We thought there would be more diversity in the ceremony but it was pretty much the same throughout the whole time we were there. We were sitting on carpets around the edge of the room, and it was kind of cold and got boring after a while, so we left about 7:10 before they finished.
I wanted something different for breakfast so I had the corn flakes we had bought in Kathmandu. We had also bought dairy whitener so I put the cornflakes, the whitener and some filters water in a plastic baggie, stirred it up and ate it out of the baggie. It was great.
We headed out at 8:30 and it took only half an hour to get down (a very steep down through a rhododendron forest) to the river where Singa and Porter 2 were doing some of our laundry. Then it was an unbelieveably big climb up ( which took me about an hour and a half) and then a short walk along a beautiful high trail to the village at Phortse.
We are staying at the Phorche Guest House and it has a lovely dining room with lots of windows and brightly colored cushions on the benches around the room. Nar and Singa know the people who own it so hopefully everyone will be able to sleep in a room tonight. Shari asked Singa where they slept last night because we walked over to the porter shelter in Tengboche (it was pretty dreadful) and we couldn't find them. He said basically, they camped out and that they were kind of cold because because neither of them had a very good sleeping bag. I hate that the porters are treated like second-class citizens, but I also understand that the tea houses want to get the money from the trekkers. At least we are in a nice place tonight and hopefully, it won't be crowded because most trekkers seem to have headed off for Everest Base Camp.
What a lazy day from 11 AM on. We had an early lunch and then I wrote notes, read my book and listened to my radio all afternoon. At 5 PM, Nar, Shari and I took an hour's walk around the outskirts of the village to see what kind of animals were out. It was a bit early so we didn't see many - a musk deer, some Himalayan tahrs (mountains goats) and a few danphers (also called Impeyan pheasants). The danphe is the national bird of Nepal and the male is a striking bird with 9 iridescent colors. There aren't too many deer around because they are illegaly hunted for their musk, produced by a gland in the male which is used for making perfume.
5/25: I still have this miserable cold that started in Kathmandu. The laryngitis went away after a few days, but the cold is still hanging on and last night I thought my cough was getting much worse. I even considered staying in Phartse and waiting for the others while they went up to Gokyo. I felt better after I was up for a bit and Shari, Nar and I talked about options and we decided to trek up to Dole and see how I felt later today. I'm sure I just have a cold, but it's somewhat nerve-wracking to have the cough because it is a sympton of altitude sickness and HAPE. Plus, altitude never helped any cough and I have trouble breathing when hiking up, even when I don't have a cold. Altitude does a number on your body. It can cause digestive problems and breathing difficulties, and it makes all your toiletry bottles leak. That happened to us on our Annapurna trek and it's a pain. No matter how tightly you screw on a bottle top, after a certain altitude, the bottle will leak. We always keep things in plastic baggies, but the inside of the baggies get wet with hand sanitizer, deoderant, liquid soap, etc.
We left for Dole about 8:15 and got here at 11:00 AM. We had a net altitude gain of 700 feet and are now at 13,254 feet. Of course we actually went up more than 700 feet because we first trekked down to the river when we left Phartse and then had to climb up about 1,300 feet to Dole. I went very slowly as usual and I didn't feel badly on the trek up, so hopefully I'll feel even better after I rest today. The trek to Machhermo will be easier tomorrow because we don't descend before we start ascending.
We are staying at the Himalayan Lodge which isn't too bad. It has a nice big airy dining room and good-sized bedroom but the toilet is a good distance away from the main building and it is just a pit toilet. It's just after noon and we are sitting in the dining room. Shari is sewing a patch on her backpack, Singa and Porter 2 are playing cards, Nar is talking to someone in the kitchen area, and I'm writing notes. I took a nice two hour nap in the afternoon and then went into the dining room to sew 2 patches (New Zealand and Annapurna Circuit) on my backpack. Shari, Singa, Nar and Porter 2 played cards all afternoon.
There was a wood stove in the dining room so it was warm in the late afternoon, but it started to get cold after dinner. Shari and I were the only people in the dining room, so I don't think they put too much wood in the stove. I decided to go to bed early (6:45) because of my cold.
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