Epilogue--On the way home . . ., Click for FULL set with captions on Flickr.
Well, I wanted to tell you about the last part of our trip—going to a really neat old monastery, seeing a tiny village (even smaller than Khumjung), coming back to Khumjung, saying goodbye to our new Khumjung friends, and then trekking back to Lukla, flying to Kathmandu, and saying goodbye to my trekking family.
On Monday morning, we went on a long long trek to a place called Tengboche. It’s a monastery that’s all by itself high up in the mountains, and it’s the most important Buddhist place in these mountains. That’s what Mr. Harlan told me.
When we got there, it was very cloudy, and we couldn’t see any mountains, but the next morning, all the clouds were lifting and we got to see all around. It was amazing—like a wreath of mountains all around us. In this monastery, there’s a room dedicated to Mingma Sherpa, and when Phurba was showing it to us, Mt. Everest came out of the clouds for the first time on our trek, and we could see it through the window! You can see it in my pictures. It was a very special place. Everything was careful, just like how I’m made too, only even more. I felt very at home there, but I’m not a monk, so it was OK to go on.
We took a long trek to a little town called Phortse, and guess what? On the way we saw wild mountain goats eating in the forest! Some of us also saw a blue pheasant, but my eyes weren’t big enough. I know it was there, though.
The little town had a beautiful temple, and we were greeted us with tea and khatas. (Khatas are soft scarves they place around your neck for good luck!) We had some tea and biscuits with our friends there. The people there were especially happy to see Anne and Phurba because they helped the temple a lot. Also we got to meet the artist who did the beautiful paintings all over the walls. He said it took years, and it reminded me of the book Clear Sky, Red Earth. I like that book because a Himalayan girl gets to be a famous artist!
It was a long trek back, but we went all the way to Khumjung in the same day. I was tired just from riding!
On the morning we left Khumjung, I got to visit some of my new friends at the Khumjung School. Their school keeps running all summer, so they were back in classes since the big celebration was over. They were doing some of their morning exercises, and Mrs. Crow helped me to say “Tashi Delek!” (good luck!) and goodbye. It was kind of cloudy and sad to leave, but I hope I’ll see them again, at least in my email! And who knows when else. Dolls like me love to travel (and I’m very light!)
Then we had a long trek back to Lukla. Phurba went as far as Namche with us, then turned back since she was visiting her family in Khumjung for a few more weeks. It took two long days (one day almost in the dark), but we made it back to Lukla and stayed with the nice people who gave us breakfast there when we first arrived.
On the day of our flight back to Kathmandu, it was cloudy, so we had to wait, but the pilots are very, very good at flying, and ours got us safely back to Kathmandu where friends met us to take us to the hotel. We hadn’t done much trekking that day, but I was still a pretty tired doll. Guess what, though? At our hotel I saw the same lady who had the Tinker Bell doll on the trek, and I got to say hi! (She said Tinker Bell was tired and sleeping in her room.)
We did a little sight-seeing in Kathmandu, and the grownups did a lot of shopping. (They didn’t find any other dolls like me, though, even though they looked. It turns out I’m quite rare!) On the last night, we had a "Best Of Trek" awards dinner. Tommy got “Leader of the Pack” because he was always out front. Daniel got “Most Likely to Climb Mt. Everest” because he’s only six and did such a great job. Nick got “Most Improved Trekker” because he became so much greater each day. And Kate got “Intrepid Trekker and Most Likely to Be Adopted By A Sherpa Class” because the kids at Khumjung loved her so much! I got a special porter basket just my size! And everyone said I got the “Made Most Friends” award. I don’t’ know why. I’m just me, and people like me.
But that’s the fun of trekking. You can just be yourself and see what happens. I know I’ll never forget this trek. I think I’ll be learning a lot from it for a long time.
And it’s been so much fun blogging with you! So even thought the trek is over, you can still ask me questions or send me email if you like. Mr. Harlan and Mrs. Crow say I can get email at dreamflags@agnesirwin.org. Just say it’s for me, and they’ll make sure I get it.
Bye for now! Tashi Delek!!
--Yesshe
