I went to the Himalayas in the 90's.
I went to about 5600m on Kala Patar - across from Everest and probably a bit lower than Base Camp.
Great spot - it is a small peak in the middle of an immense valley surrounded by Everest and all the high Mountains.
I was lucky and had clear skies all the way up from a lowland village called Hille.
We walked for 33 days to acclimatise.
*the reason why the tracks are not 'straight up' is to help acclimatisation. If you get altitude sickness, its like being bent like a Scuba Diver ascending too fast - it can KILL !
Many 'rich' people with more money than sense fly into Lukla and start off there, but its not a wise thing to do.
Kathmandu is full of drugs. The Prince was off his scone on cocaine and machined gunned his royal family at the dinner table. Marijuana 'trees' grow everywhere. It's full of 'hippies' - some of which are still trapped in time since the 60's.
There are 3 Religions in Nepal: Buddhism (high lands), Hinduism (lowlands) & Tourism (everywhere).
Trekkers are everywhere in the Mountains and you will pass hundreds on those narrow little tracks every day.
Kathmandu is a filthy dirty place, due to the Indian influence.
The Mountains is also dirty, mostly to Tourism leaving its rubbish everywhere - especially the rich Mountaineers who just dump their leftovers after their climb all around Base Camp.
I had a great experience. The first week nearly killed me (because a few weeks previously I was smoking pot as usual with mates: stood up and said I was going out for a walk. They never saw me again for a few months ...nor did they notice
) - but by the end of the trek, I was a lean, mean walking machine.
I visited many Monastries, learned to eat chilli food and more.
Sitting in one Monastry: an old lady brings an Italian Trekker/Tourist in and shows him a wooden box. He gives her some Rupee and she opens it up to give him a skull-coconut looking thing. He looks over it like a Scientist and then hands it back. He walks out, she puts it back and closes the lid ...then winks
at me. She got another 'sucker' for the YETI skull.
The reason why Budhist monks sit on the floor in Monastries is because their heads are under the cloud of incence smoke above.
It was a great, live-enhancing experience and I recommend it highly. I was lucky my mate working at Parramatta Station managed to 'nick over' to the Kodak store that had just been broken into and grab me over x100 roles of film which he sold to me for $100. I certainly clicked away up there and got heaps of great photos (pre-digital) as if I had a digital.
As an Australia - where everything is so FLAT here. It was simply awesome seeing those mountains, so clear and immense. Even a Pyramid could not compete with their sheer size and presence.
I could write for ages about being up there.
But truly, it is a true 'adventure' in a very simple way.