Episode 6 – The big day is finally here

 December 3^rd, it is!

All that paranoid feelings about if you have missed anything that is important really gets in to you. Last night (Dec 2^nd) I in fact did unpack the entire bag and repacked it – shows how paranoid I was. I am beyond excited about this whole experience because of the mountain and a bunch of other things may be. Pitta was supposed to pick me at 1.30 PM and I can’t clearly describe how much I was waiting for him to come.

I was all ready and my mum even took a picture of me after I was ready (I now wonder what her intentions were but I convinced myself at that point that it was out of her habit of clicking pictures of anything that is around). I wore my fancy luminous green shoes with black pants and a black sweater.

Here comes a small Nano car and I loaded my backpack in and got in the backseat. It was warm and I felt safer – Do not know if it was the effect of Pitta being next to me or because I kept on telling myself that I would do ok.

I should say as usual we were the late comers. Rest of them were waiting eagerly to check in. So we exchanged cash to Nepalese Rupee and walked in. All procedures done and checked in. We were given the little summit madness badges as little tokens :) which were tagged on our bags/ sweaters.

So we do the iconic first groupie “all set to go” pic with everyone smiling (not really knowing what we are really going to put ourselves through in the next two weeks) and then gets an official to take another pic too.

Himalayan airways were used as they were the only direct flight operator to Nepal.

Somehow got a seat exchanged next to my most favorite 😇😇😇 in a flight full of Nepalese (who seemed mostly like they were forced to fly for some reason). It was mostly sleeping and eating during the flight.

We landed in Kathmandu safely around 8.20 PM. The social bees bought sims to keep in touch with the world and I am not sure why but I bought a sim as well which I never used during the trip. This process took almost one and half hours as there were only two officials catering to a queue (not sure if I could call a queue – more like a bunch of people trying to get ahead of each other ). We changed some cash from the airport too – money exchange also had a YETI in it :)

We were being greeted by Bijaya (our travel coordinator in Nepal) and guess what – we even got garlands around our necks – on a separate note, that was one of our requirements to Summit madness/Dayan and we never knew he would do it. It was fun! So selfies were a must.

Let me explain Bijaya’s personality a little more – He is the most silent, calm and composed agent I have ever seen. Even his most urgent demand would sound more calm than my most calm tone.

We were taken to the hotel where we would be spending two nights. So we had already got our rooms assigned as we preferred. And our fitness fanatic very voluntarily tried to replicate the "dress rehearsal" we did by now realizing this might not be possible in the mountains.

We had a quick change and stepped out in Kathmandu streets to roam a bit and to have dinner. After checking out a few places we checked in to an Italian restaurant where I first tasted momos. ( Review - I did not like it much )

We were entertained by a drunk waiter in the restaurant. He was so funny and we were so exhausted and it was the perfect combination that was required at that moment. (I uploaded a video directly on FB as blogger doesn't let me upload anything over 100MB - classic) We parted promising to visit them the following day as well. We step out to head back to the hotel.

It was a cold night in Kathmandu and I could not even think of how it would be in the mountains.

All this was followed by snuggles, cuddles and sleep.

We had to be fresh to do some sightseeing and shopping for many things which we postponed as we were going to get from KTM.

Next up – We go shopping...

Episode 5 – I cook chicken picked from garbage using expired milk

So when you use someone else’s house for your hike preps, you want to feel home. Oh well at least let’s say, you want to be a part of that home. So I tried J

For someone who rarely cooks at home and when that cooking is well limited to some healthy, easy snacks, prepping a meal is quite a task. But for a woman who was planning to trek to base camp, this cannot be anything daunting.

So while I was in charge of this “home” while the owner is busy at work, I decided to do a little bit of clean up and “cook”. So the selected food was Pasta - Easy and healthy.

Since there are many recipes available online, even decided to search for one that is different. So I finally found one which requires milk to be added to the mixture with eggs, chicken, and other vegetables.

The owner of the house being the only person living, has the chicken that must be thrown out and the milk that is expired in the fridge until the garbage truck comes (this was learnt after the fact) and I did NOT KNOW!

So I pick the chicken from a small bag and was thinking to myself as to why so little chicken is still left over. With greatest difficulty get the little skin left out of the bones and cook. Then got the milk that was in the fridge and mixed it and finished cooking. After finishing the dishes, I decided to have a glass of milk and poured myself from the same carton I used to cook.

One sip! It was expired. First thing that came in to my mind was that I spent almost one hour prepping the dish and I am not going to re-do.

Crisis management:

Step 1 – Taste the dish and see if it tastes weird – No.

