Gulliver's Travel's 12/15/2025

Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal  Part 3
Following my guided tour to Bangladesh and Bhutan in February 2025, I took a short flight along the Himalaya Range, over Sikkim State of India, to Kathmandu, Nepal.  I spent only four days there, as I've trekked in the Himalayas of Nepal on two earlier trips, in 1999 and 2007.

   Nepal is almost entirely mountainous, having eight of the ten highest peaks in the world, including Mt. Everest, which I've now seen three times.  It's only about half the size of Wisconsin, extending 500 miles from east to west and 90-150 miles from north to south.  It has only 30,000 people, but it is growing at 3.7% per year, which will lead to it doubling in population in only 18 years.
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   Nepal had a monarchy until 2008, after which it became a republic.  It is multi-ethnic, with Hinduism being the main religion, even though Buddha was born there.
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Flying along the Himalayas, just west of Mt. Everest

The tallest mountain is Mt. Everest, at 29,002 feet high.

I took this photo on my 1997 trek to Everest Base Camp while at the summit of Kalar Patar, at 18,300 feet.  The black mountain in the background is Mt. Everest, at 29,032 feet, which was five miles from where I stood.  The mountain in the foreground is Nuptse, at 25,791 feet, about a mile away from me.  Everest Base Camp is out of view at 17,598 feet.  This is my second favorite place I visited in the world, right after Concordia in the Karakorum Mountains of Pakistan, where I camped at 16,000 feet, five miles from K2, the second highest mountain in the world in 2000.

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Rice terraces on the outskirts of Kathmandu

Farm houses outside Kathmandu

Just a bit of pollution in Kathmandu

Five young ladies in The Garden of Dreams in Kathmandu (where I dreamed that American ladies would dress like them rather than wearing "rags")

Unesco site of Bhaktapur, the royal palace of the Malla kings of Nepal, started in 1427 A.D.

The architecture is simply stunning.

Ditto in this photo

Still more, wondering if it will never end

Nope, only with this photo

Except for this beautiful woman

And this elegant couple

A happy little girl

"OK, WHERE is the short?"

Swayambu Temple, also known as the Monkey Temple because of the ubiquitous monkeys living there

The "eyes" of this stupa represents the "all-seeing" nature of Buddha.

Prayer wheels

These monkeys seem to like each other.

The guy who owns this bus just might have something there

Patar Durbar Square, with 21 gold pinnacles, was started in 1637 A.D.

Patar Durbar Square

The approaching man is not impressive sartorially...but the two women, WOW!

This is a Hindu crematorium site, where up to 11 bodies are burned, after which the ashes are tossed into the river...very much unlike Evergreen or Calvary Cemetery in Manitowoc

It. was surreal to be so close to the burning bodies.

Many Hindu men hang around the crematorium, usually attired a bit unusually.

​Epilogue 

  I was born too late.  Given that I never want to leave Wisconsin and that I love mountains so much, I should have lived here 1.8 billion years ago when the Baraboo Range and the Penokee Range near Hurley were about as tall as the Himalayas.  It would have saved me lots of money traveling there five times, including twice to the Karakoram Range of  Pakistan, my favorite mountains, sometimes considered part of the Himalayas. 
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   One of the greatest regrets of my life is not climbing mountains earlier.  My first "big" summit was Mt. Rainier in Washington, at 14,410' in 1973.  Next was Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, at 19,840' in1993.  My most grueling climb was Ampato in the Peruvian Andes, where I reached 20,100' of that 20,600' peak with no supplemental oxygen and eight pounds of hiking boots on each foot and only 43% of sea-level oxygen content at age 57 in 2000.  My guide told me, pointing out the summit, "Dale, there is the summit. You can probably make it but you will likely die before getting back down."  He sensed that I had serious mountain sickness coming on, so I immediately told him, "That's it, let's head back down, as I achieved my main goal, climbing higher than 20,000 feet." Going down to our camp I couldn't walk a straight line and fell over 20 times from sheer exhaustion.  The next day I spent in bed from weakness.  But, it was one of my favorite experiences of my life.

   The Rockies are great, as are the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas, and the Andes, but the Himalayas are, at least for me, the pinnacle (no pun intended).  Go there...if you can, even at 83.

Next up: England and Scotland