My Trip

So I'm back from my trip to the Himalayan mountains and I'm wondering how I should write this post. Here's a brief rundown of my days away...

Day 1 Feb 20: Ater work two hour bus ride to Incheon Airport. Six hour flight to Bangkok. Five hours of sleep in a hotel
Day 2 Feb 21: Two hour flight to Calcutta, India. One hour flight to Bogdogra, India. Six hour jeep ride to Yuksom, India. Arrived at our destination at 10pm.
Day 3 Feb 22: Started the Dzongri Trek. About 5 hours of hiking to our first night on the trail. Weather started at about 80 degrees and ended up around 40 degrees.
Day 4 Feb 23: A very short day of hiking to small village of about 13 families. A day of relaxing, reading and farkeling
Day 5 Feb 24: A long day of hiking up to Dzongri (~13000 ft). First night here we got about 6-8 inches of snow. 15 degrees.
Day 6 Feb 25: Woke up at 4:45am to hike up to Dzongri Point (14000 ft) to catch the sunrise over the mountains. Hoped to see Mt. Kangchenjonga (it's spelled so many different ways). Clouds cover the mountain.
Day 7 Feb 26: Again, woke up at 4:45 am to hike up to Dzongri Point (14000 ft) to catch the sunrise over the mountains. Hoped to see Mt. Kangchenjonga (it's spelled so many different ways). Once again the clouds covered the mountain. Did a day hike to an alpine lake. More snow. Started back down.
Day 8 Feb 27: Finished the Dzongri Trek at noon. Went to a couple markets. Six hour jeep ride back to Bogdogra. First shower in 7 days =)
Day 9/10 Feb 28/Mar 1: 3pm flight from Bogdogra to Calcutta. Eight hours of hanging out in Calcutta. 1am flight to Bangkok. 8am flight from Bangkok to Seoul. Arrived back at my place on Sunday evening at 7:30pm.

Now to briefly elaborate...

I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to go on this trip. It's not everyday that a dream comes true, but over the last week I had the pleasure of living out one of my dreams - seeing the Himalayan mountains. There were 5 of us in our group and we were taken care of by 5 Indians (1 guide named Phurba, 2 cooks, 2 porters). Our guide was the only Indian with us that spoke English, so unfortunately we didn't get to know the others that well...just a bunch of smiles and hellos back and forth! Our hope was to see Mt. Kangchenjonga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world, but knew that it all depended on Mother Nature as to whether or not we'd get to see it. The hiking wasn't too difficult as we didn't really have to carry much and the mileage wasn't too much either. We had plenty of down time, which I spent playing "Farkle," reading "Eat, Pray, Love," "The Road," and "Three Cups of Tea." I've never played so much "Farkle" in my life and we taught our guide how to play as well...he loved it and I left my "Farkle" game with him, so he could play it with other groups and the guys in his crew. We were in bed at 8pm every night because you can only read and play "Farkle" for so long. The nights were cold, but my sleeping bag did a good job keeping me warm. We were served amazing food, meal after meal. I didn't shower for 7 days and didn't smell that bad either =) Our group got along well. India is an extremely poor country, but the people are friendly...even when they're not trying to get something out of you. I thought I felt out of place in Korea, but that feeling was much greater in India. While in Calcutta I had several kids come up and introduce themselves to me because they wanted to shake hands with a foreigner...the kids were hilarious! I plan on going back to India. I will post a link to my pictures very soon...