Nepal Trip Day 8 - Namche Bazar to Phakding (Sunday December 30, 2018)

February 19, 2019

Nepal Trip Day 8 - Namche Bazar to Phakding (Sunday December 30, 2018)

Nepal Trip Day 8 - Namche Bazar to Phakding (Sunday December 30, 2018)

According to the original schedule, our destination today would be Monjo. However, sometime during the night, I thought maybe we could hike out sooner and maybe visit another place in Asia. My parents had been encouraging us to go to Taiwan. Maybe we could squeeze in a quick visit to Taiwan? We are in Asia after all. And that is what we did.

We decided to hike all the way to Phakding today instead of sleeping over at Monjo. We discussed this change with Mingma. Mingma quickly called Pasang Sherpa, and the arrangement was made. We were going to Phakding but we will stop by at Monjo for lunch.

We took breakfast before 7:00 am. It's with a bittersweet feeling that we had to leave Namche Bazar. I do hope to return in the future to trek to Everest Base Camp but there is no time table for such trip at this point.

Table is set for breakfast

Taking one last peek at the view

Enjoying the breakfast

Decorative map in the room

We began our hike down just around 8:00. We passed through the side road along Namche Bazar, the check point to Namche Bazar, and into the forest. We continued our hike down and passed through a patch of frozen ice. We walked carefully through the frozen ice. In no time, we were already at the last view point of Everest - Topdanda view point. Unlike the cloud-covered day when we were on our way up, today was perfectly clear. We snapped a few photos of Mount Everest and took some photos for a couple from Northern California. After a quick break, we began our down hike again.

Down hike through the forest

Last view of Everest at Topdanda

The sun is begging to shine on us

Back to the Hillary Bridge

Crossing the Hillary Bridge

Tip of Thamserku

The Hillary Bridge

Hiking along the river bank

Hiking down

Crossing frozen stream

Frozen waterfall

Crossing the suspension that leads to Monjo

Prayer flag in the village

A local woman and carrying a baby

Going up the stone steps to Monjo with mani stone on the right

Back at YMH Monjo

It took us less than three hours to hike back down to Monjo from Namche Bazar. We got to Monjo around 11:00 am. It took us more than five hours when we hiked from Monjo to Namche Bazar. We descended from over 11,000 feet to about 9,500 feet. We had begun to feel the warmth and increase oxygen at the lower elevation.

We took our lunch and bathed under the warm sun. We were served Dal Bhat which we enjoyed very much. After taking roughly an hour for lunch, we set off for Phakding around 12:30 pm.

Soaking in the sun

Sitting outside with Thamserku in the background

Our packs

Enjoying our Dal Bhat

Dal Bhat with chicken, potato, and vegetables

A large bowl of Dal

The plate is cleaned

Dry hand and dirty finger nails

Setting off for Phakding - donkey train traffic jam

More donkey trains

Crossing another suspension with over the Dudh Kosi River

Local harvesting vegetables, even in late December

Taking one more peek at Thamserku while waiting for the donkey train to pass

Dudh Kosi River in the afternoon sun

Staring at the frozen water fall over a make shift bridge

Path along the mountain

A local child observing the passing by trekkers

Hiking through a small village outside Phakding

Goats relaxing under the sun

Trekking in the afternoon through the village

Sun is setting behind the mountain at around 2:00 pm

View of Phakding in sight

Crossing the last suspension bridge before Phakding

Dudh Kosi River near Phakding

Reached Phakding

We reached YMH Phakding just around 3:00 pm after hiking for just over 2 hours. We were greeted with tea, warm towels, and Coconut Crunchees crackers. We downed the tea and devoured the crackers. The temperature was a few degrees above freezing point (about 2C or 35F). We felt surprising warm in this temperature. We checked in and all of us managed to take a hot shower after not taking shower for several days. However, Jo did not get a hot shower because the hot water had run out. She will have to wait until Lukla to take a full hot shower.

We feasted on popcorn at the happy hour and were served pasta for dinner. We met two other trekking groups that evening. One group is a father and son couple from BC Canada. The father was a talkative fellow and the son was rather quiet. The other group is an American group with two older men and a younger person who is the son of one of the older man. This group was from South Carolina. We talked to one of the man with the heavy southern accent and he informed us that they plan to go to Base Camp.

We went to sleep shortly after dinner around 8:00 in the warm bed heated by functioning electrically heated blanket.

Our trekking distance was the longest out of all the days at 8.1 miles according to my iPhone. We were in good spirit and were motivated to hike out to see the little ones in Taiwan.

Our twin bed room where GG and I slept