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A Festive Occasion
Thu, April 15, 1999 — Lukla, Nepal
Hi, it's Gordon from Alpine Ascents. We're back in Lukla. We had a long walk today from Namche, and actually had a great time in Namche. We had a sort of a farewell dinner at Ong Chu's house yesterday. So everybody ate traditional momos, and drank some of the local brew called chang, and there was a nun, a Buddhist nun who actually gave us a blessing on the way out. So it was pretty festive and quite a ball.
We also, Todd and I, went down to buy a [inaudible] stone: a rare, Tibetan stone. They're not really sure where it's from. [inaudible] an epic, we were buying them from an 88-year-old couple who are selling the family jewels and then giving their money over to a monastery. So it was pretty interesting, but of course, it's a whole afternoon-long production of drinking, and non-stop [inaudible], and overall haggling, and a good time. So that was a pretty interesting element to the day yesterday before we left Namche.
In Lukla, we're waiting for our flight to go out. It's kind of a long walk from Namche to Lukla. It lasts two, two-and-a-half, three hours, so everybody's kind of wiped out. We have a farewell dinner with our Sherpa staff tonight, which usually involves dancing, a little drinking, things like that. So we're looking forward to that, and we'll keep you updated.
—Gordon Janow, Trek Leader
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