Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch

April 25, 2010 – Hiking to Thame

This is Leila reporting from Thame. Today is by far one of my favorite hiking days in the Khumbu region. Hiking to Thame is like visiting Shangri-la, it is hard to describe.

We start our hike by passing a beautiful monastery right next to our hotel and begin traversing the valley towards Thame. The elevation gain for the entire day is not much, 1180 feet/360 meters, but like every hike in this valley we go up and down quite a lot.

It is sad to see tourists hiking in a hurry keeping their head down and barely stopping to look at the views or to learn about the local culture. We are pretty much the opposite, we stop at every opportunity to learn something new.

Actually, the highlight of our hike today was the rhododendron trees in full bloom; they were everywhere. We saw them in so many different colors, it was absolutely beautiful! We stopped many times to take photos, every tree more beautiful than the last. We took so many pictures that I felt like I was on an African safari, but we just needed to capture every moment, and there were many.

At lunch we met a Nepalese team from an international NGO who was in the valley to record data regarding snow leopards. It was quite an interesting conversation. We learned that when the locals lose any live stock due to a snow leopard, they can actually request a payment for the loss from the government. The law does exist, but nobody has yet reaped the benefits from it. According to their data, there are only 5 recorded snow leopards in this area. But talking with Lakpa, our trekking guide, he believes this number is too small. Snow leopards travel long distances. They are found in Nepal and a few of their neighboring countries, such as Bhutan and Tibet. Because of the large land area it is very difficult to know how many are out there, but they believe that it is for sure more than five.

After lunch we kept going on our hike and we passed the most beautiful bridge in the Khumbu, the bridge that takes us to Thame. Just before the bridge, there is a big stone painted mural of a goddess that is breathtaking.

Upon arrival in Thame, we checked into our rooms, all with private toilets which is quite a treat. We then met for tea and afterwards we received a visit from Pasang Sherpa, our favorite tanka painter. He is an amazing man; after losing all his fingers due to frostbite on a Cho Oyu expedition 30 years ago, he decided to dedicate himself to the art of tanka painting. He paints using only his knuckles and produces amazing work reflecting scenes of the valley or Tibetan motives.

After meeting with Pasang Sherpa, we went up to visit Thame monastery, an amazing monastery that was built 325 years ago and is known to have books as old as 300 years. We arrived there just as they were closing but were able to have a short visit. It snowed briefly while we were at the monastery.

We had another amazing dinner thanks to Bal who continually surprises us with his elaborate meals. We had penne au gratin, cooked fresh vegetables and spring rolls.

After dinner I played a DVD on my 17 inch laptop and everyone stayed to watch "Caravan", the classic French production about Tibet. We had a full house as all the staff came to watch, too.

Well, now we're off to bed. It was quite a full day and we have another day of hiking ahead of us tomorrow!