Nepal3
Nepal3
Nepal In Pictures
Part 3: Snowy Giants
There are many ways to see the highest mountain in the world. You fly over Nepal, fly over Tibet, trek in Khumbu or drive up to Everest Base Camp in Tibet. Half of Mt Everest is in Nepal and the other half is in Tibet. This photo was taken at Tengboche in Nepal. The mountain on your left is Everest. The one on your right is Lhotse. Lhotse looks higher because from this angle, it's much nearer.
White giants like these dominate the landscape in Khumbu. Many Tibetan Buddhists believe that there are two worlds in Khumbu - one visible and the other invisible. Legends of mystical kingdoms filled with untold treasures abound. Trekking up and down these very difficult slopes, surviving the cold, the altitude and the food, it doesn't take a philosopher to "see" this invisible world. Air is thin here. Khumbu literally and figuratively takes your breath away.
At high altitude, you can wake up on a summer morning to find a carpet of snow at the doorstep of the lodge where you're staying. You might have a headache. You might not have slept the whole night. You might have choked on the acrid fumes from burning (more like smouldering) yak dung. But the scene outside is simply too extravagant for words. Before the late morning clouds move in, mighty goddesses allow you a brief glimpse of their towering figures, dressed in a cloak of snow, exposing some bare rock at several places...
I spent 14 days alone on the Everest Trek. At the end of it, my boots were worn off by half an inch, my ankles burst through 2 pairs of woolen socks and my feet were covered with blisters. I went away with the thought that I have not lived in vain. What about you?
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