Multiple choice question - 17 October 2008

When your wife compares herself to this, what do you do?

1. Make yak-related jokes
2. Act offended that she'd compare herself to livestock
3. Laugh nervously, and move on
4. Be very still and very, very quiet

I ask, because the altitude is starting to get to us and even though the vast majority of our junk is being carried by a porter we both feel a little empathy for this poor beast.

Today we trekked from Namche to Thengboche and I'm noticing a disturbing trend.  It appears that we hike down in the mornings, only to hike the entire vertical distance (and then some) back up in the afternoon.  It's bad enough right now but it also means we'll have to hike down and up on the return trip.  Maybe this is what they mean by hiking to school uphill both ways.

In case I haven't hammered it home enough yet, it's beautiful here.  Here's a picture of Everest, Nuptse, and Ama Dablaum, with a chorten commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Everest ascent:

It's funny, evidently the Nepalese army makes their recruits going on training runs up here.  We saw probably 50-60 guys in fatigues running along the trail, kicking a dust cloud up along the way.  At this altitude it doesn't take long for the packs to start separating.  The main group passed, followed by an ever smaller number of stragglers, until one lone surly-looking soldier went walking by.  I bet he gets to peel lots of potatoes.

There was some excitement when we got to Thengboche.  Our guide has taken to sending our porter ahead to get rooms for us (since we're so slow) and when we got to town they had an extended conversation.  It turns out that there was one room left (which we got), and our guide had to sleep outside in a tent.  Here's a picture of the room, taken with my back wedged against the opposite corner:

We're taking it in stride, though, by joking that we wish Jen's dad (who is 6' 3") was here :)

It's also a lot easier to take when you see the older tourists that ended up in the bunk above the dining area - they took it because it was all that was left in the town, but I can't imagine it was very comfortable.