Everest Base Camp Trek Diary – Day 7 (Pheriche)

My guide has fallen sick and left for lower grounds at Namche. Now I am trekking with the Japanese group of 2 and their guide. I am not feeling very great about this. For one, I did not make arrangements with Ram (the Japanese’s guide), I made arrangements with Subindra. Another, the Japanese guys are very strong with previous trekking experience. They would have to walk slowly because of me. And third, I am not 100% sure if Subindra is actually sick or not.

Anyway, both Ram and the Japanese guys (Sho & Nauto) are very friendly and, though we do not speak each other’s language, we had a good time together. We exchanged a few words, like Daijo Bu, which was asked and answered countless times. It means “No Problem”.

The landscape today was very different from the last few. To me it looked like hilly desert. Sho corrected me – it was tundra. The lands were grey, no trees, sparrows in bushes, sun was bright & hard and wind was very chilly. It was difficult to walk with a jacket on and was difficult to walk without. I wish I brought a wind breaker with me.

Walking 6 hours, we could see 5 or 6 houses in the valley below. Another 40 minutes of walk brought us to it – Periche. How people live in this barren land is beyond me.

We were now truly in the wild. There was no mobile network, no internet and no electricity. But what it had was more than enough to enjoy this isolation. We spent the evening around the hot stove, chatting with the kind hearted hostess and looking out through the window at the rain clouds – which were not above us, but beside us.

22 February, 2016
Pheriche

Read the other parts of the Everest Base Camp Trek Diary

• Day 1: Thamel
• Day 2: Kathmandu
• Day 3: Lukla, Phakding
• Day 4: Namche Bazar
• Day 5: Namche Bazar
• Day 6: Tengbuche, Dobuche
• Day 7: Pheriche
• Day 8: Lobuche
• Day 9: Gorekshep, Everest Base Camp