When visiting Nepal, a trek through the Himalayan or Annapurna mountains is a must. The sixteen-day Everest Basecamp trek was not feasible within my timescales, so a more humble trek to Namche Bazaar seemed like a good compromise.

My trip was immediately compromised when Summit Air’s plane crashed two days before my departure. During take-off at Lukla airport, their plane veered off the runway onto a helipad, killing the pilot and two people standing on the helipad. This was actually the plane I was scheduled to take two days later from Kathmandu. So I was rerouted to Ramechhap instead, requiring a very bumpy five-hour bus ride through the night.

Lukla’s reputation as the most dangerous airport in the world is not to be taken lightly. The runway is only 460m long, allowing only small fixed-wing short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircraft to land. At one end is a mountain face and a cliff face on the other. To make it just a little more difficult, the runway is on a 12° incline.


With 25kg on my back, I set off for Phakding, my first stop. It’s supposed to be an easy trek, being mostly downhill, but my body wasn’t used to carrying such a payload. Having past 50 also doesn’t make it easier.

The second day was even more brutal. From Phakding to Namche Bazaar is a 900m net climb. But with the up and down trail, the total was probably double. The last three hours was a nonstop climb right up to Namche.

After returning from my four-day round trip from Lukla to Namche Bazaar, I was off to Chitwan for the tail end of my Himalayan adventure. I was fortunate to talk to the Tharu villagers, watch them play football, work the fields, and take care of their elephants.



Travel Photography
In case you missed my other travel posts, you can hyperlink to them here:
☼ Nepal ☼ Kathmandu
☼ Bhutan ☼ Thimphu & Paro
☼ Nepal ☼ Himalayas
☼ Morocco ☼ Marrakesh
☼ China ☼ Hong Kong
☼ France ☼ Provence
☼ Prague ☼ Jesse Cook
☼ Italy ☼ North East
☼ Italy ☼ Models
☼ Thailand ☼ Bangkok
All photos above can be ordered as prints. Pricing and details can be found here.
Bio
• CEO • Strategist • Entrepreneur • Speaker
• Photographer • Designer • Creativist • Writer • Blogger
• Teacher • Trainer • Geek • INTJ • Father
Gabriel is a seasoned sales and marketing expert with over 25 years in senior positions at Motorola, VeriSign (acquired by Symantec in 2010 for 1.25 billion US$), SecureWorks (acquired by Dell in 2011 for 612 million US$), and Cognitive Security (acquired by Cisco in 2013 for 25 million US$). He is a blockchain entrepreneur, with strengths in international business strategy.
Gabriel has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Canada and expert knowledge in crypto incubation, cloud computing, IT security, and digital video technology. Gabriel also runs his own company, Euro Tech Startups s.r.o.
Hobbies include photography, video production, motion graphics, digital graphics, photo restoration, carpentry, martial arts, traveling, blogging, and trying to be better than yesterday.
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