My second trip to Nepal, 2015 - Tony B Sucla

This is Tony Suckla currently writing from S. India and this is a report on my second trip to the country of Nepal in 2015. 

 

(Pictures I took from the top of Gokyo Ri, Mt. Everest in background of third photo) 

 In 2001, I first visited Nepal and I took a trek through the mountains to see Mt. Everest. (A report on that trip is posted online at:  http://tonyindia.com/).  

Since that time I have always wanted to visit again.  In 2015 one of our tenth class students named Rohit said he would also like to go trekking in Nepal to see Everest and his parents were willing to pay his expenses, so I started planning to go.  Rohit was fifteen but being that he was a fairly strong boy and very willing to go, I thought he could make it.  Some of the teachers in our school are from Nepal and they translated some literature I had written in English into Nepali that told why we have seven days in a week and it offered a free Bible to any who requested. 

On the first day of ULB of 2015 when several of our pastors were gathered together I told all present of our proposed mission trek to Nepal and we wanted to know if it was Yahweh’s will for Rohit and I to go.  So we all prayed and I flipped a coin and it came up that we should go.  So I felt we had divine approval on the mission journey to Nepal. 

After the Pesach/Matzohs festival Rohit and I took a train on Apr. 13 to Calcutta and then another train to the border of Nepal.  From there we took a shared jeep to Kathmandu.  In Kathmandu we purchased boots, backpacks, sleeping bags, etc… that we would need for the trek.  We kept Sabbath day at a SDA mission hospital in a place called Banepa, 25 kilometers from Kathmandu.  

On Monday, April 20 we started by bus to a place called Jiri where we intended to start our trek.  When we reached Jiri late in the evening we took a lodge and planned on starting in the morning.  However, we were informed in the morning that there was another bus at 2pm that could us take closer in to a place called Bhandhar .  So Rohit and I spent the morning covering the town of Jiri with our Nepali tracts.  There was a Christian church in Jiri and Rohit met the pastor and gave him a tract.  The pastor complained to Rohit that we should not be there that this was his area and recommended that we leave.  Rohit told him in Hindi, “Sir, I do not want to argue with you, if you want, we can support you with Bibles, if you do not want the tract, then give it back or to someone else, but don’t throw it away”.  

At 2pm we caught a very crowded bus.  The road was unpaved and in very bad condition.  Then it started raining and the bus got stuck in the mud.  So the bus driver informed everyone that we would all have to sleep in the bus and that hopefully by the morning the rain would stop and the bus could continue the journey.  I decided to leave the bus with Rohit and we pulled out our umbrella, flashlight and put on our packs and started walking to Bhandar; we arrived there about 8:15pm.  We hiked in with a man named Paco from Spain that also went to the Everest area and back with us.

Everywhere I went on the journey we distributed literature and we gave out about 1400 pieces in both English and Nepali.  Each piece of literature would be read by many people.  From Bhandar we started hiking to a place called Sete.  We ate lunch in a place called Kenja and started an uphill walk for about three and a half hours to Sete.  When we started I told Rohit that this is where the men would be separated from the boys.  My pack weighed about 50 pounds, Rohit’s was about 40.   

A short way up the trail Rohit started complaining that his upper thighs were going into spasms.  He even fell down because of the pain.  I told him to stretch his legs and he would be better.  But he was going slow. 

Then it started to rain and it was cold.  There were no lodges on the trail until we reached Sete so I decided I would go there quickly and then come back and help him with his pack.  So I went quickly to Sete and put my pack in a lodge and then started back down the trail to find Rohit.  

He was only about 10 minutes or so behind.  When I found him I asked if I should carry his pack.  He said, “no no, I have to show myself a man”. In Sete there was no electricity in the rooms and so we took a cold bath, ate and went to bed.  

There were many trekkers at the lodge and it was full.  We met people from so many countries during the trek, and gave literature to many.   

