This is Joe’s daily log of the May 4-26, 2016 trip to Nepal along with MEBP team member Garry Porter and Social-Media Coordinator Brenda Bednar. As availability of internet and computers will be inconsistent on the 17-day trek through the Khumbu Valley, posts will be written daily but uploaded when possible. More photos of the trip will be added to this Flickr album.

Thursday, May 5

Garry, Brenda and I arrived in Kathmandu around 11pm after a delayed connection from Dubai. We were able to check out downtown Dubai and the Burj Khalifa thanks to a 6-hour layover and a generous immigration official. We ate a Lebanese – Armenian meal in the upscale mall overlooking the central canal, which was lucky because the flight to Kathmandu was a spartan flight mostly for migrant workers that offered no food or drinks. Our hotel was moved at the last minute due to overbooking, but this wasn’t a problem for us. We ended up at Hotel Mums House south of Thamel.

Friday, May 6

Today was our only real day in Kathmandu before our trek, so we spent the first part of the day chasing down shopping list items, including medication for altitude sickness, trekking equipment, a map, and a SIM card for an emergency phone. Mingma Sherpa, our project Sherpa liaison and designated guide for our trek up the valley, met us after breakfast to take us around Thamel and and talk logistics. We later split so he could acquire our trekking permits. Our afternoon was spent figuring out how to re-pack our bags, send text messages, catch up on sleep lost to jet lag, and getting our gadgets charged (a challenge given the rolling blackouts scheduled everyday by the city).