Step 2 – Think of consequences – Bad tummy in worst case scenario – Can manage

Step 3 – Should I admit the same and throw this – No

Step 4 – Will I someday admit – Yes

Conscience clear and move ahead.

So the host is back home and the dinner is served. While watching a movie, we eat.

First remark – It tastes good. My guilty mind creaks. I ask for forgiveness within and move on. We are about to finish the dinner when he asks: from where did you get the chicken and I show. All I remember was me feeling awkward because I have used thrown out chicken which I wasn’t aware of.

Right now, I wanted to admit that even the milk used was expired but why blow the fire out of proportion anyway. So I keep shut.

Not a pleasant ending to my cooking episode. I prayed for no bad tummies for that night before sleep.

And few weeks later, I admitted that I used expired milk to cook and everything was fine. It was too late to be pissed off about. 

Next – The big day is finally here..

Episode 4 – Drama of packing the bags

Let’s call this the packing day! I decided to pack at one of our other crew member’s places. Even though I was supposed to hit his place at 7am, even at 8am, I am in my room staring at my cupboard full of clothes wondering what to be taken. Everything at this moment seemed so overwhelming.

Result – Six big bags of clothes!

I had a list written in the book of Pitta – not mine. How convenient!

So I finally reach there at 10am and pretty much idled (let’s say idling) till around noon staring at the pile of clothes I brought in.

I was acting such a newbie while someone seemed to have gotten it all together. I think this where as a girl, you look for attention being so helpless. Little bit of attention never did any harm to any independent woman – or so I think.

So I follow instructions – 2 sets each for trekking and nights. Pretty much threw all the clothes on the bed and started putting them together. For a light traveler who I usually am, this whole exercise seemed so overwhelming for many reasons. First – it is not just travelling. Second – So many new clothes: Fleece jackets, thermals, gloves, etc…

What was funny was that it took us some time to figure out which book to take (which in our imagination would be later used to spend our evenings in the heated lobbies while we wait for our food – now turning back, time spent on that was such a wastage)

And my bag is filled up (60L bag).

We step out for a while to get our rest of the vaccinations - Hepatitis A&B.

When we headed back home, guess who had the greatest of the ideas – our fitness fanatic.

DRESS REHEARSAL – I know it sounds funny but at this point, how we looked in all these clothes mattered. (until later we realized that we barely washed our bodies for days). So we wear all the layers of clothes and lie down, sit, dance around and pose. Life is good!

And tired us – end up falling asleep!

Everything at this point, I call a beautiful mess in more than one way and I am loving it.

Next up… I cook chicken from garbage using expired milk

Episode 3 – We get famous: interviews in papers!

Who would not love to be famous? I am sure none of us thought or really wanted a paper to interview us on the expedition that we were about to go on but looks like the word has spread out and given this is one of the very few commercial base camp expeditions initiated, this was IMPORTANT!

So we get a phone call from a well-known media company requesting for an interview and guess who said YES in one go? All six of us!

It is very common in any group that you have few people who are great spokespersons and some so not and we also had the same split. So it was fun trying to prepare ourselves on who is going to talk and who will keep the mouth shut.

We picked Coffee bean on one very sunny morning to get the interview going. All six of us dressed up – well not all because some decided to turn up in shorts (You know who you are) were ready for the interview. We picked the upper floor smoking area to ensure there is no disturbance.  

The interview started and we all got comfortable with the questions but not with the millions of clicks the camera man was very focused on.

I decided to get coffee and got few iced lattes which was later told my our famous group critic that it was so inappropriate for a morning meeting :D It should have been hot coffee it seems. I admit that comment was so right given that the reporter and the camera operator seemed so not impressed with the coffee.

The interview went well and we parted our ways anxiously waiting for the paper articles during the weekend.

Post article critic

·         The articles were out and we looked pretty. We liked the Sinhala version better than the English one.

·         Camera-man picked photos from facebook of Summit madness group where none of us were present – We even wondered if we would be sued by those who were in for using it without permission.

·         The article called our group critic a fitness fanatic which all of us thought was funny because it almost meant that he was a gym instructor in profession (at least my mum thought so)

·         Girls were there “sitting prettily” in his own words. We were offended!

·         Apparently you need a “special” watch, a bag, shoes, and lamps for hiking. Summit madness any comments?

·         And we (the group) apparently listens “with so much respect” to our leader – Dayan Sameera :D:D Say it again? (only we would know how many times we didn’t listen to him)

Well what do they say?     Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth!

Free publicity Squad :P

Next Episode - Drama of packing the bags..