We took a well deserved day off. The hardest part of this hike for us, is the pace. Once leaving Namche Bazaar, it is recommended not to ascend more than 1,500 feet per day. For most days that means finishing around 2pm. We are used to hiking the full day. I know it sounds crazy that stopping early is hard, but for us, it feels like we are wasting wonderful hiking weather.
We walked to the village and ate as much as we could between resting. I was so hungry the night we arrived that I fell asleep dreaming of banana pancakes I saw on the menu from dinner. They were good. No maple syrup here, but honey and jam will do the trick.
The dogs here lounge all day in the streets. They care nothing about us. No begging, and no moving, even when they lay in the middle of the village path. At night though, they run the town barking and raising hell.
The tea houses are a family affair and every member has a job to make the business run. It's a large undertaking to have basically a full service home with a restaurant for hungry hikers.
The guides are the "cool kids". They come in to the tea houses with their clients and flirt with the women working. Slipping them a candy bar for special treatment or discounts. The porters, or sherpas depending on the location they are from are the heavy lifting.
Shadow and I are carrying everything we would normally carry on a long distance hike just in case. Like a tent and a stove. So in the mornings he makes a cup of coffee and offers me tea. This morning however, after turning the stove off, the sleeve of his down jacket got a little too close to the hot stove and burned a big hole. Torched feather clung to the burner and made the room smell like burnt chicken. Not fried chicken, but burnt chicken. We patched the hole without issues.
Day 3
The following morning we headed toward Tengbouche. Before leaving we asked our friendly host to recommend a place to stay in the next town. She called around and told us that the guides had called in advance and already booked all the rooms in the village. Shadow and I had no idea it would be this difficult to find a place to stay. This section of trail is super busy with trekkers heading to and from Everest Base Camp. We hope it's is easier to find rooms after passing the turn off for EBC. Originally we had planned to hike the 2-day out and back side trip to EBC, but after seeing the amount of people out here, we changed our minds. Our trek, The 3 Passes is higher in elevation and a little less popular.
Just after leaving town we reach our first sight of Mt. Everest. What an awesome sight. The mountains here tower over you like nothing I have ever seen.
A tough climb around lunch time brought us to Tengbouche. After eating at a lodge we luckily found a tea house with an extra room about 20 minutes after passing the village.
We had read that some tea house owners do not take kindly to trekkers without guides. There are not many job opportunities here and some locals feel that we are cheating them out of a job. I can understand that, but it is what it is.
This evening I watch the monks from the local monastery take an afternoon stroll in their red robes. The bells of pack animals walking by remind me of the cows in Austria hills. Clanging as they walk.
Dinner was in the warmest room of the tea house. I had MoMo, it's basically a potsticker that can be stuffed with meat or veggies and deep fried or steamed. I'm eating mostly vegetarian, just in case.
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