Everest Trek Day 12: Namche Bazaar to Lukla

  Lukla, Nepal
Sunday, December 9, 2007

Namche Bazaar (3440m) -> Lukla (2840m)

It almost felt balmy in the room this morning. 0 degrees Celsius will feel that way when you are used to freezing temperatures. Furthermore, Mazen was breathing a lot easier. At last we were feeling more comfortable and it took the sanctuary of this place (Namche Bazaar) for us to reach this state of Utopia. Now if only they hadn't run out of apple pie.

Namche Bazaar

Mountains of Namche Bazaar

The night before, we each had a slice of the apple pie that we had been dreaming about since leaving Namche Bazaar the first time. But that wasn't enough and I felt it was appropriate to over-indulge so I was going to enjoy another piece to supplement my breakfast this morning. But perhaps it was better for me that they had ran out. In any case, the rice pudding with cinnamon was delicious and a very welcome change from my usual egg randomly prepared.

We said goodbye to Namche Bazaar and began heading down towards the valley. Mazen was feeling better and I was feeling great. It's an amazing feeling when you've been acclimitized to a higher altitude and you come down to a lower altitude. The air feels so rich. You almost feel like you have the energy to pull trees out of the ground.

I was thoroughly enjoying this day. I felt strong, the air was warm, there were many people on the path which was a change, the sound of the glacial river filled our ears, the pine-like trees were tall and sheltered us from the sun, the gentle breeze blowing through my hair (well, at least blowing off my scalp). It also just felt good descending.

Everest and I

Last view of Everest

I remember ascending towards Namche Bazaar and onwards over a week ago and seeing trekkers coming down after having completed their hikes to Kala Patthar or Everest Base Camp or both. They looked so jovial and completely satisfied. Now I was one of those people.

At one point early on in the day I came across a view point and I was able to have one last view of Everest. I now recalled stopping here, over a week ago, on our way to Namche Bazaar since at that point it was our very first view of Everest. The mountain seemed so far away already even though it had only been 48 hours since I had been at the summit of Kala Patthar.

There were stores at many places along our trek but on this stretch they were particularly plentiful. They have your usual assortment of chocolate bars, pop, pringles and beer. I don't know what hit me but all of a sudden I felt like I should have a Fanta Orange (similar to Orange Crush). I had been so careful not to drink things like pop or beer and not to eat junk (except for that apple pie of course) that it felt odd that now I would give in. But I tell you it tasted like the best damn pop I'd ever had. I can still distinctly remember the taste in my mouth, the sound of the river and the sun's warmth on my face as I closed my eyes and tipped the bottle up to drink it down. I don't even really drink pop normally but at that moment that liquid sugar explosion in my mouth felt like heaven.

Glacial River

Religious Paintings

We stopped in Phak Ding for lunch. This is the town where we had stayed our first night of the trek. It seemed ages ago since we had been here last but at the same time it didn't seem that long at all.

We actually ate outside on the patio which was a first for us for this trek. We ordered momos and were pleasantly surprised by the large size of them. Heck we didn't even have to tell them to super-size it.

Possibly the only frustrating thing today was that Noori our porter literally had disappeared. He went ahead of us when we started and at some point he just kept walking at sherpa speed and we didn't see him again until we got to Phak Ding. That irritated us a bit as what would have happened if we had to stop some where or if something had happened along the way. All the medication, for example, was stored in the packs he was carrying.

Greenery

Me and some prayers

This was quite unusual for him to do this as typically he stuck closer to us. I think perhaps he was eager to see his family again after being away for over a week. We actually only found out a couple of nights ago, through the help of a translater, that he has a wife and 3 kids. So that was likely his reasoning.

Anyways, it was impossible for him to explain his situation to us and our irrations to him but in the end it wasn't particulary detrimental as he literally saved our backs by carrying our packs during our trek. Besides, he was a good guy. We had heard a couple of horror stories along the way with porter. One girl we had met told us that her porter almost hit her and then he walked away with some of her stuff (including her plane ticket). Another girl we came across fired her porter only a few days into her trek as this porter was being quite unreasonable. Overall though, I think most of the porters are good and we were fortunate to have one of the good porters along with us for the trek.

Coming into Lukla

Sun Setting in Lukla

It seemed to take quite a while getting from Phak Ding to Lukla but we were taking our time. We were truly enjoying our last day of the trek. We arrived in Lukla just as it was getting dark and noticed that the main road (well, the only road) had been torn up and there were mounds of dirt every where. Looks as though during our absence they decided to put plumbing or sewage in place. In any case it made our search for guest houses in Lukla a little bit of a challenge as we tried to avoid not falling into this deep trench.

The place we found for the night was fantastic. Easily the best place we stayed at during our trek. The room itself was still basic but it was fine. I think it was the restaurant that really gave me a warm fuzzy. It was very nicely done up and the menu itself was making my mouth water.

We met a couple of individuals who were part of a group of four. These two each owned their own adventure travel companies and had just come back from flying around the area in a helicopter. These guys were obviously doing quite well but still they were down to earth. They were spending the night here and the next day they would take the helicopter back to Kathmandu.

Restaurant in Lukla

Yak Steak

They were all enjoying some fine drinks while conversing away and being at a neighbouring table we couldn't help but easedrop. One particular topic that we overheard was that of firewood and where they obtain it from since it is illegal to chop wood for firewood within the park boundaries. One of the native Nepalese men was explaining to the two adventure company owners that the only wood that is used for burning is what is found as driftwood. However, this conversation topic came to an untimely end when Mazen interjected. The conversation went something like this:

Nepalese man: "Trees are not cut for firewood within the National Park. Only driftwood is used if wood is used at all for fire."
Mazen: "Actually, many of the porters that we saw over the recent days were carrying wood and it was chopped and definitely did not look like driftwood. We saw a few of these porters actually carrying axes themselves. In fact, we saw one individual using an axe to chop a tree and he was only metres from the main trekking path. I couldn't help but take a picture of him."
Nepalese man: "Oh."
...akward silence...

The Nepalese guy was probably thinking "shut up foreigner" but Mazen was absolutely correct. In any case, one of the adventure company owners started talking about how wrong it would be to cut the wood and the discussion lasted perhaps a little bit longer but the topic was soon changed.

Mazen, me, restaurant

Dinner was served! After spending so many days crossing paths with multitudes of yaks I felt the time had come to sit down and sample one. So I had ordered the yak steak with fries and vegetables. It came out sizzling and it was delicious. I can still taste it.

The perfect meal to end a fabulous last day of a fantastic trek.