Dingboche to Thukla via Pheriche

Elevation - 4620 m

Our destination today was Thukla but I had a very bad night of coughing so we decided to stop in at Pheriche where there is a medical clinic. Depending on what the doctor advised I would either go on, stay in Pheriche or go down while the others carried on.

We got our usual start at about 7:45 am and got to the clinic about an hour later, a few minutes before they opened. This clinic is really cool. Younger doctors volunteer for two months at a time. Westerners pay to be seen and for any medications, etc. This pays for the locals to receive medical treatment for only 50 rupees which is about 50 cents! The doctor told us about a local man who had appendicitis and needed IV drugs and to be airlifted to Kathmandu. All this only cost him 50 rupees.

I met with the doctor and he listened to my chest and heart and checked my oxygen levels and pulse and they were all good. He said I was doing everything right and gave me some cough syrup to help me sleep. He said I would be at a way greater risk of developing altitude problems so I'd have to watch for that. I felt so relieved that I could go on and that I wasn't developing pneumonia. After paying the $80 US for the visit we carried on to Thukla.

It was going to be a short trek today. From now on the days are short as we climb to higher elevations. We walked through a beautiful valley surrounded by sharp jagged cliffs. The last hour we climbed up to Thukla. This is a very small collection of buildings. It seemed that there was really only one tea house there. We ate lunch in a sun room, organized our gear and then had a whole afternoon to kill. We collected in the dining room were we visited with two very interesting British fellows. They had saved for a couple of years and then had sold up everything and had commenced travelling around the world. We had some interesting conversations, and finally at about 4:00 pm the stove was lit. We were relieved as we were all cold but then commenced the toxic brew of yak poo and cooking smoke. The toxic brew won out because the elevation made it very cold and we stayed in the dining room.

Eventually they stopped adding fuel to the fire so we wandered off to our cold, cold rooms. This was one of the dirtiest, coldest and most miserable places yet. I'll be glad to get out of here.Read more