Nepal : Part 6 - EBC Trek (Day 2) - From Phakding (2640m) to Namche Bazaar (3440m)

Summary of Meal Expenses

	Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
	Phakding		Jorsalle		Namche Bazaar
	Meal	Price	Meal	Price	Meal	Price
Mine	Tibetan Bread	250	Potato With Egg	370	Fried Rice with Egg & Vegetable	470
	Hot Water	50	Ginger Lemon	100	Ginger Tea	60
Sister	Apple Pancake	280	Fried Noodle with Egg & Vegetable	370	Sherpa Stew	400
	Hot Water	50	Ginger Lemon	100	Mint Tea Hot Water	60 40

Prices of items that matters:

	Jorsalle	Namche Bazaar
Battery Charge	Did not notice	120 per hour
WiFi	Did not notice	Did not notice
Mineral Water (do not remember size of bottle)	150	100

We chose to charge our batteries in Namche Bazaar because the prices are higher as we ascend.

The Story

16092013 - Today is Day 3 in Nepal. Day 2 of our trek. As I paint my nails each day, I get more and more excited that I am almost reaching to my destination, and at the same time wary of my health. I was worried of Altitude Mountain Sickness, and I pushed those thoughts at the back of my mind. For breakfast today, I tried Tibetan Bread with Honey. It is crunchy and nice. My sister had apple pancake, literally apple slices on pancake. Well, the locals plant apple trees, and their menu also include apple porridge and apple pudding.

Today, we are headed for Namche Bazaar (3440m) and the trek, according to my research, takes 5 hours. The trek starts at 8.15am. But I am very sure it was going to take us more than 5 hours.

We crossed many suspension bridges. Most of what lies under the bridge is fast rapid waters. I only encountered twice of calm waters where it was comfortable enough to stop to snap a group photo.

We see our first mountain, Thamserku on the trek. My sister starts to cover her mouth with her buff because she was getting an itch in her throat, and dry cough (due to the dry cold air) was soon to appear. I was very fortunate that I did not experience any going upwards. But I experienced the dry cough coming down.

At 10.50am, we reached the entrance to Sagarmatha National Park. Checkpoint. The guide registered our names. We entered inside the building and saw lots of information on Everest Base Camp trek. At this point onwards, there were lots of notices to remind trekkers on the symptoms of Altitude Mountain Sickness (AMS), and fatal ones, HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema) and HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema). HAPE and HACE rarely happens but it does happen.

We reached Jorsalle for lunch. It was 11.30am. For lunch, I had Fried Potato with Egg. It was not too filing. It was very much needed energy to climb up. So much carbohydrates but I burnt the food very fast. My sister had fried noodles with vegetables and egg. The portions are huge.

Not only do we sterilise water at night, we do it during lunch where we are able to find places to refill water.

When we trek, we have lots of dzo and yak walking with us too. So, we have to give them way. Because they are bigger and you cannot control their movement to move aside for you. So, on the bridge, you let them walk first. Even on the path, you give way to them. If the path is narrow, you have to find space to squeeze yourself in.

Then, we sighted the highest suspension bridge of the Everest Base Camp Trek. The lower bridge is not used anymore because when you use that bridge, you have to hike up an ascending trail. My legs were wobbly as I crossed it. And I needed to wait for a minute to get back my stability. I am not a fan of suspension bridges for one reason - I am afraid of heights.

We saw a toilet being constructed. When we were on the return trek at Day 11, the construction was completed but cannot be used yet because of some 'water stuff'.

At 4pm, we see Namche region. After 7 hours of walking. It was such a relief to see the place. The legs were aching by now. The strength was close to depletion. It was the stamina that kept me walking. 

Namche Bazaar is like a small town. You have pub, bakery, pharmacy and lots of shops. And there are, of course, lots of lodgings. And to get to our lodge, we have to walk up more steps. To get anywhere in Namche Bazaar, you cannot escape from walking up or down any steps.

We stay in AD Friendship Lodge where our guide knows the owner. The plus point about going with a guide is that he goes to the same lodge and by having good rapport with the owner, we get some help too. All the notices in the lodge are in 2 languages - English and Japanese. Because the owner of the lodge has good contacts in Japan and brings lots of Japanese trekkers.

That night, we watched 'The Conquest of Everest'. Good documentary with lots of exciting sound effects. In this movie, I learnt that a Sherpa who goes on a Mount Everest expedition gets USD5000. No wonder going to Mount Everest costs about USD35,000. Anyway, in the movie, I learnt that no one actually knew who reached Everest first, Tenzing Norgay (the Sherpa who followed Edmund Hillary) or Edmund Hillary. But because Tenzing Norgay was the helper and not the team who did this expedition, Edmund Hillary's name will definitely be mentioned first. Just a hypothesis.

From tonight onwards, we slept with our batteries. Batteries discharge faster in the lower temperature.

Here is the video link to Youtube done by my sister for our Day 2 trip.