Everest Trek Day 11: Pheriche to Namche Bazaar

  Namche Bazaar, Nepal
Saturday, December 8, 2007

Pheriche (4240m) -> Namche Bazaar (3440m)

Ah, nothing like -5 degrees Celsius in the room to give that refreshing start to the morning. Wait, let me check on Mazen. Nope, he did not get a good night's sleep. So let's take account here, we've come down a few hundred metres in altitude and still Mazen is not sleeping well and moreover it's still freezing in the room. Nothing has changed! I thought Mazen was supposed to feel better and it should be warmer!

Fortunately our plan today was to drop another 800m in altitude so hopefully that will make things better on all fronts. Our planned destination was Namche Bazaar. This is quite a pleasant place to stay for a day or two during a trek. We were there for two nights earlier in the trek and we were both looking forward to staying there tonight. It's got quite a few more amenities that other places along this trek don't have. Specifically, I couldn't wait to have another slice of that apple pie from one of the many bakeries there.

Room with a view

Three amigos

Even though we were essentially backtracking along the same trails that we came along on the way up, it still awe-inspired me. Perhaps it was the different perspective that we were seeing because we were making the return trip now. Or perhaps it could have been something to do with the fact that my body knew that the trek was almost over and it was already starting to celebrate. Whatever it was it felt truly fantastic taking in the scenary and being upbeat about going in a generally downhill direction. Well, I suppose I'm speaking for myself because Mazen still felt like crap.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the views of Everest, Ama Dablam and other mountains although as the day wore on these mountains would be getting more distant all the time. It was equally wonderful seeing trees again as we started to dip below the tree line once again. Who would have thought that we would get so excited by seeing this much vegetation again?

It had obviously snowed here recently, quite likely from the same storm that we experienced a few days back. Looks like much of the snow hadn't melted yet as the shade was helping to prevent that.

Mountains2

Mountains1

It took us 3 hours to arrive in Tengboche. It was nice to have a 2nd look (at least form the outside) of the monestary here and I enjoyed watching the monks (all in there monk garb) playing a pick-up game of soccer.

So our plan was to try to make it to Namche Bazaar but as the day progressed that seemed less probable since it took us a long time to reach Tengboche. It would be still another 4 hours to Namche Bazaar and much of this is an uphill slog. The two factors that we would have to consider is that Mazen is in bad shape and may not physically be able to make it and secondly we don't want to hike in the dark if hiking continues to be at a slow pace.

We decide to push on towards Namche Bazaar. If it appears that we will not make it there then we should be able to find a place along the way to stay.

Cows

Ama Dablam

Last night Yuko, the Japanese lady, suggested that Mazen rent a horse so that he can ride it to Namche Bazaar. I didn't think that was a bad idea actually but Mazen didn't entertain this idea for very long. As much discomfort he was in I guess he couldn't bear the thought of riding a horse into Namche Bazaar.

He was kicking himself now though as he thought, in hindsight, why didn't he ask to be air-lifted from Loboche? It was a painful descent from there for him and it was going to be challenging for him to make it to Namche Bazaar so maybe there would have been a valid argument for Mazen to have take a helicopter from Loboche to any where lower. Although, from what I could gather from him, I think half of his purpose for getting air-lifted would have been for his health. The other half would have been to get a nice view of the mountains from the helicopter, well at least as much as one can see from a stretcher. It was a moot point now anyways as we were too far away from Loboche to try to make it back there for a helicopter. Besides he couldn't have been serious about that. Was he?

Porters

Everest

After lunch in Tengboche we raced down the hill towards the bottom of the valley but then the uphill hit us like a wall and it was slow from there. As the afternoon wore on clouds began to roll in. Worse still, the clouds eventually completely engulfed us and I was having a deja vu feeling from when I was engulfed in clouds when the storm blew in a few days before. So this was not making me feel particularly good.

Fortunately, as threatening as these clouds seemed it did not bring rain or snow. Regardless, it unconciously made me quicken my pace.

At one point a few hours into the afternoon we came across a stupa that looked rather familiar. Mazen recognized it as being a stupa that we had passed as we had just left Namche Bazaar back about a week ago. This meant that we couldn't be far away and sure enough, after a few hopeful bends we entered Namche Bazaar. We arrived before 5pm so just before it really started to get dark. It felt noticeably warmer here. Finally, a place where the mercury may not dip below zero at night.

Bridges

Snow fall

We had some bonus entertainment this evening though. In the lodge that we were staying there was a gentleman from the U.K. who was staying in Namche Bazaar for a few months. That intrigued Mazen more than it did myself so he wanted to find out what this guys story was. The English guy then proceeded to talk to Mazen for well over an hour. I was able to escape from this quite early fortunately and I got the synopsis later on. Apparently this guy is a journalist who had left the U.K. some time ago. Through his travels he felt his articles were not being published and a couple of times there have been attempts on his life. Oh yeah, also he is being persued by many intelligence agencies including the CIA, M6 and the NSA. The CIA corrupted the hard drive on his computer and the NSA crashed the web server form where his website was available. So now he was in Namche Bazaar explaining all this sensitive information to my friend Mazen. This Brit blamed the U.K. for much of his problems but this guy had it all figured out and was now going to now get back at the U.K. He had a plan. He was going to now reject his U.K. citizenship. Oh no anything but that!!

Monks playing soccer

Monestary at Tengboche

The only thing the Brit forgot to mention was that he was clincially nuts. Did I mention that apparently he hasn't bathed in months because instead of bathing he uses those "wet napkins" to wash up?

Anyways, like I said, our entertainment for the evening.

Actually, although not necessarily related this reminds me of another individual that we met while in Dughla a few nights ago. He was Tibetan and Mazen was interested to know how he crossed the border into Nepal from Tibet and vice-versa as it would be a border that this gentleman would have to cross frequently.

Hygeinic Delcious

Child Labour

Mazen: "You are able to cross from Tibet into Nepal without problems?"
Tibetan: "Well, sometimes there are problems."
Mazen: "What do you mean by 'problems'?"
Tibetan: "Well, sometimes we get shot at by the Chinese".

I will never again complain about the line-up delays when crossing into the U.S.

Collapsed bridge

Wood