From Sete we went to a high pass called Lamjura La, we got there about 4pm, we considered staying at a lodge there but it was too windy and cold so I gave the owner a tract and then started down the other side of the mountain.  While going down I slipped and fell and broke my walking stick but I was not hurt.  I had been carrying a bank bag with some tracts in it to give to the people I met but I lost that in the fall.  I had another walking stick and I put more tracts in a small plastic bag to carry.  

As we were going down the hill it started to get dark and I decided that we would set up the tent I was carrying and sleep.  But then we found a small lodge that an old couple maintained so we stayed there for the night.  The next day we trekked to a beautiful village called Junbesi and stopped and ate lunch.  Surprisingly, the managers were Christians so I gave them one of my calendars with pictures and they said they would hang it up.  

From Junbesi we hiked to a place called Ringmo and there we kept the Sabbath.  Before the sunset I quickly washed some of me and Rohit’s clothes and put them out side to dry.  But that night it rained on them.  Rohit had a difficulty, when his hands got wet in that cold climate they froze up and became painful and unmovable.   So he had to wear gloves.  It was usually close to freezing at night.  

On Sabbath day Rohit and I had some studies and prayers and I went and passed out literature all over Ringmo.  I met a young Buddhist priest and he invited me into his home for tea, he could speak and understand some English so I told him about Creation, the fall, the tower of Babel, birth of Messiah, etc…  He listened very attentively and translated some to his family, at the end he told me, “but I am a Buddhist”.  At about one pm or so, I was downstairs in the room and I started hearing a lot of shaking on the wooden floor above me.  I thought that the children were running on the top floor, but it got louder and even the room was shaking, so I decided to go up and see what they were doing.  When I got up the stairs I could not see anyone but the whole place was shaking.  Finally, I figured out that it was an earthquake.  I went to the door and noticed everyone was outside.  The shaking lasted for about 45 seconds.  In our area there was no damage to the houses but we had no internet or telephone connection so we did not know to what extent any damage had taken place in other places. 

This year there were a lot of tourists on the trail as last year there was an avalanche on Everest and all the expeditions to the top were cancelled.  

We were told that there were about 1500 tents at Everest base camp this year and all the lodges were packed and so instead of going the base camp route I decided we would go the Gokyo route that would also allow us to see Everest at a further distance but was less crowded.

In Ringmo I left our tent, sleeping mats, and a few other items as I thought we would not need them and I planned on picking them up on the way out. From Ringmo, on Sunday Apr. 26, I hiked to a place called Jubing to eat lunch, Rohit was lagging behind me, so when I finished lunch I left my pack and went back to find him.  He was ten minutes behind and was complaining of knee pain.   So I took his pack and carried it up to Jubing.  After Rohit finished eating, I wanted to go further to either Bupsa or Karikhola but Rohit said his knees were paining too much to go any further.  So we stayed the night in Jubing, there we met a 70 year old lady from Britain that had hiked from Jiri to Namche Bazaar with her porter.  The next day I told Rohit that it would be his moment of truth, to see if he could continue the trek, he did better the rest of the time we were together.  We went from Jubing to a place called Poiyan and stayed there.  That night I asked if they had hot water for a bath, but they said no. 

 

So I proceeded to take a cold bath, I had washed and rinsed my hair and had put soap on my body, then the water cut off.  I yelled to turn on the water, but to no avail, so I wiped the soap off with a towel, best I could and dressed, then the water came back on.  From Poiyan we went to Chandrikarta where I gave out a lot of literature.  Rohit by this time had got in touch with his parents by phone and they told about how much destruction the news was telling about the earthquake.   And they decided they wanted to send him some money to come home.  He also wanted to go home.  So I told him at Namche Bazaar there was an ATM machine and we could get some money there as I did not have any extra to give him.  We made it to a village called Ghat that night.  I got turned around and did not get there till about 7:30pm.  When I got there all the people including the lodge owner were sleeping outside in tents as they were afraid of another earthquake.  

