Even though the Everest region gets about 35,000 tourists’ worth of foot traffic every year, most locals in the region still live relatively traditional lifestyles, albeit with cell phones, fake North Face jackets, and electricity (some of the time). But they still gather firewood or yak dung to burn for cooking and fuel, and live in stone houses made from rocks brought up from the riverbeds. The kids sit around and play angry birds on their smart phones while the mothers don their traditional striped aprons and boil some yak butter tea over a wood burning clay stove. People still get water to drink and bathe with directly from the small torrents cascading down the mountainsides, but nowadays many of those same waterways are also home to micro-hydro power stations, which provide electricity for cell phone towers, TVs, and many other electric-powered accoutrements we in less remote locations are familiar with.
Above, left: A grandmother and some local kids get all cute in front of their flag pole. Right: A tweenie bopper sent out by his mother to chop and haul wood is happy to pose for my camera with his cool Gorka knife.
Above: Small children brandish their sharp implements of death just before I had to beat them off with a stick to avoid impalement.
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Above, left: This lady owned a small tangerine, or sundala grove nestled at the bottom of a valley. She sold us that big handful of tangerines for $1, quite cheap to what they would cost at higher elevations, before fruit disappeared altogether. Right: This woman tried to sell us hashish, and then weed! We stopped in front of her house to take a break and get some tea, (and play with their cute dog), and next thing I knew she was walking out the door carrying a huge bundle of pot! Needless to say, I did not inhale, but I guess she figured out how to make a bit of extra cash selling the stuff, which grows naturally all over the place, to tourists.
Above left: This lady had just washed her hair and it was wrapped up in a cloth of some sort to dry, so she was a bit embarrassed to have me take her picture, but agreed anyway. She looks quite stunning even with the hair towel, standing outside while the sun sets in front of her. Right: Grandma all decked out in the latest knockoff hiking fashion. She was tickled to death to have her photo taken, especially when I told her she was beautiful.
Aunty Chokpa was our host for a night; here Mike and I pose with her and her niece in her house with some random domestic paraphernalia.
Auntie Chokpa and niece pose in front of some of their family portraits.
This dapper young man stopped for a photo while carrying a huge bundle of sticks and stuff in that wicker basket on his back. From a very young age, you see Nepalis carrying loads that, if not equal to their body weight, are at least equal to their body size.
This kind lady had a nice pair of binoculars that she used to spy on the rest of the valley. We asked her to take a picture of us with a smart phone, but her hands were so rough and dry that they could not operate the touch screen, as if she were wearing gloves.
These were perhaps the most wretched children I saw on the whole trip. Someone give them a bath! And wash their clothes!
This man was multitasking; walking between towns while making a ball of yak yarn out of the lump of yak hair he had brought with him. I guess it’s like me listening to a podcast while I hike to keep the brain active.
In Jiri, at the end of the road, the kids had all kinds of stuff, including badminton. Granted, they were playing with pingpong paddles.
Hmm I think I’ll just hold this baby cow for a while.
We happened upon a Nepali wedding one day. The bride and groom (above), had just gotten married in the bride’s town, and he and the wedding entourage were escorting her to their new home in the groom’s village. Everyone was super drunk and super happy.
This one could not have worked out better. So damn cute.
One of the first guesthouses we stayed at, on day two or three I guess it was.
Another Auntie (name forgotten) who we stayed with along the way. We basically just sat in her kitchen next to the fire and played with her child while she made tea and food for us all evening.
Dambar (the hand-shaker) and I are facebook friends now. He’s a trekking guide who has made enough money to open a guesthouse, which his wife (pictured with Mike) handles.
This guy has climbed Everest several times now, in addition to having done the “Everest Marathon” which is a marathon that starts at Everest Base Camp and ends at Lukla, taking approximately 4 hours for the runners. The hike down for us would have taken 3 days.
Two tour guides taking a break, one of them smoking at 5,000 meters. I asked him how he could even breath, and he replied “The smoke is my oxygen.” Ha.
Another Everest climber cum hotel owner; This man had ascended Everest 7 times, probably earning him about 20 years’ worth of a typical Nepali salary.
A couple rungs down the employment ladder are the porters, who carry up to 100kg (220lbs) or more of stuff from transportation hubs like Jiri or Lukla to neighboring villages. Sometimes these guys will walk for days carrying loads like those seen above. They get paid about 40 cents per kilogram per day, so up to $40 per day if they’re strong and lucky.
Another porter taking a load off at the top of a pass.
Up up and away! This wasn’t even a steep slope, yet.
This guy was navigating this precipitous slope like a mountain goat.
This man’s load was hard core, and he looked so tired when I asked to take his photo.
The guy on the left is carrying 6 cases of glass beer bottles, among other things. And check out their shoes, many of the porters wear these army keds that cost about $5 at the markets.
Porters typically use a combination of shoulder straps like a normal backpack, in conjunction with a forehead strap to keep their unwieldy loads stable. They also carry these sturdy walking sticks that have flat tops, and when they need a break they can put the walking stick under their load, squat down a bit, and “take a load off” literally.
And let’s not forget the star of the show, Pema Yangji! Quite possibly the cutest cutie in the Himalayas. Mike and I stopped for a short break in a small village, and it turned into an hour of hanging around with this little gal. At first she just led us by the hand from one place to another, but by the time we left she had tricked us into giving her superman rides and using us as beasts of burden. Can I just steal her and raise her as my own?
