It's a dish made with rice and lentils and is a staple of the Nepali diet. It's a huge dish and is pretty expensive. I also had a Coke, tomato soup and a hot lemon before I was done. It cost 195 rupees in all. It was a running joke with us the way Wendy seemed to have an omelet at every meal. Tomato soup was another very popular choice. Just about everyone had it. Some other choices included fried vegetable momos (which was a Tibetan dish something like ravioli without the sauce) and chapatis (Indian flat breads).
We played more Chase the Ace after dinner. I went to bed at 9:00 but had trouble falling asleep.
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Namche Bazaar -> Monjo -> Benkar -> Phakding
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I woke up after 4:00 AM. I dreamt I was on a trip and that I met up with Marc and Marie from India.
I got up around 6:20 AM. The temperature in my room according to my thermometer was 34 degrees. It made me think of a song to the music of Shaun Cassidy's 'Da Do Run Run Run' song. It went like this (keep the music in mind): Woke up in the morning ... I was freezing to death ... da do run run run, da do run run.
Altitude sickness?
I had Tibetan bread and two hot lemons for breakfast (70 NRs). Tibetan bread is a fried flat bread. It didn't look like the Tibetan bread I had seen the others previously order. I was disappointed by it and ended up not finishing it. As sunlight streamed through the windows into the dining room, I could see the dust floating in the air. Deb had gone to the visitor center to get pictures of Everest because the morning skies were clear. I was coughing slightly and my hands were cracked and bleeding which made me think I had to get out of here.
Someday I'll know why I came to this place ... da do run run run, da do run run.
We left around 8:00 AM. Rob and I ended up going ahead. Snow hung in the pine tree branches melting in the bright sunshine. At first the trail was icy and slippery. My ears popped as we descended quickly. Descending meant more oxygen and warmth -- now there's an optimistic thought. We stopped at the dilapidated tea house for another view of Everest and waited for the others.
We crossed three bridges. Rob went even further ahead, and I spent a lot of time alone. It was nice. Sometimes while trekking we would get good whiffs of the smoke burning in nearby stoves. It seemed to bother me almost as much as cigarette smoke. I think it was today that I saw what seemed to be two young couples on the trail going our way. I think they might have been Australians from the cute koala one of the girls had sticking its head out of her backpack.
At the Sagarmatha Park entrance at Jorsale we rested. This time I noticed a sign posted that said: 'When you are in the park, take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.' I liked it.
We arrived in Monjo around 10:40. I almost didn't recognize the place. I had tomato soup, vegetable fried rice and a Coke for 175 rupees.
We left for Phakding by 12:30 and arrived in about two hours. Most of the time I was between Rob and the others. The skies clouded over by the time we arrived at the tea house. This time I was in room 4. Not being able to stand it anymore, I asked for two wash basins and washed my hair with shampoo. It was still cold enough that things couldn't really dry in our rooms.
A fire was started in the dining room stove which was very welcome. I think they might have burned yak dung. I had read that due to the shortage of wood, yak dung is often dried out and burned for cooking and heating. Arnou, Deb and I talked about whether the girl should help in choosing the engagement ring. I had a hot lemon (10 NRs). Arnou threw together a game of scattegories which we played until dinner.
I had tomato soup, cheese pizza, a Coke and a hot lemon (220 NRs). All were very good. I tried to play scattegories after dinner, but I just couldn't get into it. It had started to drizzle outside.
Three Japanese girls and their guide were staying there as well. They were at a different table (the table at which we had been when we stayed there the first time) and were working on origami. Dill went over to them, and they showed him how to make something out of paper. Rob taught Wendy, Deb and Anne how to play hearts. I just watched.
I think it was this evening (or maybe the evening spent at Thyanboche) that Arnou later recalled Bill trying to explain to Dill what the title to the book _Circle_of_Friends_ meant. When he got to the word friends, he said that that's what we were. It was very touching.
My spirits started to go down. I felt like I was reduced to being a cave man huddling with others next to a fire to get through the night. All the games we played spent time, killed time. They're supposed to be enjoyable, but I doubted we'd play them if we had anything better to do or under different circumstances. I just couldn't be a part of it anymore. I felt like I was fasting, but not with food -- but with my everyday life. I was doing without it. Perhaps it was good for the soul.
I saw this as time that could have been spent accomplishing other things but was lost. I wish there had been other things to do. It just felt so empty. The time was empty. I'm in Nepal, and we huddle around playing cards.
