Nepal : Part 9 - EBC Trek (Day 4) - From Namche Bazaar (3440m) to Tengboche (3867m)

Summary of Expenses

	Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
	Namche Bazaar		Phunki Thang		Tengboche
	Meal	Price	Meal	Price	Meal	Price
Mine	Tomato Omelette	270	Fried Rice with Vegetable & Egg	400	Fried Pasta Vegetable	350
	Hot Water	40	Ginger Lemon	100	Ginger Tea	60
Sister	Veg. Omelette	270	Rara Noodle	250	Chow Mein Veg.	350
	Hot Water	40	Ginger Lemon	100	Hot Lemon	60

Price of items that matters:

	Phunki Thang	Tengboche
Battery Charge	Did not notice	250 per hour
WiFi	Did not notice	Did not notice
Mineral Water (do not remember size of bottle)	200	200

The Story

18092013 - Day 5 in Nepal. Day 4 of the trek. Today, we are headed to Tengboche (3867m). It is such a gorgeous day as we started our walk. No rain. Just the bright piercing sun. Today's trek ought to take us 5 hours, but of course, we always break the budget.

We saw a man sitting at the side of the road. It turns out he was widening the road from Namche exit to Kyangjuma Village. He was widening the road based on the donations by the trekkers. He is so generous and selfless to be doing all this by himself. According to the guide, during the peak season, he will set up a camp to live there. I donated and I gave him a bar of Sneakers. I am sure he needs it more than me.

Here, we have reached Kyangjuma. It was a 1.5 hour walk. Imagine the length of the road being widened.

We stopped for lunch in Phunki Thang. As usual, my sister got herself her favourite bowl of Rara Noodles, while I had fried rice with eggs and vegetable.

At 3.30pm, after 2.5 hours of walking up from Phunki Thenga, we reached Tengboche (3867m). In total, it was 6 hours of walking. We were an hour later because we stopped for photo shoots, and rested longer due to generous amount of time we have left. The guide told us if we reached before 4pm, we can see the prayers in a monastery located in Tengboche. But it turns out it is not 4pm. The prayers is from 3 - 3.30pm. This monastery is famous because it is located on the route towards Everest Base Camp. So, lots of people go to this monastery to pray for a successful trek to Mount Everest. 

We stayed in Tengboche Guest House. There were only 5 lodges in this area. During the peak season, trekkers may have to walk further 30 minutes to another village to stay. The view is not that awesome in the other village. From Tengboche, we can see Mount Everest! But not today because it was so misty.

All lodges have this sign that says room lodge is more expensive if you choose not to have dinner in their restaurant. It is compulsory to have dinner in the lodge you are staying. As we trekked higher, the penalty charges get more expensive.

We visited the Monastery despite us missing the prayers. There was one in the morning at 6am, but I did not go. The Monastery was locked when we went in. We have such bad luck with monasteries, all being locked. Remember the one in Khumjung. So, the guide spoke to a monk, and he opened the Monastery for us. I am very lucky to always be surrounded by lovely people in my travels.

These are the accommodations for the monks. They are located just before the entrance of the monastery.

After exploring the monastery, we went back to our lodge to have dinner. My sister had Vegetable Chowmein (chow mein = fried noodles in Mandarin). I had Fried Pasta Vegetable. Tastes alright. Food is great as long as it's edible. When you are at the mountains, beggars can't be choosers.

And here is a YouTube video (Day 4 : From Namche to Tengboche) that my sister did. You can click on the link to go to the YouTube video just in case the video loads too slow in this post.