EBC: Days 11-13 - The home stretch (finally!)

Days 11 to 13 - Namche, Phanking, and Lukla

The last leg of the trip passed in a blur of highlights – covering the same ground always seems to pass more quickly. So, I figure that just the highlights will work – and will hopefully help keep my generally uber-long blog updates from getting out of control.


As we rolled out of Pheriche early in the morning, we had the nice surprise of being escorted by a pack of four semi-wild dogs, including one of the puppies we befriended. Like the goats of a few days past, they made us feel very, very slow as they easily ranged all over the hills while keeping pace with us. Sigh.

We had good weather going home – which definitely encouraged me to try and get some last memories of the mountains. Some of the yaks even cooperated – although with near-human sceptic looks at the whole process:


Plus a tea break at Tengoche saw yet more vistas of Everest:


The rest of the first day went pretty slowly – David and Kristin were pretty gassed from the whole trek so we took our time heading back.


All that day, we saw loads of locals carrying massive loads of firewood – Dawa found out that each village gets a 15 day window to gather wood before the wet season, and it's an all-hands affair, with girls, grandmas, and everyone else out hauling their share.

During a rest break, Dawa even got David and I to give it a try, setting us up with the local Tibetan harness that places most of the weight around the head and neck.




Ouch. Well, the actual carrying wasn't bad – but after 10 yards of walking, I couldn't help but wonder how difficult this would be, in shoes as flimsy and fashion-offensive as pink Crocs (oh yes, they're popular in Nepal too), clambering up and down massive hills day in and day out.

Not that we needed it, but we got even MORE respect and awe for the porters. Those guys rock.

We rolled into Namche for our 2nd night on the way down, and had a bit of a celebration at the local bar.

As we were all free of worries from AMS since we were going down, the beers and whisky were flowing. We even tried our hand at the local, randomly sloped pool table, much to the disgust of some local kids who were watching.

A normal game is supposed to last 10 minutes tops – we set new records for both stamina and incredible lack of skill as our first match stretched to over 30 minutes. Shamelessly looking for scapegoats, I blame the altitude and, uh, the unique playing surface that was carted up piece by piece by yaks years past. Tournament quality it wasn't.

The next day saw us off to a late start – heading out around 11am after a massive breakfast of surprisingly good hash browns, eggs, and my favorite apple fritters and honey.

Let's just say I was a bit sluggish.

In fact, this was the most tired I felt the whole trip – as we made the long descent from Namche to Phanking, I was definitely dragging.

Anyways – I had a good cinnamon bun at the really good bakery, then a last chance to check out the outdoor shops, and ended up scoring a really cozy pair of Jack Wolfskin fleece pants that will be perfect for staying warm after ultimate in @#$ cold London.

A last political discussion with a friendly hotel owner brought up some interesting points such as:
*Namche is doing so well since it is an entirely community run town – that makes decisions locally, instead of at the national level. Litter for example, is sorted out by having each hotel pay a little to fund 8 locals whose job it is to collect and get rid of trash. Even little kids are trained to actually (gasp) throw rubbish away properly – something in that Kathmandu is far, far behind.
*The improving, but still marginal state of education means that democracy isn't the right form of gov't right now. He really liked the last much-loved king, who was killed in '95, after ruling 30 years as benevolent dictator.

On the way down, I had to indulge in one more balloon session... we saw a really cute little girl staring at David, and it turned into balloons for a bunch of the ladies, young and old:



Our last lodge night was spent in Phanking, facing a massive waterfall:



On day 13, we got up early again, with the optimistic idea of arriving in Lukla by 11:30 and possibly catching the last flight to Kathmandu.

Great idea, but one small problem... a strike had paralyzed Lukla, as one of the castes was protesting, well, something (it was unclear even to our guide).

But, the downside was that everything was closed, from pubs to the local Starbucks.

Wait, wait, wait – did I just write Starbucks??

Yup. At 8,000 feet, with yaks and all...




Now, call me crazy, but I'm going out on a limb here – but I'm pretty darn sure that their corporate lawyers in Seattle haven't approved this expansion plan...

So, it was back to the lodge for a nap, punctuated by the shouts of a local Maoist protest, who were arguing for, well, something unclear.

Then, it was a last meal, plus the enthusiastic sampling of the surprisingly strong (and not-so surprisingly badly tasting) local rice millet wine. I'm all for trying new things, but let's just say... yuck.

Fortune smiled at us the next morning, and we were up, up, and away on the first flight back to Kathmandu... personally, I was just keen to get some food OTHER than the filling, yet bland rice/noodles/mo-mo's we had for the last 2 weeks!

Right – just like Kilimanjaro, I figured I should jot down some do's and don'ts for anyone else heading out this way:

DO:

*...Buy a walking stick. At $7, it is a HUGE help in absorbing the shocks going downhill for hours at a time. You look silly, but it's so worth it.
*...Pester your GP for a Diamox prescription. It is worth its weight in gold – helping your body get used to the altitude – plus makes your toes tingle as bonus side effect.
*...Bring some hot sauce, or something to spice up the bland, but filling trail fare.
Stock up on candy bars at Namche – after this village, the costs skyrocket and ye olde favorite Snickers costs up to $2.50.

DON'T:

*...Forget to break in your boots weeks before the trip. Hiking this terrain while fighting blisters would be a bad, bad thing.
*...(On a similar note) neglect to bring Compeed. These rock. Period.
*...Skimp on the water purifying stuff. Bring 2x what you think you'll need – you'll save a bundle on not buying bottled water on the trail, plus save on adding to Nepal's ever-growing rubbish problem.
*...Pass on bringing extra books – there's a lot of downtime and it's a good chance to get caught up on your Clancy and Grisham. Whoops – I meant other fine works of literature...