Thankfully, after yesterday's trek that seemed to never end, Karma allowed us to sleep in a bit. We wake up well rested yet we have both developed a pretty bad "Khumbu Cough". This cough is not contagious but it is just as annoying as a regular cold...runny nose and bad, hacking cough. It's caused mainly by high exertion in a dry, high altitude area. Since this year has been extremely dry at Everest (there's practically no snow at the summit) the Khumbu Cough is quite prevalent amongst climbers and trekkers. People have been known to break ribs from the severe hacking, so we decide to take as many precautions as possible to help-breathe in water vapors (if we can find hot water!!) and wearing a buff over our faces to try and keep moisture in.
The trek into Namche is not long but there is a lot of upwards trekking (yet again). It never ceases to amaze us how many times the trail does down, down, down only to have to gain back that ground again by going up, up up.
We arrive at the teahouse in Namache (same one we stayed in on the trek up) in good time. When we arrive the common area is filled with children. They're having a music lesson—learning to sing a traditional Tibetan welcome song for an upcoming festival. The teahouse owners daughter runs a (separate) boarding house for school kids. Many children in the villages need to stay at a boarding house in order to attend school. They will live at the boarding house and attend school for 3 weeks out of every month. They get a week off every month when they get to go home to see their families.
The boarding house owner decided to bring the kids to the teahouse to practise, get a good meal, do their laundry (this teahouse actually has a washing machine and dryer that has been flown in by helicopter), and spend the night.
When we arrive it is dinner time so we order our meals, but we are then presented with the fact that we are eating in front of the children. Without fully knowing the situation of the children gathered there, the decision to eat in front of them becomes awkward, so we bring our dinner and pot of tea up the room.
We can hear the children practising and later on we see their small shoes all neatly in rows outside their rooms (4 children to a single room with 2 single beds).
HOT SHOWER DAY!!! What else can I say. I missed my chance for a hot shower on the way up because I was sick so I'm really happy to finally have the chance. Needless to say our clothes are still filthy...
We heard the mouse again (or rat?) in the night so it's still at home in the teahouse. We also found out what the stale, musty water smell is near our room. We smelled it the first time we stayed here but this time we noticed an open door directly across from our room. It was protecting a cubby room under the stairs that was full of small potatoes. The cubby was about 3 feet deep in potatoes. I can't imagine that the ones on the bottom will be any good, but it sure explains the "slightly off" taste of a couple of the chips (french fries) that we were eating.
No comments:
Post a Comment