Deb, Wendy and Anne talked about how much potential was lost in our porters -- espially Dill who seemed to enjoy learning, reading and origami. They mentioned the idea of sponsoring one of them somehow. They wanted to tip significantly beyond what Dawa suggested. I wasn't sure how right it was to impose our Western goals on them.
I was in bed around 9:30. I was in Rob's old room this time closer to the stream outside, and the white noise of the rushing water was conducive in generating wild images. I still wonder how much the Lariam I was taking was affecting my mood.
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Phakding -> Ghat -> Lukla
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I slept in one sleeping bag and no gloves this time and had lots of bizarre dreams. I woke up a few times in the night. My dreams included many strange images. My friend Andy was in a dream. I was staying at someone's place instead of a hotel. My friend Bob kept phasing in but in bed. I saw my old girlfriend Hilary with colored blotches on her face. I was talking to Andy while another girl tried to eavesdrop. I threw my hot chocolate over my shoulder into her face, and she walked away. I could see her bare back with blotches that later looked like muddy rocks on her back. I was traveling with Dawa, but he left me to go climb a high mountain. He was dressed for being with others. There were monkeys on my way home. That's all I have from the notes I took. Weird. Mefloquine again?
I got up around 6:20 AM. I also woke up after 2:00 and 4:00. The clouds hadn't lifted and the ground was wet. There might have been mice in the lodge, but I'm not sure. Lapka delivered hot tea and hot lemons to our rooms. Anne and Wendy had suggested we get served in bed last night. I had a hot lemon (10 NRs).
I had a cold pancake with honey for breakfast (45 NRs). We settled our bills and left around 8:40. My bill was for 285 rupees. The Japanese had left before us. It started to rain on us, and we walked in fog. It did make for an awesome landscape. It wasn't raining all that hard. I put on my thin emergency rain poncho, but it didn't seem to help much. My legs got wet, and the warm from being covered with the poncho made me perspire enough that I wondered if I was staying any drier by wearing the poncho. I knew my jeans would take forever to dry.
We saw what looked like a cow with a broken right front foot. It looked pitiful as it walked down the trail. We knew the locals wouldn't kill it, so we didn't know how long it would go on suffering like that. We crossed the river at Benkar.
I started to get very worried about the weather clearing in time for our helicopter to take us back to Kathmandu. Getting back to Lukla involved climbing out of the valley away from the river. Climbing in the falling rain with the prospect of being stranded in Lukla was not pleasant. I was pretty miserable.
Some of us wanted to see the school Sir Edmund Hillary had built for the children nearby, so Lapka took Wendy, Anne, Deb, Rob and me off the main path down towards the river. We had to climb rock walls. I started to think that I would break my leg just as we were finishing the trek. I almost slipped, but one of the local people put his arm out to catch me if I fell.
We walked through the school complex and saw classes in session. I think a door was closed on us because we were becoming too much of a distraction. The climb back to the main path was hard but eventually we met up with the others.
Rob and I were the first to arrive at the lodge where we had eaten lunch when we first landed in Lukla. We didn't want to wait for the others in the growing cold. I had a hot chocolate and a hot lemon when we got there. My room was room 202. It was a corner room with thin walls, and I expected to feel the wind at night. My clothes were wet. I changed into drier ones and took clothes down to dry by the stove in the dining room. Even the money I had in a bag around my neck was wet from my perspiration. A travelers' check for $100 was in pretty bad shape. I was hoping I could still cash it when it dried. I have to admit that at that moment I regretted going on the trip.
I had tomato cheese pizza, tomato soup and a Coke (about 260 NRs) for lunch. Some children poked their heads in for a while. I then spent the afternoon sitting in front of the dining room stove drying clothes and taking in the warmth. Some wacky recorded music was played.
I met a guy named Stefan who was an engineer from Austria. He said he was on a 3-week trek with a group, but he got sick, so his group left for Namche without him. He looked quite well and clean for someone who'd been trekking for a week or so. We sat next to the stove talking for a while. He also felt that the people who had been on the Annapurna trek before this one had gotten used to trekking at these altitudes and that's why they found it easier. He also thought that a lot of wood was being wasted because the homes were thermally inefficient. We actually talked quite a bit. He told me that when he had been to Nepal before, he hated it. He didn't htink he'd ever come back, but over the years it's drawn him to come again. It seemed like a strange coincidence that he'd be telling me this at this moment.
The fog hung thickly, and I prayed and prayed. |
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