A little Khumbu culture

This morning in Gokyo, the whole town, dressed in traditional garb, the valley doctor, and about 6 tourists headed to the lake to inaugurate the town's new shrine (the old was destroyed in a rock slide/avalanche). Monks sporting red down jackets hiked 7 hours from phortse to perform the ceremony. There was much throwing of rice, burning of incense, drinking of tea, chanting, and my favorite, eating of biscuits! Honestly, a free cookie for a westerner in the Khumbu, now that deserves a blog!

Afterwards, I headed town valley to Phortse, stopping for lunch at a place run by a climbing sherpa who told me Everest is his favorite to climb because it's a very social experience (and not that hard). The evening guesthouse was run by a sherpa who has climbed Everest 5 times. After an hour of answering questions from myself and a Swiss couple about climbing (Lhotse is his favorite to climb, and camp 3 is so dangerous he has to keep clients on a rope when they use the toilet!), he invited the three of us to his kitchen, poured us more tea, and told us about his 2 sons studying in Kathmandu. Long story short, the plan is for one son to marry a Swiss girl and the other, an American, and then send some money back to dear old dad! 

The next morning while I had tea with he and his wife, they began laughing and she pinched my cheek. I asked what was so funny and she said, "you are American!" I told her I'm too old for her 19 yo son...but a father-in-law who could drag me up Himalayan peaks would be pretty epic. ;)