Trekking to Everest Base Camp: My Experience PART TWO

You can find Part One of this series HERE

Phakding to Namche

The view from one of the many suspension bridges in the Khumbu Valley

As I said when I finished the last post, I started the day of trekking with my new friend Mahesh heading toward Namche Bazaar. The hike through the valley is an amazing experience all it’s own, it takes you up and down the walls of the valley and back and forth across all the infamous suspension bridges. Along the way, Mahesh told me to go ahead as he wanted to take his time so I was off going solo again. The actual entrance to Sagarmatha National Park is in a village named Monjo, it is here where you have to pay the entrance fee to the park which is 1000Rs for foreigners. The trail continues on along the river and crisscrosses back and forth via various suspension bridges until you reach the longest and highest bridge that leads you to the bottom of the hill up to Namche Bazaar. This last push up the hill is by far the hardest of the day but by no means is it impossible, it follows a seemingly endless amount of switchbacks before finally reaching the famous village. Along the way, I shared the trail with various porters carrying massive packs (filled with supplies for the various villages) which they carry with a strap across their forehead if you can believe it, there are also loads of yaks carrying various supplies up the hill.

One of the many yaks I shared the trail with

Waterfall along the trail

The last and highest suspension bridge before Namche Bazaar, its about 200ft off the valley floor and a lot of people did this one with their eyes closed

Namche Bazaar

I learned from Mahesh that Namche Bazaar is the first place that everyone should spend an extra day in to acclimatize to the altitude so I planned to spend the night there and make my plans in the evening. Walking into Namche was a very surreal experience for me because of the villages unique shape and architecture. The village is nestled in a small crescent shaped valley at the top of the mountain and houses and buildings stretch up either side connected by steep stone staircases and narrow walkways. I arrived in the early afternoon and found a teahouse pretty much immediately and dropped my pack to check out the village. Namche is by far the most touristic place along the trek but that does not take away from its charm, sure there are lots of people selling Chinese made junk but walking up and down the stairs and walkways in the shadow of the mountain across the valley really is quite an experience. I spent a few hours in the afternoon at a small bar watching a documentary about the lives of sherpas and the incredible job of preparing Everest for a fresh batch of climbers every spring.

Just getting to Namche

Namche Bazaar the morning I left, it really is a beautiful village

Statue of Sir Edmund Hilary just outside Namche

Beating the Rush - Kyangjuma

The following morning I made my decision to head a little ways down the trail to a small village called Kyangjuma, it is about an hour away from Namche and is about 50m higher in elevation so I figured I could stay acclimatized and beat the morning rush out of Namche. I found a teahouse quick enough and spent the afternoon drinking ginger tea and reading while basking in the warm sunshine and occasionally playing with the local dogs, all in all, it was a fantastic day. At this point in the trek, I had experienced no negative effects of the altitude although I had met many who had to turn back because of the onset of altitude sickness. I felt particularly bad for a Canadian couple I had met on their honeymoon who both dreamed of this trek for years but were forced to turn back after only a few days because the woman was quite ill, it is obviously for the best but I still felt bad for them both.

The hike to Kyanjuma was flat and surrounded with beautiful views like this

Kyangjuma to Pangboche

The normal route that the majority of people take is from Namche to a village called Tengboche where they rest for the night before continuing on, however with thee large amount of trekkers there are often significant traffic jams on the trail so I opted for aslightly different path. I left from Kyangjuma and headed for Pangboche, it is about anhour past Tengboche and because I had pushed past Namche it was possible to make this distance without too much strain. The first part of this leg takes you back down the valley wall to cross the river before making a steep push up the other side to Tengboche, I met up with Mahesh again along the way but again he told me to go ahead as his pace was much slower than mine. After a few hours, I made it to Tengboche with burning legs and ready for lunch so I stopped there and had a peek at the temple and had lunch in one of the teahouses before making the final push to Pangboche. The last hour of the hike took me down the valley and back up and brought me my first taste of the rocky barren Himalayas. Pangboche is right near the edge of the tree line where vegetation is sparse and the mountains become bigger and more intimidating, and the following days become less of a hike through the woods and more of a trek into the heart of the Himalayas.

Pangboche is small but the people were some of the nicest I met along the whole trek

The view from my teahouse room in Pangboche, I loved waking up in these little places

I meant to write this sooner but I was out of the country for a wedding and the rest of this series is coming soon so if you are interested check back and you can see the rest.