Duglha - Pheriche - Pangboche (14 Oct 2006)

The sun was rising. The surrounding mountains are visible and clear.

After Kok Ming, Foung Yee and Peng Meng took off to Gorak Shep, we also began our journey to Pheriche. I saw the rescue helicopter make flights several times these few days. Is that possible that Kok Yuen already flying out by the helicopter?
It was around 10.00am when we reached Pheriche. We met Lisa and Stephen from Hong Kong. They will descend to Tengboche today. We took the photos with them before they left. (Photo from left to right: Stephen, Jing Yee, Dee, Lisa and Teck Long).

We were asking around for Kok Yuen’s news. One of the lodge owners told us that he was staying at Pheriche yesterday and had only checked out about an hour ago. Without wasting any time, we moved towards Pangboche to chase for him. We checked every tea-house on the way, didn’t stop for rest all the way from Pheriche to Somare. We stopped at Moon Light Restaurant – the restaurant that we had lunch 6 days ago on the way up to Dingboche. The boss told us that Kok Yuen was there 3 hours ago. 3 hours? We were confused. 3 hours ago means 9am. But we had been told that Kok Yuen just left Pheriche at 9am. How can he at 2 places for the same time?

It was almost 1pm after the lunch at Somare. We continue the journey to Pangboche (3985m) as plan. We can see Pangboche from Somare. It was only half and hour journey. Stephen and Lisa were having lunch at the tea house that we checked in. Hai Poh asked Stephen to pass message to Kok Yuen if he saw Kok Yuen at Tengboche. Although we knew that possibility was low, no harm to try it.

The restaurant of this tea-house is very special. It is at the 3rd floor. The wall is made of glass. We sat at the corner and admire the scenic surrounding. Pangboche offers fantastic view of Ama Dablam (Photo on right) and Tawoche Peak (The above photo on left). The tea house has nice restaurant but the toilet is quite bad. The toilet is simple with leaves and almost “full”.

Behind the lodge, a group of workers are building a new house. That’s why we could hear the non-stop “Dik Dik Dik” sound, the sound was made when they carve the stones into bricks for the house. Houses here are made of stone, with wooden frame window. I found that almost all the tea-house painted their window frame with blue, green, or brown color. Is it the co-incidence? Anyway, the stone wall, color window frame had made them unique and harmonize with the nature.

We ordered our dinner before 5.30pm. After 14 days, we started to feel bored with the foods. The menu for every tea house is almost the same. Our budget for every meal is 200 Rupees (about RM 10). Teck Long came out with the “combo set” idea where 2 or more persons can combine their budget, order different food and shared. Look at the one of “combo set” (photo on left). It consists of vegetables fried noodles, egg fried rice, fried potatoes and spring rolls. Only Hai Poh was not interested with the “combo set”. He said the portion was not enough for him. He’s the die-hard supporter for Dal-Bhat. ;)