Pumori Climbing Expedition Dispatch

October 9, 2009 – First Full Day in Kathmandu

Swayambhunath temple

Leila Silveira reporting from our second day in Kathmandu. The schedule for today was a 5am departure to Swayambhunath, also known as “The Monkey Temple.” This is a huge stupa located on a hill west of the city. It was a special program for the film crew and Jamie Clarke, the Expedition leader, who is sponsored by Hanesbrands.

Swayambhunath temple is also

known as monkey temple

I have to say that when I went to bed I was a bit worried about the weather as it was raining. In order to get great shots and footage, they needed to have clear weather. Luckily later that night, the weather cleared up and there was a beautiful sunrise and they were able to get do an excellent job.

The team spent the entire day filming the main sightseeing places. Ganesh, who was assigned to work together with the film crew and make sure that everything they need is provided promptly, took good care of them the entire day.

We had our official expedition briefing at 4pm where we would cover all the details about our upcoming departure to the Khumbu the following day. After our meeting, we went to our welcome dinner and tried to go to bed early since the next morning we had scheduled a real early start, which would become a daily routine during the trek. The goal is to be at the airport at 6 AM in order to catch a very early morning flight to Lukla, weather permitting.

The word had passed around about our foot massage the night before and Lovinder asked me if I could take him to the place so he could also take one before going to bed. The advantage of a foot massage is the fact that even though we had just had dinner, it is not a problem since they only work on your feet and a little bit on our shoulders. I decided that since I was going to take him there, why not take a foot massage as well?

Again, right after the massage, we took a ride back to the hotel, this time with a rickshaw, which was a quite interesting ride, the bike goes through every pothole in Thamel, and trust me, there are many…

The adventure continues…