After a restful and relaxing day in Namche Bazaar, it was time to hit the “road” on the trail to Everest Base Camp for the last leg of my trek before turning back.  As I explained in an earlier post, I was shy a few days in my vacation bank so I would not be going all the way to Everest Base Camp on this trek, much to my chagrin.  This day, day 4 of the trek, would take me past colorful and charming Tengboche with its beautiful monastery to super tiny Deboche.  This day of hiking would take me to the highest altitude I would reach in this trek, a hundred or so meters under 4,000 m (or some hundred feet or two under 13,000 ft.), nothing terribly high in comparison to my climb of Kilimanjaro a couple of years before.

This day would start by us climbing up and out of the half bowl that is Namche Bazaar, past the interesting local history museums, and the great viewing point I described on the day 3 post.  And we could also see in the distance the two hanging bridges we had crossed on our way to Namche Bazaar.

Looking back at the spot from day 3 from here we saw Everest

The hanging bridges that were so much fun to walk across

Then we skirted the side of some mountains on a beautiful and changing trail that offered us a new and closer view of Mt. Everest and Mt. Lhotse than the prior day’s.  We walked past a stupa or chorten honoring the sherpas of Everest which, besides being a beautiful memorial to these individuals, made for a great foreground to the photo of Mounts Everest and Lhotse that I show below.  A photo which, by the way, also shows my favorite mountain, Ama Dablam, on the right.  This specific view may be the most beautiful view point of my entire trek.  Surreal to the max!

Headed towards the stupa with the best backdrop of the trek!

Detail of the stupa honoring the sherpas, looking like a Himalayan wedding cake

Beautiful and colorful detail of the stupa

Later on we had the best view on this trail of my favorite mountain in the area:  Ama Dablam.  It looks like it is a person (a mother, perhaps?) with two extended arms covered by flowing robes, welcoming the trekker.  Pretty darn majestic.

Majestic and grandiose Ama Dablam

Of course, as we did every day a couple of times, we stopped for tea at a tea house.  Mint tea or lemon tea – I could never decide which was my favorite.  Sometimes one, sometimes the other.  Both the tea and the rest were most welcome but also the time to soak in the landscape around us, the charming architecture of the local buildings simple yet full of color, and just to sit and chat with fellow trekkers while soaking some sun.  A great way to recharge batteries and engrave the sights into my memory bank…

I loved admiring typical Tibetan architecture during tea time and while walking the trail

Lemon tea, anyone?  One or two glasses…

Typical outdoor area of a tea house with the universal plastic white chairs

The team guides and our lead guide discussed whether to make the push for Tengboche (which involved a serious climb) to have lunch there, or to stop short of the climb to have lunch and rest beforehand.  They decided that we would eat lunch before the climb.  I was torn.  On the one hand, the sooner we got to Tengboche, the sooner the hardest part of the day would be behind us and then lunch would feel more lackadaisical (I am all for NOT procrastinating).   I also would not be doing the hardest part of the hike on a full stomach if we had kept going before having lunch…  But, on the other hand, it would delay eating lunch by a good bit.  So, I didn’t mind whichever way they decided – I trusted they knew best what made the most sense for us as a group based on how we were doing – and perhaps other factors (weather?).  In hindsight, having seen Tengboche, I think the spot by the water where we stopped for lunch was perfect for rest and recovery prior to the climb.

Part of our lunch – soup and rice!

Toilet in a very scenic place at lunch (you can thank me later for not putting a photo of the inside…)

Overall, that day we would cover about 4 miles (6.5 km) and we were expected to be on the trail for about 6.5 hours.  The most exciting part of the day was when we came to the top of a slope to find ourselves on fairly flat ground looking at the Tibetan Tengboche Monastery through the foggy afternoon.  It was not only a beautiful sight but very surreal.  We walked up the steps hoping someone would come meet us and let us enter it as it looked totally dead to the world.  And, sure enough, someone came to open the doors and invited us in.

Entrance to the monastery (more pix on the next post)

Lots of color and detail

We entered the main prayer room but no photos allowed – and I respect that

You better follow these rules – especially no kiss!

Once we left the monastery, a short walk down from it, we stopped at a tea/coffee house (what else, of course!) before embarking on the short last hour (or less) to our stopping point for the night in Deboche.  With the hardest part of the hike for the day over, it was very enjoyable to kick back and sip away!  Ahh…

Once we got to Deboche, the teahouse was one of the sparsest, most austere of the teahouses I stayed at or visited in this trek.  Being that we were at a higher altitude, it was colder too.  The teahouse only had one tiny stove in the center of the dining/living room (as do most teahouses) which was not irradiating as much heat as most of us wished it had.  I definitely stayed dressed more warmly, even through dinner, as I tried to keep by body heat in me.  We sat around the room with tissues close at hand to dry our noses (a common condition at this altitude and climate) – and drank hot tea until it was time for dinner and the eventual turndown for the night, always a welcome moment to catch our rest!

View towards the trail from our room in Deboche – very rustic spot

The rooms were basic but who needs more? Except heat…

Yeah… heating was very limited and crowds formed around the stove

The evening was nothing short of frigid, frankly.  There were two toilet rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. But the one upstairs was a Western toilet with a tank that would not fill – so not flushable without a bucket of water.  I found it more effort to flush it so, in the middle of the night, I would walk down the very steep staircase to the non-Western toilet room, though by doing so I had to walk further in the cold of the night and not only freeze but also wake up a little more because the journey took longer…  The little journey was all indoors but, trust me, it was FRIGID; not sure there was much of a difference between inside and outside when it came to temperature.  Thank goodness, I had the right sleepwear and, more importantly, the right sleeping bag to get back into a re-warm up!!

Yeah, that’s our ice-covered window in the morning…  Yes, it was THAT cold.

The next day, my direction would change:  a few of us would be turning back to return to Lukla for the flight back to Kathmandu as our time on the trail to Everest Base Camp would end at Deboche…  The next morning, as we got ready to leave, it was very hard to leave the rest of the group with whom we had spent the first few days on the hike (and the days before working to help build a school in the village of Kumari).  It was a great group of people motivated by the desired to improve the lives of children in Nepal, and who enjoy travel, exploring, and the great outdoors.  That next morning (day 5) we packed up, had breakfast, and went outside ready to go our separate ways.  We posed for one picture which ended up, unfortunately, somewhat blurry and the five of us (one of these being our great guide, Chandra) began our journey back to Lukla to catch out flight to Kathmandu thus starting the end of our time on the amazing Everest Base Camp trail…  While I did not go to Everest Base Camp, I got to experience the best of Nepal:  the people, the architecture, the views and that was all well worth it.

Want to start at the beginning of this trek?  Here is day 1.  Want to know what else I did on this trip other than the hike on Everest Base Camp, check our work to build a school in Kumari here.

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The view on the way to Deboche via Tengboche: Mount Everest!