Namche Bazaar to Tengboche

Elevation 3860 m

We walked for 5 hours and went about 12 km. The trail was fairly level until the last couple of hours and the went uphil quite steeply. Once again the scenery is breathtaking. We arrived about 2:30 pm and were quite chilled. The tea house was small but comfortable and reasonably clean by Nepal standards.

There is a monastery in the village and at 3:00 pm there was a ceremony that was open to the public. Jon and I and Bijay got there and were invited inside to sit on thin pieces of foam around the outside walls. The monks gradually came in, picked up thick heavy robes and sat down cross-legged on cushions on solid benches. It seemed like there were one or two monks who were leading and they took turns starting off with some chanting that the others would repeat. They speak Tibetan. There were only about 7 or 8 monks there and it looked like there was room for at least twice that. It was very cool to watch but we had to leave before it was over because it was cold inside the building and we were slowly getting chilled to the bone.

We went straight to the dining room which was toasty warm and drank some hot tea to warm up. I have been ordering "hot lemon" which I think is just lemonade warmed up. Our guide advised us not to drink coffee or too much tea as they are diuretics and dehydration is a big problem at altitude. As we were having tea Bijay called us outside. The clouds had cleared a bit, the sun was setting and were able to catch a glimpse of Sagarmatha (Everest) poking out behind another mountain.

Although the dining room was warm the air was difficult to breath. The dining rooms all seem to have the same types of stoves in which they burn dried yak poo! They open a lid on top of the stove to add more poo. When they open this lid smoke escapes into the room. In addition, wood or more yak poo was being used for cooking. There was a flimsy little cloth hanging in the doorway to the kitchen to screen the view from the dining room. The cloth did nothing to prevent the smoke from the kitchen from wafting into the dining room. So the combination of yak poo, and cooking smoke created quite a lethal brew as the evening wore on and caused my cough to worsen. As soon as I finished eating I left. Unfortunately, the only other warm place was my sleeping bag so that's where I went even though it was quite early.

I coughed quite a bit through the night and I'm sure I disturbed other guests as the walls are only 1/4 inch plywood! I'm a bit worried about how this infection will affect me as we go higher.Read more