I woke up middle of the night with a massive headache. I think the lack of oxygen in this elevation is the cause.
I got very little rest. I think many brain cells died. I think I got dumber than before. I think I should retire from any work force activity. Too many brain cells died. I got up for Sunrise in the cold and then went back to bed like everyone else in my group. As it turned out, our room had the view of Everest peak and all we had to do was pull the curtain. This was discovered after we all froze our bums off in the cold outside to watch the golden sunrise. Stef gave me medicine. I took it, it was only good for 90 minutes. We started our hike up Everest Camp after lunch around 12:30pm. The hike was nice. I had to stop often to take lots of deep breathes. The hike usually takes 2 hours, it took me 3 and half hours. It was nice my group waited for me and we had tea. I walked with my splitting head ache. It was horrible. I felt like there were many thousands of drones pounding in my head. We passed by Blue Sheep. They look like deer but different. We went off road and did other trails too to cut short on the switch backs. We arrived in Everest Base Camp at 4pm. The river was partly frozen. The wind was picking up and it was bone chilling cold. Nate picked out a tent for us to stay in. I was concerned about staying warm for the night because I was shivering from the cold and could not warm up at all.
This tent was run by a 15 year old Tibetan girl. She said the tents were scheduled to come down 10 days from now but due to the weather it has been changed to tomorrow. She also said that it rained this week and we come across good weather. We were all glad the conditions were working for us. Her family had left already.
This Tibetan young girl was pulling on our sympathy strings when she told us that she wanted to be a Tibetan nun and go through the border of Nepal to be with her Spiritual Leader in India. She said many things against the idea of living for money etc..... She said that it costs 1,000 yuan to cross the Nepalese boarder, and it takes 4,500 yuan to do round trip. That her father has checked out this line and each person in their family is saving to make the crossing. We all went for it to go along with our romantic notions of Tibet and the current state of its people.
She then told us that the 40y per bed didn't go to her but to the government and only food ordered through her goes to her. I went to the kitchen to see what I can cook because I missed my own cooking. As it turns out she had instant noodles, potatos, rice, and eggs. What were we suppose to order from the menu when she didn't have ingredients for the menu? It didn’t matter she just wanted money from us. I asked for the light to be turned on and she refused unless we ordered something to eat. We also brought two friends we met on the road in for food and to hang out. They all ordered egg fried rice. I had seen the old egg fried rice on the floor from days before. I told her she could not serve old rice and needed to cook new ones. She didn't and people ate crunchy old egg fried rice. I confronted her and she flinched a little. I said you can make people sick this way. You promised to serve new fresh food. She tried to wiggle by saying Tibetans do things this way. I reminded her that was not what we agreed on. She got nervous and tried to make up for it by offering the two trekkers blankets to use for the night free. With that gesture I felt there was hope in her. But then she kept coming to me to sell trinkets. She wanted to know what we would order for breakfast. The hot water she poured for us were cloudy and barely warm. She did not keep the fire going like other tents did. She had quite an attitude and what made her happy was money. It was contradictory to her heart plucking story of her aspiration and how she's not about money.
We went to the Tibetan end of the season party. When I entered an man half serious half joking asked for our money to be at the party. Since I understood and no one else did, I left the party. I left because I was tired. I left because I knew they wanted our money. I left because they’d serve alcohol and eat raw meat to celebrate the season. I left because I wanted to enjoy some quiet and alone time in this week of being together twenty-four-seven.
