Namche Bazaar (3440) - Phakding (2680m) - Lukla (2880m) :: 8 hours
	My condition was not good, I had to take the first medicine tab of the trek.  Last night I slept with one flucold I think I should have taken some alcohol instead, big deal I was going downhill. Anyways I had a runny nose and I was feeling a bit feverish. Milind had alomost recovered from dehyradation, but the Namche - Lukla walk would have proved bad for him so we decided to put him on horse back. Sudhir and Dr. Patwardhan arranged a horse for him. As everyday, anticipating a long day we started at 8AM. It was great to stay all together 4 nights in Namche with the same hotel. Pooja didi and "Goped" were very good hosts. They tretaed us good food us with really good food and as pooja didi is from Darjeling she very well knew what the Indians like in their meals.. An old wrinkled man watched us from his window, as we did the daily morning prayers and omkars'. I greeted him with Namaste and waved a good bye, he smiled back. Last long walk and hopefully we would get the next day flight to Kathmandu. The weather was awesome as everyday. Milind mounted on his horse as we got out of Namche. I would have wanted to stay a bit long here doing nothing just staring endlessly into the valley but good times are not endless . The namche downhill trail was eating up into my blisters giving me hell of a time. I had already put on 2 pairs of socks to avoid friction. I knew it was going to be damn tiring day for me, and with the nose running like doodh kosi its going to be more difficult. I hate "cold and cough". The irritation levels were on the rise. What will happen after 8 hours....

We descended Namche in an hour may be less. When we reached Monjo after a 50-80 m climb from Jorsale it was around 10AM we now were walking non stop for 2 hrs. My nose was running I was sweating hence loosing water from all holes now.. Man its was a dirty descend. We stopped at Benkar wadi and regrouped but after a brief interval again split up and I found my self walking alone to the Phakding bridge. The blisters were killing me, every down hill step they would brush against the shoe wall and burn a bit.. The Phakding bridge is the last one across the doodh kosi while crossing I stood in the middle of it staring at the river. I wont be able to see the live river for a long time. Its like saying bye to the river. You cannot explain the dual feeling of wanting to get back to your family and friends and narrate the experience you had and on the flip side you dont want to go away from this Godly place. Getting down the mountain, you may be a bit sad and bit happy, you always have mixed and intense feelings, probably thats why they say "heavy hearted". Just after the bridge we stopped for snack and lemon tea. As usual I gulped in 3 cups. Ate a lot of carbs in guL poLi and felt a bit better. It was noon, we still had around 3 hrs to Lukla. The weather was still ok but the Namche hill was in clouds. We left for Lukla after a decission to wait for lunch after hour and half which ever place we would be. I kept dragging my self cursing the common cold infection. We stopped at a small hotel on the way for food I was almost dead here. I regained some energy after having dal bhat and subji. The problem with common cold is the irritation that you get, its not the disease itself, but the fact that you cannot breath, need to blow the hell out of ur nose, sneeze... man its a lot of unnecessary loss of energy. You can understand the irritation now.. even while writing I am irritated.. Almost all of us had filling lunch and rest of an hour except Dhaval and Parag who had almost ran to Lukla. While we were having lunch the rain drizzled making the mountains look wet cold. The rain did not last long after the last lunch on the trek I dragged my self along with Padya Arun and Pravin. We reahed the Lukla gates around 5 PM. We hugged each other and clicked victory pose pictures.

The amazing trek had alomost come to an end, we left the Lukla gate on the 8th and 11 days later we were back again. I had changed a lot in these 11 days even my physical appearance had changed. I had lost almost 4 Kgs. I met lots of people on the way all of them were smiling greeting me with the traditional "Namaste". Can you imagine a smiling face with 40kgs on the back with 50% oxygen.  Will I ever forget the smile on the nepali kids' face when I handed him handful of dry fruits? Will I forget the devine blue colored sky that we saw from kala patthar and never see it in Pune? Will I ever forget the Roof of the World? Will I ever forget tiring walks, the cold nights, the food, the encouragement push from team mates? Will I forget the dance with Iranian team at 4910m? Well, the answer to all these and many more questions is I will never forget all that we experienced in these 11 days, and I will surely miss these 11 days a lot. Its a big dream that has come true. In my team many must have waited for many years to get here, I have waited for 2 years to come here, there is something that these Himalayas have in them that compel you here, the irresistable charisma.. May be, the Gods really live here, in the rugged mountains, painted maNi flags and stones, gusting winds,roaring rivers and mostly in the smiling nepali faces. Every thing is really really charismatic and hence Godly. .
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