Date: 2018-10-12
From: Phakding

To: NAMCHE BAZAAR
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: few clouds

Scout: At 6:00 am there is a knock on the door and there are Panang and Mingma serving us hot tea. If this is life as a sheep, I guess it is okay. Yesterday, as the sun came out on the trail and I stopped to strip off my outer jacket, Panang reaches to help me. He helps pull it off, put it in my pack and then lifts the pack back on to my shoulders. I was being helped by a 24-year-old who has summitted Everest seven times. What¢s it like on the trail? It¢s as if we walked into the pages of National Geographic. One moment we are passed by a yak train, massive horns missing us by a foot or two, bells tinkling like cows in the the Swiss alps. Porters pass with worn wicker baskets with pads. The weight would stagger me. It could be a scene from 100 years ago. Then a cell phone rings and one of them pulls it out and starts talking. We hike in a deep river valley, the tree-clad walls rise precipitously, looking like an 18th-century Chinese woodcut. Every hundred yards or so it feels like there is a hole-in-the wall tea house, until they all disappear for the second half of the day. They are built of cut rocks, about the size of three bricks, each takes a man a full day to chisel.Our flock is seven. Watching over us are 1 cook, 3 Sherpa guides, 4 pack yaks, 2 yak handlers, and1 lead guide. At all times on the trail, four are watching seven. So Lisa had to work pretty hard to get lost. For nearly an hour.  How? She was walking between the lead three of us and the tail group of three. When the lead group stopped for lunch, Lisa blithely walked on by. One Sherpa fast walked uphill and one down hill. She was 20-minutes and a 750-foot climb up trail. We gave her a standing ovation when she returned. Her reward? After lunch she got to hike it again.Bathrooms: We actually had an attached bathroom with a regular toilet last night. Lunch was another matter. It was a rotted wood shack, gaps in the slats, the tin roof held down by rocks and the working end of the facility was a one foot by two foot gap in the floorboards. And what came out our bodies flowed straight to their garden. How about that, princesses?And yes, I¢ll get back to the banker story soon. Tonight we are in Namche Bazaar. We climbed over 3,000 feet today. Don of our group says this will be the highest he has ever slept. Frodo and I will have to wait a few more days to say the same. We stay here two nights.Frodo: okay, I give up. We really aren't Scout and Frodo on this trip, but Scout is insisting on using those names for this journal, so I guess I will, too.We climbed a LOT today. During the morning Scout kindly stayed back with me and Lisa East. We've dubbed our two solo women, both named Lisa, Lisa East (Virginia) and Lisa West (California). Lisa East and I are the two older, shorter women and we're a bit slower than the others, especially on the steep ups and downs, since they involve lots of big rock steps. Anyway, Scout took off with the other four after lunch. Alas, I fear I've lost him to the speedy group for good.I appreciate that the WT Sherpas never make me feel pressured or hurried. The lead Sherpa, Pemba, is the sweep and he seems perfectly fine with going our pace.Our room for tonight, in the Himalaya Culture Home, is much like our room last night. We arrive and find our beds all set up and our duffels delivered. Tea time is at 4:00 pm. How civilized!Two Notes:1. There may be times when we go days without internet. But we will keep on writing. It just may take longer to get to you.2. I just added a description of the flight to Lukla to yestereday¢s entry.