Trek Day 8: Deboche to Namche Bazar

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Another view of the monastery at Tengboche

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Time taken: 5 hours (incl. breaks)

Distance: Today: ~7 kms               Total to date: ~67 kms

Altitude: Deboche - 3770m, Namche Bazar - 3450m, Descent: 320m, with a ~300m ascent en route

(Check out the other pictures in the archive by clicking on the photos below!)

Woke up to a nice sunny day this morning!  Unfortunately, it brought an end to a very poor sleep the night before.  Despite being exhausted from all the walking and the lack of sleep from the previous few days, I got a very poor sleep last night.  Might have had something to do with the people in the next room moaning all night long...  I can only imagine...  Not sure whether it was sexual or just illness, but either way it kept me up most of the night.  As you can imagine, the walls are not very sound-proof.  Turned out it was a foreign girl and a guy that may have been her guide... 

The shrine in front of snowcaps

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The start of today's hike was a rude awakening, as that 100m ascent to Tengboche was right at the commencement of the journey.  Actually took a bit out of me since I hadn't slept much the night before.  We caught the British couple early on.  They had decided to go all the way up to Tengboche the day before, so had a little head start.  We traveled together all the way to Namche Bazar again that day.  Apparently the American guy was still in Tengboche when we passed, but was planning to do the entire hike back to Lukla that day..  Crazy dude...

The day was still quite tough long since we again had to go all the way down to the river and back up just after Tengboche.  Felt a lot better than previously, but still took a while.  It was much sunnier today, so gave us a chance to take in the sights in better lighting than before.

A clearer view of Namche Bazar with better weather when we arrived this time

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Stayed at my favourite teahouse in Namche, and treated myself to a steak as a reward for being (almost) back.  It was the first meat I had had since I left here 5 or 6 days before (aside from canned tuna), so it was nice.  The meat was buffalo, not beef, so it was a little tougher, but still tasted like red meat!

Finally got a good night's sleep back in Namche, once the local dogs shut up.  For some reason, they bark all the time here in the early evening.  Both times I was here it was a consistent noise every second from dusk until ~10 pm.  Thankfully not much later than that I was asleep.