Kathmandu came first. I stayed two days near Boudhanath before going anywhere else, and it is a good place to lose track of time. I walked the same circle every evening and never got tired of it.
On the trail the day starts in the dark and the cold. Above Narchyang, in the Annapurna region, you wait for the sun with real impatience. Once it reaches you, everything else about the morning improves.
The route toward Everest is not one landscape. Mud one day, rain the next, snow after that. On the narrow sections you learn quickly which side of the path to stand on, and you do not argue.
Gokyo Ri was the high point and I remember very little of the climb itself. Later, in Dhulikhel, everything was easier to hold onto. It was lower, warmer, and the first place where I slept properly in weeks.
