I woke early in the morning so that I could look out my window and get a few pre-sunrise shots of Everest. It was a pretty spectacular view (I'm not even being sarcastic this time!) We took a seat by the window at breakfast so we could stare at Everest some more (even the bathrooms in Tangboche have a view of Everest) then headed out on the trail yet again.
Our first stop of the day came as a little bit of a surprise. We were walking through Pangboche (not to be confused with Tangboche – which we just left, Dingboche – where we were headed, or Loboche – which we were reaching a few days later) when our guide took a rather abrupt turn down a small alley, pointed at a little stone building and said “This is my house. We're stopping for tea.” Really? I guess your the boss!
He showed us into his home (“Watch your head!”) and introduced us to his wife. He disappeared for a while to pack a new bag of his things while we sat drinking his tea, petting his dog, and admiring his things. He had a rather large wall of certificates ranging from his English certificate to his guiding qualifications to his electricians diploma. We were looking out his back window at the spectacular mountain view when one of his neighbours walked by his back yard. She came to a rather abrupt stop that prompted us to wave enthusiastically at her. She waved back but seemed very confused, not to mention a little concerned, as to why there were two white people sitting in his house.
We left Pangboche (following our new and improved Sherpa; now with ice axe!) and started along a lengthy windy and dusty trail. At some point we must have diverged from the main trekking route, because we went from passing large groups of tourists and several yak every minute or so, to passing only one or two locals in an entire 2 hours! It looks like our guide knew some pretty good short cuts! As mentioned, the wind was getting stronger, but it was at our backs and the large swirling clouds of dust it picked up didn't bother us much.
By the time we reached Dingboche (about 1:00 in the afternoon) the wind had picked up considerably, and the lush green forests had been replaced by dust and small shrubs. Welcome to the Himalayan Alpine! Our place of residence in Dingboche turned out to be the “Snow Lion Lodge,” and probably our favourite place of all!
Other than 3:00 tea, we had plans for the evening so we set up shop in the dinning room and started making friends! First was the pair of trekkers from the Netherlands and from Australia. They had met in Lukla and were headed to Everest Base Camp and then to the west, over one of the mountain passes. Alex, from Russia, was one his way to climb Island peak. His English wasn't the best, but we found out he was doing the entire trip solo! Matt was from Iowa and was currently in the middle of an Everest expedition. He was planning on summitting the coming week and had headed down for food and rest. Kami, and a few others, were locals that worked at the lodge. They weren't too busy (I just listed everyone staying at the lodge, minus our group of three) and spent a lot of their time chatting with us.
In the evening we all ate dinner together while sharing stories and played cards for hours. Big two turned out to be the only card game any of us could remember, but really didn't work that well with that many people. We played Spoons, but without the spoons themselves for safety reasons, and Kami taught us all a Nepali card game that turned out to be Old Maid. To wind up the evening the two Canadians broke out Hello Kitty Uno. Our guide borrowed the rule booklet and studied it very carefully for a long time before we could finally convince him to play. In the end there were 9 of us; all peering competitively over the tops of our hands, playing cards featuring bright primary colours and a small cartoon cat. What a ridiculously fun evening.
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