Everest Base Camp Trek Part 7 ~ Back to Kathmandu for R&R

Part 7 ~ Kathmandu at last.  And a lovely tour of Swayambunath Temple.

Swayambaunath Temple, Kathmandu.

Somehow, connections of the boss of Namaste Lodge gotten us a second flight out of Lukla despite the huge backlog of passengers from a whole day of delayed flights.  Those of us on the second flight managed to make it back to Kathmandu early.  But the other half of our group who were scheduled for the third flight were delayed and left on cold Lukla for another four hours because of poor weather in both Lukla and Kathmandu.

Everest Base Camp Trek Part 6 ~ Back to Lukla!

Part 6 ~ Our last assault on Lukla was well-coordinated by General Adrian.  The Airforce would take its first flights in and the infantries would trudge in later..

On a mission!

So it was.  The very last day of our trek.  Our hearts were in a dilemma.  As much as we were glad to be back to Lukla soon, we knew that our journey was coming to an end.  None of us wanted it to end.  Despite the hardship, we all had so much adventure in the past twelve days.  Many of us wanted more.

Everest Base Camp Trek Part 5 ~ The return of the Jedi from Gorak Shep all the way to Namche Bazaar.

Part 5 ~ The story of how the Jedis willed themselves onwards in a half-dazed state from Gorak Shep to Pheriche, and how the same knights gallantly drove themslves by sheer determination on foot back to Namche Bazaar.

[Photo: Fann]

This was finally the turn back towards home.  Everyone knew the end was drawing near.  Near, but not that near yet.  Three more days separated us from the comfort of Kathmandu.  In many ways, our objectives had been accomplished.  And the victorious members just only needed to be patient and continue their walk, which by now was already in rhythmic automatic mode.  The Jedis were finally returning home.

Everest Base Camp Trek Part 4 ~ The highest point. Kala Patthar 5545m.. and EBC second-attempt!

Part 4 ~ The one vantage point that can allow one to have a full view of Everest is this mount called Kala Patthar.  

Kala Patthar [Photo: KC Tng]

Sometimes in life, it was like this.  Would one come all the way to London for the very first time and not visit London Bridge or the Big Ben?  In the same vein, although EBC was the pinnacle of the trek,  but to me, and to the girls, we held in our hearts the wish to summit Kala Patthar the highest point, even way before our trip.  To us, it was a MUST climb.  And we'd stop at nothing to achieve that.
Without being disrespectful to all my fellow trekkers, to myself, climbing to the top of Kala Patthar was even more important than arriving at EBC.  The magic figure of 5545m was too strong a draw.

Day 1 - I never expected it, but here I was in Italy...

Day 1 - To Rome ~ The much feared centre of the universe for pick pockets...

2nd September 2016

People mountain people sea at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. My iPhone.

Don't ask me how Serene and I ended up going to Italy.  We knew we would one day set foot on the soil of the heart of the ancient Roman Empire.  But we never expected it to be so early in our lives.  I must have been under the influence of some Thai alcohol one fateful night in October 2015 when the Kaans and the Ngs persuaded me to sign Serene and myself up for Singapore trekker's Northern Italian trip.  And the master travellers had even more up their sleeves- we would execute a four day extension down south to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast alone the Sorrentine peninsula.  We really didn't know what we were in for.  But this turned out to be such an EPIC trip for myself and Serene.  And it made loads and loads of memories!