Where it All Began

In the spring of 1998 I had the opportunity to join a climbing expedition that was heading to Nepal to attempt to climb Mt. Pumori in the Himalayas. I had never left North America before and at 28 it was time to get out of my comfort zone. A number of years earlier I had met a friend of my boss who had trekked to Everest Base Camp to say goodbye to a friend of his who was killed during the first Canadian expedition to Mt Everest. After seeing the slide show and hearing his stories I was hooked and Nepal was somewhere that had me intrigued.

I met Tim Rippel in the summer of 1997 in Nelson, BC while working there. He was starting up a new trekking/climbing company and asked if I was interested in joining one of the expeditions he was looking to get climbing permits for in Nepal. It took me about 2 seconds to answer! Of course! A year later and a few dollars poorer I was on a Singapore Airlines flight over the Pacific with no idea what I was in for.

The minute I walked out of the Kathmandu airport I was hooked. I fell in love with the city and then the country after spending about 5 weeks there. I enjoyed the country so much I came back 2 years later to begin a grand tour of Asia, but that's a whole other story.

So 14 years after first coming to Nepal I once again find myself back in Kathmandu, and walking the streets of the city brings back countless memories from my previous times here. I still love it here even though it's changed considerably. There's some very swanky boutique hotels, a lot more restaurants, very little begging and the streets are surprisingly clean. The population of Kathmandu has exploded so the streets are a lot busier and there's a lot more cars and motorbikes. Thankfully the pollution spewing auto-rickshaws seemed to have vanished from the streets.

I've been on the road now for nearly 2 months and have visited 4 countries. I'll be heading home in a couple of days to wintery Canada. It's been quite the adventure this time around, both exciting and extremely difficult.