We went early this morning to Lakpa’s parents house for tea. Quite a treat to be able to go to a locals house. We were told they are affluent for the area which probably only has 80 people. The home was only 2 rooms. A kitchen and a multi-purpose room where they eat, socialize, and sleep. It was a long room with long tables and benches. It held all 24 of us. Lakpa’s father was a Sherpa, but retired after he got frost bite during a climb. That is a theme as I bought a small painting today from another former Sherpa who lost all of his fingers to frost so now he paints.

In the khimbhu region children are named after the day the were born. Lakpa means Wednesday. His brother kami was born on a Monday. Their middle name is Rita which is a girls name. Lakpa’s parents did this to give their children lower caste names to protect them from the gods and folks that may want to harm higher caste members. At least that is how I understand it. Their last name is Sherpa as that is what they are born into. Therefore his name is Lakpa Rita Sherpa. Another interesting fact is that the oldest son is expected to leave his parents home while the youngest son is expected to stay with the parents. The youngest son then inherits the parents property.

As we hiked we climbed to a Buddhist monastery where the monks were in there chanting as they each read different prayers out loud. Was a very relaxing and spiritual sound. We went inside and sat with them. It was a small room with about 8-10 monks. We were very lucky to have an opportunity to witness this and be able to sit with them.

The morning trek was pretty relaxed, but it got intense after lunch as we climbed up a couple thousand feet over the mountain to the village of Khumjung. It’s amazing how slow we walk as the altitude makes it difficult to move quickly. It is testing my ADD.

We finally arrived about 3:30 or so which gave us a chance for down time and “milk tea”. My new addition. Very sweat tea with milk and sugar. Man, that stuff is good. I thought I would loose weight but between the milk tea and snickers bars I am not sure that is going to happen. We get lots of sugar, carbs and starch in our diets here.

I also posted a pic of me getting water. You get it from where everyone washes their hands outside the rest room. Nice. We then treat it with our steri pen which is a small device that has an ultraviolet light that kills the bacteria. At least in theory. The water come from right off the mountain.

That’s it for now. 9:20 pm here. Plus my blood / oxygen saturation is 77% so you get a bit tired. Hopefully my body adjust over night before we start a pretty serious trek tomorrow.