Nepal. 14 April

Despite waking once and having trouble going back to sleep, I did sleep through most of the night. It seems in my big medpack, I had plenty of stuff to deal with injuries and ailments, but nothing for cold symptoms. Nonetheless, I felt much better in the morning. I did still manage to go through an entire roll of TP blowing my nose.

No surprise it took us less time to get back to Namche as it was more downhill than up. I even took a few photos, which I was in no mood to do yesterday. After a 7 am breakfast, I was not ready for a 9:30 lunch at Namche. I had to argue the point vigorously with Kagi. I conceded on tea, but even then I had to argue not to have sugar in my tea.

After a bit of a delay we headed out. We saw Kumar's basket but couldn't find Kumar. I wasn't worried though, because Kumar knew where exactly in Phakding we were spending the night. That didn't ease Kagi's mind but we move on.

It is so much easier going downhill. An hour and a half later we were already in Jorsalle (past the tall bridge). We ate, which took about an hour. Kagi wanted to wait for Kumar, so we burned another hour there. I napped for part of the time. We finally left anyway.

Maybe half an hour later we stopped for a soda (I had switched to Sprite, because they tasted normal unlike the Coke's). Kumar showed up out of breath and went straight to the spring for some water. He looked like a little boy who had been up to no good. It turns out, while in Namche he watched an entire movie. He then caught up to us in 90 minutes that took us 2 1/2 hrs--but he had a full pack! He even left before we did and got to Phakding ahead of us.

I forgot to mention earlier, on the way back from Thami, we ran into the Tibetans we had spent time with two days before. Just north of Thami is the pass back to Tibet. These guys were headed home.

Phakding was fine. As was becoming normal on the way down, I was the only tenant. I ate in the kitchen, which in was the last 13 days had been retrofitted with an iron stove instead of the clay one. I saw some of the worst craftsmanship I ever say as a guy built a tray to hold the embers. I've thought earlier on the trip what could Norm Abrams do with this place. I though it again tonight. It's not like they don't have electricity, I'm not sure why they don't take advantage of that.

Anyway, after watching that for a few hours I did some crosswords and went to bed. Tomorrow should be a short hike up to Lukla then back to KTM.