Ths is like catching up on my diary :)
Lots has happened since Gorak Shep:
After surviving a night at -10 degrees in Gorak Shep the 14 of us treked back down again. We were all much more cheerful.
The itinery canged due to Matty and Paula being half way down the mountain so instead of trekking down to Lobuche we skipped it and went straight down to Dingboche which is a small village next to Pheriche. It was a long trek, we were all exhausted. When we saw Dingboche we cherpped up a bit. I had a nice convesation with Seb about how much lamb we will eat when we get back and then before we knew it we were sitting in a cold Tea house with flies annoying the mind out of us!!! - We couldn't kill them because the didi was a buddist!
We were originally suppose to meet Matty and Paula there but they were moved to a village lower down because Paula was getting ill so Persal (the guide/cook) took her down. Peter was fuming and Seb was puking! Dispite this we all sat down and had a lovely meal - well everyone apart from Austin who ordered Ham sandwich yet ended up with Spam :)
The next day was to Tengboche (the poo stop.) Peter was on a mission to find Paula and Matty on the way down. We trekked for about 1hr and then came to a little village and came accross Matty and Paula - who was drowning in her trousers! We stopped for about half and hour for a tea then set off again. We were all jealous because the tea house where Matty and Paula had been was brand new and very clean! Anyway the next part of the trek was up hill to Tengboche. I was walkng with Austin and Angtu (one of our guides.) Seeing as we were chatting we hadn't realised that we were at the back so we had one last push up the hill to catch up with the others but they were too far in front. We enjoyed the ammusment from Angtu so started joking with him. By the time we finally reached the top we soon found out that everybody else was enjoying a cake and some tea in the bakery. I ignored it and went inside the tea house. I sat down with Austin who was asking me to play cards with him but I could not be bothered!!!! Persal gave us some black tea and then everybody else decided to come back from the bakery. We all eat dinner and most of the kids went exploring. After a while I decided to go to the bakery with Paula and my mum. Just after we ordered Tia came rushing in telling us to come and watch the boys play football against the monks. I was entertained by the fact that the monks were loosing yet Seb said that they were good enough top become an international team!!! With the kids narcoleptic we trotted off to bed ready for Namche in the morning.
Saturday 23rd a trek from Tengboche to Namche! We were all content because we knew that Sunday was a rest day! The trek from Tengboche to Namche was downhill then we stopped for some tea and potato chips (TC's new nickname) then it was up hil. I enjoy going up hill :) We were all dragging ourself up the hill and then suddenly Dependra (another guide) screams out "Namche, Namche." We were all laughing at his face and started walking with a better pace! When we finally reached Namche us kids begged for lunch. We were back at the same hotel as before and we seemed to remember the food being very nice. Most of us ordered chips which were very filling!!! We were all tempted to go to the liquid bar again so guess what we did... the liquid bar had a rampage of kids screaming and shouting. Andy was getting into the chess and Peter and Paula had an embarrassing dance. We were all sitting cringing!!!! After the adults finshed their beer we tried to get Persal in but his reply was "No! I'm not getting drunk tonight!!" It was quite funny coming from a 55 yr old man! Ganesh came up and called us for dinner so that left Saturday night as it was.
The rest day in Namche was lovely the kids went buying presents for easter Sunday an I got my hair washed and blow dryed at the hairdressers. Joe had started off a trend of animal hats so after a while all 7 kids were wearing hats with animals on. I had a debate with seb (who bought the same hat as me) about weather it was a cat or a cow but I am making whiskers for it when we get home so it could be either!!! While the kids went splashing their cash the adults were sitting nice and relxed in a german bakery. After writing a few postcards we headed for the liquid bar to watch a film at 3:00. It was called Everest 50 yrs on the mountain. It was a documentary about the next generation climing Everest after Hillary did. It was very interesting. When the film finished Ganesh joined us and we were all sitting admiring Peters ginourmous Yak bought by Matty. After a while we got bored and went back for dinner at the hotel. When we saw roast chicken on the menu we were left jumping for joy. It was very nice :) Joan and Martin had bought cream eggs so we had an easter egg hunt then we went to bed.
On Monday we trekked from Namche to Phakding it was all down hill :( We had one less sherpa because one was found drunk on the trail so Ganesh sent him home :) The wether was very nice. It didn't help having the sun beating down on you while you are walking but we coped with it. My mum and I were stuck behind the slowest people on earth so were last to get to Phakding. We could hardly remember what Phakding looked like until Angtu reminded us it was where we stayed on the first night of the trek. Most of us kids had roast chicken again! Tia didn't eat her pizza because it had cheese on it - we all thought it was normal though :)
Tuesdays trek to Lukla was pretty hard acctually. I think it was because we old ourselves that it was the last trek and that we are nearly home. It was up hill. It gave us a chance to catch up on the pictures we didn't take coming. Angtu was showing us the local schools. Austin and I saw a young girl trying to take a picture with a torch. She was really sweet it was funny watching her copy up as we took photo's of her! When we arrived in Lukla we were all amazed that we were there 2 weeks ago. There was a pub downstairs and all the kids were writing messages on the walls! Tia ended up drawing all of us and it made Persal laugh :) We all found it funny that Persal had, had 3 glasses of rum and coke! :) Dependra wlked through the door transformed - he was wearing clean jeans with his underwear hanging out fromon top f them with a leather jacket. He wore his sun glasses inside! (by the way he is 18 and finds his sun glases VERY stylish) Andy and Ganesh had a quick game of pool. Andy found a game he could win :) - after loosing to me in SLAM! We gave he sherpa's their tips and all sat down for dinner. I had chicken curry - yummy! We went to bed pretty early ready for the flight at 5:0am the next morning.
We all woke up this morning at 4:00. Tia hadn't had a very good sleep because she had a headache so she was very tired! We waited outside for Ganesh then had o carry our bags to the airport. They were heavy!!! We were the only people at the airport to start with then some americans came in. I was drawling over a paket of walkers salt and vinegar crisps but we had to go through security so I couldn't get them :( The airport was tiny even I could find my way around and I got lost in the lounge in Bahrain! We waited in the departure lounge for about 15minutes then went outside to board our plane. We were on a different plane from Ganesh. The run way was down hill and left you with a funny sensation in your stomach when you took off!! After about 10 minutes of being in the air we looked out of the window to find that Ganesh's plane had over taken ours!!!!! The journey seemed extremely short.
I am now in the lounge in Kathmandu. There is a strike on so we can not go into town. I'm looking outside and everyone is dressed nicely after having a shower and I am still in my trekking gear. - You would have thought I would have bagged the shower :)
This holiday has been amazing. It was completely different to what I thought it would be and I will look upon it and think 'what an amazing achievement this has been' Speak soon, Alice x :)
