ni21-35_dogandlion.jpg ni22-19_photoOpGuru.jpg Ah yes, the sadhus (holy men) of Nepal and India. I’ve no doubt there are many that have acquired a spiritual quality, or a special insight, from their chosen path of life. That said . . . well, of the ones I saw, some were obviously touched in the head, some were clearly scammers, and some . . . well, I dubbed this guy the “photo op guru.” Comes out all duded up, looking like the quintessential Eastern holy man to all the new-in-town Westerners, raises his right hand, cameras snap, and he requests a few rupees. I, however, got there just as the thin beam of setting sun was hitting his face and vestments, and the sacred cow was crossing. So I got more than my money’s worth. ni22-17_PinheadBrother.jpg ni22-29_LhakpaGoesHome.jpg ni22-27_YaksInGreen.jpg ni23-33_2hikers.jpg I went with these two guys, whom I met back in Namche Bazaar, on a day hike to the Everest View Hotel. It’s the only luxury hotel in the Himalayan range. Its clientele are those who want to be in the heart of the most spectacular mountains in the world, but don’t want to (or can’t) do all the rugged outdoorsy stuff to get there. For US$150 a night they’ll fly you by helicopter to a flat field a mile or so below the hotel, where staff will meet you with horses to carry you up to the hotel. There’s oxygen, should you need it, at the hotel. Anyway, my two friends and I wanted to spend a little time on its Everest-facing porch. Lunch there was way out of our budget, so we ordered a pot of their locally famous hot chocolate. It ran us the equivalent of four or five bucks US—enough for dinner for the three of us back in Namche. But the experience was worth it. Here (in the picture) are my two friends walking just a little bit further into Everest country from the hotel. ni24-10_Menu.jpg ni24-36_fenceShadows.jpg ni25-12_approachGokyo5Lake.jpg ni25-29_ChoOyu.jpg NI16-14_MeAtopGokyoRi.jpg set personal altitude records three times during this trip. This was the last one, the record that still stands: the top of Gokyo Ri, somewhere between 17,500 and 18,000 feet above sea level. Gokyo Ri is a hill that rises 2000’ from Gokyo, the last yak-herding/trekker-lodging village on the Gokyo Valley trail. Beyond Gokyo, the valley turns to nothing but glacial rubble swept by frigid winds off the Tibetan Plateau.

That highest peak on the horizon is Mt. Everest. It’s only from this altitude that I could really see the predominance of Everest. Viewed from down in the valley, it’s flanked by peaks that look higher only because they’re closer. From the vantage point shown in this picture, a British fellow trekker named Giles was able to visually trace, and describe to me, the route used by Hillary and Tenzing on their first successful ascent of the mountain.

The night before in Gokyo, I’d set personal sleeping-altitude and drunk-altitude records (approx. 15,500’). A couple from St. Moritz, Switzerland celebrated their arrival at their trekking destination with a plastic bottle of Johnny Walker Red, which they shared with four or five others they’d been walking with. As if two or three shots at 15,500’ weren’t enough, the innkeeper announced a few minutes later that he was celebrating his son’s first birthday back in Kathmandu—and presented us with another bottle of the exact same thing. I guess alcohol at that altitude leaves the system as quickly as it enters the system, since I felt surprisingly okay the next morning. ni28-14_MonksAndGuitar.jpg ni29-11GangesDawn.jpg ni29-17GhatFromBoat.jpg ni29-13ganges_umbrellas.jpg ni29-22BoatOnGangesAtDawn.jpg Several of the best photographs I’ve ever taken (in my opinion) were shot on a single morning in December of 1994. My first morning in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, I was up and dressed before dawn to see the bathing rituals on the banks of the Ganges. Although it wasn’t as serene an experience as it could have been for me—being a conspicuously tall, pale fellow surrounded by constant calls of “Sir! Boat! Boat! Only ten rupees!”—I did take in some ethereally gorgeous sights as the thick mist slowly lifted. Some of these sights I managed to even capture on film. y ni29-24MePujad.jpg ni29-38Hindu8x10s.jpg ni30-06EggplantVendor.jpg ni30-03SadhusOnSteps.jpg