Namcha-ching! Winning the Tea House Lottery in Namche Bazaar!

Day 3: Namche Bazaar – 3,440m/ 11,286 feet
Today we will continue up the banks of the Dudh Kosi River, towards Namche Bazaar. Just past Monjo, we will officially enter the Sagarmatha National Park before following the trail through small villages. We will take a tea break along the way. After tea, the trail then crosses the confluence of the Dudh Kosi and the Bhote Kosi, on a high suspension bridge. The trail then climbs steeply uphill for about two hours to reach Namche Bazaar (3,440m/11,286 ft). This is a prosperous trading town and the capital of the Khumbu Region. Just across the valley to the east stand the peaks of Thamserku and Kangtega, both very impressive mountains. From Monjo, the trek today is approximately 4 hours and the total distance is 5 miles/ 8 km.

Another full day on the trail today, making our way from Monjo to the “Las Vegas of Sagamatha (Everest) National Park” aka Namche Bazaar.   This is the main tourist town of the area – tons of lodges and tea houses (which is what they call the accommodation here) as well as plenty of shops selling souvenirs, hiking supplies, pretty much anything you can think of!  There was, of course, the ubiquitous Irish bar plus a couple of music venues, tons of bakeries and coffee shops as well as a venue where they showed free films every afternoon.  There is also a full medical center so if all does go tits up, this is where you’d likely end up first for treatment.  I still am suffering from a bit of a dicky tummy (not brilliant when you are spending all day hiking) but hopefully that will pass (no pun intended) soon.  Namche is perched high up on a hillside looking down to the river below, surrounded by majestic mountains, so its really quite an impressive town!   I haven’t yet explored fully – but we have an acclimatization day tomorrow which is super-lite on hiking, so I’ll have a wander round and report back!

Despite the slight gastric issue, I felt pretty good for most of the day.  I’d managed to get some sleep yesterday – went to bed early at 8.30pm fully bundled up as my room was freezing!   I could see my breath as I finished my blog before dinner!  Obviously the rooms are not heated (the only ones that are the dining area – and only during the evening for dinner) so it rapidly starts getting colder as soon as the sun goes down.  I also noticed a huge gap between the window frame and the wall in the bathroom , so I don’t think that helped matters!  I clearly have some work to do to figure it all out, though, as I woke up at 2.30am absolutely roasting and sweating my ass off!   I may also have farted myself awake as I remain extremely gassy – which, given my overall digestive predicament, is a rather dangerous fine line to be walking on.   Again, I was very grateful to be in my own room with no witnesses to any of this – it was best for safety and comfort.  Their safety, my comfort.  At any rate, I don’t think I’m ever getting the farts out of my sleeping bag.

Anyhoo… our little gang convened for breakfast at 7.30am, with the plan of setting out on our hike at around 8am, 8.30am.  (I’ll give you more details about my travel companions in tomorrow’s blog post)  I’m already struggling with the food – I don’t have much of an appetite and its as bland and unappealing as I remember it from ABC.   I just look at the menu and feel sadness, followed by despair as I struggle to pick something that vaguely sounds appetizing.  Our guide is VERY strict about us eating and drinking enough and has no problem telling you that you need to eat more.  So I’d chosen the French Toast as it sounded the least worst choice and I thought some sweet fluffy bread might be a nice, energy filled way to start the day.  Well -reminiscent of the Weird Cheese Sandwich I’d “enjoyed” during my ABC trek, this was one of the strangest French Toasts I’d ever eaten. You know when you expect one thing, then it turns out to be the complete opposite?  This was that.  It was basically eggy bread (not sure what the American name for it is) so not sweet AT ALL.  I mean, if I thought I’d ordered eggy bread and was expecting it, I’m sure it would have been perfectly lovely.  As it was, it was a struggle to get through.  I managed to eat enough to pacify our guide -who I also mollified with the promise of eating plenty of snacks on the trail.  I remembered, at the last minute, I’d forgotten to take my Diamox (altitude sickness prevention) tablet – so I swigged that down with the last dregs of my breakfast coffee.

After breakfast, it was time to set off – and the day couldn’t have been more perfect for hiking!  Clear sunny skies – but not so hot that you would overheat on the trail.  I was pleased that my legs felt in good shape after day 1 – my calf muscles were a little stiff but nothing crazy.  We hiked out of Monjo and after about 20mins came to the official entrance of Sagarmatha National Park, the local name for Everest.  Here’s some info about the park from their official website:

Welcome to Sagarmatha National Park

Sagarmatha National Park extends over an area of 1,148 square kilometers of the Himalayan ecological zone in Khumbu region of Nepal. The Park includes the upper catchments areas of the Dudhkoshi and Bhotehoshi Rivers and is largely composed of rugged terrain and gorges of the high Himalayas, ranging from 2,845m at Monjo to the top of the world’s highest peak- Sagarmatha at 8,848m above the sea level. Other peaks above 6,000m are Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Thamserku, Nuptse, Amadablam and Pumori. The famed Sherpa people, whose lives are interwoven with the teachings of Buddhism, live in the region. The renowned Tengboche and other monasteries are common gathering places to celebrate religious festivals such as Dumje and Mane Rumdu. Tengboche, Thame, Khumjung and Pangboche are some other famous monasteries of this region. For its superlative natural characteristics, UNESCO has enlisted SNP as a World Heritage Site in 1979.

