The day at the Yak and Yeti begins with an envigorating hot shower and a spicey curry breakfast buffet. It’s too early to take these things for granted, so we’re savoring all of the amenities. Shovan’s father came to meet us this morning (the 29th) and we were all so disappointed that we couldn’t go out to spend the evening with him last night. Apparently here in Kathmandu the taxi drivers called a strike and refused to transport any local traffic. Thus there was no way we could have coordinated our transport to his part of the city, South of here in Patan. Interestingly, the taxis had the good sense to still offer service to their golden eggs, the tourists. The cars could still carry passengers to the airport and the hotels as long as they definitely looked like outsiders. Even yesterday after Pema got us settled here in the hotel he had a bit of a challenge getting back to his apartment. He took a taxi, but to ease the driver’s anxiety they had to take all the back alleys.

So much for Pema’s clean explanation of how Lukla’s flight schedule works. He said we’d be on the second flight out and that we should be ready early, but about 8:30 in the morning. Actually that hour was not at all a strain for us since we had a very light and guarded sleep in our “hotel”. After the porters left and the cooks absconded with the pot of steaming chang to their own private festivities we were left feeling dressed up with no place to go. We had been looking forward to some Sherpa hoopla and dancing, but regardless we were content to curl up in our cozy, wooden rooms with a porcelain toilet nearby and flat, carpeted flooring. All was quiet for the moment as we cut the lights and zipped up our sleeping bags. However, soon and throught the whole night we lay sleepless, feeling on edge with thoughts of Maoists infiltrating our stronghold. We heard rattling noises and soldier noises outside our windows. As if that wasn’t bad enough, half-way between our dreams we became aware of the community of mice or rats scurrying around in the hollow framing of the woodwork. We slept lightly and were very anxious for sunlight to hit our windows. After all we’ve been through and all the anticipation we were completely finished with the Khumbu for the time being and were intent and catching our flight out.

The fog is hanging heavy over our camp today. Last night it rained very hard, so we enjoyed hearing the pitter-patter on our tents. I was still a little nervos because I’ve been in a cheap tent before that would leak. During the night I imagined I was sloshing around in a puddle (no, I didn’t wet it myself). But no, our tents really held together well. They have a great out shell to bring away the rain, but the important part is that the stitches also must be water-tight. When we got into Toctoc I was craving a candy bar or something. As we get closer to the outside world I’m obsessing more on the comforts and tastes I’ve missed. It turns out the prices are pretty high here though. A Mars bar is 100 Rupees, which is baffling since they were only 50 Rupees back in Namche. We’re so much lower in elevation and so much closer to Lukla we expected the prices to be lower. I guess it’s just the free market. In Namche there’s a lot of competition, but even lower in the small villages the market forces adjust the prices up. Paying US $1.50 still seems like a lot for a candy bar, so I’ll hold off for another day or two.

It’s a little sad to leave Khumjung behind today, but we all feel thrilled to hike down the steep hill and know that we don’t have to go back up. We received ‘katas’ (golden silk scarf) from Mingma to show our friendship, and interestingly, Pema suggested that we should tie them end to end when we get to a large bridge. When the wind catches that long string it will fly gracefully, and it will bring good luck back to the bestower. We do wish him good luck, but we don’t want to just leave our katas along the trail. They are meaningful to us and we’ll probably keep ours and take them back home. Pema must think we’re lousy friends then. The Khumjung valley was covered in fog again, so we didn’t get much of a view and we climbed the path out and away. We found an alternate trail down to Namche, and it made a tremendous difference on our knees. This path went across the Shyangboche airfield and then down more of a gradual descent with broad switchbacks. Further east we could see the usual trail we took and we could see it was a merciless climb. Now I wish we had taken this trail before because it wasn’t so bad. Another thing that helped is that I decided to try my hiking pole for the first time. It seems like such a flimsy pole that wouldn’t help much, but I found that it gave me just enough extra stability and took some of the impact off of my knees that I was able to get down a lot quicker and more comfortably. We were soon back down in Namche and I wanted to make one last entry to the weblog before we moved on. I realized I had spent a lot of time in Namche, specifically between the Everest Bakery and the Namche Cyber Cafe, so it was like having another farewell. Some of us took a few final cracks at haggling down some items we wanted from the merchants, then we were ready for the hill that was so tiring about 17 days ago on the way up.