The other thing I was saying goodbye to was nice Western-style loos. For the next 36 hours or so I would have to bite the bullet and use the more traditional “hole in the floor” type loos that you have to squat over; some are not too bad with porcelain bowls (although manually flushed with a bucket), but some are basically a shack with a gap underneath with a hole in the wooden floor! Definitely not one of the highlights of the trip.
Despite still being a little weak the day’s trekking was fine, especially given that our Sherpa kindly took my pack for the two long steep climbs. During the morning we contoured around a higher south-facing mountain side which was very different to the other locations, with barbed scrub bushes, many more of the beautiful (and usually sparse) mountain flowers and a constant sound of grasshoppers in the air. It was a beautiful day as well which was a nice change, although I managed to sun-burn my hands.
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We arrived in Tengboche in early-afternoon, just before the cloud moved in. It is a grassy plateau on the mountain top with a big monastery (the main one in the region) and a number of houses and lodges dotted around the edges.
