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Tuesday : overcast
Today was an acclimatization day, but we still had to get up early, well not too early. I was up and out of bed, and down for breakfast at 8am. Muesli for me this morning, then a few cups of lemon tea before before we set off for our morning walk.
We walked to the top of a very big hill that overlooked the town and the huge valleys with waterfalls and rivers below. Nice looking place Namche, would be better minus the cloud cover. Then we followed a track through a forest to a village. It was a nice hour walk very pleasant not to many big hills along the track. The track lend all the way to Tibet, which takes seven days to walk from Namche. The Tibetans are not aloud past Namche, or they will be fired apon apparently. Namche is the last town for the Tibetans in Nepal with no visas to do their trading. It's free for them to do their business in Nepal, as long as they not pass Namche, or they will be in big trouble.
It was a three hour return walk, I spoke to a few different people in the group along the way. They all seem nice We also walked past a monastery on the way down into Namche.
Namche is a pretty cool mountain village. Very steep and scenic place, we are surrounded by snow capped mountains, there are pictures everywhere of what is above us. Pity about the cloud cover, otherwise we would have unobstructed views of snowy peaks and Everest. All we have seen for the last three days are clouds. At least the air is clean.
Back at the hotel we had lunch, and then we had two hours of free time before we were going out for an arvo walk to a couple of museums. Most of the people went out for a walkabout the town. Kim and I did a sneaky, and charged our phones. Sneaky because we have to pay per hour to have access to a power point. Pretty dodgey, anyway we managed to charge our phone for free, by the time people came back from their walk.
A couple more cups of hot tea before we left for our afternoon walk to the national park museum, and Sherpa museum. Nice walk up over the back of the village, gave us another great viewing point at the top over looking the town.
The two museums were good, full of info on local animal life and plant life. History of Namche, and Buddhism. Info on Sherpa life and the tools of the people. Also a few interesting photos and info on those people who have reached the summit. Photos of Sherpas and customers. We got a glimpse of a our route tomorrow, looks pretty steep. It really cleared up in the arvo, on the way back to the hotel. Still not enough to see the big mountains, that are ment to be all around us. I have started to use the prayer wheels too, and wishing or praying for clear skies.
The pray wheel might be had to explain, but I'll give it a go. They are these patterned cylinders some are small and some are massive, and they are in shelters everywhere. The people who are Buddhist, as they walk by they turn the cylinders and pray I guess. So I'm praying for clear blue skies.
We had some more free time before dinner, Kim and I went off to explore the town. Plenty off trekking stores some better than others. The larger grocery stores keep other stores honest too. Some cool looking bars, wouldn't like to get drunk here though. Be very difficult to negotiate the steep steps home.
Kim finished her walk and went back to sort out some business. I continued for a good hour at least, it was dark when I got back. I did some food shopping and just kept finding cool looking little ally's to go down. It's great being up in the mountains we don't have to worry about being cleaned up by scooter or cars, because their are none here. The porters and Sherpas are the cars and the yaks and cattle are the trucks.
I did a lap of the village before heading back to the hotel for dinner, some more stew for me tonight. Afterwards we played cards for a couple hours, other people in our group joined in also, which was good. The guides preformed a few good card tricks in between games too.
It was a good night, first night so far where everyone seemed comfortable with one another. The other people in the group are nice, some are quieter than others but everyone so far seems to get along. Well maybe except the older Canadian fella, he seems to be a bit of a douche.
By the time we got up to our rooms it was 10pm and was raining, so much for the praying.
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