November 11

In the morning I felt much better, but somewhat weak. I was cautious about what I ate. For breakfast, I had tomato soup. I was still hungry, so I ordered a chapati with jam, deciding it was worth risking solid food to rebuild my strength. A large yak was guarding the outhouse this morning, making access risky. I shaved and took some pictures, then packed. The yak went upstairs and blocked the way from the downstairs sleeping quarters to the dining room. Lal whacked it on the horns with a pan, but it wouldn't budge until it wanted to.

We had a short two hour walk to Machhermo today. It was all uphill, sometimes steeply. We started out with a big climb. I didn't have much energy today, so we rested often, and I drank a lot of Gatorade. We stopped once for tea along the way. By the time we stopped, I was really tired. The inn had only a dormitory. The kitchen and dining room were together in one smoky room. Smoke from the cooking fire vents through a small hole in the roof.

I met a lady from Singapore. Lal tried for a long time to get her to tell him her age, but she would not. He was very persistent, because he wanted to know whether she was older or younger than him. It matters in Nepali, because older women are addressed differently from younger women. She admitted that she was older than him, so she was addressed as didi, or `older sister'. In fact, from talking to her, I was able to deduce that she was in her early 40's, although she looked much younger. She had been traveling a lot since the 1970's. On this trek, she lost her traveling companion to an illness, and was continuing to Gokyo with their guide. Her name was Ling Soo. Lal told her he had a friend from Singapore, and showed her a picture of a man from Singapore from his wallet, and asked if she knew him. She did not. Lal carries pictures of the people he has guided, who he calls friends, in his wallet, and shows them to people when he meets someone else from one of the same places.

It was 38 in the lodge. I ordered Ra Ra noodle soup and a Coke. The Coke was expensive: 90 Rs, or about $1.80. A large group was camping outside. Some of them were tossing a Frisbee. Nepalese children were playing with a soccer ball, and the guides, including Lal, sat inside drinking chhang and gambling. Around 3 PM, it began to snow. I put on all my warm clothes, including the down jacket, and was comfortable.

A Nepalese woman carrying items to the Saturday market in Namche Bazaar stopped by the lodge. She had two small children. One of them got a small green orange. He spoke some English already, although he was probably too young for school. Some campers came inside and ordered cinnamon rolls with hot chocolate. I watched the hostess make them, rolling out the dough, spreading sugar and cinnamon on them, and rolling them up. I was sitting by the earthen cooking stove with the Ling Soo. I asked the hostess if I could take a picture of her, and she agreed. I moved away from the stove when it was time to fry the rolls. If I had not been sick yesterday, I would have been tempted to have one. They smelled delicious. It turned out that she made an extra one. She cut it into three pieces, and shared it with Ling Soo and me. It really was delicious. As it became dark, a kerosene lantern was lit.

Most people ordered rice with vegetable curry for dinner, but I had lost my appetite for this since I believed it made me sick yesterday. I ordered steamed vegetable momos with tomato soup and hot chocolate. Everything was prepared freshly as we watched. The hostess washed often, and cleaned the vegetables. The curry with rice was prepared first. When she finished, she began working on my momos, rolling out little circles of dough and filling them with vegetables and soy sauce. The momos were spicier than I had come to expect, since the vegetable inside was a kind of strong green onion. The soy sauce also made them very salty. This was unusual since Nepalese food is almost always under-salted and bland. Eight of these momos was almost more than I could eat, especially since my stomach was still recovering. I could only finish half of the watery tomato soup. Real tomato soup cannot be found here. The hot chocolate was delicious, however, and helped everything go down.

A middle-aged Brazilian woman, who had been alone in the dormitory all afternoon, came out after everyone else had eaten and had some soup. She spoke very little English. She had been left behind by a Brazilian organized tour headed for Gokyo because she was sick. That is a problem with organized tours. They have a schedule to keep, and if you get sick you are out of luck. Many of the people who have the most serious cases of altitude sickness are in organized tours, because they feel pressured to go on even if they are not ready.

Machhermo by moonlight

Tonight, the moon reflected brilliantly of the light dusting of snow outside, and the surrounding mountains were brightly illuminated. It was extremely beautiful, and after visiting the outhouse, I stayed outside a while admiring the surroundings, not bothered by the cold. I went inside to get my camera and mini-tripod, and tried taking a few pictures by moonlight. I tried a one minute and three minute exposure, guessing that these would work based on previous experience taking moonlight pictures once in Cades Cove in the Smokies. The dormitory was quiet tonight, with only five people staying there, and I slept well.

Copyright Scott A. Yost, 1994. All rights reserved.