“Sounds great!” Gideon and I agreed.
We were to leave after breakfast. Nima’s fifteen-year-old son, Newang Phinjo, and Nima’s ten-year-old niece, Tashi, would be joining us. Both had arrived to Namche the previous day, as well as Mingma, Tashi’s fifteen-year-old sister, and their father, Chindi. Chindi, had accompanied the kids from Kathmandu to Namche after they had finished their school exams. They are on holiday for a month.
During breakfast, Gideon checked out the map. “Hmm, I hope Nima didn’t say Khunde. That’s a 1300 foot climb.” I shrugged off this idea; Nima certainly couldn’t mean for us to climb that much on our day off.
We headed out—Nima, Newang, Tashi, (porter) Mingma, Gideon, and I. We hiked straight up. For hours. We all started off strong, but Tashi and I quickly fell to the rear of the group, bonding through our exhaustion and distress, sharing water and taking breaks together.
"Uphill???"
Upon arriving in Khunde, Nima needed to pay a quick visit to his friend Pasang’s mother. She was delighted to see Nima and upon hearing that he had folks with him, she insisted we join her in her home for tea. What a delight to sit with this sweet, generous, talkative woman. She made a great vat of milk tea and “shee, sheed” us until we had all consumed at least four cups each. Although I could not understand most, if any of what she and Nima said, I could tell by her great big smile and animated manner that she was thrilled to have guests. This woman who lives on so little by Western standards had so much to share with all of us and I will fondly remember our visit to her traditional Sherpa home.
From there we paid a visit to the small hospital up the hill. The doctor, a friend of Nima’s, showed us around the facility. It was a tiny clinic, but very important in the region, being the only medical facility available to nearly 6,000 people in the surrounding villages as well as trekkers visiting the region.
At this point, the clouds began to pile up against the Khunde hillside. Soon nearly all visibility was lost.
We worked our way through the mist to the neighboring town of Khumjung to visit the Khumjung High School, established in 1961 by Sir Edmund Hillary. The school was quiet and peaceful, as the students had scattered to their homes in the neighboring villages for their month-long break, but I could easily imagine the energy typically contained within the school grounds.
Our final uphill push for the day was to Everest View Hotel, the Guinness Book of World Record’s highest hotel at 12,729 feet. Set on the top of a hill looking towards Mt. Everest, the view is supposed to be breathtaking. We wouldn’t know since all we could see was the fog that had completely engulfed the place. As we sat in the deserted five-star hotel, eating our lunch, it felt a bit eerie, like the set of an old Hitchcock movie. We did enjoy a fantastic lunch, however, reveling in the fact that there were some variations in the menu compared to what we had been eating for the past twelve days. I had a filet mignon and enjoyed every over-cooked bite.
From Everest View, we followed the downward trail through the thick mist back towards Namche. Tashi was our fearless leader and led us all safely through the spooky haze.
We were just about home to the Shangri La when we were spotted by Jen’s mother-in-law from the porch of her lodge. “Come in for tea!” she ordered. In we went, and more tea we drank. “Do you eat meat?” she asked. I nodded my head dumbly, committing us all to stay for dinner. This Sherpa hospitality is amazing, but honestly, we had just eaten a big lunch an hour earlier at Everest View. Alas, there’s no stopping a Sherpa woman. Soon, we all had plates of gravy-covered buffalo steaks, vegetables, and fries in front of us. We dutifully ate up, thanked her for her kindness and slowly shuffled back to the Shangri La for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment