Adventure Junkie blogger Kraig Becker recently returned from a trek to Everest Base Camp, and is writing a mini series of tales from the front for Gadling.

His first and introductory post, Himalayan High: A Trek to Everest Base Camp, came out earlier this week, and his second, Kathmandu – Gateway to the Himalaya, appears today.

Becker, who you can also follow via Twitter at KungFuJedi, is one of those casual, sentence-fragment writers who manages to share his wealth of knowledge about all sorts of adventure goings-on around the world without talking down to his readers. He also turns out to be a natural photographer (see above pic). In his musings on the chaos of 21st Century Kathmandu, he maintains a perspective on his place in the gateway to the world’s greatest mountain range:

All of these experiences in Kathmandu, both good and bad, are just a prelude to what really brings you to Nepal. A Himalayan adventure of a lifetime. In my case, that meant a trek to Everest Base Camp and a once in a lifetime hike through the most incredible scenery on the planet. Soon, I would trade the heat and smog of the city for clear blue skies, roaring glacial rivers, and incredibly thin mountain air. Something I was more than ready to experience after two days in the Nepali capital.

And in the end, we’re probably all better-equipped to handle the complexities of modern civilization after escaping to – and surviving – the parts of the world that remain so lightly tread.