Island Peak Trek Day 3

Despite the previous days long and arduous trek, the night in Namche Bazaar was not a restful one. 4L of fluid, combined with a powerful diuretic (Damn that Diamox) meant at least three trips to the washroom during the night. I was also kept awake by an argument in the streets. It sounded pretty serious and I was afraid someone was going to get hurt. Luckily the yak ended up deciding that the dog wasn't worth its trouble and just walked away.

We left early in the morning to stop at a view point along the way and get our first view of Everest! Which one is Everest again? That one? I'm pretty sure that's just a large cloud. As we mulled around the lookout point waiting for the clouds to clear we admired the view of the other notable Himalayan peaks. Ama Dablam was (and always is) the most spectacular to look at, being so close and so very pointy. Lhotse and Lhotse Shar (not to mention the entire Nuptse ridge) were also visible despite being connected to Everest itself. Mount Everest: the shy mountain.

We eventually decided that standing around all day waiting for nature to show up might not be the best use of our time. We had just turned around to leave when our guide came jogging over (damn him and his ability to breath without oxygen) saying "There! There!" We turned back to him, "Really? That one?" It would seem we'd been staring directly at the peak of the worlds tallest mountain for some time now. Mount Everest: the disappointing mountain.

We continued on from the view point, again heading in the general direction of up. Eventually the trail morphed from a relentless stair climb to a decently level path cut into the side of a very steep hill before finally  descending into the town of Khumjung. Wait, Khumjung? We're here already? Woohoo! Easy day!

We were shown to our room on the second floor (stairs? Are you kidding me?) and then headed down for lunch and a tour of the town. We saw all important sights; the Hillary School, Kunde Hospital and (sigh) the great Yeti Skull of Khumjung Gomba. By far the most amazing sight in Khumjung was the town itself. Almost every building, every structure and every wall was built using only stacked stones. The walls were by far my favorite. Spanning a combined distance somewhere in the tens of kilometers, they separated every field, ever house, every road and were build only by piling rocks on top of one another. There were also the Mani stones; large flat pieces of slate with Buddhist prayers caved into them in Sanskrit. The amount of time spent in this town on rocks was unbelievable.

During our 3:00 tea time we watched the clouds roll by, got frightened by a sudden thunder storm that turned out to be a yak running by the window and managed to get our guide to play a card game with us that involved tying knots using our prussik cords. By the time dinner rolled around we realized that we could both see our breath in the air (despite being inside the lodge) and decided to put some warmer clothes on before heading up to bed. Sure gets cold fast up here!