I really did pick the perfect time to come.  One of my main concerns had been that it would be super crowded, given the popularity of the EBC trek, and that you’d be perpetually fighting for space on the trail.  But it really is right at the beginning of the tourist season as the trail is not crowded at all (this is actually the first trip for our guide this year).  It is making for a very pleasant experience, as you can soak in the beauty of the surroundings without huge gaggles of people pushing their way past you or talking loudly or (the horrors) blasting music out of a boom box.  We are also maintaining a very slooooooow pace (think slow – then its at least twice as slow as that) so we have plenty of time to take it all in.  One weird effect of walking that slowly is that time just seems to stretch out – it feels as if you’ve been walking forever when you’ve only been walking for 10 mins.  Also, it feels as if you’ve covered far greater distances that you really have – at one point (after about 3hrs), I checked my Fitbit and it said I had only done 3700 steps!!!  Seriously?!!  I mean, I’m sure it was correct – but even still – after hours of sustained effort, you think you should have done more than that!!  In our defense, 3699 of those 3700 steps had been uphill so that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

We took a break at a little teahouse after about an hour and a half – it was so lovely to sit out in the warm sunshine and drink tea and appreciate the glorious view of the river.  I also *ahem* needed the bathroom again so it was a welcome break.  Soon after our tea stop, we came to another long suspension bridge – this one the highest in this region, named after Sir Edmund Hillary.  After crossing that, it took us another 2hrs or so to reach Namche (though it felt longer!).  Its not that I was feeling really really tired – but there generally comes a time in every hike where you are just, well, done and want to be at your destination.  Mine arrived about 40mins out from Namche, just after we’d caught our first glimpse of Mount Everest.  Maybe all the pooping had caught up to me and knocked my energy levels down a bit.

There was one moment on the trail that was particularly memorable and kept me laughing for quite some time.  You do tend to see the same people on the trail throughout the day – especially as it isn’t that busy.  There was a group of 3 lads – either late teens or early 20s – that we kept running into – they didn’t have a guide, so spent a few minutes chatting with DJ (our guide) to ask him some questions.  We’d see them at various rest stops and scenic points – but this one time, we got held up one this (rare) downward stretch when two large mule trains were filing past us.  When that happens, you step off to the side and give them room -and occasionally encourage them to keep moving past you by making sweeping motions with your arms and “ya” sounds.  One of the lads was waving his trekking pole around as his attempt to get the mules to move.  Now, I’m no mule driver expert but I’m pretty sure they don’t really love that.  As I was standing relatively close to this guy and didn’t want to be on the receiving end of any kicks or bites should the mules decide they’d had enough, I said to the guy “maybe don’t use your pole, I don’t think they like it”.   As he turned to me to reply “what makes you say that?”, the mule that had stopped directly in front of him lifted his tail and let out this GIANT fart, literally right into his face!  It was laugh out loud hilarious!  And – because the mules were blocking the path – there was nowhere for this guy to go to escape.  The look on his face was absolutely priceless!  Needless to say, his two mates practically peed themselves laughing, one of them asking “how’d it taste?”   It kept me chuckling for a good hour afterwards.

Anyway, we eventually got to Namche, just after 1.30pm and headed to our lodge for the night.  DJ was very excited about our digs, saying that its the best lodge in all of Namche and certainly the best one we will stay in during our trip.  And I have to say it is very nice.  Still cold AF in the rooms BUT I was giddy with excitement to discover the bed has an electric blanket in it!!!  SUCH LUXURY!  Plus sheets and pillowcases that look clean, like they might actually be laundered in between guests.  AND there is a hot shower ensuite.  AND there is free charging in the room.  AND there is free wi-fi!!!  AND the toilets have toilet paper in them!!!!  AND you can get laundry done!!!!   AND there is a spa!!!! (I have a hot stone massage booked for tomorrow afternoon)  AND – best of all – the menu is not terrible!!  There is actually some food that sounds half decent – including meat that is safe to eat.  I celebrated this unexpected bounty with a Spaghetti Bolognese for lunch – and it was actually kinda tasty!   Happy days indeed.

By the time lunch was done, it was around 2.30pm, so I went and chilled out in my room for a bit before coming back to the restaurant to catch up on blogging before dinner.  There will be plenty of time to explore the town tomorrow after our short hike (we are visiting the Sherpa museum) – hopefully my guts will be less gurgly by then.  So – another successful day in the books.  We spend a total of 3 nights here in Namche as part of the acclimatization process – and I can’t say I’m unhappy about that!!

Right.  Time for my first hot shower since leaving Kathmandu!  Simple pleasures….