Here it is! Week #2 (otherwise known as days 8-14)
I'm not sure what the reason was, but the people that ran the lodge in Bupsa made me feel more like a nuisance than a guest. They weren't mean. They just gave off a feeling like I was inconveniencing them by staying there. Quite a contrast to the "guest as god" mentality most other places have. Anyway, I didn't take long to get ready the next morning and start trekking. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and conclude that some horrible tragedy must have occurred in the family recently.
The hike was a bit steep this day and had some great views. After about 5 hours I stopped for a cup of tea and a bowl of ramen noodles in Surkhe. From here it was another two hours to Chablung, my planned destination for the day. When I got there I was still feeling good so I continued on for another hour to the village of Ghat.
At Chablung the trail merges with the trail from Lukla where people fly in to. Automatically I started seeing more people on the trail than I had seen total for the past week. I can't imagine what the trail used to be like before people got scared to come to Nepal. I read in a book that up to 300 trekkers used to fly in per day. I wouldn't have even come if that was the case.
It was about 3PM when I stopped in Ghat and found a lodge. I took an immediate liking to the owners who spent much of their day handing out free juice to the multitude of porters heading up the valley to Namche Bazaar and beyond. The work these porters do is a amazing. Imagine hauling 50 kg. of supplies for rich tourists for 12-16 hours everyday. What's most amazing is when I hear them laughing and joking along the way. Remarkable people.
After a cup of tea I had a conversatino with a monk about numerous things. Maoists, porters, karma, etc. etc.. Then I took some time to plan out the next couple of weeks. Once again, its a good thing I'm travelling alone since my itinerary is subject to very frequent changes.
For dinner, like most other nights, I ate whatever the owner was planning on making for her family so I wouldn't be of any inconvenience. Most lodges are just extensions of people's homes. It seems to be a gesture which is appreciated and a majority of the times we end up eating daal bhat which is exactly what I would have ordered. After eating I talked a little more with the same monk as before then went to bed.
I was going to order breakfast the next morning but it took the owners quite a while to wake up. Instead I just got a cup of tea and poured some muesli and instant coffee into it. Not a bad breakfast.
The walke this day took about 4 1/2 hours and was a bit difficult ascending about 900m. As I progressed along it was quite obvious who had flown in when I would pass them effortlessly. I've developed a good method over the past few weeks of trekking. Walking slowly but only stopping for a break every 3 hours or so. I may stop for a quick breather once in a while, but most of the time I maintain my pace and just keep going.
I arrived in Namche Bazaar around noon and found a place to stay. Namche is the epicenter of the Khumbu region of Nepal. There have to be at least 20 lodges scattered around the hillside with an equal or great number of shops. In its hayday this was quite the happening place. Now its a village full of empty lodges and shopowners wondering when the tourists are going to start pouring in again.
I took advantage of the overstocked shops and relatively cheap prices buying some candy bars, toilet paper, a large novelty sombrero, and sunscreen. Essential items for high altitude trekking. In the afternoon I made a few adjustments to my "planned" itinerary and here's what I came up with: First, I'll trek up to Everest Base camp and hike up to Kala Pattar(5500m) for some great views. Next, I'll cross over Cho La Pass(5330m) to Gokyo where I'll stay for a couple of days hiking up the valley and taking a day trip up to the top of Gokyo Ri (5360m) for some more views of Big mountains. After wandering around Gokyo for a few days I''l cross Renjo La Pass (5345m) then head south to the village of Thami before returning to Namche Bazaar and starting back to Kathmandu. I may fly back to Kathmandu since my VISA runs out in early june. I'd rather walk back, but time constraints may give me no other option. What I've just written should take about 2 weeks to do, maybe more if acclimatization takes longer than I first planned.
The rest of my afternoon in Namche Bazaar was spent reading and roaming the streets. Namche didn't appeal to me very much. It's just too big. During my wandering I stopped to share some boiled potatos with some guys sitting in a field then walked along a trail that does a half circle around ridge of the village. On a hill overlooking Namche Bazaar is a military post. I observed the happenings there long enough for the gate guards to get suspicious then walked back down to the guesthouse for some dinner.
The higher I go the more expensive food gets and smaller portions are given. In the beginning of this trek I could be satisfied by ordering one dinner dish. By this point in the trek however I was being forced to order to meals to fill myself up. Anyways, that's not important information, just something to mention. Now back to the IMPORTANT stuff. This night I had one serving of veg. fried rice and one serving of fried potatoes with egg. I would have eaten the same thing as the family, but they were strangely evasive about what they would have for dinner.
