Morning alms ceremony in Luang Prabang, Laos. Every morning monks from the seemingly 6 million temples do a quick circuit of the streets to take alms from followers
AMA Dablam, my new love. I literally could not stop looking at her, taking her picture, watching her changing moods. The most beautiful mountain I have ever seen. Spent two days acclimatizing in dengboche? and spent most of the time hiking around getting different perspectives on her. Then on to spend a night in the highest laboratory in the world, before we head to the actual Everest base camp. Great days filled with child like wonder as we climb our way up random peaks totally enraptured and spellbound by our surroundings. Being aware of how amazing it is to be walking in these mountains for this amount of time with these people. What an absolute gift. So blessed. And so close to base camp.
After a few days of acclimatization in Namche Bazaar, we were on our way back up. And up and up and up. But also lots of downs and then back up the elevation we had just lost. The weather got increasingly colder and snowier. One day as we hiked in a whiteout a bunch of yaks hustled by us on the trail, Sudhip told us it was snowing so hard even the yaks were getting nervous. As we were above tree line now, the only source of heat was to burn a few yak chips(dried yak dung) to warm up the common areas briefly in the evening. Our main concern was enough heat to dry our socks out for the evening, as by this point we were sleeping in everything we wore all day long. Our water froze in our bottles overnight. We passed by monastery after monastery. In Pangboche, we visit a monastery that claims to have had a flying monk who was fed by yeti while he meditated in caves for long periods of time. I kind of believe all of it. After a few days of walking we crest a pass, the skies clear, we can finally see the amazing mountains that have been surrounding us this whole time, and we arrive in Debuche, where we stop for another acclimatization day
Days 3-6 Jun Besi-Nunthala-Kharicola-Phakding. The days are long but oh so pleasant with literally no one on the trails save a few porters carrying goods from town to town. I try to figure out how many coconut biscuits one human being can eat in one day. The people are unbelievably open, welcoming, and engaging.The valleys are impossibly steep and deep, probably 8000ft from river bottom to peak, and terraced for farming the entire way. I wonder how many generations it takes to terrace an entire mountainside. A voyage of a mile as the crow flies may take 10 miles and 4000ft of elevation gain. As we walk along we hear almost nothing, save the occasional low rumble of a horn booming out from a monastery in that village across the valley. Or is it from that one over there? Hard to say. But it’s magic. There is a timelessness about this place. Hard to say what century you are in. The woman pound millet the same way their great great great great grandmothers did hundreds of years ago. The trails are littered with huge boulders that are not only painted but engraved with mantras. Huge mani walls are every where, walls made of rock tablets engraved with Buddhist scripture. I finish the climb to kharicola ahead of my comrades to find myself at the base of the steps to yet another monastery. A few monks play around near the base, and I grab my secret weapon, the murchunga(a Nepalese mouth harp) and begin to play. They turn and walk towards me, their faces inches from mine and wide open with the biggest smiles/looks of curiosity I’ve ever seen. We spend the next half hour teaching them to play. I am invited up to play soccer at the monastery with them and later help them with their chores inside, then they teach me how to play karom board, and I help with some English lessons. The next day we meet up with the rest of our crew, who flew in to lukla, we cross the Hillary bridge, and we are into the Solukumbhu, the province that Everest is located in.
