Kongde Day 6

Back at the Lukla airport, it is  a bright clear crisp morning.  I said goodbye to the porters and Dano. Other porters are carrying bags to the airport and people are lined up to photograph the planes coming in.  Dogs are lolling about in the street. I wanted to be on the first plane, but had to wait for  couple of hours, watching Bollywood Indian music videos.  Then around 9:00 Nima rushed in and grabbed my arm, our plane was about to leave and  we were the last ones on board, sitting in the very back of the cabin with great views out the window.

 I could still walk, but my legs felt a little sore as I walked the stony path to the airport. I don’t know if I have ever hiked so far and so steep in such a short time, I felt like a climber, I had been on the mountain,  and did the best I could. I realized that I needed to train my Sherpa guides who were accustomed to take people around the mountains who were mostly not climbers or mountaineers.

 But,  I had seen unworldly sights and camped in a cave with my Sherpa friends around a smoky fire.  

Slowly  the multilayered chaos of Kathmandu emerges from the mountains.  First there are some villages and terraced fields, then more houses then the city. 

Yesterday I thought I would give up hiking and climbing mountains I was so tired.  But the first place I was drawn to was a map shop. Mustang? Dolpo? Tibet?  I wonder what kind of mountains they have there. 

My plan was to visit the Boudha area, around the great stupa where there is a large Tibetan community. I visited the neighborhood stopping to talk to hunched over Hindu men working on sewing ornaments for the Buddhist monasteries, 

I took the micro bus to Bouda, hoping it would arrive there and not somewhere else.  15 cents.

The large stupa is almost completely repaired from the earthquake.

I visited the museum and the large tent community of people left homeless by the earthquake, where they had planted gardens and were raising ducks 

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