Two Days in Tengboche

I awoke after a great night of sleep from the nicest place I would stay in during the whole journey and was on my way. I was starting to feel the ill effects of the altitude a little bit now that I had been exposed to it for such a long amount of time, but I still did not have much issue with taking a full pack. The trail today led out of town and up the hill. I had already been to this part of the trail when I went looking for a place to pay my entry permit, which I still had not paid. I went up the hill and over until the trail led me down to where I could cross the river. I shared this trail with many people and a variety of animals. At one point, I had to quickly get off of a bridge as a herd of yaks came rumbling down the trail. If I wouldn't have turned around and made room for them, I am sure they would have just ran me over. This part of the trail was still forested and I wondered when I would get to see the big mountains.

At least now I was in the right valley that would lead me to Everest Base Camp. After crossing a bridge, it was up a hill. This was a steep climb with lots of switchbacks and at the top of the hill was the small community of Tengboche. Here there was a monastery with young monks training to be full time monks in the future. I found a room at a teahouse in town fully trusting my dad's recommendations. There were many people around just hanging out. This one guy had a giant copy of War and Peace. That was his reading material for the Khumbu which was smart because of all of the downtime that you have. Much of my time was spent just getting acclimatized. 

In the afternoon, I went over to the monastery where you could see a chanting performance by the monks. We all just crammed into these tight quarters and sat there to listen. Lot of deep chanting and some loud gongs and cymbal crashing. I did not know what any of it meant, but I assumed it was a prayer type deal. I guess it would be very peaceful and I appreciated the cultural significance of it, but I would not call it entertaining in any way. Still, it was worth the experience to check it out and frankly there was not much else to do. I played some cards with people around the teahouses. I was starting to recognize more and more people. I learned a few card games that were fun to play.

I woke up with a significant headache. I did not think it wise of me to continue upon my journey. Instead I spent the day going down the hill to see if I could get a bit more oxygen. I am not sure that it helped, but I found a nice place near the trail to sit and read my book. I ran into the Everest Expedition again that knew my dad and talked to more people. Eventually I went back up the hill and played more games in the teahouse. At least there were amazing mountains to look at in Tengboche. I think I got my first view of Everest here, though it looked so far away it was hard to tell. Still it was an amazing spot with beautiful mountains all around me. 

One of the biggest events of the whole evening was when the monks in training came out of the woodwork and began playing cricket. All of us tourists got a big kick out of this especially people from England. They actually knew the game, so the monks playing it was definitely a cultural experience. That is where you could look at them and realize that they are just kids. They were out there laughing and enjoying themselves even in there full array of monk gear. I soaked it in for a time and then went and hung out with more people. I was really getting to know quite a large variety of people by just inserting myself into groups. I did not feel that lonely despite being half a world away from home in a very inhospitable area pretty much by my lonesome. I still got plenty of sleep as I went to bed early. The cold and the altitude combined could really wear a man out.