Sunday, January 4, 2015

Day 4: First Sight

Sleep last night consisted of two short naps. The headache caught up with me but it wasn't bad. By now I have made a conscious decision to not take any painkillers so I can better monitor how I'm feeling as we ascend to determine if/when I should start Diamox. I spent most of the night catching up on my emails, updating blog entries and uploading photos. I'm relieved that the sublet people have left my apartment in tact and the kitties are still alive. I sent a quick email to my parents just to check in. In an effort to not have them worry so much I typically don't tell them about my trips ahead of time.
This could be my last reliable and affordable wifi and charging place for a while. I'm warned that the costs for everything will go up as we trek further. After paying for all the traveling costs for not one, but three trips, and the uneventful sublet situation with the apartment, I'm on a very strict budget. Ganga, sensing my budget constraint, has taken the initiative to fill my water bottle at the hotel as his so I could get free water as the guides do. Otherwise, a bottle of boiled water can become quite costly.

The good news is that by daylight my headache had completely gone away. I also felt warm under two layers of thick blankets. Since I had two twin beds in my room, I invited Ganga to stay on one of them. There was no sense for him to sleep in the shared guides room while worrying about his belongings (or my trekking permit). We took our time to get ready in the morning and didn't get out until 10am. I guess that's just a bonus for being the only trekker. I assume Ganga knows what time we need to be out by so we can reach our next guesthouse.

Most guidebooks recommend people to be as active as possible prior to commencing the trek. I suppose my two-week voluntary confinement during finals period isn't quite the same but we will just count that as "tapering." At least I knew to rest up and eat as much as I could in Indiana, just before coming to Nepal. Although I don't feel any physical fatigue at this point, the trek is physically demanding. Just getting up all the steps to hike out of Namche is a challenge. I was really huffing and puffing but the time we got onto the actual trail but I assume that had more to do with the thinner air than me being out of shape. My body actually felt good. I read somewhere that said anyone in moderate health can complete this trek. I'm still glad to get this done while I'm still young and in shape.

The view of the mountain ranges along the way is beautiful. We couldn't see Everest because of the clouds but we were always in sight of Ama Dablam, one of the most distinct peaks in the region. The trail was in good enough condition that I could even look up to take in the view. All this thanks to the work of the Namaste Man, who I'm told is an old man who collects donation from the trekkers to build and repair the trail. We also saw a family of mountain goats along the way. Just about everything is covered in snow now. The cold has made it difficult for me to stop for more than a minute at a time so we kept moving in a moderate pace.

Now I write this journal sitting in front of the stove in the kitchen of a rest stop/restaurant. A young girl had made my lunch for me. And again, this being the off season and me being the only guest, I decided to join Ganga and the girl in the kitchen, where it's warm by the stove. Ganga ate his lunch standing up, always chatting, always with a copious amount of rice, always with his hand, and I'm always disgusted no matter now many times I've seen him do it and how hard I try to be nonjudgmental. I have no problem eating with my hands at Ethiopian restaurants but I'd rather starve here than to touch my own food because I can't remember the last time I washed my hands with soap or put them under running water at all!

Ganga continued to talk to the girl and I continued to not understand them. Finally he said to me, she wants to say something to you. What? I was puzzled. They giggled as the girl tried to hide behind Ganga. He pushed her in front of him and said, "she thinks you're very nice because you are quiet and you look very kind. She wants to give you something." Ok...now even more perplexed. She reached on the shelf and handed me a small dark green package.  What is it? I muttered. It's a cookie, Ganga explained. Thank you! I didn't know what to do except to feel like a total asshole. Just two days ago I had complained to the Canadian couple about the rampant commercialism and opportunistic business people on the trek. Now a girl, who probably has lessor than one of my cats, is giving me cookies?! Nicely played. Yep, I'm an asshole. In nowhere does Ray Jardine's lightweight packing book talks about gifts for local people so I was troubled by what to give her. I could have just given her some money but that seemed rude. The only thing I had that was not wore or about to be wore were granola bars and energy gels. I fetched out a RAW Brownie Bar and handed it to her with two hands as a sign of appreciation. She smiled as we bowed to each other and said our good byes.

