Nepal. 13 April

I started the day with cranky pants on and they pretty much didn't come off all day. I didn't sleep very well waking many times coughing and to blow my nose.

There was a knock on my door at 6 saying that we were leaving at 7. I felt pretty bad but it didn't seem like I had a choice. After packing I went downstairs to get some breakfast. I just wanted something simple that they could not mess up--I ordered cornflakes with milk and hot Tang. First came out the Tang which wasn't Tang at all, it was hot lemon. I asked the guy about it and he completely lied and said it was Tang. First of all it was yellow, second I could see the lemon pulp, and third it didn't taste like Tang. It's hard not to recognize Tang--it's fluorescent orange!

Then the cereal came out. A bowl of plain cornflakes…and a cup of hot milk. Disgusting. Every beverage is hot in Nepal. I choked down half of my cereal before giving up.

I did not want to go to Thami. Foe one thing, this could be skipped altogether. For another if you are going to include it, put it before Everest. Once I saw Everest--I was done, get me back to Lukla and KTM. And of course, I AM SICK, I didn't feel like trekking anywhere. Certainly not 2500 ft of elevation.

We stopped at Thamo about halfway through. I was dragging pretty badly. The last thing I wanted was hot tea or hot anything for that matter. I had my bottle of cold water and that was plenty. Kagi asked what I wanted, hot water? I very clearly said no. Second later Kagi brings out a cup of hot water.

It took another 2 hours of plodding to get to Thami. Once we got there, I ordered some food even though I wasn't very hungry--veg fried rice. Kagi made me get some soup even though I didn't want it. I took a nap on the bench while waiting. The food came and I couldn't finish it. I probably could have finished the rice if I didn't have soup as well.

We then got a room next door and I crashed for 2 hours. At 3 we were supposed to go see the gompa. At 2 Kagi knocked on my door to see if I was ready. I was up, so we went to see yet another gompa, 600 ft up the fill.

This is supposed to be one of the 3 oldest gompas, also including Pangboche and one other one. Originally they said it was the oldest, but Pangboche is 6000 yr old. Then they said it was 600 yrs. Then outside, I read it was only 400 yrs. So now I'm not sure of the accuracy of the dating on any of the gompas.

It looked very much like all the other gompas. Like all the old ones, they are filthy due to the hundreds of years of burning incense. After the once over I was ready to go. Kagi kept looking around and talking to the 12 yr old monk. I myself felt like a child who was being dragged along to a museum or a monument that I couldn't care about. I tried to be respectful (I was in a gompa), but show my impatience. It didn't work.

I was getting cold (you are not allowed to wear shoes inside gompas) and growing more annoyed. I even tried tapping my foot with not luck. Then about 15 Germans came in and it was all over. Kagi wanted to listen to them. They left and we finally got to as well, about an hour later. An hour is a long time to be standing around in your socks, cold, no one speaking English, and seeing things you've seen before. Just about every day before.

We finally went down. There were pictures and posters all over the lodge walls for Apa Sherpa who has summited Everest more than anyone else by a wide margin, 13 times. We went into the kitchen and had tea. The lodge owner came in and sat with us, while the kids attended to the tea. After a while they all left and it was just Kagi , Kumar and me. I said in shock to Kagi, "That's the guy?!" Sure enough it was Apa.

This of course is the one uncranky moment of the day, but even it was muted. After a while we moved back to the lodge were Apa was setting up the fire. Since we were still fairly deep in Sagarmatha NP, yak dung is still the fuel of choice. So I'm sitting in the lodge that Apa Sherpa runs (I am the only tenant that night out of 12 rooms), and Apa, a national hero is throwing yak shit into the fire so that we are warm. He is clearly an inspiring man, but it was disappointing. He's climbed the highest mountain in the world 13 times, and he has to run a lodge to pay the bills. That just doesn't sit right.

The other reason the moment was muted was that he didn't talk much, and none at all in English. I will say one more thing about him which I find astonishing. As typical of Sherpas, he's smallish man--about 5'6" with a thin frame. Anatoli Boukerev (another Everest climber I've met) had the same figure, maybe a bit taller though--wirey. If you had to picture anyone who had climbed Everest, you probably wouldn't picture these two guys.

After that, I pretty much went to bed.