Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch
April 26, 2010 – The Hike from Thame to Khumjung
This is Leila reporting from Namche. Today we had the usual wake-up call at 7 a.m. in Thame, breakfast at 8 and were on the trail by 9. We were all on schedule at 9 am sharp and we started our hike back the valley towards Namche and Khumjung.
We took the trail on the other side of the valley today, which allowed us to visit a Hydro Electric power plant. We all went in and were quite impressed with their facilities.
Our team is really doing well, we all get along extremely well and we are joking non-stop, laughing and taking photos of everything!
Min, our trekking guide, ran off the trail to see if he could spot another mountain goat. We are always looking for anything and we have been learning lots about their culture.
Today we talked about the Tibetan movie that we watched last night, commenting how many of their traditions are still present today here in Nepal. Lakpa is an amazing source of knowledge about the Buddhist culture.
We were very fortunate today to stumble upon a pheasant, the official bird of Nepal. It was a male and had very flashy plumes as opposed to the females who are more discreet.
The team is now in Khumjung where they will stop at the Khunde hospital to see Doctor Kami, whose lodges we slept in last night. Then it's on to Khumjung where the plan is to visit the local monastery where they have on display an old scalp of a Yeti, which everyone is excited to see in person. I am now in Namche running some errands and tomorrow I will meet them on the trail on our way to Pangboche.
I am sitting here in my lodge across from three monks who have been chanting and praying for the past couple of hours; what an amazing and magical experience!