This day marked my fourth month in Nepal. In less than a month the Nepali gov't would be kicking me out and forcing me to seek refuge in India. Things wouldn't literally be like that, but I like putting it that way. I've enjoyed and benefited from my time here. I don't look forward to leaving, but I look forward to India. Poor me! What a difficult life I must lead.
Namche Bazaar marks the entrance to the big mountains. I took advantage of a clear morning and left early to get good views of the "bigguns". First I walked up the ridge surrounding Namche Bazaar and down the other side to the Sherpa village of Kumjung. A beautiful town nestled in a small valley with a large mountain towering above. After a cup of tea I headed east to meet back up with the main trail. A young kid gave me bad directions and I ended up having to slowly make my way straight down a hillside to rejoin the main trail. Well, maybe my Nepali was bad and not the kids directions.
When I found the trail I followed it downhill to a bridge then continued uphill after crossing. It took about 1 1/2 hours after the bridge and 5 hours total to reach Tengboche at 3860m. I walked around looking for a place to stay and settled at "The Trekker's Lodge". I'm a trekker. Why not stay there?
The views here were amazing. The weather stayed clear until the afternoon offering great looks at some of the most popular Nepali mountains such as Nuptse, Thamserku, Ama Dablam, and Everest.
At 1PM I headed to the massive Tengboche Monastery to observe the monks perform their afternoon puja. It was, to put it very basically, a two hour prayer filled with chanting, horn blowing, tea drinking, and drum banging. It was much more than that, but I don't know how else to describe it. The dedication these monks have is remarkable.
I convinced the owner of "The Trekker's Lodge" to let me have two plates of daalbhat instead of just one. The two of ust got along well so it didn't take much persuading. During and after dinner I had some interesting talks with Jay and Donnelly, two middle aged travellers and full time partiers from California. Not a bad couple of guys, but I kept telling myself "I hope I don't turn out like these guys in 30 years".
The views were unbelievable the next morning. In every direction were snow capped giants humbling me. To the east were the Hinku Himal, the north the Mahalangur Himal, the the west the Khumuche Himal, and down south the Kiashar Himal. The wind shooting across the top of Everest made me wonder why anyone would ever want to go there.
Knowing that I only had about 4 hours of walking ahead of me I took my time getting ready and enjoyed the fantastic surrounding scenery. I finally set off around 9AM. My latest start yet. The great weather held up til the later afternoon again making my walk from Tengboche to Dingboche (4350m) a glorious one. Other than a few steep parts the trail ascended pretty smoothly and went by quickly. I could see the altitude taking its toll on some of the other trekkers who looked like they were in quite a bit of pain slugging it up the valley. I even saw one woman who was crying. I don't know what she was crying about. As for me, maybe it was the hypoxia creating a feeling of euphoria, but I felt great the whole day.
The day before I had run into the owner of a lodge in Dingboche and he told me that he would let me sleep at his place for free if I came. The only catch was that I had to eat all of my food at the lodge, something I always do anyways. Lots of lodges in the region give the same deal as long as you ask nicely, and even better if you ask in Nepali. So, I chose to stay at this place when I got to Dingboche. The guy's wife was adorable and quite the character.
For lunch I ate a bowl of vegetable soup then climbed up a nearby ridge where some buddhist chortens had been built. I sat down next to a large boulder to block the wind and watched the clouds gather around Ama Dablam. Its amazing the way these enormous mountains seem to grab the clouds as they try and sneek by.
The clouds started to roll in more quickly and a light hail and snow began to fall so I walked back down to the lodge. After an afternoon of reading I talked with an Israeli trekker for a while then had some fried potatoes and vegetables for dinner.
The following morning I climbed up the same ridge as the day before for a clear morning view of the sunrise. At this point in the trek I had to start paying close attention to how high I ascended in each day. To avoid acclimatization problems one should ascend no more than about 300-400m per 24 hour period. At least that's what the experts say. It's actually ok to go higher, just not sleep higher than 300-400m higher than the night before. This means much shorter days of trekking and a lot more relaxing in the lodge. My walk on this day only took 2 hours. I stopped in Chukkung.
Chukkung is an addition to the itinerary I wrote out before. Instead of going directly to Everest Base Camp I decided to add a few days of fun to my trek. From Chukkung I would hike up a 5550m peak for a good view of white mountains then cross the Kongma La pass (5535m) the next day and rejoin the main trail to Everest Base Camp.
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