Jiri:

Ganga telling us more about his people.

Ganga arrived earlier than planned, but we weren’t doing anything, so we walked with him around town. We walked to the stupa, and followed him to many of the different shops. Turned out, he came back to town early to look for hot chocolate for us. We had been drinking it almost every night, and Ganga knew how we liked it…NO WATER! 🙂 He’s so thoughtful. No one was selling hot chocolate powder, so he asked the woman at our guesthouse if he could have the rest of hers, and when he went to Kathmandu the following day, he would buy another and send it back with her sister. She complained a bit, but her chocolate was 3/4 empty, and she would be receiving a brand new container in 3 days. She wins. After we took the chocolate we walked up the hill to Ganga’s house. His whole family lives on the hill.

Dinner at Ganga’s

We passed his son on the way who was heading into town with his friends and Ganga introduced us. Ganga has a very humble home, and told us he was planning on turning one of the rooms into a guest room. Currently, the rooms are not finished yet, but he had recently built a toilet and shower that was connected to his house. He told us that he had to take out a loan from the bank, and was very proud of what he had built. We told him that the room would be a nice way to make some more money, and while he agreed that it would bring in a little, he wanted to share his culture with visitors. He was more interested in people experiencing the life of Sherpa people, sleeping in their home and eating his wife’s cooking, and you know what, we believe him. Ganga is one of the most generous individuals we have met. When we entered his home, he took us upstairs to the kitchen/ dining room. Like all of the other Sherpa guesthouses we had been in, the roof and the walls to do meet in order to let the smoke from the cooking escape. The room was still quite smokey, but smelled great. Ganga apologized that he didn’t have a table for us to eat at. His floors are dirt, so they had a blanket spread out and asked us to have a seat. We sat down while his wife finished preparing everything. Ganga’s wife is strikingly beautiful, but you can see that life has been hard for her. While he is away trekking, she is in charge of everything. They have a cow that she milks everyday and takes to town to sell. They also have chickens, but only a few since they don’t have a big enough coop, and a bigger coup isn’t in the cards anytime soon. They don’t have running water through their home. There’s an outside tap that they use to fill pots and buckets. All of their water has to be boiled before it can be used. It took her 3 hours to prepare dinner for us. It takes her all day to keep her home. It’s incredible.

Chicken curry. Delicious.

Dinner was delicious. She made us chicken curry, and it was beyond good. We had rice, a vegetable curry, and Ganga bought us picked plums that we had been eating with every dal bhat. He really went above and beyond to make our dinner special. He made us each a cup of hot chocolate, with milk from his cow. We all sat and ate together. Ganga’s wife doesn’t speak english, but Ganga would translate for her, but you could tell she was a hard woman. She didn’t smile often and was constantly working. After dinner, Ganga told us that his wife was going to meet us at 6am the following morning to give us something before we left Jiri. He walked us home in the dark, said goodnight and walked back up the hill to his home. 

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closing the trek.

We woke up early and went down to breakfast. Ganga was waiting there with his wife. It is Sherpa tradition to present someone with a scarf for good luck when they travel. She put them around our necks and tied them. We thanked her profusely for both the scarf and her generosity. She just smiled, waved good-bye and walked back home. Meanwhile, Ganga, Javier and I gathered our things and walked to the bus station. We had traveled in Nepal long enough to know that bus rides in Nepal are no joke, but we really weren’t prepared for what was ahead.

We all piled in. We supposedly had seats reserved, but I don’t think that really means anything. Javier and I sat together and Ganga sat in the back with the snot-nosed girl. As we traveled down the mountain to Kathmandu, we picked people up. There is no max capacity on these buses. Our bus was a mini and had maybe 25 seats. We were easily double that figure inside the bus with about 5 people hanging off the side.

Silhouettes of the people on top of the bus.

We kept collecting people. There was a woman traveling with her goats, which were hoisted onto the top of the bus and tied there. At one point, there were so many people that they started sitting on top of the bus. In all, there were maybe 50 people inside the bus, another 20 sitting on top, three goats and two chickens. Javier and I were in disbelief. I looked back at Ganga. The snot-nosed girl had moved onto his lap, and they both looked as disinterested as possible. For most of the ride, there was a small group of young boys who were standing in the aisles. One of them was leaning on the arm of Javier’s chair. At first Javier was a little annoyed by this, but as time went on, he realized that these kids were going to be riding for hours standing like this. The boy eventually sat on the arm of Javier’s chair was leaning on Javier’s chair and on Javier himself. At one point I looked over and Javier had his head leaning on the boys back. Everyone was just as cozy as could be. One of the boys’ friend had plopped himself on the lap of the guy behind us and fell asleep. It was weird at first, but kind of sweet at the same time. Strangers understand that they are lucky to have a seat, and are willing to help others when they can.

Goats on the roof of our mini bus

At one point, it was scary. I was sitting right over the back wheel and the bus was trying to squeeze past a large hole in the ground. As we crept along, I was looking out of the window thinking…he’s not going to make it. I felt the tire below me start to dip, and I wanted to yell out, but was frozen with fear. Thankfully, the people on top could see what was happening and were yelling. They caught the attention of a local man walking up ahead, who frantically signaled to the driver to stop. We had to reverse and drive down the opposite side of the street to get to our destination. When we stopped, many people climbed down and thanked the local guy from saving them from the bus tipping over and throwing them off. This was also the stop for the goats and chickens, and our bus was back to regulation occupancy.

And that folks, concludes our Everest Base Camp adventure.

To see more pictures of EBC, click HERE.