ROLWALING and KHUMBU via Trashi Labsta (18.887 ft)

© Dirk Deckx (1994)

14. TREKKING... Day 19 and 20

Day 19 (Nov 5 - '94) : Khumjung - Namche Bazaar - Khumjung

*Minimum temperature tonight (inside the house) : + 4°C.
It's Saturday and this means market-day in 'Namche Bazaar'. We decide to make it a day-trip because when you're in the neighborhood you shouldn't ignore Namche. It's the center of tourism in the Khumbu valley. Here you'll be able to find banks, a post-office, hospital, hotels, tourist agencies, etc...

From Khumjung the path is steep downwards via the airstrip in Syangboche. Namche itself is situated in the middle of a picturesque valley as a kind of amphitheatre. The market-place is chaotic and not very pleasant, there's a lot of pushing and it's not easy to make some pictures here. Prices are outrageous, sometimes twice as much as in Kathmandu. Many Tibetans cross the border through the high mountains and risk their lives to sell their goods here.

A very famous, pleasant and still cheap place to eat or to stay is the 'Khumbu Lodge'. In 1985 Jimmy Carter was a guest here. The room where he spend his nights costs double.

Namche Bazaar is not really impressive but it surely gives us some breathing time after the tough trekkings. We buy a bottle of Chinese brandy for 300 Rp (bargain!) because tomorrow we plan to organize a party for our entire crew.
We walk back to Khumjung via 'Kunde'. All in all we had a nice day.

Summary day 19 (Khumjung - Namche Bazaar - Khumjung)

Day 20 (Nov 6 - '94) : Khumjung

Dawa and Pasang propose a visit to the monastery, the Canadian/New Zealand hospital and the Japanese deluxe mountain-hotel.
The Khumjung monastery is opened specially for us. The thing that makes this building so special is a very mysterious relic that's kept there... the scalp of the 'YETI' ! After giving a donation an old nun mysteriously opens an even more mysterious closet and reveals the Yeti's head-dress on an egg-shaped head. It's obviously a fake and for several researchers it's nothing more then ordinary yak-hair, but nevertheless the nun seems very serious about it.

After this disappointing visit we walk to the neighboring village 'Kunde' where the Khumbu Hospital is located. It's a Canadian/New Zealand initiative and the medical staff consists of volunteers who stay in Nepal for a specified period, some of them accompanied by their family. At the moment there's only one New Zealand physician and his wife. He enthusiastically gives us some words of explanation. They have an X-ray machine at their disposal, a Gamow-Bag to treat altitude illnesses, etc... A Nepali pays 10 Rp for a consultation, medicine included. A foreigner/tourist pays 20 $, medicine NOT included. The doctor also tells us that there's weekly an average of 1 or 2 Westerners who are treated for altitude illness and 1 or 2 a day for other cases. Last month a doctor died on Trashi Labsta because of HACE or High Altitude Cerebral Edema while performing a rescue-operation.

After dinner we visit the Japanese 'Everest View Hotel', a luxury hotel where you can spend a night for the 'attractive' price of 100 to 150 $. At an altitude of 12.779 ft it's beautifully located in the middle of a green pine-forest with an excellent view on Mt. Everest and other peaks.
What makes this hotel so special is the fact that you can stay in pressure rooms which make it possible to adjust to the altitude progressively.

And so, before we realize, we celebrate our last evening with Pasang, Dawa, Suk Bai and the kitchen boys. The cooks even managed to prepare a tasteful raisin-biscuit. Of course the conversation is mostly about our experiences during the past 20 days.

Summary day 20 (Khumjung)