Everest View Hotel location

I mentioned that the Everest View Hotel is difficult to find without a guide, and especially without (m)any clear signs to it from Namche. Even people who rely on Google Earth are being misled!

I'm sure there's no mistake with my marker (in yellow) and GPS map, as this was the second time I had tracked my journey to the Everest View Hotel, and via a different route to boot. Someone at Google Earth needs to be informed about this...

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If you're looking for directions to the Everest View Hotel from Namche Bazaar (this doesn't exactly follow the path I took, but with a little luck it should get you there):

First, head towards the town exit for the road that leads towards Tengboche, Gokyo etc. You should see a large mani stone on the right and a small fence with a gate on the left. Behind the gate are some pretty steep steps. Follow the steps till you reach a plateau area where you'll see the Syangboche airstrip on the left and a small ridge in front of you.

Do not walk towards the airstrip. Instead, you should see a building in front of you up on the ridge. There should be a path leading towards the building - if you can't find it, make one. Once you get to the building, you can either take the path on the left path leading through a bit of forest, or you can follow the edge of the ridge to your right. Either way, you should soon see another building on your left (I think it's called the Syangboche Panorama Hotel, but it looked closed when I was there). From this building, there should be a path on your right that follows the edge of the ridge.

Follow the path till you get to a grassy field. You should already be able to see the Everest View Hotel by now. Simply cross the field and follow the steps, which should take you right to the hotel's front door.)

Everest View Hotel

Backtracking a little to Khumbu (the Everest region), there's one place in particular that requires special mention: the Everest View Hotel. It's the highest hotel in the world and not only does the place provide a wonderful view of Ama Dablam and Lhotse (oh, and Everest), but it's notoriously difficult to find without a guide, as Lauren can attest.

The view from the hotel - Ama Dablam on the far left, Lhotse in the middle and Everest just to the left.


Everest, with Lhotse to the right






Of course the view isn't always great, especially on cloudy days. Also by afternoon, you often get clouds coming in from the South (at least at this time of year) It's not so nice, but at least you can still see Ama Dablam here:


But when the weather is good, even the reflection in the glass is magnificent.


Sara had a little argument with a lady at the guest lodge in Khumjung who was complaining that the hotel was an 'abortion', what with its white concrete steps and 'Western-ness'. Of course, the hotel was built by a Japanese company and opened in 1973. As for the 'white concrete steps', here they are:



And I agree with Sara that in terms of design, it blends in quite well with its surroundings.

Mani Rimdu

The festival of Mani Rimdu at Tengboche, sometimes referred to that 'dancing monk' festival, takes place in the 9th Tibetan month, usually sometime in late October. The main festivities last three days - I believe right after the full moon, though preparations start much earlier. The 16th day is the most important day when the monks from the monastery perform a number of masked dances in the courtyard of the monastery.

The name 'Mani Rimbu' comes from the 'Mani', which forms part of the Avalokiteshvara (or Chenrezig in Tibetan) chant 'Om mani padme hum'. 'Rimdu' is from 'rildu', referring to the small red pills that are blessed and distributed at the main empowerment ceremony. (Note: I'm not sure how the alveolar lateral becomes a bilabial nasal here, not an alveolar nasal 'n', but it could just be one more step in the process of sound dissimilation.)

The Tengboche Monastery


It just so happened that the main festival day was taking place right in the middle of my short visit to Khumbu, so I decided to do the three hour hike from Khumjung to Tengboche (and back) to catch a glimpse of some of the festivities. It was a fun day, though I don't know if I would've liked to have spent the whole day and a night at the festival by myself (Sara had gone off trekking to the stunningly gorgeous area around Gokyo). In any case, I took her advice and got the little sheet of paper at the visitor centre which explained each dance.

While I arrived around 9.30am, the first dance I got to see was about an hour later (and after a piece of applie pie and pot of milk tea). The Ging-cham is performed by four dancers - two females with drums and two males with cymbals who act as the heralds of Dorje Trollo, the 'wrathful appearance' of the Rinpoche who established Buddhism in Tibet (I'm not quite sure why he would be wrathful), and a kind of patron of the monastery.

Ging-cham


Dorje Trollo appears


Nga-cham was my favourite dance, featuring a pair of 'skeleton' dancers with rather monkey-like movements.



At one point, the two skeletons take the ends of a rope, in the middle of which is tied a dough figure which represents evil. Two dancers in big black hats destroy this dough figure.





As a comic interlude, a monk appears as an old man, named 'Mi Tsering', who grabs an audience member, usually a poor unsuspecting tourist and drags them around the courtyard making them do silly things from exchanging hats to mixing flour and water throwing the mixture at people in the crowd. I'd heard the girl who got dragged along from the ride say earlier that she had to get to Machhermo - about 5 hours away - by nightfall. The poor thing...



Between dances, monks would come around and offer biscuits and milk tea. I'm not a big fan of hot drinks in small plastic cups, though it stop me from having my 6th cup of the morning.



There were a number of other dances, but I figured I needed to leave by early enough to get back to Khumjung by nightfall. Before I left, I was glad I managed to spot a monk with his digital camera filming some of the dancing - after all, why should the tourists get all the fun?

Wildlife of Khumbu

So while the brochures talk about musk deer, himalayan tahrs, wild yaks and the elusive snow leopard, the reality is that the most wildlife visitors to the Khumbu region are going to see are birds. Not that I'm complaining, since I've loved birdwatching from back when I lived in Singapore and I've trained my eyes to spot small things flitting through trees and bushes.

I only wish I had a book to help identify the birds I did see. A digital SLR with a big-ass lens would've been nice too...

