When we were planning this once in a lifetime trip, lots of people asked what place we were most looking forward to and for me, our 11 day trip to Nepal, and our trek to Annapurna Base Camp was one of the top spots (fun fact: Annapurna is the 10th highest mountain in the world @26,545'...although base camp is "only" 13,549' ). This obviously says a lot because, having planned much of the trip, I was looking forward to all of the places we are going!
While we knew the natural beauty would be awe inspiring, what I was really looking forward to was our family working together to do something that I knew would be challenging. As a dad, I pegged this as one of the few times I knew our kids would face adversity and have no choice but to face it and overcome. Unfortunately/fortunately our kids don't have many of those situations in their day-to-day lives and like most parents, it kills me to hear the normal complaining and objections to some of the most basic requests, (e.g. "I can't do that!", "I'm too tired", "I'm too hungry", etc...). For months, the words of a no-nonsense trekking guide relayed to me by my friend Scott Mueller, who completed the longer Mount Everest Base Camp trek with some friends, were ringing joyfully in my ears. When someone in his group, in a moment of exhaustion before yet another 6-7 hour day of trekking, told their guide "I am just so tired", his reply was "I am too, lets get going". Although I was certain this lack of bedside manner would mean Kimberly would veto this person as a potential Klein family guide, I also knew that this reality would be pretty clear to all of us. When you are in the middle of nowhere and the only way out is to get up and go, you get up and go.
Before we get into the details, we owe a huge thanks to our friends Ben and Carolyn Ops for recommending the guide company we ended up using (Getawaynepal.com). Along with professionally performing all aspects of their jobs, they all just exuded the true caring nature of the Nepalese people. In fact, they very much reminded me of the team my company had in India as there is no length they won't go to for you to be comfortable and happy. Raj, who coordinated the logistics trip for us beforehand, also solved all of our completely out of the box needs with a smile (accompanying us at dinner time to take Trevor to the clinic for his ankle...more on this later), to rearranging details of the experience mid trip, all with a new baby at home (I am 100% certain his wife wanted to kill us!). Hom, Chi-te and Janga were companions for us as well as being our guide and porters. The boys were regularly asking them for help with packing something or asking them to play a card game while we were sitting at a tea house and they said yes every time...and with excitement!
We loved all of those guys so much but we especially all loved our porter Chi-te. Him being such a memorable person would have seemed unlikely at the start, as he wasn't the head-guide and barely spoke any English. Yet his attentiveness and EQ were so off the charts that communication was never an issue and he often understood our needs before we did. He was also able to be funny without a bunch of words and was always cracking the boys up with silly humor when he wasn't carving walking sticks for them or racing them down the trail with the massive pack on his back. He was also an unbelievable photographer. He would grab my phone to take pictures for us and was messing with settings I didn't even know existed. Pictures like the one at the end of this blog of Evan with the sunrise off of the mountain behind him were Che-ti's doing, after seeing me getting far more disappointing versions. Yet another good affirmation for all of the Klein's of not judging a book by it's cover.
Evan, Trevor, Chi-te, Hom and Jonga playing cards in a tea house dining room
With all of that, we arrived in Nepal with Dad bursting with eagerness and the rest of the family in a mixed state of excitement and apprehension.
While they list the journey as an 11 day trek, you have two days in Kathmandu and one day in Pokhara on the front end and one day in each of those same places on the backend So, there are 6 days of trekking up to Annapurna Base Camp sandwiched in between.
Arriving in Kathmandu
Along with dad not being able to stop singing "I'm going to Kathmandu" for two days (and then afflicting everyone else :-) ), the rest of the family were all in awe of the density of the city of Kathmandu, the traffic and...
...the wires.
and Raj told us that they recently did a city-wide cleanup that reduced these wires by about 60%!
We really wanted to see Mount Everest, so we were able to book a last minute helicopter tour for a landing at the Everest View Hotel. They can actually do a landing at Everest base camp for a close up view but to me, that seemed like cheating, so seeing it from a bit further away from the Everest View Hotel would have to do. With all of that, it is pretty surreal having lunch at this hotel 13,000 ft. up, in the middle of the Himalayas, with Everest and other majestic peaks in the background (mom, I don't have a coat on because I wasn't cold in the sun!).
We also geared up for the trek while we were in Kathmandu. Our guide asked in advance if we would need anything before the trip and we replied that we would need EVERYTHING, given our lack of virtually any clothes other than t-shirts, shorts, sneakers and flip-flops. They have a great program where you can donate clothes that you don't want to take with you to people in need, so it didn't feel completely wasteful to buy everything and use it for one week. It was also good that they have the off-brand and knockoff gear (North Fake as they call it) that is much less expensive than the name stuff and works great for a few days of trekking.
While the face masks were not necessary they boys were excited about them along with the rest of the gear that was stacking up...
Starting the trek
When the day was finally here we were driven from the town of Pokhara to a little village called Nayapul where we left the vehicles to begin our trek. At the start you can't help but wonder why we needed all of the warmer clothes we bought as it was in the 60's and we all had shorts and t-shirts on to start the journey. Fortunately you'll notice winter coats were in use as we got higher up.
