Back in the beginning of 2010, one of the first steps in planning our trip was to try to decide which countries we should visit. It was my rationale that if we could make a list of possible countries, then I could try to figure out an appropriate route (a route that would save us time, money and could work out best with the seasons for each country). Thus, Ali and I made a list of all the countries we really wanted to go to in 4.5 months time. Our list ended up being pretty long. I looked at a calendar and tried to make a rough schedule that could possibly include all these destinations and it seemed an impossible task (unless we wanted to spend 2 days in each location!). Slowly, I started cutting down locations and we ended up with a reasonable list. It would be a tight schedule but we could make it work. The countries that made the final cut were: Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. The only country we were not sure about was Nepal. We loved the idea of going to Nepal but it seemed like it was just too out of the way and required too narrow of a timeframe for us to make it work. In order to see the mountains and do trekking we had to be there between September 15th and November 30th, and plane flights from Thailand looked to be about $600 each way. Was this country really worth the money and logistical nightmare? After much debate we decided we really wanted to see the Himalayas and do some hiking. We decided that we would make it work and that it was worth the extra money. Thus, I started to plan a route based upon the fact that Nepal would HAVE to be in the middle of the trip (due to the narrow season for trekking). The route was not the best possible (we had to do some jumping around and some extra flights) but we ended up making it work. Singapore also got added to the list of countries because I discovered that flights to Singapore from Toronto were the cheapest. Thus, as I began to research flights, buses, and ferries, our route of: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Bali, Australia, New Zealand began to take from.
2) Deciding to do the Trek to Everest Base Camp
We never intended to do the trek to Everest Base Camp. In April 2010, one week before leaving for British Columbia to go treeplanting again, Ali and I walked into a travel doctor’s office and got immunizations, medications and travel advice. Our plan at the time was to fly directly from Vancouver (after planting) over to Southeast Asia as we figured it would be cheaper because we were already partway there (plans changed though and we ended up coming home after planting for 3 weeks and then we flew from Toronto). So, in April, Ali and I sat in the office of the doctor and he asked us about where we planned to go in Nepal. "Did we plan to go to Chitwan National Park to see the tigers and rhinos? Did we plan to go to the Annapurna area? Did we plan on hiking up to Everest Base Camp?" At the time we didn’t really know. I kinda assumed we would be doing a lower altitude trek so I told him we were going to be doing the Annapurna Circuit and that "no, we would not be needing any high altitude medication". The doctor was a little eccentric. He looked at us, then he replied "well, you never know what you’ll end up doing. You might need some people going to base camp and decide to tag along too. I’m going to give you high altitude meds, just in case." And there it was. We got the meds and even though we thought we didn’t need them we took his advice. Guess he was right after all.
I’m not exactly sure when we decided to switch from the Annapurna Circuit Trek to the Everest Base Camp Trek. I think we decided about a month before we got to Nepal. I remember Ali and I talking it over and discussing the pros and cons of each trek. We finally decided that trekking to Everest Base Camp was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and that we wanted to do it – we figured we would do Annapurna in the future (and we definitely will as both of us really loved Nepal and want to go back). So, we finalized our decision and I started researching the trek – what we would need, the route, how long it would take etc. We then told our families we were headed to the Everest Region – we got a lot of fearful responses! After reassuring them that we were not crazy, we finally got our parents, grandparents, and close friends on board. We booked a flight to Nepal for September 27th, received a 30-day visa (in case of poor weather on the mountain), we booked a flight to Lukla (the starting point for the Everest Trek) for September 30th, we got our trekking permits in Kathmandu, and finally we made a list of all the gear we would need. We then headed out to the streets of Thamel to do some shopping and some haggling.
3) Getting the Appropriate Trekking Gear
The night before our flight to Lukla (so last minute, I know), Ali and I bought all of our gear for the trek. Because we had been travelling in Southeast Asia for 2 months (in 40 degree weather nonetheless) we had very little gear with us for such conditions. We had packed one pair of thermal tights and one thermal shirt each, water purification tablets (Nepal is known for having Giardia – a water-borne parasite, thus we needed tablets to ensure the water we were drinking was safe) as well as a soft shell jacket – and that was it. Thus, we needed to buy some cheap Nepalese knock-off trekking gear. Our list of items to purchase included:
Mittens
Hat
Lined Socks
Hiking pants
Thermal tights (for me)
UV sunglasses
A whistle
A smaller pack – 40 or 45L
Hiking Boots
Fleece sweater
Chocolate Bars
Granola Bars
Maps of the Area
Books
With our list in tow we headed out to the busy Thamel streets, did some shopping around and decided to buy most of our items at the one cheapest stores we found. We spent about 1.5 hours trying on gear and making sure that the things we were buying were okay quality-wise (since all the clothes are made in Nepal and are "knock-offs" they not always the same quality as the actual brand-name item). Because all the gear is made it Nepal we paid a fraction of the price we would have back in North America, which is good when you are on a backpacker’s budget.
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