As we went up the side of a hill, switch back after switch back, I realized why we had stopped there for lunch. The endless climb made me think about if I could do that for 3,000+ miles on the PCT. At least there wouldn't be altitude to content with, I thought to myself. We found a nice sitting spot for a water break and then it was back to more switch backs. Somewhere along the way it started to snow. We walked alone slowly through a pine forest. The smell was intoxicating and the snow made it even more magical. We joked, made animal sounds, knocked snow off branches to make avalanches like a couple of kids. Except we were adults and the scene felt like it was right out of a dream. I picked up a pine branch and tucked it into the side of my pack, happy as a dog with a stick. Days like this make me feel like my life is a fairytale.

It was just past 4pm when we reached Tengboche at the top of the hill. We had every intention to visit the monastery here but was told that it had already closed. I guess sitting with monks just isn't in the cards for me on this trip. We caught two monks skiing while lingering around the monastery entrance. I see why they are "closed" now. I waited around a bit to capture them going down the slope on my GoPro. We had a good laugh when they face-planted in the snow. We walked around the prayer wheel three times before heading down the hill ourselves, on foot, for the guesthouse 40m below. There's much more significant snow here, ankle level on the trial and at least knee deep off. The 40m descend seemed longer than I expected. I didn't mind since it was a lot easier than going up the switch backs earlier. Besides, I was motivated by Ganga's description of a large warm stove waiting for us at the guesthouse. The sky started to clear up as the sun begins to set. The pink lighting gave the surrounding a dreamy ambiance. When the guesthouse finally emerged from the snowy woods Ganga turned around, pointed to the distance directly ahead of us and said to me, "look!"I saw a golden triangle peaking through a small patch of blue sky, perfect as an Egyptian pyramid. Just as I waited for him to utter another name I didn't recognize, Ganga said, "that's Everest!" My heart jumped. I was caught completely off guard. I stopped in my track and stared into the distance as the last ray of sunlight disappeared from the peak. It was a perfectly unexpected ending to the day...except the day wasn't ending.


Check in at the guesthouse was followed by a very lengthy discussion between Ganga and the lady who worked there. I watched them from the large cold stove in the middle of the dinning hall and refused to believe what I had already realized. Reluctantly, Ganga informed me that due to the snow, all of the firewood outside is now wet and no good for making a fire. As a result, there will not be any warmth anywhere tonight. I knew it wasn't his fault. Still, I was majorly disappointed not only due to the cold but also the fact that my shoes and socks desperately needed to be dried. Ganga offered me a cup of hot tea. I insisted on getting into bed.
It's too early, he said.
I'm not tired or sleeping but I need to get into bed to warm up.

There was no stopping my as I practically ran back to our room. I sat in my sleeping bag and once again refused to get out for dinner. I was starving but I had no interest to eat anything. At Ganga's insistence I agreed to have a bowl of tomato egg drop soup. Minutes later he brought a bowl of what appeared to be the regurgitation of a tomato soup, a pile of pink goo. The thing didn't look appetizing and the taste didn't help. Still, I tried my best to consume the thing without seeing or tasting it, knowing I need to get something into my stomach. For the rest of the evening I stay crawled up in my sleeping bag in fetal position, alone, in silence and cold. Once again, we were the only guests here (which is probably the real reason for lack of heat source). The pine branch I carried for most of the day stood at the head of my bed. The faint smell was my only consolation.

Ganga came back to the room later that night and happily informed me that he was able to dry my shoes and socks by a small fire they made out of cardboard waste. I didn't feel like talking but made an effort to thank him. I asked Ganga what the commotion in the hallway was. He said, there are two monks at the guesthouse drinking with two young girls, maybe 17 or 18. What? I was confused. The noise persisted late into the night. They were staying at the same guesthouse.

Since either of us could sleep I asked Ganga about the road ahead. He explained to me that we will be hiking to Dingboche the next day at 4,400m. However, instead of taking an acclimatization day there we might want to keep going forward. The ice and snow on the trail has made the conditions more dangerous, or at least more difficult, for us considering we have no snow gear and at least one of us (moi) was under-dressed for the cold. There was absolutely no reason for us to take an extra hike on acclimatization day only to subject ourselves to unnecessary risks. Ganga paused for a second and then said, the only small problem is that the weather can be unpredictable in the mountains. If we go into bad weather in high altitude there will be lesser chance for a rescue helicopter to reach us.
I listened in silence, slowly absorbing the information but had no response of my own. I wondered how my altitude sickness or lack thereof will hold up. If I'm ok so far, will I continue to be ok trekking on without acclimatization? A shorter exposure in the cold sounded good. Finally I said, "we should do it."

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