Day 1 – At the lunch stop between Lukla to Monjo.Someone locks Erika in the teahouse toilet (doors in the Khumbu can be locked from the outside to stop them slamming in the wind).Will comments: ‘There’s something fundamentally wrong about the way that people have the power to lock you in the toilet!In the U.S. this just wouldn’t be possible.’ On day 5, Will awakes in the night to find that the door to his lodge room has been locked from the outside and he cannot get out to use the bathroom.Will reminisces on the experience the following morning: ‘I thought it might be some sort of unusual hotel policy to lock people in their rooms during the night’.
Day 5 – Sumit warns the group not to bother with the Pangboche bakery & tells us not to visit the Pangboche monastery as the group will be visiting the monastery the next morning.Will, Chris & Pete then head straight for the bakery & then after some food, they go & check out the monastery.On Day 13, the group visit the bakery in Pangboche again.Will develops stomach pains from a piece of layer cake of questionable vintage.
Day 6 – Standing in the Pangboche monastary (in 6 day old socks), Pete realises that his socks smell so bad that he cannot smell the incense that the Lama is burning.
Day 6 – Pete & Chris have cultured a pungent odour in their room at Pangboche. On the way out of Pangboche, Pete realises a missed opportunity ‘Chris! We forgot to get Anna to smell our room’.
Day 7 – Anna, Sabita, Erika & Pete wash their clothes at the Dingboche teahouse and hang them outside. During the acclimatization walk, it starts to snow. Pete says ‘I wonder if my clothes will dry in the snow’. The four return from the acclimatisation walk to find that their clothes have been rescued by the teahouse owner. It is still snowing & so they decide to finish drying by draping them over the windowsills in the public dining room. Pete turns his underpants over so that the crotch is not facing up: ‘maybe this will be more socially acceptable to the other guests’. Later Anna hangs her undies from the window latch (possibly the least conspicuous of locations) A reassured Pete thinks to says: ‘It must be socially acceptable!…. at least to Europeans’.
Pretty much every day – Pete (who never pays proper attention to the dinner menu) is looking at Erika’s dinner: ‘Ah good choice’. And then he looks at Will’s dinner: ‘Another good choice’.
Day 14 – Sabita looks at the 9 breakfast orders that have been filled out and asks ‘has everyone ordered already?!’. Chris points out ‘no… only three of us have ordered…. but we’ve ordered more than one breakfast each’. Evidently, high altitude has had no impact on appetite for these trekkers.
Day 1 through to Day 11 – Pete quizzes Will & Chris on their experience with facial hair: ‘When will my beard stop itching?’
Day 3 – ‘I’ve always wanted a photo with an attractive Swedish woman. It’s one of those things on my life’s ‘to do’ list.’ – Anonymous
Day 4 – Mario says: ‘Pete, would you like me to take your photo? And would you like an attractive Swedish woman in the photo?’
Day 4 – Will is grasping the concept of the game of Spoons: ‘So basically this is a game where the looser is the one who does not pay attention to a pile of spoons.’
Day 3 – Chris (who spent the last 8 months travelling in India) is explaining his first impressions of India: ‘I see all of the men holding hands and I think.. Wow… there are a lot of gay men here in India… and then I realise that it is normal for the men to hold hands.’
Day 3 – Chris wakes up and looks in the mirror: ‘Holy F%$k I look like Sh*t ‘
Day 2 – Anna is talking to a ‘dirty looking’ Australian trekker with dreadlocks (who is coincidentally from the central coast). ‘Are you on your way back to Lukla? You look like you’ve been trekking for many days?’ The trekker is shocked: ‘Why do you say that? I’m on my way up’. Anna tries to dig up: ‘Oh it is because your face looks sunburnt’. Trekker, ‘really am I that badly burnt?’. Anna, ‘oh yes yes, I can see you are’.
Day 4 – In the morning, Will walks into the tea house dining room sporting his new outdoor wear (including a blue quick dry top & a set of new trekking poles). Sumit wolf whistles.
Day 3 – Listening to Sherpa music in the Namche tea house. There is extremely heavy emphasis on the tamborine in this music.
Day 5 – Rock climbing on the way up to Pangboche, Pete is 50% of the way up the climb and he finally sees the crack/hold that everyone is pointing out: ‘I can see the crack!!…. But I’ve run out of energy.’ Pete falls off the wall. Sabita (who’s got Sumit on belay) laughs too much and nearly pulls Sumit off the wall. Sumit is not impressed.
Day 17 + 1 – Will is talking about how he sat down in Pilgrims cafe with the intention of using the free WiFi but without buying a coffee. He is wondering why the waiters did not ask for his order: ‘I couldn’t figure out if this meant that the service at Pilgrims was really good…. or if it meant that the service was really bad’.
Day 9 – Pete’s bag was not as full as Anna’s bag & so Anna keeps a few things with Pete’s stuff. At 7:30PM, Mario & Pete are asleep in their Gorak Shep room. Anna bursts through the door: “Excuse me!! I need my sleeping bag please!!”
Day 10 – The “Possa Pass” allowing guests at the Lobuche Peak XV lodge to traverse quickly from the upstairs hallway, through the window & into the sunroom.
Day 1 – Sumit speculates on why Pete brought a wad of writing paper up the mountains: “What are you going do with that?? Draw the mountains??”
Day 12 – Anna is left handed. On Lobuche, Dendi keeps on setting up her abseil on the right-hand side. After Summit day, Anna has a really sore right arm.
Day 17 – Will does not quite make it to the teahouse in Lukla. Sumit sends the porters to look for him in all of the coffee shops. A slightly inebriated Will turns up for dinner after he stopped to use the bathroom in Waves bar.