The lodge owner recommended us to also stay in a tent, and he had one set up that he would let us use.  But I prayed to Yahweh and flipped a coin and it came up that I should sleep in the lodge;  we were the only people that slept in the lodge that night.  The next day we hiked to a village called Monjo and then on Friday we hiked up to Namche Bazaar.  At Monjo, I ate a salad, but the next day I caught a cold, I had some garlic with me and it stopped the body pains but it did not stop the mucus from multiplying in my body.  Namche is the main hub of the whole Everest National park.  On the way to Namche we met so many trekkers that turned around and went back as they feared the earthquake.  About 90% of the trekkers went home.  All the expeditions to climb Everest were cancelled as an avalanche killed about 20 people.  Several houses and lodges were damaged but most were still open and so I continued on, giving out literature and witnessing all along the way.  I knew Yahweh had sent me to Nepal, thus I had no concern about the earthquake.   

 In Namche, Rohit’s parents had sent him some money, so I withdrew with at an ATM and he left me and went to a place called Lukla where there is an airport and he flew back to Kathmandu and somehow made it to India on his own. I was disappointed that he was leaving me, and being that his father had signed me as his temporary guardian till the end of May I was considering not giving him any money and keeping him with me.  But I prayed to Yahweh and flipped a coin and it came up that I should let him go. 

From Namche I went to a place called Mong where I kept the Sabbath day.  At the lodge an elderly man had two children who spoke English and I was able to discuss much with them.  The next day was Sabbath, May 2, 2015 and I went to a village called Phortse and distributed literature there and returned to Mong.  

That night it snowed a couple of inches.  On Sunday I hiked all day to a place called Marchermo, I am now at 4470 meter high(14,665 ft.) the oxygen is thin and I am having a hard time breathing especially as I have a cold.  

The next day I went to Gokyo and stayed at a lodge that had a library/bookstore and bakery.  I bought book about George Washington that I read that night.  It was inspiring to read his account of the revolutionary war. 

Many of the men did not have shoes or coats and it was in the middle winter when they were fighting the British.  Washington had given orders that anyone caught deserting would be shot.  But with the help of Yahweh they overcame the British.  In spite of me having a cold I was inspired as I rolled out of bed at 4am on May 5, and started up to the top of Gokyo Ri to see Everest and the surrounding high peaks.  I failed to take any water with me so I was eating the snow to stay hydrated.  

It was very cold climbing.  My hands were freezing even though I had two pairs of gloves on.  The beautiful lakes of Gokyo were mostly frozen over as this was the coldest year in twenty years.  After about three and a half hours I made it the six hundred meters or so up to the top of Gokyo Ri.  Gokyo Ri is about 5400 meters high.  Even though I was not carrying any pack, this was the hardest part of the trek for me as I had a cold and could not breathe properly.  

I was the first tourist to arrive there, later several others arrived.  When I arrived at the top there was a beautiful rainbow over the area.  After taking several pictures, I went back down and quickly packed and followed a local man that owned a lodge in a place called Dragnag and stayed at his lodge.   There is a high pass there called the Cho La Pass that will take you to the other side where the Everest base camp trail is, but I did not have enough money to go that route and so I went back down the next day on the other side of the valley.  

I ate lunch at a place called Thore and then hiked all day to a place called Phortse Tonga.  The next day I went back to Namche Bazaar, it was Thursday.  I could have left Namche on Friday morning but I wanted to keep Sabbath day there and pass out literature.  So on Friday I went up to a place called Khum jung where there is a School that Edmond Hillary founded.  It is the only school that goes up to tenth grade in that area.  At the school I met the principal and teachers and gave them all some literature.  The principal told me many interesting things about Nepal.  In Nepal it is not 2015 but 2072 as they start their count from the time of some great king that lived 2072 years ago in Kathmandu.  The school had been damaged by the earthquake and I helped Paco from Spain and Beade from Australia to do some minor repairs to the school.  At noon all the children started to go home, I asked why they were letting out so early.  I was told that all over Nepal that all schools and government business stop at 12 noon on Friday as all Nepal observes Saturday as an official government holiday.  They let out at noon on Friday to let them be prepared for the Saturday holiday.  Some have told me that the Nepali people have descended from the Hebrew tribe Naphtali. 

