Day 7: Dingbouche – 4,350m/ 14,271 feet
We will continue up the trail to Dingbouche today. Shaded by Rhododendron trees, the trail crosses an airy suspension bridge just beyond Debouche. From here, the trail continues for approximately an hour before reaching the village of Pangbouche. From here, there are excellent views of Ama Dablam (‘Mother’s Charm Box’) and where we stop for tea. If there is time, we may be able to visit the local Monastery, which was the first in the Everest Region. Contouring up the valley, we will re-cross the river and turn up the Imja Valley to reach the picturesque farming village of Dingbouche at 4,350m/ 14,271 ft above sea level. The hike will take approximately 5 – 6 hours today and cover 7.5 miles/ 12 km.
Woke up this morning after a surprisingly good night’s sleep and looked out the window to be treated to simply SPECTACULAR views of Ama Dablam. Last night, the clouds were so heavy I couldn’t even see the monastery 50ft away!! Now, the sun was shining, the skies were blue and there was a picture perfect zobo, posing majestically just outside the monastery gates. After a breakfast of floppy toast and jam, we made the short visit to the monastery that we skipped yesterday. It is the largest monastery in the Khumbu region and is also famous as a stop for Everest-bound mountaineers to seek the blessing of the gods for a successful summit: HERE
As we were first coming into the inner courtyard, we saw all the monks leaving after prayers. There was one young monk who reminded me of the character Egg from Knight of the Seven Kingdoms! You are not allowed to take any pictures once inside the monastery so I don’t have any to share with you. EXCEPT. Our guide, DJ, took us to a part of the monastery that was a bit off the beaten track (he was a monk for 10yrs) that housed a new mandala shrine. Here there was a sign behind a small pile of rupees that “photos are allowed for a donation” so we donated and started to take some pictures. Within a minute, a monk rushed in, removed that sign and replaced it with one that said “Photos and Videos are NOT allowed”. Make your minds up! We did feel a bit bad – but we took our photos in good faith, so we weren’t deliberately being disrespectful. In the end, photos never really do these types of shrines justice anyway, but here it is (I have a short video I’ll upload later):
After our monastery visit, it was time to start hiking for the day. As you can see from the pictures, it was a glorious day, perfect for trekking through the rhododendron forests. The trail was easy underfoot and, in parts, split into two to allow for the zobos, horses and yaks to have their own lane! Although it was uphill, it was (mostly) a gentle incline – far less steep than the trail from Namche yesterday. The scenery was just stunning – again, the pictures don’t really do it justice, but for much of the hike today we were tracking along with the river.
After an hour, we stopped at the village of Pangbouche for tea and a pee – gotta love the contraption the teahouse owner had rigged up to heat the water!
After tea, we walked for another hour until we reached our lunch spot, Pasang Lodge in the village of Somare. I had a rather tasty bowl of noodles with veg and egg – plus a side dish of boiled potatoes. They were very…err… rustic, such that you had to peel them yourself before eating them. Served with little yellow nuggets of yak butter, they were delicious – so creamy! By the time we’d finished lunch, it was just after 12.30pm – and the weather was really starting to turn (again). Looking back over the way we’d come, you could no longer see Tengboche – and the clouds over Dingboche (our destination for the day) were getting thicker. DJ estimated it would take us about 2hrs to get there – hiking above the tree line for the first time. The terrain was now a lot different – no more rhododendron forests, but instead scrub and sand. The wind was also picking up and the temperatures had dropped accordingly, so there was certainly a good incentive to get going ASAP after lunch and get to Dingboche before it started snowing!
Annoyingly, only 30mins after having left our lunch stop, I needed to pee again. As there were no tea houses between Pangboche and Dingboche, my only option was to find a suitable wall to pee behind. Fortunately, as we were still in a farming area, there were plenty of fields bordered by stone walls, so I left the trail and walked a bit uphill for some privacy. As I bopped down to do my business, I looked over to the other side of the field – and saw 2 ladies engaged in exactly the same activity as me! We waved to each other in solidarity – you know, when you gotta go, you gotta go. I had been starting to feel a bit odd after lunch – a bit hard to describe, but not 100% there in my mind or body. I wondered if this was finally the altitude starting to get to me – particularly after lunch when really all my body wanted to do was sit and process my lunch and figure out what was going on with those potatoes. However, after my pee, I felt a LOT better and back to “normal” and we made short work of the remaining hike, reaching Dingboche in less than 2hrs – just as it started to snow!
We are staying at the Bright Star lodge for the next 2 nights – and I’m happy to report its high up on the Most Excellent Trekking Lodges scale. My own personal checklist (which I am continuing to refine) goes as follows. If you answer YES to all, then you are in trekking nirvana and should consider canceling the rest of your hike and just staying there.
- Do you have your own room or are you having to share with numerous (invariably snoring) strangers?
- Are the walls thick enough so that you won’t hear invariably snoring strangers in the room next door?
- Do you have your own toilet?
- Does said toilet come with (free) toilet paper?
- Does the toilet have a strong (enough) flush that doesn’t require manual assistance with leaky jugs?
- Do the windows fit properly in their frames?
- Are the curtains wide enough to cover said windows?
- Do you have your own HOT shower?
- Are there bath towels provided?
- Is there free wi-fi that actually works and is fast enough for blogging?
- Is there free device charging in your room?
- Is your room (visibly) mold-free?
- Does your bed have an electric blanket?
- Do the bed sheets look like they have seen the inside of a washing machine at some point within the last month?
- Does the tea house offer spa services?
Anyway, this tea house scores highly on this checklist so it’ll be a nice 2 nights. Right next door to the tea house is also a surprisingly swanky coffee house where I enjoyed a very tasty cappuccino and an okay-ish cinnamon roll (a bit dry, alas). Then it was back to the tea house to blog the rest of the afternoon away. And there are only 3 of us total staying here rn, so it couldn’t be a bigger contrast to yesterday! We got chatting to him over dinner (a nice chap called Vivek from Melbourne who is doing EBC as his first EVER hike!!) so it was fun to add a new person into the mix for the evening.
And with that, its almost 8pm so its time for bed. Tomorrow, we stay in Dingboche but do an acclimation hike up to 16,000ft – the highest so far. Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow morning!! Good night!
1 Comment
I can just see you waving at other ladies whilst having a pee! I hope you dont get that feeling again, I wonder what it was? You are hitting the jackpot with the tea houses. And how psychedelic was tga monastery?! Loved it! Take care Soops you definitely earned the coffee and cinnamon roll 😋