Day 12. Namche – Thame – Namche

Since we decided not to go to Gokyo we had some spare time. We went west from Namche to see another bigger monastery of the area – Thame. The area was new even to our guide. So we started at a leisurly pace, enjoying the vistas. We walked for three hours before reaching the village of Thame. In the end there was a long way up, and we could feel the weight of previous 11 walking days in our legs. The long ascent felt like pilgrimage. And in the end we didn’t even reach the monastery, which was a little higher than the village. We took a tea break in the village, saved again by Raj’s cookies and apples. 

On our way back Raj chose a different route and desided to follow local porters going to Namche. At first the route looked a bit unofficial. We climbed over a cattle fence and the went down to the river on this narrow and steep path. When we reached the river we crossed a small bridge and then climbed up to the same trail where we came from. It was about 12 when we were heading back and still two hours of walking till Namche. We all started to get hungry and tired. Raj tryed to pick up the pace but we could not keep up with him. 

In the evening we went again to The Liquid bar to see a movie. The owner already reqonized ja and gave us warm greetings. 

Day 13. Namche-Lukla-Kathmandu

On the day when we left Namche a 64km ultra marathon started in the area, starting from Namche (3440m) going through Renjo pass (5340m) and back.

We started heading back to Lukla in the morning. First descending a plentyful of steps. On the lookout we tried to see the Everest one last time but this time it was hiding behind the clouds. When we came to the big hanging bridge there was a blessing ceremony going on. One monk was climbing a tree and setting up prayer flags and other monk was supervising. An old woman was burning juniper and pine tree branches as part of the ritual.

On the way we noticed that we made a good choice coming a little bit before the main season started. There was a huge queue of people and donkeys going towards where we came from. Otherwise the trail back was pretty easy, mostly downhill. But there was still a long last climb just before Lukla. We had a small break before we started to ascent and Prakash brought us mandarins for energy. We were pretty tired when we reached to Lukla. The plan was to stay one night in Lukla and then fly in the morning to Kathmandu but just when we sat down and ordered lunch Raj got an info that we could fly straight away. So we ran to the airport, waited for a little while and took off to Kathmandu. Apparently the clouds had just moved away above Lukla cause there were planes landing in a row. Also we had to wait for a while in the air before landing to Kathmandu airport.

Day 14. Kathmandu

Raj invited us for dinner at his place with his family. He lived a little bit outside of the city center so he came to pick us up with a taxi. He lived in appartment with his wife, son, sister and one other family. Raj’s wife and sister cooked us the best Dal Bhat we had on this entire trip.