Trek day 4 - Acclimatization day in Namche

October 3rd

After three days of exhausting walking over rough terrain, it was nice to have a day off to just stroll around, explore the town of Namche, and enjoy the impressive scenery.

Good morning!  What a view from our window!  This mountain here is Kwangde Ri (19,700 feet).

Thamserku (21,680 feet) is also visible from our window!

Time to go explore the town.  Here's some manure drying on the rock wall to be used later as fuel.

 

We wandered leisurely up the hill.  Here's a view down to the stupa at the bottom of the bowl.

There is a small monestary in Namche.  Here's Mandi ready to check it out.

I agree.  Let's see what's inside.

This statue is of Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism.

A few items used in prayer and meditation.

All of these cubby holes hold boxes of hand-written prayer manuscripts.  Despite the large number of prayer manuscripts, there is actually just one monk at the Namche monestary.

Spinning the prayer wheels on the way out.

The impossibly-steep terraced fields of Namche.

View of the whole town from above.

We're up at the level of the clouds!

Mandi, a Mani stone, and a little bit of Thamserku peeking through the clouds.

The steep, snowy slopes of Thamserku.

Our walk took us to the Sherpa culture and history museum.  Here are some antique kitchen implements.  There is a mortar and pestle on the left for grinding spices, and the tall barrel in the middle is for brewing Chang, the local rice beer.

Antique pots and pans.

After the Sherpa museum, we wandered down to the lowest point in Namche to see what the local children were up to.  Here are some children playing in the mud.  The girls are pretending that they are doing what some local adults are doing not far away - washing clothes in the river.

The ideal spot for kite flying!

This little girl decided that she loved Mandi.

New friend!

Trek day 3 - Monjo to Namche Bazaar

October 2nd

This was the big day!  From Monjo at 9,300 feet to Namche Bazaar at 11,300 feet.  For folks from the Northwest, compare the elevation of Namche to that of Mt. Hood (11,240 feet) and you'll get the idea that we're way up in the mountains!  At this height, you definitely can feel the effects of the rarefied air.  Breathing is more difficult and you tire easily (unless you are a Sherpa - or a zobkyo).  Since we are neither Sherpa or zobkyo, especially after a steep 5-hour climb made up of too many stairs to count we were rather exhausted and sore.  We were made especially tired by the fact that our assistant Sherpa guides took us on too long and steep an acclimatization hike the day before in Monjo.

Another one of the many scary suspension bridges.  Pretty frightening from this angle.

This is how meat is transported in the Khumbu region.  This porter basket is full of some part of a water buffalo which is clearly not under refrigeration.  Occasionally when porters would pass us carrying buffalo, we would be accosted by the combined smell of "ripe" meat, sweat, and smoke (people in the Khumbu cook with wood indoors and the smell permeates many porters' clothes).

Here's what's left of an old suspension bridge.  Most likely my family crossed this bridge on our trek back in 1986.

Gourav- the trek leader, and Kaji- one of the assistant Sherpas.

The most ridiculous and insane bridge of the whole trip.  It's probably somewhere around 300 feet above the river.

A slightly closer look at the bridge.  You can use the zobkyo crossing the bridge to get and idea of the height.

After crossing the bridge and going up some steep steps, we get our first view of Mt. Everest!!!

The trail is incredibly steep over rocky, uneven steps.

After so many steep steps, this is not a happy smile.  It's more of a "the camera is pointing at me so I have to try to smile" smile.  Or perhaps a "my feet are blistered but I'm going to smile anyways" smile.

Finally, after much effort, we reach Namche!  The town of Namche Bazaar is situated in a bowl on the side of the valley.

The bottom of the bowl just seems to end in a sheer cliff.  This is the most popular area for the local children to fly their kites.

It's cold up here at 11,300 feet!  Here's Mandi bundled up in front of a store that's selling various items to tourists.  Interestingly, almost every store in Namche seemed to have pretty much the same selection.  This includes jewelry, prayer wheels, statues, singing bowls, clothing, and prayer flags.

At the end of the day, Mandi gets to recount the horror of the steep steps to Namche in her journal.

Trek day 2 - Phakding to Monjo

October 1st

We hiked from Phakding to the town of Monjo and gained the 1000 feet that we lost the day before.  Monjo is the last town before the steep uphill to Namche Bazaar - the largest town in the Khumbu region.

Here is our first scary suspension bridge of the trek.  There are many deep valleys and river crossings on the trek and they are spanned by long, swaying suspension bridges.

Getting mentally ready for the suspension bridge.

All right - we made it across bridge.  On the other side of the valley was a house under construction.  Most of the buildings in the Khumbu region have thick stone walls - often just made of stones stacked together with no mortar in between.

Here is a man chiseling granite by hand into a rectangular shape to add to the wall.  It's a lot of work!

We're definitely going up today!

Here is one of our porters carrying 3 peoples' luggage.  Mandi's bag is #155 and mine is #184.  The porter is taking a break.  Notice the walking stick underneath the basket, taking the load off his head and back.  Generally during the course of a day, we will play leap-frog with various porters.  When a porter is taking a break, we walk past.  Then, despite carrying over 60 pounds, the porters are so strong that they can speed by us.

Taking a little rest break myself with a great view of the Dudh Khosi.

For much of the trek - and particularly this portion - we pass many waterfalls.  Here's Mandi enjoying the nature.

Enjoying the view up the valley to Thamserku (21,680 feet) "That's a big mountain!"

With us out of the way of the camera, there's the Dudh Khosi there too!

Close-up of Thamserku.

Another beautiful waterfall.

Gourav, our guide, at one the tea house where we stopped for morning tea.

One of the young locals looking out if a window.  This wooden house was unusual as most buildings are made of stone.

More picture-perfect waterfalls!

Along the trail, there are many built-up areas for porters to take a load off.  Notice the straps that are hanging down - they go over the porter's head...

... similar to this!  Mothers in the Khumbu carry their babies in baskets that are also strapped to their heads.  This baby looks nicely bundled-up and comfortable!