As we turned left into the kumbhu valley after the Namchee staircase, there it was the first view of the tallest, biggest, far off in the doodh kosi gorge but clearly visible. The phenomenal triangular head and the ridge falling down, Lohtse's shoulder hiding the rest of its body. Stunned I stood, and clicked a lot of pics. But still my favorite will always be Ama Dablam standing like a tower of strength on the right also very clearly visible. We almost spent 20 mins looking at the biggest and then we started towards the Monastery. The route is leveled and at some places we need to climb a few meters but all in all a leveled well beaten path and lots of trekkers, yaks, porters carrying unbelievable loads a very busy trail. Doodh kosi now flowing some 500 m below in the valley we were almost above the tree line and the sun had started to burn the skin. The "Nalla Maal" (sun ban 50 SPF) was not all that effective. I met a German on the way who was alone and was going to Gokyo, We walked along till Kanjugma a small settlement on the way where we regrouped had some GuL PoLi and lemon tea. Girish and raja were now ok and were in pace with other fit guys in the group. The views of Ama Dablam and Everest from here are too good. The German went on from here on till Gokyo, he will walk 3 more days to Gokyo lakes and then climb on to Gokyo Ri for the views of Everest. 

From here on wards the trails starts a un ending dip right to te bottom of the valley where we again touch the doodh kosi. This drop takes around an hour till we reach the village of Phunki Tenga. This is right on the banks of the doodh kosi. There is a small not so good suspension bridge with wooden flooring here which has low hand rails making it more dangerous and when it sways oh boy its fun. By the time we reached here it was around 1230 and the skies had changed grey.   We had 2 more hours all the way to tengboche a climb of around 600 m. Parag confirmed on his altimeter watch we had dropped down almost 400 m from kanjugma. With heavy steps I started the very muddy up hill climb of Tengboche. It looks exactly like Namche climb and the going is as slow. There are a few water powered prayer wheel here in Phunki tenga, some were working while some were not yet repaired. As a regime I filled up 2 liters of water for the climb out of one was ORS filled and one was normal. Its my 4th day without shower and this is a sweaty, muddy climb. Imagine the stink I would be carrying, even the yaks smelled nice. :) but who cares I am on a trek. No breathing problems no headache and not nausea.. all is fine except the tiresome walk. After an hour we came to a clearing and some what leveled path where me, Parag, Pravin and Dr. Jigjinni met and I drank a lot of water. The sweat and the cold wind were sending shivers down my spine so I quickly changed into a wind breaker, till then Parag and Pravin had left and I resumed the slow steady climb to the top. The Tengboche climb is through thick rhododendron forest and I was looking for the clear sky because that's what marks the end of the climb. When you are climbing all you are interested in is end of climb.

After a strenuous hour and a half of climb we directly see the beautiful monastery in front. You actually enter the Tengboche through the monastery main gate. Me and girish made it together and when I was standing in front of the monastery all the guys were headed down the slope towards Deboche and hotel Paradise. I was already feeling cold and did not want to get hypothermic so I contd on shivering and decided to visit the monastery on the way back. When I reached the hotel my porter had not arrived so I could not change into dry clothes, but luckily he arrived just 15-20 mins later and I was relieved. We immediately ordered spring rolls and fried rice for lunch and huddled around the stove in the dining room.

I remember the meetings that we used to have in Pune for the planning of this trek. I had suggested an acclimatization day here in Tengboche, but when I reached here I realised that the extra day in Namche is all that you need. The sleeping altitude is all that matters. Namche is at 3440m and Deboche is 3750m so a net change of 300m which does not actually need a extra rest day. Agreed that this day is a tufffff one after all those ups and downs but you really don't need a rest day. I was ok again no sign of AMS.

On taday's walk again we had a problem of fast moving group and slow moving group, and the gap between the two. So after a hot debate we decided to walk with Arun's pace. Arun is the slowest in the group so if every one walks behind him and stops when he does we will be always together. All accepted this and we decided to implement this method for tomorrows walk. I remember we slept at around 9PM.

Next Day