Namche Bazaar (3440m) Acclimatization Day :: Army post, Everest View Hotel, Internet, German Bakery
Yesterday from around 3PM we did mostly nothing... Chess, Poker, chat the time out and all hit bed around 9PM. We decided to walk up to the Army post just above Namche bowl for the first view of Everest. We started on the Namche stair case after the prayer. The well built stair case takes you directly to the army post where Indians are welcome with a smile. This army post operates 365 days and my sincere salute to the guys working here round the clock. Again the perpetual q? that I have in my mind, Why would ever ppl want to fight at 3440m and for what I felt the same at Amarnath caves, why cant we live normal lives its such a a beautiful place, why cant we live it the way it is..Peace guys.. when its all around you how can one think of fighting. Any ways, when we reached the army post it was already 830A and it was very bright and some clouds were already on the peaks. the 360 view above Namche involves Ama Dablam, Thamserku, Kusum Kangori, Kwangde, Kumbhila, Taboche. All theses are 6K plus peaks. We get a clear view of the valley that we will walk for the next week. Tengboche Monastery is clearly visible on the ridge directly in front. And if the weather is clear we get the first view of the mighty mountain. The route to Tengboche is clearly visible and one can imagine the hard work involved the next day.

This point is at around 3600m, some of us decided to go up to the Everest view hotel at some 3800m, which did look a daunting task, the hotel is situated on the mountain directly in front, and climb is steep. The going is very slow due to the switch backs and mud. It will take around 45 mins to 1 hour to reach the Panorama hotel.  My reco' please take this climb as it is a good walk for acclimatization, if u start getting a headache u know it early and might help you n later stages of the trek, return down and rest. If u make it to the hotel it will increase ur confidence a lot especially because Tengboche is at the same altitude as the Everest view hotel. Carry 2 liters of water on this trek it is sufficient and do take a hot lemon tea break at the Hotel panorama immediately after you climb up. Its one refreshing drink and the view up from here are just amazing. From the Panorama hotel it takes about 20 min to the well known Japanese Everest view hotel where each room faces the kumbhu valley towards everest. In the hotel lobby there is a POP model of the Sagarmatha National Park, showing Everest, Gokyo Lakes, and other many treks in the region.
We started our trek back to the blue Namchee bowl, through Syangboche air strip which I think not used at all. its condition is just not good. I read in the Lonely planet book that the Japanese used to land here and walk up to the Everest view hotel, I think this may prove dangerous. Once you cross the air strip and the small settlement of Syangboche, you get the awesome view of the Namche bowl and its really fantastic to have this birds eye view. I was howling with amusement, man I am so loving it. This is what I wanted to do for so long time. I am at Namchee, a place I was reading/looking in books, internet. The sense of achievement plus the "feeling" of something I will never find out, I call it the "Himalayan bliss" Its always there in the air, you can smell it, feel it, but cant catch it, and because you don't get it, this thing makes you come here again and again.

After a good walk we came down tot he hotel at around 1PM for lunch. It was simple dal (mild lentil curry) bhat (rice) with some subji, all subji is made of Potato rich in carbs. After a good walk I just sat out in the dining room watching chess games and played some poker. Earlier we had sent one of our porters to Tengboche to book a hotel for us. He came back by 3PM, we did not get a booking in Tengboche but got a bkg 20 mins down hill at Deboche, the hotel was Paradise.

In the night I wrote an email to shruti, felt better, you need to tell someone what you have done, what is the Namchee climb, you need someone to to tell how you feel. I had started missing her now, I haven't seen her for 2 months now.
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