Some small passerines (not terribly exciting for most)




Pheasants (the males are the colourful ones)




And raptors / birds of prey. This falcon was hovering directly over a single spot. Quite impressive given the winds looked pretty strong.


I originally hought this raptor was an eagle, but looking at its head, it could've been a vulture...


My favourite shot of the raptor with Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam in the background


Yup, a big-ass lens would've been nice.

Lukla to Khumjung (II)

From Phakding, my porter Pemba and I climbed up to Namche Bazaar, where I spent the night to recover and acclimatise. I was half expecting to wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air, which some of my friends had warned me about. However, all I remember was waking up throughout the night and feeling really weak in the morning. It felt just like a bad flu, without nose-related symptoms - I did recall waking up in the middle of the night and realising that for the first time in weeks, my nostrils were clear!

Note that many travellers actually spend two nights in Namche, but I was trying to get to Khumjung as quickly as possible to see Sara at her field site before she headed off to Gokyo. At the time however, I really thought it was a flu bug, and the next morning I pushed on up the steep steps towards Khumjung.

Namche Bazaar from above


The terrifying steps leading up (or down) from Namche.


On the way up, I saw a few people skydiving from of a small aircraft. The same aircraft landed soon right above the steps we were climbing.





I was later told that there's only a small window of opportunity to skydive from one of the highest dropzones in the world - the highest is if you jump out of a helicopter at Gorak Shep according to the Everest Skydive website. They only do jumps for a week or two in October and May every year.

We soon reached Syangboche (though I wasn't feeling great and needed to stop every few minutes), where one of the world's highest airstrips -if not the highest- is located. According to the website, guests at the nearby Everest View Hotel can fly directly to Syangboche, so they don't need to make the trek from Lukla. Other websites however suggest that this is no longer the case, as too many people would suffer from altitude sickness and the supplementary oxygen provided in the hotel's rooms didn't help much.







In any case, after leaving the landing strip, we climbed a small ridge, and once over that ridge found ourselves in Khumjung. By this time, I was absolutely exhausted and felt like crap. I don't remember much from then, apart from having a cup of milk tea, taking a photo with Pemba, my porter / guide, and downing a bowl of garlic soup before crashing in bed till dinnertime some six hours later.

Me with Pemba


Next time, I would probably spend an extra night in Namche. But at least I started feeling better my second day in Khumjung.

Lukla to Khumjung (I)

After landing in Lukla, it then took me three days to get to Khumjung, the village where Sara was doing her PhD fieldwork. Even though I landed at 7am, and had a porter, I could've made it to Khumjung by nightfall on foot. Of course, there's the issue of altitude sickness / acute mountain sickness (AMS) - the risk of it developing into something much worse than a headache and nausea was enough reason to take it slow.

Day 1 was pretty easy going. I got in early on the first Agni Air flight at 7. Found a young porter named Pemba (he said he was 17, though that changed to 16 on the third day) from Lukla. I had a quick morning tea in Lukla, before setting off for Phakding. We could've easily made it to Monjo, which is much closer to Namche and Khumjung, but Pemba reckoned it would be cheaper in Phakding and he seemed happier to spend the night there because he had friends and family in Phakding.

(A note on pronunciation, aspirated 'ph' in Nepali is in free variation with 'f', so 'phakding' can be pronounced either as 'puck-ding' or 'fuck-ding'.)

On the way to Phakding


The village of Phakding


Where I stayed in Phakding - neither the Yeti Cyber Cafe nor the 'Herman' Bakery Cafe were open though.


By 10am, we had arrived in Phakding, which meant I had a lot of time to kill. Thankfully, there were a few short walks / climbs around to do. I decided to cross over a bridge few tourists heading up to Namche would've crossed, since it only led to a few villages on the other side of the Dudh Koshi (literally 'Milk River').

The Dudh Koshi


The bridge was a little more rusty than the other bridges on the main path.


Most suspension bridges on the main path between Lukla and Namche looked like this.


On my walk past the small village of Sano Gumela (incidentally sano means 'small' in Nepali), I met an old Sherpa lady and a young Tamang girl carrying a basket, with the strap around her forehead, as is the fashion across much of the region. The girl was quite shy, but the old lady was quite happy to share her thoughts on a number of things. Sadly, much of what she said was lost on me. She did say in Nepali that she was going to the nearby monastery. I tried asking her if children were still speaking Sherpa at home in her village, but I'm really not sure what the response was. I think she did say that there were many non-Sherpa people in the village, including the young Tamang girl who was with us.

She was quite a fearsome woman, stopping every so often to pick up a large rock in the middle of the path and throw it to one side. Yet, when a train of dzopkyo (a yak-cow hybrid found at lower altitudes) came up the narrow path, bells aringing, it was so funny to see her running back in my direction like a little girl, getting us to find higher ground so that the train could pass us.

The old Sherpa woman, who kindly posed for a photo after she saw me stopping to take pictures of the landscape.


Suffice to say, it was an interesting little side trip I had around Phakding, though the next time I go up, I'd probably want to stay at Monjo - the next morning's climb was pretty hard...

Flying to Lukla

Two weeks ago I flew out twice of Kathmandu with Agni Air, each time on a Dornier 9N-AHE. The first one landed back in Kathmandu while the second made the rather scary landing in Lukla. This morning I flew back from Lukla in one of those.


Considering that this happened 2 months ago, I was a little concerned, but aware that the authorities would probably be a little more cautious.

It's a tiny plane that takes about 14 people at one time. There's even a flight attendant onboard who gives out cotton balls (for your ears) and sweets.


It's great if you sit right in front, because you get to see everything in the cockpit.


I wasn't quite sure what the GPS was meant to show. I assumed it worked only because I survived all three flights.



I still got a kick out of the seat belt and no-smoking sign.