Peaceful Lodge

Monday 9th April Evening
I went to the Doctor's briefing on Acute Mountain Sickness, and how to
avoid it at 3pm. These briefings take place each day at Periche and three times a week at Dingboche. After a bland dinner of vegetable stew I joined Marco, Ali and Russel at their Lodge up the road and had a good evening sharing lemon tea. I also spoke to their
guide Dawa, who started as a porter and now has his own guiding firm.
Dawa has a wealth of experince and has really helped me along the way.
Dalman my guide has limited English, and I now feel I have taken
control of my itinerary of my ascent to Base Camp with Dalman acting
as my porter/ guide. There are advantages of going with a smaller group
or going solo. You miss the support of a group, but that can
sometimes be an advantage as 80% of the cases of AMS occur in large
groups where group objectives overtake the needs of the individual.
I am due to reach Base Camp on Thursday and I hope to be able to get a
phone signal to post a message and picture. I'm still undecided if I
will attempt Kala Pattar the next day as I need to make up time on the
descent, I want to conserve some energy.

Peaceful Lodge
I slept at the Peaceful Lodge, Dingboche last night. Peaceful is an
unfortunate name if you have one of the bedrooms below the dinning
room, with constant clatter of hiking books on a plywood floor. An
essential item for any traveler are Boot's wax ear plugs. You roll
them in the palm of your hands until they are they are soft and then
plug them in your ears. I'm not sure if there are any meteorologists
reading this blog, but they need to get their measuring equipment to
room 206 of the Peaceful Lodge in Dingboche, because it must be the
coldest place on earth. I slept in my feather down sleeping bag,
thermal leggings, merino wool top, neck warmer and hat. I had a
fantastic 11 hours sleep and am looking forward to my rest day. I am
planning on a walk to Periche to get my Himalayan stomach sorted, a
visit to the Cyber Cafe to update the blog and check email and will
join Marco, Ali and Russell for the last night before our paths diverge and we go
our separate ways.

Tea Houses
Whilst some people choose to camp on the way to Base Camp, I am staying
in Tea houses. Tea houses have a common dining room and shared
bathroom facilities. Some have solar powered hot showers between 4-5pm,
with others having gas showers which you can use - as long as you keep the
window open to stop carbon monoxide poisoning!
As you get higher and colder, the tea houses have a wood burning stove
in the dining room but no heating in the bedrooms. The costs of the
tea houses are about £2-£5 a night for room only. If you have breakfast and dinner-
the food has been costing me about £15-£25 a night. The tea houses are
very basic by British standards. A warm welcome makes up for the
freezing bedrooms and toilet facilities.