Solu Khombu Trek - Day 7 (Berkley)

I felt pretty crappy last night, but woke up feeling pretty good.  I managed to keep down a bowl of porridge and we set off towards Phalpu.  At first, I was feeling pretty good, but was super down on myself for not being with Seth.  I kept wondering if we had just stayed at Sengephuk for another night, would I have been able to continue on?  Because my issue was definitely not altitude.  I felt just as horrible when at a much lower altitude as I did at the high altitude.  But, I guess there's no real way of knowing.

Later on our trek I began to feel progressively worse and worse.  I became so weak, my stomach was doing backflips, and I could barely lift my feet over the small rocks.  I needed a full day of rest and I wasn't giving it to myself.  So, then I revisited my thought about how I might be trekking with Seth to Dund Kund right now if we had just stayed another night at Sengephuk, also, if we had stayed another day in Jumbese maybe the trek to Phalpu would have been easier.  I decided the pony idea was a bad one.  The trails are too perilous.  So many slippery rocks on trails that drop off the mountain.  Anyhow, after about four and a half to five hours we finally made it to Phalpu.  I feel like crap, but I'm drinking a lot of water.  I'm staying at the Hotel Everest and I get my own bathroom, not shower, but at least I don't have to walk down the hall in the middle of the night.  And if all goes according to plan, I'll see Seth tomorrow.  I hope all goes according to plan!

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 4

This morning we woke up at 5am to be able to sit in on morning meditation with the nuns.  It was such a wonderful, relaxing experience.  The hum of their prayers reverberating through the brightly frescoed walls depicting peaceful and wrathful gods.  The nuns line up sitting crossed legged and sometimes stop to drink tea, or have a snack.  There are intermittent pauses in the chorus, and then they will all start up again, almost all at once.  There were occasional breaks where there would be playing of instruments like horns, cymbals, and drums, then back to the humming of prayer.  It felt very human.  Though they are a group of nuns, and a few monks here and there, it was a serious business, but not too serious for being friendly or human.  When someone would walk up to take their place, smiles and sometimes a brief conversation would ensue. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Morning meditation at Thuptenchholing monastery.[/caption]

We walked around and took in the sights.  And the sights are extraordinary.  The monastery is perched high above a valley with streams and tall pines everywhere.  There are Tibetan prayer flags strung across valleys of immense distance.  The monastery is not too old, so the buildings are in quite good condition, and they are beautiful in a beautiful setting.  We walked through numerous kitchens, all preparing food for the 600 or so nuns.  That means a lot of potatoes, since those are the staple here.  They grow a lot of spinach here too.  It really is a beautiful, magical, peaceful place.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Dried yak cheese, it's just as tasty as it sounds..[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450"] A testament to their patients, nuns peal thousands of potatoes every day.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450"] Massive wood burning ovens that feed over 600 people 3 meals a day![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450"] A nun making roti.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450"] We had a lot of free time to go on walks and poke around the monastery.[/caption]

In the late afternoon we met with the herbal medicine doctor to have our pulses read.  After gripping our wrists for a while, every now and then asking to see our tongues, we learned that Seth is having stomach issues and should lay off the sugar, and that I have hurt my back and should keep it warm.  Alrighty! I wonder if the pained expressions on my face while stretching my back or the snickers bar wrapper in the trash can had anything to do with our diagnoses?

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 3

Seth woke up feeling completely better.  It was a quick recovery and he's back to his own self.  Good! Disaster averted!

We woke up bright and early, once again, to find spectacular views of the snowy peaks of Caryolung, Khatang, Numbur.  It proved for breathtaking views while walking up the hill to the Selo Monastery.  The Selo Monastery was very busy during our visit.  Apparently they are expecting a visitor within the next month who is a high lama from India and they wanted to make the monastery look beautiful for him.  They were repainting frescoes, remodeling guest housing, and refinishing wood, which was everywhere.  We got the chance to speak with the head lama of the monastery Tulku Pema Tarchen.  And then, one of his monks took us around for a tour.  This monastery focuses on teaching rather than practicing, so there are many children there.  It was nice to see their classrooms and their library.

After lunch we trekked for about two and a half hours to Thuptenchholing Monastery, which is home to 600 Buddhist nuns.  We were invited into the head nun's office for tea, and ended up being served two bowls of noodle soup.  You don't really have a choice in the matter.  There was a father and son there, also, and the father was trying to refuse more tea at one point, but gave in.  When the son was approached he grabbed his cup and told her no politely, but he still ended up having more tea.  That was pretty funny.

We spend a little time in the hospital where we were able to see a bit of Tibetan herbal medicine.  There was an entire wall filled with pictures of plants that are medicinal.  That was really neat.

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 2

We woke up bright and early with tea in our tent.  It was a cold night, but putting Nalgene bottles filled with hot water at the foot of our sleeping bags helped loads.  Our trek today was about two and a half hours, once again, and it was not too bad.  Well, it was not too bad for us.  I don't know how these porters do it.  They are carrying a ton of weight and they carry it all by using a strap that rests on their heads.  Totally different from anything I have ever tried.  But, I guess we've seen that many other cultures carry loads on their heads.  This looks very difficult though and potentially quite painful.  Seth brought up a good point, that  perhaps this is why there are many older people hunched over.  Not sure.

