Kiran Balakrishna

Day-1: The Iniital grumbles
The backdrop of me deciding to do the EBC trek isnt any interesting, let alone inspiring someone: One fine weekend, i was sitting lazily upon my ergonomic revolving trying to sip the last few drops of Diet code slurping annoyingly, after eating an XL burger with extra mushroom and lettuce toppings and ofcourse with a large portion of fries. It was at this divine moment that my eyes glanced upon a split second preview video byte of what seemed to be a trek in the high mountains. It was that of an EBC trek and there with a whiff i decided that I was going to do it. It did not take more than 20 mins for me to be enlightened to everest. Anyways, enough of my boring background story and this was 5 years ago, now fast forward to present, i.e, 21st May 2022. I landed in KTH (Thribhuvan International Airport) at 10 PM in the night. I could already sense the sweet smell of wet sand, probably from the soiled shoes of the returning trekkers.However, this wasn't a good premonition since a trek in damp and wet conditions isn't exactly what I had in my mind. After picking up my luggage (which surprisingly didnt take more than 10 mins), i moved on to buy the next most essential item, sim card. I'd heard the most reliable network in Nepal was Ncell. But as my luck would have it, the Ncell store keeper did not accept indian currency and I did not have any Nepali currency yet. Hence i had to settle for the second fiddle Namaste sim card instead, which you would see later that it caused some problems.

The trek organizer Kedar had half-heartedly prmoised me to send a pick-up car which meant he is not going to send anybody. But I still pinned hopes on him and at the arrivals, to my not so utter dissatisfaction, I did not find any person or any other paranormal being waiting for me. Hence i called Kedar and asked him about my pick up. I'm among the creatures that wouldn't even spare the butt end of a burnt out chip feom a McDonalds, even for gods sake. I made sure that i fully reap the benefits of what I paid for. Kedar agreed that the hotel concierge would pay for the taxi. I called for a taxi and he unhesitatingly demanded 1000 Nepali rs and i wouldnt care much cos i wasn't the one who would be paying for it. I had no clue where in Kathmandhu Thamel or the hotel Access was, where I was supposed to bunk for the day. I had to invariably trust the driver to take me to the right destination and he had to maintain the trust, atleast until he got his bounty safe in his hands.



Thamel, where my hotel was situated in KTM was sort of a hippie island right in the heart of old town KTM. Its bustling on saturday nights. All the foreigners, trekkers headed to the mountains stay put up in Thamel. There are also several night clubs, hole-in-the-wall restaurants offering world cuisine. Perhaps there can't be a greater contrast wherein at one moment you are in the crowded Durbar square and the small bylanes surrounding it dotted with a large number of temples of all sizes dedeicated to various hindu deities like Shiva and Vishnu, you take a few steps and and you enter into a contrasting world of Thamel, bars, night clubs, pizzerias, cafes, souvenir shops, shops selling trekking gear, book shops ...etc. So, this was where my hotel was situated, right in the center of Thamel.

There was another tragedy awaiting the moment i entered the hotel. I was supposed to share the room with another trekker, Rohit and he was nowhere to be seen. The room was locked and the hotel did not have a spare key, so I was left tired and starving in the middle of the night with nowhere to go. Luckily, many cafes were open then. I decided to have a few snacks for a light dinner while Rohit arrives. I was accompanied by uninvited drunkard who solicited by giving some free advice on how to climb the mountains and in return expected that i buy him some food. I slyly wriggled away from him to the hotel and was greatly releived to see that Rohit had finally arrived. We had a quick introduction and i was too tired to direct the conversation any further and directly crashed into the bed in anticipation of an exciting day ahead.