by Elle Morena

Created on: November 17, 2011   Last Updated: November 18, 2011

Kathmandu

After waiting for one and a half years for this trip, 8 of us trekkers arrived safely at Thribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu at about 11am local time, and our excitement of starting our 12 days trek deflated immediately when we discovered that one piece of baggage was delayed. The missing haversack belongs to a fellow female trekker who spent hours packing and unpacking before the trip, cracking her head in deciding what is necessary to be brought and limiting the weight as advised. Unfortunately, all her hard work has come to naught as it was confirmed that her haversack is still in Kuala Lumpur International Airport.  She and her husband spent some time filling up forms for insurance claims and were told to come back the next day to collect her luggage. However, that was impossible as the next day the group is scheduled for an early morning flight to Lukla, to start the trek proper. She thus had only  about 2 hours to shop for everything she may require for the trek for the next 8 nights high in the mountains at near zero temperatures. Our sympathetic guide there after took us to the Thamil area in Kathmandu for shopping and dinner, after checking us into our hotel.

Thamil is a known shopping area for tourist for mountain wear and gears, and it is hard to find shops selling women’s intimates and personal female toiletries in that area. After much anxiety induced search, up and down the numerous shops, they finally bought all the items that were the bare necessities for her. Later on in the night during supper, the trekker’s husband regale us with stories of how he went from one shop to another like a frustrated man asking surprised shop keepers where to buy women’s bra and panties! To add on to the excitement and even more stress, another trekker discovered during dinner that she dropped or lost about US$400 which was meant as payment for the trip. There was an immediate heated discussion as to how she could have dropped it and after much search and possible imagined scenarios of how she could have lost it, we told her to take the missing money as donation to the poor on the streets of Kathmandu. I was hoping that the matter will be dropped and forgotten so as not to de-motivate the group’s sense of camaraderie. Nevertheless, upon arrival at our hotel, she sat on her bed and, lo and behold, discovered that the white envelop was on her white linen bed with the money intact. Needless to say, she was adamant

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next Page >>