Everest Blog: Day One Of The Trek
Day One of the trek.
I’m up all night with Montezuma’s revenge from eating something bad in Kathmandu. It got worse through the night. I’m worried because we have to get up at 4:00 in the morning to catch a plane to Lukla. I pack the night before because who knows what condition I’ll be in the morning. I haven’t slept so when the alarm goes off at 4 am, I’m already awake. I start taking Ciprofloxacin, but can’t eat. At the airport I have to use the washroom and it’s a room with walls covered in black grease and the toilet is a hole in the ground, no toilet paper, no sink. Thank God for hand sanitizer. We get on a small plane that rattles my gut the whole way. A man squeezes in beside me and I try to make myself small with my backpack between my legs. Finally we land on the edge of a cliff and we go into the airport in Lukla but our duffel bags don’t make it on the next flight. The small planes fly depending on weather, and the next plane is socked in. That gives me time to curl up on the padded bench inside the airport. I need sleep. Finally the plane arrives an hour later and I have a blessed hour of sleep. We start the trek and we’re suppose to do an easy walk to Monjo, but I can barely lift my legs from two days of not eating and not sleeping. Tim said to get to Everest’s Summit, it’s all in your head, just put one foot in front of the other. I think that’s all I have to do. But the guys (except for my husband) leave me in the dust. I push myself but can’t make it past a tea house 1/3 of the way. I curl up on the padded bench and lay there again. Just one more hour of rest, I say. Then four American tourists show up for lunch. They order their lunches and are very gracious and concerned when they notice me curled up on the bench. Treking with dysentery sucks. Then out of the blue I have to jump up and race for the door outside but don’t make it. I start puking in the teahouse… right in front of the tourists. Besee, the Sherpa who is hanging back with us to make sure we’re ok, runs to help me. It’s raining outside and when he sees I need my boots to go outside because it’s raining out, he races back and gets my boots. He puts my left boot on, then leans away each time I upchuck to put on the other boot and tie them up. This guy deserves a giant tip after this. We finally decide to stay through night and Besee phones ahead to tell Tim. I sleep 18 hours.
