We get a rest day in Namche to help us acclimatize to the altitude. I woke up at 2:45 am; it looks like 5 hours of sleep is going to be the norm for this trip. While my Dr. gave me a prescription for a sleeping aid, I don’t like taking pharmaceuticals; plus the trek/expedition Dr. Doesn’t want us taking anything that might alter our breathing at altitude.

Being up early, I did have the chance to walk back down to where we entered the village. It is nice walking around the village in the early daylight hours; the streets are empty of tourists/trekkers (except me). You see locals from other villages coming in. I was so tired coming in to the village yesterday, I totally overlooked some of the beautiful features of the village.

Namche is the trading hub for this area, and has a market on Saturdays. It is nested into a “bowl” that is very interesting; I guess you build however you can.

We met up for breakfast and discussed plans for the day. We could either go to the Everest View Hotel or tour some local musuems. Either way we needed to get out and do some exercise to help with our acclimatization. Once I learned that the potential view of Everest would be about the same, I opted for the shorter trek to the musuems. After talking to the group that went to the lodge, I knew I made the right decision; it was as rigorous as our climb up to Namche. And clouds had rolled in, so there were no views to be had.

The musuems were interesting, but I’m not sure how much I’ll retain considering I’m on information overload from trip prep, etc. We first stopped at the national park information center and looked through the displays.

We then walked down to the Sherpa Cultural Musuem, where we could walk through a fully furnished sherpa house and view a slideshow. We had the privilege of doing the tour with our trek Sidar (Kancha Nuru) and one of or Sherpas (Kami who I wrote about previously). Nothing like getting the information from those who have lived it. Then the short hike back to town.

One of the people on the climbing team (Mike) went with us on the museum tour. I was a little apprehensive about how us trekkers would be received by the climbing team. While clearly you have to be in a very good financial position to pay for a climb to the top, all the climbers have been down to earth, friendly people.

I wandered around the village and made a few small purchases. The shop keepers are hit and miss; some not very friendly, but the older shop keepers seem to be the friendly ones. On in particular I was very glad to buy some things. She cut me a small break on prices too. I don’t see the point of haggling over fifty cents or a dollar when it means so much more to them.

The effect of tourists and western culture is very evident here; streets are lined with shops with mountain gear, bars (yet another Irish bar!), coffee shops, bakeries, etc. There is even a North face store! But you still see daily life here if you look for it.

We had a pre-dinner meeting. The expedition Dr. (Sophie) gave us a talk about altitude sickness. The main thing is you can’t think you are going to tuff it out. That will get you in a serious situation and impact those around you as well. Dinner (I still can’t believe the quality of the food so far) and off to bed and ready to head out to Kumjung.