It was friggin cold in the rooms this
morning. So cold that we didn't want to get out of bed, didn't want
to get changed. Ricks right hand was swollen to about twice the size
it should be. We figure its due to the bad sun burn that he got on
his hand yesterday—the lodge keeper's wife inspected his hand and
said maybe it was a result of pressure from the walking pole. We
don't know what's up but it worth keeping an eye on.
We start the day at 7:30 am and order
pancakes and a
sherpa porridge made from barley. As we're eating, we keep
looking out the windows into the courtyard where two horses a and
foal are feeding. Our gaze is soon diverted by a young girl sitting
in the corner with a huge pile of yak dung in front of her. She
proceeds to dip the hardened, flat patties into a bowl of water, then she kneeds the
dung like bread or clay until it it is soft and maliable then she
rolls it into a 8 inch diameter ball. She soon have more than a dozen
dung balls in front of her.
Although yesterday was a strain and I
wasn't keen on a trek today, Karma has convinced us that a short trek
would be good for acclimatisation so up the hill we went. At the top
of the hill was an old stuppa and the view of the surrounding
mountains was incredible so we decided to sit for a while and talk.
We commented that we didn't see anyone outside then all of a sudden
David and Steph from Grimsby appear, followed by Sara and Nick and
their guides. It became a party atmosphere at the top of the
hill—everyone laughing, sharing stories and taking pictures. After
a while everyone started to trek further up the hill for another
couple of hours of trekking. We decided not to continue on but to
stay and enjoy the view.
Back at the lodge we have lunch—“Peets
fresh coffee (from San Fransico), cheese pizza (the best one Rick has
had on this trip), veg noodle soup and Seabuckthorn juice ( a juice
made from berries local to this area of the Himalayas).
David and Steph tracked us down at out
teahouse to borrow our SD to USB adapter, then we all head off to the
Internet cafe for a quick facebook fix and to power up the laptop for
a second time—recharging the laptop costs 300 rupees for 1 hour
(that gets us to 85% charge from a drained battery. Internet on their
laptops cost 500 rupees for 30 minutes so we don't get much online
time here.
Next stop is a bakery /pool hall to
enjoy a sit out in the sun and some baked goods. Nap time then up to
the common room to sit and chat. Sara shows up (she's been touring
around all the teahouses checking out the facilities and seeing who's
there).She stays for a while then its time for us to order dinner.
This teahouse gives you hot towels befroe dinner. This is really the
only hot water we get during the trek so its well received.
Most teahouse common rooms have a pot
belly stove in the middle of the room. They seem to only be lit in
the evenings so its a good time to hang out there. We never gave much
thought to what was being burnt in those stoves until we saw them
light it today. One of the boys hauled in a huge brown paper sack,
about 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall, stuffed with what looked like
charcoal. It wasn't charcoal..it was hard lumps of yak dung. A few of
the lumps were dipped into a kerosene pot to help start the fire,
then handfulls of the stuff were dropped into the stove. Once the
fire was lit I thought it would stink, but all we could smell was the
kerosene.
Power is out at the teahouse pretty
much all day. The overhead light in your room is not powered up until
you finish dinner and head to room. Once the owners sense that you
are in bed for the night, all the power is shut down again. Flash
lights are a must for those later night trips to the bath room
because the halls are ptitch black.
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