Aaah! I spoke too soon. Dinner last night was vegetarian! I can't help feeling the previous lodge must have read my blog. That's not to say it wasn't good as it was, even though it was an unusual combination - chips, spaghetti with a tomato sauce and cabbage. Secondly I woke at 1.30 am only to stay awake for a couple of hours. On the plus side the Internet speed was up to 3g! I understand from Henrietta that at least one other person apart from my parents are reading my blog! I've got a mention on Alan Arnette's Everest website for my description of Kathmandu. I've been asked to do the Jagged Globe blog today so normal service (irreverence) will resume tomorrow!
This morning we woke to another day of sunshine and an early breakfast at seven thirty.
The plan was to have a relatively gentle morning walk up another 300 m to the villages of Khunde and Khumjung just to the north of Namche.
The two villages are a far cry from the hub bub of Namche with very limited facilities consisting of a couple of lodges together with a bakery.
Wondering around these two villages you get a real sense of how hard life is for the local inhabitants who aren't involved in someway with the tourists. They eke a subsistence living off the semi fertile land. There's no mechanisation here as everything is done by hand with the help of a yak or two to do the ploughing. It's like stepping back in time three hundred years into a working museum.
The village of Khunde is where Sir Edmond Hilary set up a hospital and a school following his 1953 trip as a thank you for all of the help that the locals provided during that expedition. Both are still operating which is a tremendous legacy.
From Khumjung after a coffee and apple cake stop we continued to the Everest View hotel which has a terrace that enjoys panoramic views of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. Unfortunately for us the cloud had started to build during the late morning so our view of Lhotse was obscured.
The two villages are a far cry from the hub bub of Namche with very limited facilities consisting of a couple of lodges together with a bakery.
Wondering around these two villages you get a real sense of how hard life is for the local inhabitants who aren't involved in someway with the tourists. They eke a subsistence living off the semi fertile land. There's no mechanisation here as everything is done by hand with the help of a yak or two to do the ploughing. It's like stepping back in time three hundred years into a working museum.
The village of Khunde is where Sir Edmond Hilary set up a hospital and a school following his 1953 trip as a thank you for all of the help that the locals provided during that expedition. Both are still operating which is a tremendous legacy.
From Khumjung after a coffee and apple cake stop we continued to the Everest View hotel which has a terrace that enjoys panoramic views of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. Unfortunately for us the cloud had started to build during the late morning so our view of Lhotse was obscured.
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| Everest is on the left with the cloud blowing off it whilst on the right is Ama Dablam |
On our return leg back to Namche we had an excellent panoramic view of it looking down from above. It's been built within a semi circular hanging valley which looks like a greek amphitheatre.
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| Looking down on Namche |
Namche is full of lodges, cheap gear and souvenir shops, internet cafes and restaurants. It's a fascinating village and the hub of the Khumbu valley. It gets it's name from the weekly Saturday market with traders coming from as far as Tibet to sell there wares.
Don't worry, I'm reading your blog. Glad the food is much better than the North side - rice and cabbage, mmmm, lovely!
ReplyDeleteHelen
I'm reading it too!
ReplyDeleteAl.