Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Everest Trek - Phakding - 5/14 - 8,487 ft.

Remember the Real World?  In 1998 (I think), back when I used to watch the show, the Seattle season cast traveled to Nepal.  Today, our guide had on an MTV/Real World/Nepal shirt on.  Turns out he was part of the group from Nepal supporting the show while they were there.  He told us a little bit about what they did, how they took a helicopter up to the Everest View Hotel (cheating....haha), and how it was a quick trip, so he didnt really get to know them, but that there were cameras everywhere.

Today's hike from Namche was relatively easy, but I was ready for it to be done.  It's funny, when we're hiking, I cant wait to stop, because I'm kind of over the whole hiking thing.  But, then we get to where we're going and it's just magical.  I feel like there's so much to learn and see and do.  Today during the afternoon tea, we talked with our guide about Nepal and the power outages.  He let us know that they're upgrading the power in Namche, so it will be out from May 15th until the end of September when trekking season starts up again.  Overall, it sounds like a lot of the power situation is political and is in the hands of the powerful and wealthy few rather than the many.

Phakding is a small town, but somewhat larger than a couple of other ones we've been to.  It's right on the river, so after lunch, we all went down to hang out in the sun at the glacier river.  Or, rather, I tried to...first thing I did was find a rock and roll my ankle over it.  Went down pretty hard since it's so weak from my trail adventure before we left.  Good times....sick and broken.  At least we only have one day left, and hopefully it's an easy day.

I think last night was the last time we got hot water bottles.  It was fabulous in the cold, but I'm ok letting them go - its been warmer at night, and last night, I came back to my sleeping back to find that the bottle had leaked.  Luckily, it was a small river and my towel could take care of it.

Tonight was the last dinner our cook made - tomorrow we have dinner at the lodge we're staying at.  It was nice: some KFC (khumbu fried chicken), stir fry noodles, veggies, and chicken momos...lots of old favorites.  To top it off, we finished with a last day cake, complete with frosting....yummy.

Now we're hanging out in a room at the lodge, playing our nightly dominos and having good conversation.  I'll miss this after tomorrow....that and my daily 3pm tea.  Perhaps thats something I can institute at the office....haha.    

No comments:

Post a Comment