 

After the school let out I went to a restaurant and ate the common meal of dal bhat and headed back to Namche Bazaar where I kept the Sabbath on May 9.  I passed out many tracts on Sabbath day including some to school children and at the town library.  On Monday I hiked down to a place called Chandrikarta, there I stayed at a lodge of a man that worked at the airport in Lukla, he asked why I was walking back instead of flying, I told him I had left my tent and other items in Ringmo.  I had bought some more books when I was in Namche and the man noticed my pack was very heavy for a foreign tourist.  He offered to take some of my extra items and put them on a plane back to Kathmandu to save me some space and suffering.  I gave him about ten or eleven pounds of clothes and books in a bag that he sent to Kathmandu and I got later.  

The next day I hiked to a place called Bupsa, on the way there I found about five thousand five hundred Nepali rupees on the ground in a small village.  I could not find out who had dropped the money so I figured, finders keepers and went on my way.  I sure hoped a Nepali porter had not lost that.  The porters make about a thousand Nepali rupees per day($10) to carry a foreigners pack and so that represented about a weeks pay.  From Bupsa I started for a long day toward Ringmo.  On the way there, while I was on the trail near a place called Nuntala, the ground started to shake, a house in front of me started cracking but did not fall.  

I could hear avalanches of rocks up and down the valley and many people screaming.  But after about ten to fifteen seconds the shaking stopped and I went into Nuntala to eat, but no one would sell me food as they were afraid to go into their houses.  So someone quickly boiled me some tea and instant noodles and I continued on toward Ringmo.  I passed the Trakshindo La and descended at sundown to Ringmo and went back to the lodge Rohit and I had left the tent and other items in.  I retrieved the items and the next day I hiked to another road head called Salleri.  There I rented a shared jeep and went back to Kathmandu the next day.  On Friday in Kathmandu I picked up some items I had left at a lodge before the journey and also the items at the airport, then I reserved another shared jeep back to the border of India intending to leave on Sunday.  

I stayed in Kathmandu on Sabbath day, May 16.  I went out on Sabbath to see the town and distribute literature.  I was using my GPS on my mobile and walking through the various streets and I saw a lot of destruction.  Every street had one or two fallen houses.  Many people were living in make shift tents and tarps, many were trying to rebuild their houses, and there were many police and armored vehicles driving everywhere.  I knew that if a foreigner started going and passing out literature or anything there it would likely attract a lot of attention.  Many people were in a desperate condition and it did not feel right for me to give tracts in that situation.  So I prayed to Yahweh and tossed a coin and it came up that I should not distribute literature at that time.  

On Sunday I took a jeep to the border.  I had some difficulties on that journey and so I went back to Kathmandu.  During the journey I lost my android cell I had brought from America and taken so many pictures and videos with.  The upcoming weekend was Shavuot weekend for me, so I went back to the suburb of Banepa and kept Sabbath with the SDA’s and witnessed to many and during this time I gave out the remaining 400 tracts I had.  I thought maybe I had these difficulties because Yahweh wanted me to give my remaining tracts out before I left.  On May 25, 2015 I left by flight from Kathmandu to Hyderabad, India. 

As I compare this trek with the one I had in 2001, I enjoyed this one more.  Even though it was colder, the cold was better than the large amount of rain that I had in 2001.  The ideal time to go I think would be in the month of May, right before the rainy season starts, as it would be warmer but not rainy.  

In spite of the challenges, I thoroughly enjoyed the mission journey to Nepal and look forward to another in the future, maybe going with a translator and giving Bibles along the way.  

                                                             Tony B. Suckla

                                                             June 20, 2015