Monkey Temple

After morning's recap of our strange karaoke adventure Natang took us to the Monkey Temple. This stupa is in the center the city and rests upon the city's highest hill. About 150 stairs brought us to the top where we enjoyed a panoramic view of the city. This temple doesn't honor monkeys, but is referred to as such because of all the monkeys that inhabit the area. These small friendly monkeys acrobatically ran around the stupa and created very wild environment.

Back to The Yak and Covert Karaoke

Flying back to Kathmandu we returned to the Yak and Yeti Hotel where we enjoyed a hearty breakfast, some pool time and most importantly a hot shower and flushing toilet. In Kathmandu we expected to do some more sight seeing, but we returned to a city on strike. A peaceful international social movement has left the city virtually closed. As part of the strike the city's inhabitants refrain from driving. This actually makes the city much more manageable to get around with the added benefit of reduced smog. Some venues are apparently allowed to open from 6-8pm for tourists only.

For dinner we walked about 200ft from our hotel where two women clandestinely gave us a flyer for their Korean BBQ restaurant. They lead us through the back entrance into a well lit restaurant with Korean opera playing on TV. The food was great and the waitresses serenaded us, but by far the highlight of this venue was the karaoke. We had a huge room with mood lighting, tambourine (that met its eventual demise) and about five pages of English karaoke. We covered all the classics and sang the night away in our own little karaoke haven.   

Trek Day 15: Grand Finale

Natang advertised today's trek as only four hours, but as four hours turned into six and six into eight this was truly a grand finale. The most difficult portion proved to be the final couple of miles. On the way down we were so excited to begin our trip we didn't notice how much we were going down. As we crested the hill we arrived back in Lukla where we celebrated with every flavor of Pringles potato chips (including the illusive pizza flavored). After relaxing for a while we headed down to the local pub, The Wave. This relaxed "beach" bar had drink specials like the Everest Icefall and Everest Punch. 

Trek Day 14: Moonlighting

After six hours of trekking, one of our longest days of trekking yet, we arrived back at Natang's lodge in Namche. The Moonlight lodge carried a more casual vibe with the majority of the trek behind us. After a dinner comprised entirely of momos Natang's wife backed the team a chocolate cake. As a thank you for our leaders efforts the team gave our namesake banner to Natang to hang on the walls of the Moonlight Lodge. A round of Santa Cruz Island lemonade (my favorite backpacker friendly mixture of vodka and crystal light) warmed our insides and lifted our spirits as Natang showed off his dance moves.

Trek Day 13: Ama Dablam Garden Lodge

Leaving Lobuche we traveled through the Rhodedendrum forests and past the Tengboche Monastery we arrive in Dobuche at the Ama Dablam Garden Lodge (12,300ft). This lodge was tucked away and with a quaint atmosphere and the best showers of the entire trek. After four days of no showers this simple outdoor shower felt like a trip to the day spa.

Trek Day 11.5 & 12: Going Down!

After leaving base camp (17,600ft) we started to our quick descent. Our 10 day trek up will be done in 4 days of down. Although, for going down it seemed like there was certainly a lot of uphill. Our first day down brought us through Gorak Shep (16, 900ft) for lunch, where we decide that even though the pizza was wonderful the inn keeper was the grumpiest. We continued down to Lobuche (16,250ft) back to the Above the Cloud Lodge where our favorite inn keeper had hand knitted many of the team members caps with the words Everest B.C. on them. The inn keeper in Lobuche was so fast at knitting she whipped up a little CAF cap for our Sarah Bear.
 

Trek Day 10 & 11: Not a Bust and Puja Plus

We made it to Everest Base Camp! We joined Paul and Denise at what has been their home for the last month. Yes, it was our first night of true camping, but we get some bonus points for the elevation (17,600ft) and the fact we slept on a glacier. Our high altitude dinner of spaghetti and fish cake was shared in Mountain Trip's (the guide agency that is taking P & D to the top) huge central tent. We met Paul and Denise's other summit buddies and shared in a celebratory shot of whiskey. Sarah and Shawn trekked a bottle of Hennessy all the way from Los Angeles. It certainly warmed our souls because we followed up with some mountain karaoke.

In the morning we took part in a Puja ceremony. This ceremony was performed by a lama in order to ask the mountain gods for safe passage. During this ceremony we tossed rice, flour, and provided and offering of beer. After we shared our Everest Premium Lager with the mountain gods we said our heartfelt goodbyes to Paul and Denise. Paul and Denise will have their first summit opportunity in mid May and we hope for their success and safety.