Day 11

Day 11 – Jinwoo and Julie

At 7:30 in the morning, we woke up excited to start our last day of trekking from Phakding to Lukla. We began our day with the usual breakfast in the fresh air with eggs, pancakes and lots of honey. After we finished breakfast, others started packing up to get ready for our trek. At around 9:40 we started trekking. Everyone trekked at full speed in the beginning but after a while, some were faster and were able to trek at the speed of the sherpas. Others were a bit slower, some extremely slow who arrived half an hour after the first group. An hour and half later, we finally arrived somewhere between Phakding and Lukla for lunch. After lunch, we continued to trek for another hour until we arrived in Lukla, FINALLY! Most of us were really exhausted, so we quickly sat down in the warm tea house for some recuperation and some card games to relax.

As some of us arrived, we were greeted with a “Oh my god you guys, the tents are so disgusting. There’s yak poo everywhere!” The second group who arrived were shocked and disappointed and quickly made plans such as to just sleep in the teahouse for the night or not sleep at all. As time passed by, all 30 people arrived at Lukla. The first group who arrived clearly knew where we were going to sleep. For a change, we were going to sleep in a ROOM, not a TENT! Most of us got really excited and started running to grab the nicest room possible! We obviously did not want to end up without a room because that would mean we would have to sleep in tents again in the cold night! But as soon as we got everyone together, we had to gather all of our unwanted goods, ranging from clothes to medications, for the sherpas to show our appreciation for what they had done for us. Whilst some people were organising the gifts, some people were able to shop around Lukla. Despite the fact that most of shops were selling trekking gears, there were a lot of merchandises that were very eye catching, such as traditional necklaces, key chains, bracelets. When we got back to our lodges, we had to be at the dining room for dinner. The dinner was touching. The sherpas had prepared chicken meat (in Nepal, Chicken is very expensive) and brought us a humongous yet delicious cake, baked just for us and the occasion. They have spent so much money on us, when we are the more fortunate ones, which shows us the magnitude of their camaraderie. Some of the students were sad that they were leaving another group of people, like the children, that gave such hospitality. As we got near to the end of our meal, we started to give out the presents to the people that had supported and been with us. After doing so, we started dancing on the floor. Everyone was really enthusiastic and the Sherpas wondered what we were doing when we danced along to the Macarena. It was interesting how we were exchanging cultures by learning the way they danced and in return they would copy us as we did the Macarena! The party ended with us dancing and singing along to the song Sha la la…as all of us went back to our rooms and fell asleep straight away due to the exhaustion that the day had brought us.