Date: 2005-10-12 11:00:17
Geo Coord: 27.80527N 86.70878E
Altitude: 10841

Namche Bazaar Day 2: We woke up for our second day in Namche. The morning view was again amazing. The clear mornings in Nepal allowed us to see the deep valley we were in.  Around us were large towering peeks. We had no problem sleeping the night before.  We were exhausted after the long trek however the valley was full of barking dogs that kept me up until midnight. Our Sherpa Zambo gave us two steaming cups of milk tea in the morning and we sat and enjoyed the view from our tent.  We had to spend the day in the area to acclimatize to the new altitude and they recommended we take a trek to the top of one of the nearby mountains.  We ate breakfast then packed up our daypack to go up to the Everest View Hotel a 4 hour hike away and several thousand feet above us.  Along the hike you had a perfect view of Everest and some of the most breathtaking scenery you could imagine. The lead guide Dende, told me that that Zambo had been assigned as my dedicated Sherpa to carry my camera gear. The porters carry the bulk of our equipment however they often leave far before your on the trail, so if I needed a lens during the trek, I would be out of luck until we reached camp that night.  I divided up my needed and non-essential camera gear, and gave him the items I did not think I would need on a moment-to-moment notice as we hiked.  Zambo would accompany the group so he would always be near by if I needed something.

The reduced weight of my pack helped out immensely and it allowed me to stop and take more photos along they way.  On the trail up, the ground was covered in blue flowers shaped like church bells and red cold weather plants and green grass.  It is one of the most scenic places I have ever seen in the world.  We had our trekking poles with us, and they came in handy for the steep climb up the mountain.  They poles were even more useful for the trek down the steep trails.  I would recommend anyone going on this trek get a good set of poles in Katmandu before going up in the mountains.  (I saw multiple broken poles on the climb so, I recommend spending the extra money for the best you can find.)  During the hike up, we had to jump out of the way of a yak train running down the path a high speed. We scurried up on the wall of the trail to let the herd of Yaks make there way past. The Yaks are very furry and Shawna said she would love to take one home as a pet.  I am not quite sure what customs would have thought of a several thousand pound hairy drooling Yak as luggage, but we laughed at the thought. When we got to the top of the mountain, there were thirty yaks grazing with Everest scenically behind them.  We went up to the hotel to have a snack.  We had lemon tea and French fries on top of the mountain looking at Mount Everest and the surrounding peeks.  The weather was cold with strong winds which sucked the heat off of my body. I left my hat in the tent and was wishing I had it, however I had a good wind-stopping jacket that made all the difference in the world.  After lunch, we made our way back down the trail to our tent a thousand feet below. It was steep and we had to take it easy to not mess up our knees.  When we arrived back in camp, we took an afternoon nap in our sun-baked tent. When we awoke the clouds had rolled back in and the town was once again freezing.  We bundled up and climbed down the several hundred stairs to the heart of Namche.  We thought the stairs we bad going down however they were even worse when we came back up to our camp.  In town, Shawna bought a knit rainbow colored Nepalese hat and some matching socks. I got a Yak hair scarf that was very soft and very warm.  I went to an internet cafe that had a satellite modem to check the website.  The place was very expensive, however I was able to check the YakTrek site and fix a bug that was stopping my log uploads from being processed on the server. I think I have fixed the problem and hopefully the new photos and stories will be processed for all to view.  After exploring the city we hiked back up to camp had another large meal with Simon and Nicolas.  They spent the evening playing each other in a loud chess match as I at across the table from them to type today’s story and edit photos.  Our guide staff has a large cook crew and the food has been very good. They even baked us a cake for dessert.  Well we have an early morning wakeup, I believe this is our last day in civilization we will see for the next two weeks.  We will start our hike out of Namche in the morning to go towards the Tibetan border.