Trek to Khumjung

Trek from Namche to Khumjung
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October 24, 2007: Khumjung( 12,450')

Breakfast today was oatmeal and French toast. I am still forcing myself to eat.

We were on the trail at 8:30am.  Today's hike is to be a short one.  After we had gone a short distance to the top of the Namche Bowl, our guide told us that the property fenced off belonged to him. He used to have yak and dzo there.

Trek from Namche to Khumjung - Looking back at Namche
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First we hiked 2 hours straight up, then 40 minutes down. We arrived at Khumjung at 11:10. We had lunch in the dining room of our lodge.  One of the employees was eating a huge bowl of boiled potatoes.  That is one of the major crops here.  At all of our meals we were served fresh cooked vegetables, right from someones garden.

Khumjung is one of the wealthiest villages in the Khumba area. People lead simple lives but everything is clean and people seem happy. We had lunch in the lodge. The Edmund Hillary High School is here and looks very modern. Each building was donated by a different county. The computer lab was donated by Japan. I am sorry we did not get a photo of it. Dawa said he went to this school and it took him 15 minutes to walk to shcool from Namchee Bazaar.  (took us nearly 3 hours!)

Trek from Namche to Khumjung - Looking back at Namche
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It is VERY cold here. There is no heat in our room. We had about an hour until we were going to visit the monastery, so we went to our room to lie down. We had a bathroom in our room with hot water so I took a shower, put on my down jacket and got into my double down sleeping bag. We have electricity; one dim light bulb in the room. Much of the power comes from solar, and is not abundant.

We took a walk to the monastery where the skull of the yeti is under lock and key until you pay some rupees to see it. We walked around the outskirts of town. We really saw the poverty-a lady washing out jugs at an outdoor faucet, roofs held down with rocks. But people seem proud and happy going about their daily life. We saw a woman tilling the field. Chickens, cows, goats were meandering around. A boy was flying a kite. Two children formed a band. One little boy maybe 4 or 5 years old was banging two lids together and a little girl was singing into the end of a trekking pole. Many Sherpa guides call this village home. Above Khumjung rises the sacred peak of Khumbila (18,800'), holy to the Sherpa people. It represents a Tibetan Buddhist protector deity and remains unclaimed (sacred peaks of Nepal are off limits to mountaineers).

Trek from Namche to Khumjung - Mt Everest
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Dinner was tuna and potato Croquet, crispy roasted chicken, fresh carrots and cauliflower, apple custard with coconut and assorted fruit. We stayed at Hidden Village Lodge.