At the start we were already preparing for the scenario where we would not be able to complete the trip, because Trevor had hurt his ankle in Cyprus around 10 days previously and it had not gotten any better by the start date. In fact, the day before we left Kathmandu to go to Pokhara, he was complaining that it really hurt when we were walking a few hundred feet uphill, so we took him to an urgent care center to see if they could do anything for him (they can always fix things with one days notice, right?). They said he likely had strained some tendons or ligaments and that it needed rest to improve. While they suggested multiple times that it might be good to "delay the start by a few days", this was obviously impossible given our other plans. Given that, we left with the idea that we would see how he did the first couple of days and would have to make the call to go on, or be brought down with mom via jeep at the last place that was an option. Not the start we were hoping for and we did not have high hopes of finishing, but off we went.
The first day of the trek included the intimidating "3000 stairs to Ulleri"...nothing like jumping right into it!
We also went over our first of a handful of hanging bridges over the trek.
I must admit the day was harder than I anticipated but it made for a great feeling on arriving at our first stay in Ulleri. Trev totally gutted it out and found that the hiking poles allowed him to take a lot of pressure off of his ankle...he was first to get to the lodge and his face says it all!
From here we had several days of trekking which varying terrain from forest to more jungle to the rocky terrain as we got closer to the summit. While it was challenging, you would regularly look up in awe at the countless waterfalls you would pass as well as at the quaint villages, general greenness of the valleys and majesty of the peaks all around you. Ironically when you were going uphill, you were dying for a downhill stretch but then the downhills came and were easier from a cardio standpoint but much of the time they were large step-downs which Evan described as "step-JOLT, step-JOLT". In short time you were hoping for a little uphill again. Obviously, one would wonder why you don't wish for flat but that does not exist in Nepal. In fact, our guide at one point said we have a stretch of flat and after another (slightly more gradual) up and down stretch, I asked when the flat part was coming and he said "this is Nepali-flat". Doh!!
Longest hanging bridge we crossed...
The signs for each town you get to are a welcome site!
We had an amazing early morning hike to Poon Hill one day as well and the sunrise was incredible.
Nothing more humbling than struggling along the path with porters carrying your gear and seeing this guy passing you with 100+ pounds of steel bars on his back!
Trevor headed into the next town with a cool shrine welcoming him in.
At one point I wanted to try the porters pack on to see how hard it was. I did make it a mile with the pack and then happily passed it back over to the professionals (who weigh about 140-150 pounds and carry these all the way to base camp!) before I destroyed my neck! 
Along with Trevor's struggling with his ankle, Kimberly came down with something the first day we left on the hike, I don't know how she gutted out this entire trek while sick. #TrekkingHero. Here she is recovering in the common area of one of the tea houses after 7 hours of trekking that day.
You probably walk past 10 waterfalls of varying size every day
Cool village in the clouds
Dad was on duty when Evan was allowed to pet the water buffalo...
Lunch with a view
Accommodations
As you make your way along the trek, the tea houses you stay at go from minimalistic at the beginning, to something less than that as you climb. Little did we know we'd be longing for the comforts of our initial stops as we got further into the trip! The great part is that Kimberly and I have always wanted to give the kids a taste of the cheap motel/hostel level accommodations that we had experienced many times growing up but that always sounded better in theory than when it came to us actually staying there...now we can check that box!
We will view this as luxury in a few days even though it's just two beds, a light bulb and one wall plug to charge devices...
...and had it's own beautiful bathroom which, believe it or not, had us almost jumping with joy!
A more rustic room higher up...no plugs in the wall and only community bathrooms (many consisting of just a room with a hole in the ground) from here on out...
It's getting crowded in here...
Arrival at base camp
The 2nd to last day of trekking was the closest to breaking everyone. With exhaustion from 5 days of hiking combined with that being the biggest day of elevation gain (and Kimberly feeling the worst she had felt on the whole trek), everyone was at their wits end tensions were running high! When our guide asked if we wanted to stop at the next town, instead of getting to the planned one, leaving a longer final day and I said we should go on, I am pretty sure Kimberly was contemplating pushing me off of the mountain we were on. Fortunately she was too tired to do that and we pushed on to the further town which we were all super thankful for on the final day.
With all of this, I will say that the final steps into base camp made for a great family moment. This feeling combined with the unbelievable beauty of Annapurna base camp (which has visibility to 4 - 23k to 28k peaks in a 360 degree view). We stayed overnight at the camp there and got up early for an amazing sunrise there as well...what a great gift for all of the effort!
The boys taking a rest on a double chair provided by nature just before reaching camp.
Kimberly emerging from the clouds for her final steps just before base camp!
We did it!
Sunrise hitting "Fishtail".
Nepal was such a unique and fulfilling adventure but boy are we looking forward to our well timed week in the Maldives coming up next!
This featured blog entry was written by wklein1918 from the blog Klein Travel Blog.
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