the most beautiful scenery. At ~2500m everything was still green and the trees were still tall. There was a rapidly flowing river on our left and we were walking on rocks as we head to the suspension bridge set on a hill. The suspension bridge was exactly the one featured in 2015 Everest movie. Everybody uses this suspension bridge; and when I said EVERYBODY that includes the yaks and the donkeys. There's a weight limit of course, so we queued with the other hikers as we wait for our turn to cross the bridge.

It started to drizzle in the afternoon and I quickened my pace in hope to find a small village or something to get some shelter if the rain gets harder. But there was no other village in between and finally I found the check point hut where I waited for my friends for about an hour or more. I chat with a hiker from Norway who was actually on his third trip to the Everest Base Camp. He showed me his climbing permit and said, "Look. Here it says 'Once is not enough'. You have to believe that."


And it was here where I met si kacak panas, Sudan, who was a guide and also the founder of his tour company. We talked about Go Pro and he recommended some other nice treks that I might try in the future. He gave me his card and it is safely kept in my drawer until this very day lalalala~

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