Short “Trek” Through The Foothills of Kathmandu Nepal

One of the most popular things to do in Nepal is “trek.” These can range from major adventures, like the trek to the Everest base camp, or shorter treks through the numerous mountains and valleys. Lindsay and I were dying to do this but because we were short on time we could only take a small trek through the foothills surrounding Kathmandu. One major misconception about Nepal is that Kathmandu is very close to the major Himalayan peaks and that reaching them from the city is very easy. This is not true at all. Kathmandu is actually surrounded by green hills and the major snow capped peaks are a short flight or long bus ride away. We were well aware of this while planning for our trek so our expectations were just right. We made the arrangements the night before with the extremely hospitable owner of our guesthouse. We both went to sleep very excited but when I woke up something didn’t feel right. My stomach was queasy and I was very weak. We headed down to the lobby to see if breakfast would make me feel better but after one piece of toast I was speed walking back to the room to throw-up. Lindsay was not far behind and she said that as she was walking up the stairs towards our room she could hear me throwing-up…we got a good laugh about that later. Throwing-up did help a little and me being desperate for the experience decided to go on the trek anyway. Our guide came to get us and we loaded up in the car with another guest who was actually a very nice women from England who worked for the BBC. We drove to the outskirts of town and started our trek. At first I was feeling great and Lindsay and I were loving the scenery and hanging out with our new English friend. However, after about an hour into the trek I began to feel extremely weak. My stomach was queasy again and every step was absolute agony. We eventually made it to a very cool monastery in the foothills that was extremely colorful and had numerous cows roaming freely around the grounds. Normally I would have been eating this sort of thing up but I could barely appreciate it as I was feeling so horrible. The guide planned to take us further but I told him I simply didn’t have the energy to continue on. The guide and our English friend were both extremely understanding and we headed back down the mountain. However, instead of going back to the guesthouse we were meet at the base of the foothills by a man named “Steve.” He was a British gentleman who moved his family to Kathmandu and lived their full time. He owned a trekking company and it was actually his guide that was taking us around. He insisted we come to his house to get feeling better and to enjoy a good meal. As we made our way through the bumpy dirt roads up to Steve's house we both were getting very skeptical. However, upon arrival we were absolutely blown away. He had a beautiful home sitting high on a hill overlooking the valley. His living room had large open doors looking out towards the valley and we just sat in their looking at all of his pictures from previous treks (he also gave me a nasty but helpful drink to help ease by nausea). As we sat there we could hear/smell and amazing meal being cooked. It turns out Steve has a private chef and he was making us a world class meal. After only a few minutes the food was ready and we loaded up on rice, curry, meat, bread, etc. We walked out to the front patio/yard and ate on a table that overlooked the entire Kathmandu Valley. It was late afternoon and the blue sky and white clouds were the perfect backdrop against the green surrounding foothills. We just sat and ate our food (which was easily some of the best we have ever had) and enjoyed the company and view. We learned that Steve takes numerous treks with people into the Himalayas. His favorite way of doing this is to go from the Tibet side (much less crowded). Someday I would like to head back there to join Steve on one of his adventures. After the amazing meal we left Steve's beautiful home and made our way back into Kathmandu. Steve was running some errands with his family so we simply caught a ride with him. By this time I was feeling much better and was really sad that I had to stop our trek. However, even though the trek was stopped the friends we made and the afternoon we spent at Steve's house is something we will never forget.