Junbesi is a picturesque village in the valley of some beautiful mountains covered in large pine trees.  A river runs through the center of the valley and is the lifeline for the village.  They actually have a really interesting solution to drainage.  They dig ditches and lay flat rocks to cover the ditches, leaving enough space between the rocks to allow the water to drain.  We visited Junbesi Monastary.  Though it was empty, it was nice to poke around.  The monastery was painted in bright colors and had beautiful murals on the walls.  The art form here is so different from anything we've seen so far.  It's refreshing.

We, then, went to visit the Hillary Secondary School.  Sir Edmund HIllary, the first to summit Mount Everest, is the namesake of this school.  Whether he made a donation or not is something I don't know.  It was nice to watch the children play.  And it's absolutely adorable when you say namaste and place your hands together in front of your chest, because most of the time they will return your greeting.  So cute.  We spent a while watching them play.  Seth eventually turned into the main attraction.  He took a picture of a little boy that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get him to smile.  He just looked at me like I was a giant ugly bug.  Then I saw him look at Seth and smile largely.  It turned out that he liked to have his picture taken.  Seth was soon mobbed by children who wanted to get their picture taken and then look at them on the viewfinder.  They soon figured out that you could swipe the screen and scroll through the photos.  But once two fingers touched the screen the camera didn't know what to do and just didn't do anything.  It was fun to watch as Seth was encircled by the small children.

That evening, Seth wasn't feeling so well.  He probably was running a fever, either way he was feeling pretty crappy.  Hope that remedies itself quickly, because I'd hate for it to mess up Seth's trip.

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 1

We left the hotel bright and early at 6:20 in order to catch our flight at 7:45.  Thomas and Lakpah got us to the airport in time for our flight, but it turned out the flight was delayed till 9:20.  That's ok.  We hung around for a bit before taking a short flight in a 20 passenger plane over some high valleys and mountain crests.  It was a beautiful little flight.  The descent was intense.  We followed a mountain ridge and them made a complete u-turn, dive bombing in order to land on a tiny dirt strip on the side of a mountain.  Fun!

Phaplu is a small village of about 700 people.  Before they built a closer landing strip, Phaplu used to be the landing strip to climb Mount Everest.  That's a long trek before you even reach base camp.  We went up to Hotel del Sherpa for some tea, and then met with Buddha, who showed us around the local hospital.  It was actually a very nice, clean facility.  It was nice to see, and to find that people use the cheap, if not free, medical service.  Then we had a quick lunch before heading out on our trek.

Our trek today was only about 2-3 hours.  It was a pretty easy day through a beautiful valley where we ended up in Beni, in an open valley to camp by the river.  It's a nice peaceful area.  There are a lot of people who pass by, and everyone is smiling and appreciative of a, "namaste".  We watched children having an organized play time during school, where they played games that were unlike our childhood games, and difficult to figure out.  We watched a pack of mules walk by our campsite and cross a narrow wooden shaky bridge over a river.  It's a nice start to our trek.

Solu Khombu Trek - Day 6 (Berkley)

I felt unwell all night.  I ended up waking up at midnight and was not able to fall back to sleep.  In the morning I felt horrible.  I was weak, my body was shaky and sensitive, and my stomach was feeling all kinda of nauseated.  Though I tried to continue, it was decided that it was a better, safer, choice for me to head back.  Whether I was feeling that way because I was sick or because of elevation didn't matter, I couldn't go on.  But, not before I got to see some yaks!  Though the people there would probably say I wasn't excited to see yaks, I totally was.  It was on my list of Nepal things to see.  And since I won't be seeing Everest anymore, at least I got to see some yaks. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450"] Peanut butter, honey, and raw garlic. Poor choice...[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Yakety yak, don't talk back.[/caption]

Through a little convincing Seth went on without me.  I took our Cook down to lower elevation.  Purba, our sherpa guide, was pretty convinced that what I was feeling was altitude sickness, but I was not completely convinced.  As we quickly descended in altitude not much changed.  It became a little easier to walk, but just a little.  Otherwise I still felt pretty crappy.  I was still weak, shaky and nauseated (especially since Purba told me to eat a giant clove of raw garlic for breakfast to combat the altitude sickness.  I accompanied it wit a spoonful of peanut butter, and I was burping up that combination all day.)  It took about four hours to reach our destination of Junbesi, and I felt like crap every grueling step of the way.  I was so careful not to trip and fall, or slip off the mountain in my weakness and sheer exhaustion.  At this point I'm back at the Apple Valley Lodge where I am resting, but still feeling horrible.  I meet with Seth in a few days back in Phaplu.  He's going to be completing the trip at a more accelerated pace.  HIs job is to take tons of photos and to remember everything, so he can tell me all about it.  I'm glad one of us gets to complete the trek.